Royal landscaping services, anyone?
A Ghanaian man who emigrated to British Columbia in 2012 is now the King of his tribe back home — but he’s still mowing lawns in Canada, too.
Eric Manu, 32, first left his home with the Akan tribe in Ghana to marry a Canadian woman. At the time, his uncle was the chief of the tribe, and Manu had no expectations that the role would ever pass down to him.
But then, in 2013, his uncle died. And in the summer of 2015, Manu got word from the tribe of 6,000 people that he had been chosen as their new leader.
“I wasn’t really thinking that it was going to be me because I’m too young for that,” Manu said last year.
At the time, Manu was working with a landscaping company, but decided that he needed to return home in order to fulfill his duties. He told his boss, Susan Watson, about his decision, and even invited her along for the coronation ceremony.
Watson not only took Manu up on his offer, she wanted to find a way to help the community, too. The tribe is very poor, she said, with only a few nurses on hand. So she and Manu decided to start up a nonprofit charity donation drive to supply the tribe with medical supplies, as well as clothing, books, and other resources.
Through their organization, called the To the Moon and Back Foundation, was able to a shipping container full of goods to Ghana last spring.
But after a stay in Ghana where he was made leader, Manu felt that it was time to return to Canada — and to landscaping services.
He’s now back on lawn care duty in British Columbia, so that he can work to send money back home and help better the lives of his people.
“Sometimes we go to the [job] site and they say, ‘You are the chief. I saw you on TV. Why are you doing the landscaping?'” he told the CBC. “This is humbleness you understand. Anytime I’m in Canada, I’m proud to work for my boss.”
And what boss wouldn’t be proud to have a King as one of their landscapers? Good references.
