“Chief of a royal household” Interview of the Week With Osei Agyekum, Operations Manager in Tema/Ghana

Osei, how does it feel to be an employee of Hapag-Lloyd again?
I am more than happy to be back. As official retiring age in Ghana is at 60 I will finish my shipping career with my favorite shipping line. So I have roughly two years to go – and I am looking forward to make our company successful here in Ghana.

You basically have two jobs – one with Hapag-Lloyd and a very special other one. Tell us about it, please.
I am a chief of a royal household in Atebubu in the region of Brong Ahafo which is a six hours drive from our capital Accra.

What is your job there?
Since 2011 I am leading about 150.000 people there of this region, most of them are farmers harvesting yam, cashew nuts or peanuts. I am supposed to lead, guide and consult them, to bring development and jobs to the region – and to arbitrate whenever there are conflicts or disagreements. Basically my job is to make my people happy.

How often are you going to the region?
I go there regularly as there is lots of stuff to do. Just an example: at the end of each month we bury our deceased loved ones collectively. And as the chief of my region I need to be there to comfort and to support the families.

What kind of arbitration are you doing?
People come to me to get an arbitration either on family issues, on economic and social issues or on property and land issues. And when I come to a conclusion they have to accept it and actually nobody dares to contradict or disagree.

Where and how did you get your legal knowledge and your wisdom from?
As a chief you have received lots of education of older chiefs. By visiting other chief in other regions you also get lots of leadership and arbitration skills. My own grandfather was a chief as well – and when I was a young boy he already introduced me into lots of relevant topics.

What are your individual moral guidelines?
I am a Christian and I use a lot of Christian philosophy. 75 per cent of the people in Ghana are Christians – and in my region there are even more.

Give us some examples about cases you have to arbitrate, please.
Recently I had two people fighting against each other and accusing each other of several trespasses. So I asked them: “Do you know the Lord´s Prayer?” And they said: “Of course we do.” So I asked them to pray it loudly. And when it came to “and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” I interrupted them and said: “See: forgive those who trespass against you. So forgive each other right now and go back to work.” But I also have some difficult cases – for instance a disagreement about land issues. We are already discussing this for more than two years and there is no solution in sight yet.

Are you sitting on a throne?
Yes, during official events or festivities like our rice festival in March or our yam festival in October I am sitting on a throne in my traditional chief habit.

There is a fully developed legal system in Ghana – so why do people not go to courts and rather ask for arbitration of a chief?
Going to a court in Ghana is pretty time consuming and expensive. So you better consult a chief and spend the time you have gained for work or your family. In Ghana people always look up to the elderly. Even if you are just a day older than the other person he or she would look up to you and your leadership and guidance. The older a chief is the more respect he can gain from his people.

When you are in Tema and working for Hapag-Lloyd how do your people reach out to you?
Many of them reach out to me by phone. Tonight I received a Whatsapp Message at 3 a.m. – and somebody needed my advice. So I was answering him immediately. But normally I ask my people to wait until I am back in Atebubu during the weekend.

Besides your two jobs – what are your passions in life?
I am a passionate farmer and grow mangoes and cashew nuts. Some of my mangoes go abroad in Hapag-Lloyd containers and on Hapag-Lloyd ships. I love soccer and my favorite club is Bayern München. Once in a while I watch the German premier league games on TV and I am fascinated by the way the Germans play soccer. And admittedly, sometimes I play soccer myself: to show my people that leadership doesn’t mean that you are above them but rather among them on the very same level