By Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The funeral of the late Queen Mother (Ga Manye) of the Ga State, Naa Dedei Omaedru III, is underway in Accra amidst the performance of traditional rites and the display of rich Ga culture.
The late Queen’s body, according to the organisers of the royal funeral, will touch down in all the royal homes within the Greater Accra region before being laid to rest on Saturday, 28th October 2023.
A series of activities, mainly rituals, started early this week for the Queen Mother and will continue until Saturday, October 28, 2023, when dignitaries will pay their last respects before she is finally laid to rest.
Preparations were at fever pitch Friday afternoon amidst the firing of muskets at the Ga Mantse palace.
Highlighting the significance of the ceremony, Nii Kwardey Ntreh, who is in charge of Culture at the Office of the Ga Mantse Place, said some of the rituals were open to the public while others had been restricted to selected members of the royal family and traditional leaders.
“The wakekeeping, which started today, will go up until the next morning when the actual funeral takes place at the Ga Mantse’s Palace,” he noted.
A key aspect of the ceremony will be the various royal houses of the Ga State coming to “take back” their oath from the Queen Mother who swore allegiance to the Stool.
“Royals take an oath when they ascend the throne, and when they pass away, the oath is taken away from them. What will happen today (Saturday) is that the various traditional authorities, to whom the Queen swore allegiance, will come back to take their oath.
The various groups will go where the body is laid, and in secrecy, they will do their rituals. The body of the Queen will be conveyed to the various royal houses to bid them farewell, and the actual burial is done by only the family and a selected few,” he explained.
Nii Ntreh further narrated that the various traditional guards (Asafo) would be in charge of the coffin, followed by the fetish priestess of Ga Land, as the body is conveyed from the palace to its final resting place after 3 p.m. on Saturday.
While asking the public to follow laid-down procedures, Nii Ntreh added that the restrictions imposed within the Central Business District of Accra were to pay homage to the late Queen while traditional leaders performed the necessary rituals in accordance with Ga customs.
“This is Accra, and this is the culture of the people. So, let us respect each other,” he stated.
