Peggielene Bartels

Who is Peggielene Bartels?

Nana Amuah-Afenyi VI, known informally as King Peggy, is the nana of the town of Tantum, in the Mfantsiman Municipal District, Ghana. Born Peggielene Bartels 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, Tantum's former chief, in 2008, she was ritually chosen to replace him.

Since chosen the first female chief of her village, she has spent several weeks each year in Ghana, on the anniversary of her coronation. She plans to become a full-time chief after her retirement from the embassy, at which time she will oversee a 1,000-acre family-owned estate and occupy an eight-bedroom palace.

Bartels 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 important mulatto trader on the Gold Coast in the second quarter of the nineteenth century.

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.