Peggielene Bartels
Quick Facts
Biography
Nana Amuah-Afenyi VI (born Peggielene Bartels in 1953), known informally as King Peggy, is the reigning chief of the town of Tantum (or Otuam), in the Mfantsiman Municipal District, Ghana. Born in Ghana and a naturalized citizen of the United States, she has worked as a secretary at the Embassy of Ghana in Washington, D.C. since the 1970s. Following the death of her uncle in 2008, she was selected as his successor through a series of traditional rituals.
Life
Bartels husband, William, is a member of the Afro-European Bartels family, whose ancestor Cornelius Ludewich Bartels was Governor-General of the Dutch Gold Coast between 1798 and 1804, and whose son Carel Hendrik Bartels was the most prominent biracial slave trader on the Gold Coast in the second quarter of the nineteenth century.
Since her accession, Bartels has spent several weeks each year in Ghana on the anniversary of her coronation. She is notably the village's first female chief; she plans to become a full-time ruler after her retirement from the embassy.
Dominion
Among Bartels' territorial possessions as chief are a 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) family-owned estate and an eight-bedroom palace.
Tantum is a coastal fishing village in Mfantsiman Municipal District. It is located at 5°13.3′N 0°48.5′W / 5.2217°N 0.8083°W. (It may be part of the Ekumfi District, which was formed from part of the Mfantseman District in 2012.)
Book
She and writer Eleanor Herman have co-written King Peggy (ISBN 978-0-385-53432-1), published in 2012 by Doubleday.