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THE QUEEN Mother of Agogo traditional area in the Ashanti region for the past half century, Nana Abena Serwaa, was buried at the weekend amidst pomp and pageantry never witnessed in the traditional area for decades. The display of Ashanti culture and custom and the large attendance of thousands of Ghanaians, high and low, who came from far and near to pay their last respects to the late Nana Abena Serwaa, who died in April last year aged 100, was a spectacle to behold. The week long funeral celebration started on Monday with the installation of Nana Afrakomaa Serwaa Kusi Obodum, a US-based nursing sister from the Princeton University Medical Center, known in private life as Charity Ama Afrakomaa, aged 58, as the new Queen Mother of Agogo Traditional area. She was subsequently presented to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II on Tuesday. Then followed two days of mourning and lying in state of the late Queen Mother during which traditional rulers and other individuals came to present gifts like cloth, blankets, beads, pillows, drinks, headgears and handkerchiefs, a symbolic gesture to say a final farewell to the late Queen mother on her journey of no return. The climax of the funeral celebrations was the final funeral rites on Saturday which preceded the burial at midnight on Thursday and was attended by thousands of mourners who thronged the Agogo lorry park. Among the dignitaries who graced the occasion was the Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Kwaku Agyemang Mensah who represented the government. He was accompanied by the Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs, Alex Assuma-Ahensan and former Minister of Finance, Kwame Preprah. Prominent among the traditional rulers who came to mourn with the Omanhene of Agogo Traditional Area, Nana Kwame Akuaku Sarpong were the Omanhene of Akwamu traditional area, Nana Kwafo Akoto III, who was the chief mourner and the Aduanahene of Dormaa traditional area, who represented the Dormaahene, Nana Agyemang Badu II who had travelled outside the country. Also present at the funeral were traditional rulers from Bompata, Essumeja, Juaben, Jumawu, Aboaso, Hwidiem, Juaso, Juansa, Odumasi, Konongo, Domiebra, Tepa, Kokofu and several more. A representative of the Ashantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II was also there.