Preface

Summary

In November 1996 a group of young men acting on behalf of Banda elders entered the palace of their paramount chief, forcibly removed his sandals, and placed his bare feet on the ground. This act of destoolment brought to a close his nineteen-year reign, which had been the focus of a chieftaincy dispute that began before the death of the previous paramount chief in 1977. This was the longest-lived, most contested chieftaincy dispute in the Brong-Ahafo Region, Ghana, a country where chieftaincy disputes are common. The dispute centered on whether a rotational principle should have prevailed in selecting the dead chief's successor. Rival families marshaled competing visions of history to support their claims to power. The family of the former chief, Kofi Dwuru II, rejected the historical primacy of a rotational principle, and – supported by the majority of elders – selected a successor from their own family who initially served as regent. In 1985 Kofi Dwuru III was placed on the royal stool that embodies the Banda state. The new incumbent survived numerous challenges to his chieftaincy from the rival family, but was ultimately brought down by his own family and their supporters because he refused to offer certain sacrifices which, as a Christian, he felt unable to do.