[ 2015-04-15 ]

Asantehene to make historic trip to Seychelles Islands
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, is set to
embark on an historic journey to the Seychelles
Islands in the Indian Ocean this month.

The trip is historic for the Asantehene because
some 120 years ago, his great uncle Asantehene,
Nana Agyeman Prempeh I, was exiled together with
his parents and 50 other chiefs, queen mothers and
servants by the British colonial authorities for
27 years to the Islands.

The invitation from the Government of Seychelles
through its Ministry of Culture and Tourism will
have Otumfuo Osei Tutu II as special guest of
honour at the Carnaval International De Victoria,
the biggest Creole festival attended by nationals
of countries around the world.

The one week visit will have a delegation of 52,
symbolising the number of persons exiled by the
British. It will include senior chiefs, successors
of some of the exiled chiefs, palace poets, royal
drummers, horn blowers, historians and a few
business executives which will in a state set
durbar also show-case the best of Asante cultural
heritage.

A journey full of emotions and the most sensitive
memorial in nineteenth century Asante history, it
saw four years after the king’s exile (from
1896), the out-break of the last Anglo-Asante war
also known as the Yaa Asantewaa War of 1900. The
visit will attract over a dozen international
broadcasting organizations.

A release from the Manhyia Palace signed by the
Chief of Staff, Mr. Kofi Badu, says the Asantehene
will meet with the President of Seychelles.

There will be cultural protocol agreements between
Kumasi and Victoria and final status discussion
started by UNESCO and the Government of Seychelles
on the plantation villa house that Prempeh I
(whose exile story of 27 years is equivalent to
Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment ) lived in.

The Asantehene and the delegation will also
attend a memorial service at the St. Paul’s
Anglican Church and meet with descendants of
Prempeh I still living on the island.

The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Creative
Arts as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
taking an opportunity of the visit and the week-
long festival, will mount a strong promotional
stand and advocacy platform to promote Ghana’s
heritage. They will also have consultations with
Seychelles’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Contemporary interest in Asante-Seychellois
relations was rekindled when after his enstoolment
as Asantehene, Osei Tutu II and the Manhyia Palace
commissioned the writer and documentary
film-maker, Mr. Ivor Agyeman-Duah to produce,
Yaa Asantewaa : The Heroism of an African Queen
with the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation
(SBC).

The late Professor Emeritus Albert Adu Boahen
served as the production advisor. It was
premiered at the US Embassy in Accra, The Royal
Institute of International Affairs (Chatham
House), London and adopted by the PANAFEST
Foundation under the auspices of the African Union
and also by the Government of The Netherlands to
commemorate the tercentenary diplomatic relations-
The Link: Ghana and the Black Soul of the
Netherlands.

A sequel by the same writer and producer and the
SBC,The Return of the King to Seychelles will be
done after the visit.

Source - Joy News

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