The king of Boroko is a fit man in his fifties, shrewd and willful. He inherited, or rather seized, the kingsom at the death of his predecessor, old Mansa Ottah Aminu. Aminu had unified and pacified the kingdom after a series of internecine wars between its regions, but it was his advisor Nkansah who had both the diplomatic abilities and the strength to weave it into one nation. When Aminu died, Nkansah showed that he was not only a clever diplomat, he also had the necessary ruthlessness to become the next Mansa. When the various faction leaders of Boroko would have re-ignited the old conflicts or simply made the kingdom into a Crescent province, Nkansah seized the Ebony Scepter of Boroko.
Kwabena Nkansah listens carefully to rumours coming from the north through those who trade with the Crescents, and it has not escaped him that Théan ships appear more and more often along the coast of Nyambe. What used to be at most a once in a lifetime event, the sight of white-skinned visitors, now happens every decade or so, and is still accelerating.
