KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

The king has ar­rived. It was a roy­al wel­come fit for a king as the As­an­te­hene Otum­fuo Os­ei Tu­tu II touched down at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port yes­ter­day.

In­vit­ed to T&T for Eman­ci­pa­tion cel­e­bra­tions as a guest of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, the king ar­rived on a pri­vate 9H-VJY Vista jet at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 3.50 pm.

Greet­ed by Min­is­ters of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Dr Amery Browne, Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell, Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds as well as for­mer head of the Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee Khafra Kam­bon, the As­an­te­hene ex­it­ed the air­craft and stepped on­to a red car­pet rolled out for him by mem­bers of the De­fence Force.

He was al­so warm­ly wel­comed by the sweet sounds of the na­tion­al in­stru­ment as an en­sem­ble from the Na­tion­al Phil­har­mon­ic Or­ches­tra of T&T and the Na­tion­al Steel Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra of T&T per­formed along­side dancers from the Shiv Shak­ti Dance Group and the Black Box Cru.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia at the South­ern ter­mi­nal of the air­port fol­low­ing the king’s ar­rival yes­ter­day, Mitchell said, “The Eman­ci­pa­tion cel­e­bra­tions that are held here in Trinidad and To­ba­go are the largest cel­e­bra­tions out­side of Africa, so we are very proud of that ... This year we have a very spe­cial vis­it from His Majesty, so it’s a very ex­cit­ing time for us here in Trinidad and To­ba­go and we look for­ward to all the cel­e­bra­tions.”

Sim­i­lar­ly, Hinds beamed with pride on the ar­rival of the As­an­te­hene.

He said, “We are par­tic­u­lar­ly proud, and we feel the en­thu­si­asm of Trinidad and To­ba­go, in par­tic­u­lar on this oc­ca­sion, the African peo­ple who can now see, per­haps for the first time in the flesh, roy­al­ty out of Africa and I think that is very mar­velous.”

Ac­cord­ing to Gopee-Scoon, the As­an­te­hene will be spend­ing a week in Trinidad as the Gov­ern­ment deep­ens its ties with Ghana.

Gopee-Scoon said his stay en­tails a vis­it with Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, a cour­tesy vis­it with Row­ley, and a Trade and In­vest­ment sym­po­sium put on by the Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee all sched­uled for to­day.

This will be fol­lowed by the Kam­boule Eman­ci­pa­tion pro­ces­sion tak­ing place through­out the streets of Port-of-Spain and a vis­it to the Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Tues­day where he will be joined by Row­ley and Mitchell.

Mitchell said the As­an­te­hene wants to vis­it Fort George on Wednes­day as well. The As­an­te­hene’s rel­a­tives de­signed and built a wood­en sig­nal sta­tion at Fort George in 1833.