Otumfuo Opoku Ware ll, Asantehene was born in Kumase on November 30, 1919, the first child of Nana Akua Akyaa of the Royal Oyoko family of Kumase and Opanin Kwabena Poku of Gyakye (Jachie).

His mother, Nana Akyaa was the younger sister of Nana Ama Sewaa Nyarko, who reigned as Asantehemaa (Queenmother of Asante) from 1944 to 1978. Otumfuo was named Kwaku Adusei at birth and at baptism in the Anglican faith, given the name Mathew.

His father’s name Poku was added to his christian name on his enrolment as a pupil in the English church mission (Anglican) school in 1925.

From them on, he became known as Mathew Opoku but more affectionately as Nana Poku.

He used to recall with much pleasure and gratitude that he owed his early education to his grand uncle, Otumfuo Prempeh l, who personally took him to the society for the propagation of the Gospel (SPG) school and got him enrolled in class 1 by the Headmaster, the late master Owusu who later became chief Owusu, Anyinasehene.

Young Mathew Opoku came under a strong Christian influence and lived in the mission house with English church mission Father’s at St Augustine’s Anglican Training College in Kumase from where he attended school and served at Mass on Sunday at the parish (now cathedral) Church of St Cyprian the martyr.

He completed his education at the Anglican Bishop Boys School in Accra where he obtained the Standard Vll certificate in 1933.

Meanwhile he added a second Christian name, Jacob, to identify him from a school mate who was also called Mathew Poku. From Bishop boys school, he preceeded to Adisadel college, Cape coast, preferring to study for the Cambridge school certificate to training to be a teacher at Achimota where he alsohad been offered admission.

At Adisadel he was encouraged to work towards ordination and all indications were that Jacob Mathew Poku was heading for the priesthood when in 1938 his uncle Otumfuo Prempeh ll recalled him to Kumase on completing his secondary education and had him attached to the Town Engineer department to train to be a Licensed Building surveyor.

He joined the PWD in 1941 as a building draughtsman and surveyor and was posted to the Airforce base of the West Africa Frontier Force at Takoradi.

He rose to become the first African to head a District office ot the public works department and took charge of the Axim District from 1943 to 1944 when his uncle Otumfuo Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II, recalled him to Kumase to head the survey section of the newly established Asantehene’s lands office, where he worked until 1952 when he left for the United Kingdom to pursue further studies.

Among the many major projects which he undertook during his 8yrs at the Asantehene’s Land were the design and supervision of the construction of many schools Building and clinics in several Division/states within the restored Asante Confederacy.

He also designed and supervised the construction of the building housing the many offices in Manhyia, most notable among them the National House of chiefs.

He also surveyed and demarcated the lands which his uncle donated for the establishment of Prempeh college in 1949, the Kumase college of Arts, science and technology (since 1961, the Universityof Science and Technology) and Opoku Ware secondary school.

He returned from the United Kingdom in 1962 as a Barrister at Law, having studied Local Government at the University of Exeter and for the Bar at the middle Temple.

Barrister Jacob Mathew Poku joined the Law firm Effah and Tottenham in Kumase and practised his profession until he was invited in 1968 to join the Government of the National Liberation Council as commissioner (Minister)for Transport and communication.

He had before this appointment, combined his practice at the Bar with active social work and had contributed much of his time and energy as a member of the Kumase city Council and Governing Boards of several institutions.

These included, to mention a few, Prempeh college, Asanteman secondary, the Anglican secondary school and the Ahmadiyya secondary school, the Management Committee of the Ghana University staff superannuation scheme, the Regional Committee of town & Country planning and Ghana Housing Corporation.

As commissioner for transport and communication, he opened the new Automatic Long Distance Dialing Exchange, and led delegation for bilateral negotiation to several countries the U.K., the U.S., Japan, Germany, Italy, and was elected the first president of the African Civil Aviation Organisation, an honour which acknowledge his leadership and contribution to the negotiation leading up to the establishment of the organisation with headquarters in Dakar, Senegal.

Mathew Poku retired from his ministerial post some six months before the government of which he was a member was succeeded by the government of the Second Republic led by Prime Minister Dr. K. A. Busia.

Any thoughts that he might have entertained of going back to his legal practice and private life were soon dispelled by two events which followed each other closely! He was appointed Ghana’s Ambassador designate yo Italy in 1970 but was prevented from assuming this position of honour by a call to a higher duty to succeed his late uncle Otumfuo Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II and ascend the Golden Stool of Asante as the 15th Asantehene.

Affectionately known and much respected as Nana Poku throughout his adult life, his candidacy for the succession was a most popular choice and he won the nomination and election without any significant opposition.

He had been the people’s choice for for decades and the Kingmakers had no problem endorsing it.

Nana Poku was installed Otumfuo Opoku Ware ll and swore his oath of office to the Kumase state on June 6, 1970 and to Asanteman on July 27, 1970.

Otumfuo Opoku Ware ll, reigned for five months short of twenty nine years during which he earned much admiration and gratitude for the mature manner in which help to guide Asante and indeed Ghana through a succession of sometimes confusing and bewildering changes that marked the Nation’s Political Landscape.

He maintained commendable neutrality and worked successfully with three Civilian Government those if the Second, Third and Fourth Republics (1969-1972, 1979-1981 and since 1994) and five Military Government those of National Redemption Council, 1972-74, the Supreme Military Council l&ll 1975-79, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council 1979 and the Provisional National Defence Council 1981-1994.

A man of peace and a firm believer that no situation is permanent, his decision and actions were dictated and guided by immense patience and he demonstrated time and again that it is wise to avoid confrontation and conflict.

He won the gratitude of the nation and gave ample proof of the respect and esteem he enjoyed when he intervened, and by wise counsel diffused the charged and potential explosive atmosphere that followed the presidential and parliamentary elections in 1992.

There was no greater man of peace or influential Ambassador at large than Otumfuo Opoku Ware ll. He was Ghana Ambassador of goodwill per excellence.

He travelled extensively and was received by Heads of State and Government including Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll of Great Britain in June 1972, His Excellency the president of Italy in September, 1974, His Holiness Pope Paul VI at the Vatican in September, 1974, His Imperial Majesty Pahlevi the Shah of Iran in Tehran in October 1974 His Excellency the president of Brazil in Brasilia in June 1978, His Excellency, the late Caecescu, president or Romania in August 1978, Sa Majesty de Moro Naba Bangor, Emprereur Des Mossi in Ouagadougou in1979 and His Excellency President Fidel Castle in Havana, Cuba in 1986.

He received in audience at His Manhyia Palace several countless men and women of distinction including royalty, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales 1977, the Prince Edward 1993 and the Princess Royal (Princess Anne) all of United Kingdom Royal Family, Heads of Religious Faith and Denominations, His Holiness Pope John Paul ll, 1980, Archbishop Runcie and Hazrat Mirza Tahiv Ahmad, Supreme Head of Worldwide Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam.

He opened the Exhibition, Asante Kingdom of Gold in the Museum of mankind in London in 1981 and his visit to New York, Washington and philadelphia in 1984 on the occasion of the transfer of the Exhibition to the American Museum of Natural History, brought to the Diaspora the richness and splendour of the culture and civilization of Africa.

Otumfuo supported and promoted many good causes and was patron if several Organisation and Institutions.

His interest in Universities as Institution which guaranteed the future development of this country never wavered, and it was natural that he should support the establishment of a Land Administration Research Centre (now Institution of Land Management& Development) at the University of Science and Technology, soon after his enstoolment.

His concern gor the healthcare of his compatriots impell him to encourage and support the decision to establish Ghana’s second Medical school, the School of Medical Sciences at the UST.

His interest in and supports for Medical School was total and it was as if by divine predictions that his death occurred barely thirty minutes after receiving and seeing off a team of specialists which was on a visit to inspect the installation of equipment for a Radiotherapy Unit for Cancer Treatment at Komgo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).

The last photographs Otumfuo took in his lifetime, were with Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, Chairperson of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of U.S.A and her team! on Thursday afternoon,February 25, 1999.
Otumfuo Opoku Ware ll died suddenly at 3pm on February 25, 1999.

He had been of indifferent health since March 6, 1996, when he lost his wife, Nana Akua Afriyie, whom he had married fifty years (50yrs) earlier in 1946. The loss was difficult to bear, and those who were close to him saw, with increasing concern, a steady decline in his health.

The manner of his transition however took everybody including his doctors unaware. He left without notice, without a passing word and hopefully without much pain, borne on the wings of Angels onto the bosom of Father Abraham.

The Manhyia Palace Museum and the Foundation which bears his name (Otumfuo Opoku Ware ll Jubilee Foundation) which he founded to mark his silver Jubilee in 1995 will, together with the Manhyia Archives, remain perpetual memorials of his illustrations reign.

Otumfuo Damirifa, Damirifa Due.

Source:The Kingdom of Asante