Feature Article October 30, 2003
LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb HomeA true Queen visits Hinchinbrooke PS
It is not often that Royalty comes to Parham, but Queen Nana Saah the First, who has spent the past month on a private visit in Crow Lake, was welcomed by enthusiastic students at Hinchinbrooke Public School last week.
Nana
Saah is the Queen of the Royal Aduana Abradi clan in Accra, the
capital city of Ghana, in West Africa. Being a Queen is more about
service than about pomp and ceremony for Queen Nana Saah, who told the
Hinchinbrooke students how she has the responsibility for the well
being of the members of her clan, many of whom are extremely poor.
She is also one of seven members of the Ghanaian electoral commission, and has a major role in ensuring the democratic process of the Country.
The local connection that brought Queen Nana Saah to the area is Doreen Onfrichuck. Doreen was a lay pastoral assistant in various Catholic churches in Flinton, Ardoch, and Morrisburg, and was involved in the building of St. James Catholic Church in Sharbot Lake. In 1990 she met Thomas Mensah, a priest from Ghana who was living in Canada for a year. He didnt know anyone in Canada, and my family befriended him and became his Canadian family. Mensah invited Doreen for a return visit, and in 1995 she visited him in Ghana.
When she arrived, he had found out he was going to be named a bishop and asked her to attend the ceremony. During that visit, Doreen met Queen Nana Saah, and the two have been friends ever since.
As Onfrichuck describes it, the role of Queen is large. She has a room in her house where people come to see her to seek advice and ask for help. She is always available to help her people. Among her people, Queen Nana Saah is part ombudsman, part mediator, part social worker, and part fundraiser.
She is responsible for all her people, whether they need help paying for school, or if they are elderly and need to get in touch with family to help them out, they look to Nana Saah. There was a famine in Ghana in the 1980s, and she had to work hard to get food for her people at that time.
All of this is very exhausting, and Onfrichuck credits Nana Saahs faith with giving her the strength needed to handle the pressures of her position, and the number of ceremonial duties as well.
The private trip that Queen Nana Saah took to Crow Lake was her first break from her Queenly duties in at least 15 years, Doreen Onfrichuck said, and adds that it was sorely needed.
Deb Jones of Hinchinbrooke Public School is a neighbour of Doreen Onfrichucks and when she was introduced to Queen Nana Saah, she asked her to pay a visit to the students at Hinchinbrooke Public School before leaving Canada.
The students asked many questions about Africa, Ghana, and the role of Queen, and Nana Saah answered them all graciously. She told the students about the kinds of foods eaten in Ghana: rice, yam, vegetables, fruits, cassava and maize. When asked if she was rich she said, No, Im not rich, Im a servant and a slave for all the people. She also talked of how only half the children in her country go to school, for which their parents have to pay, since there is no public school system in Ghana.
After answering questions, Queen Nana Saah posed for pictures, and had a few more words for the students before returning to Crow Lake.
In the next few months Nana Saah will become the paramount Queen within her district, adding to her responsibility.
Hinchinbrooke Public School has decided to undertake several fundraising events for the children of Ghana this month, including donating the proceeds from their Halloween Dance, and the proceeds from a games day on Halloween at the school.
