UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
Commemoration Day 21 June 2001
Mr. Chancellor, by authority of the Senate, I present to you this person on whom the Senate desires you to confer the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws: His Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu IJ is the King of one of Africa's most important traditional states. From the seventeenth century the Asante Kingdom grew rapidly in power and wealth until, by the 185 Os, it controlled most of the territory that now forms the Republic of Ghana. Over the centuries the Asante people, who now number several million, created one of Africa1s richest and most sophisticated cultures. The wealth, magnificence, power and sheer complexity of the Asantc kingdom shocked and overawed the first Europeans to enter Kumasi, its capital. It has continued to impress all who have encountered it since those early days.
Asante has rightly been called the Kingdom of Gold: much of its success came from exploiting the vast gold reserves that lay, and still lie, beneath its soil. The symbol of Asante kingship and of the enduring Asante state is the Golden Stool, a full-sized stool of pure gold dating from the foundation of the Kingdom. Only those of the very highest qualities and ability are deemed fit to occupy the Golden Stool. An Asante King must be experienced, knowledgeable, restrained yet decisive and always bear himself with dignity. Osei Tutu II is the sixteenth monarch of that distinguished line.
Asante kingship is not a matter of primogeniture: the monarch is chosen from a number of candidates in the royal lineage. Potential rulers are carefully observed from childhood and their education shaped to fit them for kingship. So it was with the present monarch. As a young man he studied at Ghana's Institute of Public Administration and then attended University in London, before working in Canada and in Britain. He specialised in accountancy and personnel matters, gaining further skills appropriate to a modern king. This width of education and experience was, of course, complemented and balanced by the instruction he received in Asante traditions, law and state-craft. On returning to Ghana he successfully established his own business. From there, to widespread delight, he was chosen from several candidates to occupy the Golden Stool.
The role of the traditional ruler in modern Africa is delicate, not infrequently difficult; he has to protect and use the best of the past while encouraging beneficial change. The combination of the contemporary and the traditional in Osei Tutu's training and his personal qualities, and not least his abundant charm, has fitted him to be King of a people who are immensely proud of their past but also entirely at home in the modern world.
As a University we particularly applaud one of his many steps to create a better life for his people: his determination to improve education. Shortly after his accession he set up the Otumfuo Education Fund. Large numbers of bursaries were immediately awarded to primary school children and undergraduates and grants made to many secondary schools. He has made it abundantly clear that he sees high quality education as the key to the future prosperity of Asante.
In awarding this degree we recognise the qualities and achievements of Osei Tutu II. We also acknowledge two other things. The first is the continuing relationship between Scotland and Asante and, indeed, the rest of Africa. Many Scots, some of them Glasgow graduates, have served there as teachers, administrators, engineers, doctors, missionaries, and in many other roles. The great ethnographer of Asante in the 1920s and 1930s, Robert Sutherland Rattray, who is still remembered with deep affection, was, as his names suggest, a Scot and the last Chief Commissioner of Ashanti was also a Scot. Before them, in between, and ever since, there have been many, many more. But the flow goes both ways, and this University has been enriched by the numerous Asante who have studied here, while the City of Glasgow has been, and is, a home for many Asante. Today our research links with colleagues in Ghanaian Universities are stronger than ever and we continue to welcome Asante students, some of them children of our graduates.
The second thing we acknowledge in awarding this degree, and to which we here pay tribute, is the creativity of generation after generation of Africans who, over millennia, have built the traditional states of Africa. In the West this aspect of Africa is too often overshadowed by reports of horrors and misery, reports that obscure the creativity, wisdom and the deep compassion of the African people. Today, in many places, it is the traditional rulers and the traditional political systems, established, tested and refined over hundreds of years, that provide stability and are a source of justice and wisdom. Those people who have a king with the qualities of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II are especially fortunate for he is able to balance the needs of modern statehood with maintaining the proud traditions of his predecessors.
Mr. Chancellor, in recognition of his leadership, his untiring efforts to improve the life of his people and of the links between our two nations, I now invite you to confer on Otumfuo Osei Tutu II the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. By Professor Malcolm McLeod, Vice-Principal and Professor of African Studies, University of Glasgow.