v2.webp){kind=logo}
.jpg)
Johan Kruseman
After a few days of extreme chill vibes in the little paradise of Busua, I had now landed in Kumasi (read how in my previous story as that was quite an undertaking to unravel the bus ticketing system)—a city of 3.9 million people if you count all the suburbs, making it the largest urban area in Ghana.
My first stop was the Kejetia Market, where dead cow heads stared back at me in the 30-degree heat, casually waiting to be sold. After that, I strolled by the palace and noticed they had a museum. Now, I didn’t come to Ghana for museums, but hey, it had air conditioning, and I was already there, so I thought, why not?
I figured I’d just pop in, skim through the exhibits, and be back outside in half an hour. But after buying my ticket, I was told to wait outside under the rubber tree for my private guide. A guide? In a museum? Uh oh, this was going to take longer than I’d planned.
Turns out, the tour was way more interesting than I expected—not because of the exhibits themselves (which included some gold, wax statues of past kings, and even a fan and fridge the king once received as gifts, proudly displayed with the fact that they still worked). No, what was fascinating was the story about how the Ashanti royal family is organized.
In the Ashanti kingdom, the throne passes down through the queen’s line. If you’re the queen’s daughter, you’ll be the next queen. If you’re her son, you’ll become king. But here’s the twist: the king’s wife or the queen’s husband? They don’t count as part of the royal family. They’re not in the line of succession—just along for the ride. Nor are the kids of the king.
Now, only the queen’s bloodline can take the throne. No one else. And if the king dies, it’s the queen’s job to pick the new king, but she has to choose one of her sons or brothers. The same rule applies the other way around: if the queen dies, the king picks the next queen, and she’ll be one of the queen’s daughters or sisters.
And here’s where it gets really interesting. In the Ashanti kingdom, your mother isn’t just your mother. All her sisters are considered your moms too. So, all your cousins on her side? They’re not cousins—they’re your brothers and sisters. This means there’s no shortage of options when it’s time to choose the next king or queen. A pretty fascinating system, don’t you think?
