On Home Turf: BotangRecords Helps Deliver the Best Ndo Chiehsi in Afoakom USA's 20+ Year History

Afoakom USA's Komvention — the annual national gathering of the Kom community across America — has been running for more than twenty years. In 2026, for the first time, it came to BotangRecords' own backyard: Arden Hills, Minnesota, the state where BotangRecords is based. As a major partner in the convention's cultural programming, BotangRecords didn't just show up — it helped build the event from the ground up, determined to make Komvention 2026 one this community would talk about for years.

Thursday: Ndo Chiehsi and a first for America

Every Komvention opens with Ndo Chiehsi, the traditional welcome event. Working alongside Afoakom USA, BotangRecords helped deliver what many in the room called the best Ndo Chiehsi in the organization's more than two-decade history. Building on what the community learned at the 2025 Dallas Convention — where Kom people gathered to understand the meaning of the Bobe title, the traditional house-sitting protocol, and a live demonstration of Imyangli Iwayn, the child initiation ceremony — this year the Arizona Chapter went further, staging a full presentation of Ichensi Yindo a Kom, the Kom succession ceremony, an institution many in the diaspora had never seen explained before.

Thursday night also marked a genuine first for the Kom community in America: the formal reception of Bo Nteh Dr. Eva Chu, the first-ever Quarter Head of Kom in the United States, newly commissioned by the Fon of Kom to lead the community stateside. Both women and men leaders of the community received him in a fully traditional ceremony led by Chong, before the evening opened into food, drink, and celebration that carried on late into the night.

Scenes from Thursday's Ndo Chiehsi welcome ceremony and the formal reception of Bo Nteh Dr. Eva Chu. Photos: Nice Image Photography.

Friday: recognition, and an Annual General Meeting that mattered

Friday morning brought the Annual General Meeting — the working heart of Komvention, where the organization's major decisions and partnerships for the year ahead are set. It was here that host chapter president Mr. Nyah Sunde singled out BotangRecords in his annual report, crediting the organization's cultural programming — language lessons, dance, and consistent engagement with the community's children — with visibly boosting monthly meeting attendance and membership over the past year. He asked founder Martin Tohmo to stand and be recognized; the ballroom answered with loud, sustained applause.

That evening's Cultural Night was, by every account, one for the books — standing room only, with the hall filled well past capacity. BotangRecords led across nearly every tradition on display: Njang, Chong, Fimbang, juju dances, Akwa, and more, one performance rolling into the next without a lull.

Saturday: white shirts, a boat, and a Gala

Saturday morning, the hotel lobby turned into a sea of shining white BotangRecords T-shirts as the group prepared for the day's signature excursion: a cruise on the Mississippi River. BotangRecords and band animated the entire bus ride from the Twin Cities to Hudson, Wisconsin, without a quiet moment, drawing the attention of onlookers at the dock before the group even boarded. The same energy carried the group all the way back to the hotel, and social media lit up with clips of the ride throughout the day.

The BotangRecords crew in white ahead of Saturday's Mississippi River cruise.

That night's Gala was the convention's largest gathering yet. As a partner organization, BotangRecords contributed its own donation — its widow's mite — during the fundraising portion of the evening, standing behind the mission it showed up to serve all weekend.

Sunday: closing the loop

The convention wound down with an all-day BBQ, giving old friends and new acquaintances room to relax, reconnect, and trade stories before heading home. Before the weekend closed, plans were already set for Komvention 2027 in Kansas City, to be hosted by Woynkom Mid West next June.

One community, one convention

If you're Kom and you've never been to a Komvention, here's what to expect: four days that move from sacred tradition to full-room celebration and back again — a welcome ceremony rooted in centuries of custom, a working meeting where the community's future gets decided, a cultural night where every dance your grandparents knew gets performed in one room, and closing days built for nothing but connection. It is, without exaggeration, one of the largest and most complete expressions of Kom identity gathered in one place each year.

And it's a place for everyone. Afoakom USA has spent more than twenty years building one shared home for Kom people across America, and the door stays open to every branch of this community — including those who, in recent years, have gathered separately. BotangRecords' hope, plainly, is to see everyone under one roof in Kansas City: one people, one convention, one culture carried forward together.