The idiom
nana asumasi awu (‘king is dead’) was never used of an
Asantehene. On such phrase as ‘king is absent’ or ‘king is departed’, and seemingly the commonest—
dupon keseε atutu—described the death of an
Asantehene in terms of the uprooting or fall
gyadua (pl.
gyannua), a mighty shade tree. The accession of the new king may occur immediately within forty days upon the death, or dethronement of the former monarch, since the funeral and enthronement of the king become part of the same sequence of events.
On the death or dethronement of an
Asantehene, the queenmother (
Asantehemma) takes over as regent. Afterwards, the kingmakers (
werempe) formerly asked an
Asantehemma to nominate a candiate for their approval, and gave her three succeeding options at the end of which the councillors could in turn present a candiate for her approval. The
Asantehemma plays an important role in the succession of the throne, and decide the new king according to the Asante rules of succession.
In ontological terms, it is descent which is important to the structure of Oyoko dynasty; in phenomenological terms, it is marriage. But, in structural terms, from the viewpoints of the genealogical matrix and the pattern of marriage, the distribution of
Asantehenes is regarded as a statement to the matrifiliation of the attributes of kingship as well as to the patrifiliation of the politics of kingship. Asante politics can be seen as streched taut between opposing forces: the centripetal one of matrifiliation and the centrifugal one of patrifiliation.
In this paper, my concern is to try to lay out more precisely some of the factors involved in systems of Asante succession of the throne, to analyse the meanings of death and mortuary rituals, and to specify some of enthronement and mortuary rituals according to Akan calendar.
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