Otuam is a meeting of extraordinary importance. Elderly and other important members have been gathered. The meeting has spiritual atmosphere to it. Expensive liquors are being poured in the fire and prayers are being prayed. It so happened that none else than the King of Town has died. The gathering is waiting for the smoke to indicate the name of the successor to the throne.
Otuam is a town of 7000 inhabitants located at an hour drive from the capital of Ghana. The ritual is to nominate the next King of the town from among 25 or so relatives left by the King. Its everybody’s wildest dreams. The luck has favored Peggielene Bartels who works as a secretary in Ghana’s Embassy in Washington and lives in Silver Spring. Bartels father was a mechanic and a shop owner. Her aim was to become a successful caterer. She got a job in the Embassy as result of her father’s connections there.
Among the American media’s headlines “Secretary by Day, Royalty by Night” Bartels was coronated as the QUEEN of OTUAM, She was lifted on a palanquin and visited the town. She was also to learn the “tools of trade”. Most of which demanded her to distance herself from the ordinary life. Yet she has to return to her duties as a secretary in Embassy.
The new NANA as the post is called in OTUAM , while in Washington washes her clothes by herself, perform the duties of the office and for travelling uses 1992 Honda instead of Chariots!
Fancy the job? The Queen has to wake in the middle of the night in U.S to resolve a family dispute back in Otuam or a deal pertaining to the piece of land.
Bartels 55 has decided to permanently shift to OTUAM once she is retired from her duties at the Embassy.
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