Agyeman Prempeh II: Historical narrative of Kumasi’s mysterious leopard & birth of a King

Barima Kwame Kyeretwie was the 14th Asantehene with the stool name Otumfuo Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II
The King’s birth reportedly aligned with the announcement of a captured mysterious leopard that escaped, killed two and wounded five at Dominase in Kumasi
Otumfuo Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II was born in 1892 

After years of unsettled myth about the mysterious leopard and the birth of Otumfuo Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II, a historical narrative has attempted to chronicle the events of August 1892. The historical narrative gives account of the story behind the old-age monument of a man with a gong-gong standing on a leopard at the central area of Kumasi.

According to a historical narrative by Yaw Pre, accentuated by Asanteman News on social media, the gong-beaters announced to the residents of the traditional 77 wards of Kumasi that a dangerous leopard had besieged the city in August 1892.

Nana Kwaku Dua III, the then Asantehene, reportedly summoned his warriors and skilled hunters with clear instructions demanding they”catch the leopard (‘ɔsebɔ’) alive”.

While the search team tasked to find and capture the leopard alive were still working to spot it, Nana Abakoma of Edweso Besease, a princess and granddaughter of Asantehemaa Nana Afua Kobi I and wife of Nana Kwaku Owusu was heavily pregnant and due to give birth.

According to Yaw Afre’s account, the dangerous leopard was finally captured but not until it had killed two persons and injured five others before it was seized alive at Dominase, a ward in Kumase.

Just when the warriors announced to the Asantehene about the capture of the leopard, the mmagyegyefuo (royal nannies) also came to announce the delivery of a royal baby by Nana Abakoma at Edweso.

An elated Nana Kwaku Dua III proclaimed that the baby would be christened Barima Kwame Kyeretwie, meaning ‘catch the leopard’. A kente cloth was also created and designed to immortalise this wonderful event. Subsequently, by divine alignment, Barima Kwame Kyeretwie became the 14th Asantehene with the stool name Otumfuo Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II.