Celebrating Mamaga Amega Kofi Brã I – Her Majesty the Paramount Queen of Peki
- Antoinette Herrmann-Condobrey
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
If you meet her for the first time, you may be struck not by her crown or any outward display of authority but by the gentle steadiness she carries and the quiet presence that draws respect without demanding it.
With qualities so rare, Mamaga Amega Kofi Brã I, Paramount Queen of the Peki Traditional Area (Gbi Anyigbe), has upheld a dignified and steady standard of leadership for more than four decades. Hers is leadership that is natural and not forced, steady and not flamboyant, and rooted in humility rather than spectacle.
Decades ago, when education and professional merit played little role in selecting traditional leaders across much of Ghana, Peki Traditional Area stepped away from convention. They enstooled a British-trained nurse and midwife, Mary Pearl Nyuiemedi Abra Bansa, an alumna of Achimota School, from the Amega Kofi Clan, as their Paramount Queen.
Today, it is clear that Mamaga Amega Kofi Brã’s life is a bridge — one that joins tradition with modernity, service with leadership, and the Ghana she inherited with the Ghana she helped shape.
Born on October 7, 1941, in Peki-Blengo, Mary was the first child of Bernard K. Bansa, a teacher, and Nora Jane Leh Bansa, both of Blengo. Following her father’s teaching career across towns in the Volta Region, she learned early that service to community was not a performance but a way of life. That lesson stayed with her. Across classrooms, hospital wards, national boards, and palace courtyards, Peki’s most distinguished female leader of recent times—one of Ghana’s finest—has served with quiet consistency that uplifts, protects, and guides.
In 1955, Mary entered Achimota School and completed her studies in 1959. Soon
afterward, she moved to London for training at St. Alfage’s Hospital and later specialized in midwifery at Gables Maternity Hospital. She qualified as a State Registered Nurse (SRN) and State Certified Midwife (SCM).
True to the values that shaped her upbringing, she chose service over comfort. After gaining her professional skills, she returned to Ghana to contribute to national development. She worked at Parkinson’s Howard Hospital, Bethel Hospital, and VALCO Hospital in Tema. It was during her work as a nurse practitioner in Tema that her clan nominated her for the role of Paramount Queen.
When chosen, Mary did not see the role as a detour but as a continuation of her calling to serve. Her July 1981 enstoolment as Mamaga Amega Kofi Brã placed her in a lineage of regal women, succeeding Mama Afua Nyangamangu of the Tutu Family of Blengo. As the elder sister of Peki’s current Paramount Chief, Deiga Kwadzo Dei XII, her enstoolment decades earlier set the stage for a rare pairing of siblings on the paramount stools — a distinction seldom seen in the Volta Region.
Her reign opened a new chapter defined by the compassion, dignity, and responsibility she had already lived out as a nurse. Any doubts about how a working professional, mother, and wife could manage such a demanding role quickly faded. Her new calling did not diminish her passions; it amplified them. The discipline formed in hospital corridors became the bedrock of her traditional leadership.
Amega Kofi Brã I emerged as a leader among leaders. Her influence extended well beyond Peki, shaping both regional and national platforms. She was central to establishing the Volta Regional Queenmothers’ Association and served as its first President for thirty years. She advocated for women and children long before such advocacy became common. Her wisdom drew national appointments without her seeking visibility:
• Vice Chairperson, National Population Council (1997)
• Traditional Leaders’ Representative, Attorney General’s Board on Legal Pluralism (2002–2005)
• Executive Member, Presidential Advisory Commission for Chieftaincy Affairs (2003–2008)
Her advocacy also led to the creation of the National Council of Women Traditional Leaders in 2007, where she served as National President. In partnership with Professor Irene Odotei, she led the registration and training of over 300 Queens across Ghana, equipping them with governance skills and empowering them to champion women’s rights, child protection, universal education, health, and community development.
The thread of her life is unmistakable: the girl who followed her father from town to town; the nurse who held fragile lives in her hands; the Queen who carried entire communities in her heart.
Mamaga is a firm believer in grounded knowledge. Even as a traditional ruler, she continued her studies — taking courses in Gender, Leadership, Democracy, Natural Resources Governance, Local Governance, and Socio-economic Development at the University of Cape Coast. She also trained in Conflict Management, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and participated in peace-building programs.
Behind her regal composure is a woman whose foremost roles have been those of wife, mother, grandmother and family anchor. Mamaga was married to Justice Asempa, from Peki-Dzake, who passed away in 2014. She is mother to two sons, Larry and Delali, based in Tema and Atlanta. She loves to travel and meet new people, but no journey means more to her than returning home to Peki, to her people, and to the traditions that shaped her.
Today, at 84, Gbi’s beloved Paramount Queen makes fewer public appearances. A woman who has carried many identities with grace now knows when to delegate. True to her quiet style of leadership, she continues to fulfil her royal duties, often represented by her senior-most divisional Queen, who conveys thoughtful and personal messages on her behalf.
When the history of Peki Traditional Area and the larger Gbi State is written, Mamaga Amega Kofi Brã I will stand tall as a woman who expanded the possibilities of female traditional leadership — educated, visionary, compassionate, and absolutely committed to her people. Hers is leadership that influences without fanfare, achieves without announcement, and endures without seeking applause.
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