Nii Akapeh stuns all

Thousands of Ghanaians and foreign tourists were stunned last Saturday when a traditional leader in the Ga-Dangme State, Asafoatse Nii Akapeh II, carried out a sensational promise to re-emerge after he and his palanquin had been consumed by fire.
In a magical display to climax this year’s Homowo festival, the man whose official title is Dzaase Asafoatse of the Osu Mankralo Stool, initially appeared dancing and waving at the thick crowd which had been waiting impatiently for the warrior’s display.
At the appointed time and place, he released a white dove into the sky and went down inside the palanquin which was made of thick wood in the shape of a kiosk.
A group then emerged and poured petrol all over the palanquin and set it ablaze. When the fire was extinguished, he emerged from nowhere riding a horse few metres from the burnt cage to the amazement of the crowd.
The crowd was dumbfounded because they could not figure out where the horse had appeared from and how Nii Akapeh escaped unscathed.
While most people believed that it was one of the oldest pranks in the history of African culture and sorcery, others, especially the women, shed tears openly not knowing how to explain the phenomenon.
Nii Akapeh rode on the horse’s back wearing a warrior’s attire with talismans all over, amidst heavy firing of musketry and chants from his large army of followers to the centre of the town where he addressed the crowd on the need to believe in themselves and be proud of their traditions and ancestral beliefs.
He told the Daily Graphic in an interview that as part of efforts to solve some of the dozens of stool-related disputes in the Ga-Dangme area, he would sacrifice himself for the state, since no one was prepared to do that, and resurrect after the sacrifice.
He noted that it would take someone’s selflessness to offer his body as a sacrifice for all the states to come together, and that was exactly what he did on his return from the historical pilgrimage to the Royal Mausoleum.
He urged all the states in Ga-Dangme to use this year’s Homowo celebration to unite for a single purpose and aspire to one paramount state.
He stated that he believed chieftaincy disputes among the various traditional areas in the Ga-Dangme State would come to an end to signify the birth of the new Ga-Dangme State and urged all the chiefs and people to unite.

Caption: Anxious spectators watching Nii Akapeh burn in the cage that brought him to the ceremonial grounds at the climax of the Osu Homowo festival in Accra last Saturday.