Story: Nana Kwasi Peprah
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has announced a ban on all funerals within the kingdom between September 1 to 18, 2025, when the late Asantehemaa, Nana Konadu Yiadom III, will be finally laid to rest.
The main rituals are scheduled to commence on Sunday, September 14, and continue until Thursday, September 18, during which the final burial rites will be observed, followed by the burial in the late evening.
On the day of the burial, residents are expected to remain indoors.
Additionally, all shops and markets within the metropolis and parts of the region will be closed on the day of the final rites.
This was announced on Thursday, August 21, 2025, during the one-week observance of the late queen mother, who died on August 7, 2025, at the age of 98.
Prominent Ghanaian leaders, including former Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Vice President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, and former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, joined the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to mourn the passing of the Asantehemaa, Nana Ama Konadu Yiadom III.
The leaders, accompanied by high-ranking government officials and dignitaries, converged at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi to participate in the one-week observance of the late queen mother.
Nana Ama Konadu Yiadom III was born in 1927 to the 13th Asantehemaa, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem III (1977-2016), and Opanin Kofi Foffie, also known as Koofie or Keewuo of Besease near Atimatim, a suburb of Kumasi.
He was a carpenter by profession. Nana Ama Konadu Yiadom III, the 14th Queen of Asante, was the firstborn of Asantehemaa Nana Afia Kobi’s five children, the youngest of whom is Asantehene Otumfour Osei Tutu II.
In her teens, traditional puberty rites were performed for her to usher her into womanhood. After that, she got married to Opanin Kwame Boateng, a blacksmith by profession who hailed from Aduman, near Kumasi.
At a very early age, just when she was a little over a year old and being breastfed, Nana Panin was separated from her biological mother and given to her aunt (mother’s sister), Nana Afia Konadu, at Ashanti New Town (Ash-Town), a suburb of Kumasi.
Nana Ama Konadu Yiadom III, who, known in early life as Nana Panin, became well educated for life through informal palace education, though she did not go through any formal education.
In 1959, at the age of about 22, Nana Panin was christened and baptised into the saviour church of Ghana with the Christian name Ruth.
She was also of the Anglican church by convention, for every Asantehene and Asantehemaa is an automatic member and patron of the Anglican Church.
By occupation, Nana Konadu Yiadom III was a caterer who specialised in local dishes. She was also into food crop farming and petty trading.
Her hobbies were cooking, music and dance. In 2016, when her mother, the Asantehemaa, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem III, passed on to eternity at the age of one hundred and eleven (111), Nana Ama Konadu (Nana Panin) was chosen to take her place on the 6th of February, 2017, with the stool name Nana Ama Konadu Yiadom III.
This fulfilled the prophecy of the Kwaku Firi Shrine through Baafuo Osei Akoto, a senior Linguist of the Asantehene.
During her reign from 2017 to 2025, Nana Konadu Yiadom III was known to be fair and firm, honest, and a good advisor. She had her own court where all her judgements were hailed as fair.
The saviour church of Ghana has named a school at Bonwire after her, Nana Konadu Saviour School.
