This is the announcement as it was published on the Guneku village website ahead of the public presentation of the new Fon. It is reproduced here as part of the Palace record.
The People Receive The Returning Fon — A Public Coronation
On the 28th of January 2015, the Fon of Guneku, Fon Patrick Fomuki II, left the palace on an emergency call to a long journey. About a month later he returned, but promised to present himself to the people to tell them what news he brought back at a much later but very appropriate time. That time is the 30th of December 2016.
This presentation to the people of Meta in general, and Guneku in particular, is so packed with meaning and expectation that the people are leaving no stone unturned as they prepare to receive the Fon back home and, especially, to listen to the message he brought back from that emergency journey.
The Fon and the people of Guneku intend to use this God-given opportunity to usher in a new era in the Guneku village way of life, and to stretch out a much-needed hand of fraternity and solidarity to the entire Meta clan.
Reading the announcement
The language of this announcement follows Guneku tradition, in which a Fon does not die but leaves the palace on a journey, and his successor returns in his place. Read alongside the other records in this archive, the sequence is as follows.
- 28 January 2015 — HRH Fon Fomuki Patrick Nji, who had reigned since 1965, left the palace on a long journey. Tributes from fellow North West Fons followed.
- 27 February 2015 — sons and daughters of Guneku assembled on the palace grounds for the return of HRH Fomuki Walters Ticha, who arrived in new clothing to lead the Fondom.
- 27 February 2015 — the Transfiguration Ceremony, at which the Fon of Nyen anointed HRH Fomuki Walters Ticha in public.
- November 2015 — the launching gala at the Mbengwi Council Hall, attended by all the Meta villages.
- 30 December 2016 — the public presentation to the people of Meta, the return address promised in the announcement above.
Editor's note on the source
The succession was not a single occasion. It ran as distinct stages — the passing, the Transfiguration and public anointing, the launching gala, and the public presentation — and this record keeps them distinct rather than collapsing them into one coronation date.
One further date was formerly carried in this archive as a coronation. A search of the retired Joomla database, which holds the original Palace records, returns no occurrence of it, and no source examined records an event on that day. It has been withdrawn rather than repeated, and the sequence above is what the record supports.
The predecessor is styled Fon Patrick Fomuki II in this announcement and HRH Fon Fomuki Patrick Nji elsewhere in the archive, while the reigning Fon is styled the ninth of his line. The archive does not yet explain how these numberings relate. They have been left as recorded rather than reconciled by assumption.