INTRODUCTION TO THE FIHANKRA TRIBE: THE NEWEST AFRICAN TRIBE REPRESENTING 300M DIASPORANS

                                                                 

                                                               

Awo Yaa Asantewaa writes:

A citizen of the FIHANKRA Stool and Skin is any person who is a descendant of an African born in the Diaspora as a direct result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

How did FIHANKRA Develop?

On December 9, 1994, one of the most historically significant events of this millennium took place in Accra, Ghana, West Africa. The event was the inaugural purification of a specially carved wooden stool and the specially prepared skin of an animal. Together these two sacred articles were customarily given the name "FIHANKRA", which literally translated means "when leaving home good-byes could not be said".

In the traditions of Africa, both the Stool and Skin are sacred symbols of divine chieftaincy authority in which, it is believed resides the very spirit and soul of its people. Chiefs of Southern Ghana sit upon stools, while Chiefs of Northern Ghana sit upon skins. In their symbolic form the Stool and Skin can be compared to the traditional throne of other peoples and nations. Thus, in keeping with tradition, the Purification of FIHANKRA restores to Africans born in the Diaspora two sacred symbols as one, thereby reaffirming the cultural and spiritual ties that had been denied them for centuries.

The purification of FIHANKRA evolved from a coalition of persons under the leadership of his Majesty Odeneho Oduro Numapau II, then President of the Ghana National House of Chiefs.

The importance of this traditional purification ceremony lay in the following:

* It was the first time that African chiefs had gathered especially to perform traditional rituals to atone for the misdeeds of ancestral traditional rulers who helped to sustain the trans-Atlantic slave trade initiated by European powers in the 15th century.

* It was an act of restoring customary authority to the Africans of the Diaspora, presumed to have been lost as a result of the slave trade.
It also provided for the appointment of a Diaspora born custodian, and the subsequent establishment of a Traditional Council and an International Council of Elders to administer the affairs of FIHANKRA on behalf of the descendants of Diasporans.

We are Honored to Introduce to the Pan African Community,  the newly selected Queen of the Fihankra Tribe:

H.R.H. Yaa Asantewaa aka Tonya C. Saafir, Esq.

Her Highness, Yaa Asantewaa, was born in Clarksdale, Ms, but grew up traveling with her military parents.  After completing her high school education at Daleville, High School in Daleville, AL., she enlisted in the U.S. Army for three years following in the footsteps of both her parents.  She served in the Army as a computer programmer.  After serving her country for three years, Yaa Asantewaa enrolled in college at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN, where she completed her Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science with the honors of cum laude in May 2000.

She was accepted into law school at the Cecil C. Humphrey’s School of Law at the University of Memphis in Memphis, TN.  Yaa Asantewaa received a number of awards for her academic performance while attending law school and received her Juris Doctor in May 2003. 

Upon graduating from law school, Yaa Asantewaa took and passed the Tennessee state bar exam and was immediately employed by the Shelby County Public Defender’s Office as an Assistant Public Defender, where she practiced criminal defense law.  In August 2004, she went to work in a small private law firm at the Law Offices of Michael Harrell, Esq. where she handled a variety of criminal, family and civil law cases.  In 2005, Nana Yaa left the law office of Michael Harrell to open her own private law practice.  While in private practice, she taught law classes as an adjunct professor at Lemoyne Owen College in Memphis, Tennessee and she was regularly requested by Memphis City Judges to sit on the bench in their absence as a special judge.  Her Highness managed her own law practice until January 2008 at which time she was offered the position of Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice in the U.S. Virgin Islands where she remains today.

Her Highness is currently licensed by the Supreme Court of Tennessee to practice in the state of Tennessee.  She is licensed in the U.S. Federal Court to practice in the Federal District of Western Tennessee and she is licensed by the Supreme Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands.  Upon her repatriation to Ghana, she intends to take the Post Call course at Ghana School of Law so that she may sit for the Ghana Bar and obtain her license to practice law in the country of Ghana.

Yaa Asantewaa began to dream of repatriating to Africa in 2006.  She began her travels to Africa in 2011.  Since that first trip, it was solidified in her heart and mind that Africa was be her home.  She has a cocoa farm in Ghana, a taxi business and several other small ventures that she is working on to create sustainable income for her family upon her final trip home.

She is the mother is 5 children, Prince Octavius age 22, Prince Rashedi age 20, Prince Tyriq age 17, Princess Ayanna age 14 and Prince Ausar age 2. Awo Yaa Asantewaa is also the grandmother of 8 month old Princess Imani! 

Her Highness Yaa Asantewaa is a true Garveyite who tirelessly encourages Africans in the diaspora to always look towards Africa!!

                                                                              

* These are subject to revue, revision and approval. MK