Nana Nana, Na Na or NANA may refer to: People * Nana (given name), including a list of people and characters with the given name * Nana (surname), including a list of people and characters with the surname * Nana (chief) (died 1896), Mimbreño Ap ...

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 Mfantsiman Municipal Assembly is one of the twenty-two districts in Central Region, Ghana. Originally created as an ordinary district assembly in 1988 when it was known as Mfantsiman District, which was created from the former Mfantsiman Distri ...

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. Born in the Gold Coast (now

) and a naturalized citizen of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

since 1997, she moved to the United States in the 1970s when she was in her early twenties to work as a secretary at the Embassy of Ghana in Washington, D.C., where she still works. Following the death of her uncle in 2008, she was selected as his successor through a series of traditional rituals. She is a devout Christian, and she lives in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

Life

Bartels' husband, William Bartels, is a member of the Euro-African Bartels family, whose ancestor

Cornelius Ludewich Bartels Cornelius Ludewich Bartels (unknown – 18 April 1804) was a military and colonial officer of German origin employed by the Dutch West India Company. He rose through the ranks and eventually became Governor-General of the Dutch Gold Coast in ...

was Governor-General of the

Dutch Gold Coast The Dutch Gold Coast or Dutch Guinea, officially Dutch possessions on the Coast of Guinea (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Nederlandse Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea'') was a portion of contemporary Ghana that was gradually colonized by the Dutch (et ...

between 1798 and 1804, and whose son

Carel Hendrik Bartels Carel Hendrik Bartels (29 September 1792 – 10 February 1850) was the wealthiest and most important Euro-African trader and businessman on the Dutch Gold Coast in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Apart from his entrepreneurial ...

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. "King" is the traditional title for the ruler of Otuam. Bartels, Otuam's first female King, prefers the title to "Queen." She has stated, "Most of the time, a king is the one who has all the executive power to do things, while the queen is mostly in charge of the children's affairs and reporting to the king. So I really love this." The residents of Otuam also traditionally address Bartels as "

," which is an honorary title given to royalty and also to women with grandchildren. Bartels wakes every morning at 1 am to call Otuam in order to keep up with her regent and elders in order to carry out her duties as King. She also visits Otuam for a month every year. So far, Bartels has helped poor families pay school fees for their children, brought computers to classrooms, and helped provide Otuam with its first ambulance, as well as access to clean, running water. Since her retirement from the Ghanaian embassy in Washington, D.C., King Peggy has opened a travel agency providing informed tours of Ghana and supporting her many local improvements.

Dominion

Among Bartels' territorial possessions as chief are a family-owned estate and an eight-bedroom palace. Tantum is a coastal fishing village in

. It is located at . (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'' (), published in 2012 by

Doubleday Doubleday may refer to: * Doubleday (surname), including a list of people with the name Publishing imprints * Doubleday (publisher), imprint of Knopf Doubleday, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House * Doubleday Canada, imprint of Penguin Random ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartels, Peggielene Living people 1953 births African-American Christians Kings in Africa Female tribal chiefs in Africa Ghanaian Christians Ghanaian emigrants to the United States Ghanaian people of German descent Ghanaian royalty Secretaries Fante people