A Ghanaian king has temporarily abdicated his throne by becoming a gardener in Canada to raise more money to provide health-care services for his 6,000 subjects at home.
Eric Manu, a king of Akan in Adansi Aboabo village, Ghana, was crowned when his 67-year-old uncle, Dat, passed away in 2016.
After living in Canada for three years with his wife and son, Manu returned to his town in the southern Ghana to reclaim his birthright.
But now, Manu has gone back to British Columbia area of Canada and taken his old job – landscaping and gardening.
He told CTV News, “It’s a huge experience. You have to embrace it with passion.
“It’s something of my heritage, my culture, and traditions.”
Manu said, “Sometimes, we go to the (job) site and they say, ‘You are the chief. I saw you on TV. Why are you doing the landscaping?
“This is humility, you understand? Anytime I’m in Canada, I’m proud to work for my boss,” he added.
When Manu left Canada to Ghana for coronation, Susan Watson, his boss, started a foundation called ‘To The Moon and Back’, that supplied the young king with a shipment of school supplies, clothing, laptops and medical supplies.
Watson, who is the owner of The Landscape Consultants, attended the ceremony in Ghana, observing, “They’re beautiful inside and out and they have absolutely nothing. And you (Manu) came home here and most of us are miserable and we want something more.”
Miss Watson added, “The whole village was quite poor. The clinic only has a midwife and a few nurses. There was no doctor on site.”
