With Fanfare, Ashanti People From Ghana Install Their New York Chief

The elders had poured libations, the holy men had delivered invocations, and all had sworn allegiance to the Ashanti kingdom. A battery of percussionists, glistening with sweat, started pounding out waves of rhythm that brought hundreds of guests, draped in elaborate kente cloth, to their feet.

A scrum of men formed at one end of the hall and hoisted to their shoulders a wooden litter. It bore the newly inaugurated chief, wearing gold jewelry and a gold-studded leather crown, who bobbed above the celebrants and flicked a horsetail whisk and a golden scarf in a studied regality.

And so, just before dawn the last Sunday in May, one of the most elaborate rituals in immigrant New York reached its climax. The man at the center was Nana Acheampong-Tieku of the Bronx, New York regional chief of the Ashanti people from Ghana in West Africa.

The inauguration was part of a quadrennial, two-day ceremony in the Bronx that is a high point in the Ashanti diaspora’s calendar, serving to strengthen traditions and community ties in New York. “This is gorgeous, this makes me happy,” said Kojo Ampah Sahara, a community leader who helped organize the event. “This is who we are.”

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/nyregion/ashanti-group-from-ghana-installs-its-new-york-chief.html?pagewanted=all

I've never heard of foreign tribes having leaders in this country. Expect the tinfoil crowd to scream about "sovereignty" over this story. Acheampong-Tieku's civilian name is Michael, and Michael is an accountant.