Anytime the phone rings at 4 a.m. it’s always unnerving. Very rarely is it good news. Two years ago Peggielene Bartels got just such a phone call.

The call she got was from her uncle back in her homeland of Ghana in West Africa. He informed her that her other uncle, who had ruled as king of the small fishing village of Otuam, had died. But the call Peggy ultimately answered wasn’t just some sad family news. It was life changing. The village elders had anointed her as the successor to her uncle. Peggy had been chosen to be the village’s new King.

Peggie Bartels had moved to the U.S. in the 1970’s, and had become a naturalized US citizen. She lived just outside Washington, D.C., where she worked as a secretary at Ghana’s embassy. This is hardly the usual training ground for royalty. But sh…