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The Akan Experience of God Through the Eyes of the Fante from Oguaa

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The Akan Experience of God Through the Eyes of the Fante from Oguaa Arts and Humanities Open Access Journal Review Article Open Access The Akan experience of God through the eyes of the Fante from Oguaa Abstract Volume 3 Issue 6 - 2019 Any group of people or society that embraces religion has an experience or a concept of 1 who they perceive to be the Center of the religion or who they consider to be the Supreme Leo Andoh Korsah, Jonathan ET Kuwornu- Being. The Akan of Ghana as an African people are religious and for that matter has an Adjaottor2 experience of the Supreme Being. This paper sought to share an Akan experience of God 1Department of Arts and Social Sciences, Methodist College of from the perspective of the Fante of Cape Coast (Oguaa). The synthetic and interpretative Education, Ghana 2 approaches were used in addition to collection of data from some elderly people, traditional Department of Religious Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University priests and court historians from Oguaa. The indigenous people believe in the Supreme of Science and Technology, Ghana Being (God) as the Creator. They have three distinct names for God and these names Jonathan ET Kuwornu-Adjaottor, show their understanding of who God is. These names are Onyame, Onyankɔrpɔn and Correspondence: Department of Religious Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University Ɔdomankoma. There are seventy-seven deities that are recognized and accepted in the of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, West Africa, Oguaa traditional area. These deities are believed to be children of God; the Supreme Being Email and He has assigned them to the people for protection and other assistance. Also, in spite of the recognition and acceptance of these deities, the indigenous religion of the people should Received: November 15, 2019 | Published: December 05, not be classified as polytheistic. Their religion should be described as henotheistic. 2019 Keywords: belief, deities, indigenous, supreme being, traditional Introduction atonement and the purification of the land. This marked the end of the epidemic. The act of Agya Oguaa made the people more devoted 1 2 Authors including Nkansa-Kyeremanteng and Asiamah have to their indigenous belief in the activities of their gods. Although researched into and written on general subjects about the Fante of the religion existed before him it is a belief among the indigenous Cape Coast without giving much attention to the indigenous religion people that the act of Agya Oguaa saved Oguaaman and also aided of the people. Most scholars from outside Ghana have also studied the survival of the indigenous religion till today.iii There are no into African indigenous religions and the Akan concept of God with missionaries to propagate this religioniv but Agya Oguaa though dead, emphases on the Asante to the neglect of the Fante. In this paper, is regarded as the living missionary of the indigenous religion. The the writers share an Akan experience of God from the perspective indigenous religion is very broad and accommodates some practices i of the Fante from Oguaa through synthetic and interpretative of other faiths. In spite of its broad nature, there are some essential approaches. The synthetic approach is used because the authors have features that mark off the religion from other missionary faiths and collated views of some scholars and utilized for more comprehensive some of these include: belief in ancestors, belief in lesser deities and knowledge on the topic. The interpretative approach is also at play belief in the Supreme Being (God). The ancestors are those who were because of the writers being Ghanaians who have once lived in Oguaa morally upright while living, fulfilled their mission in the community and have some experience in participant observation of the religion of and died natural and peaceful deaths. Seth Asare-Danso infers from the people. In this regard, the views of some elderly people, traditional J.S. Pobeev to affirm that ancestors were part of the clan and have priests and court historians were sought. In sharing the experience of completed their course of journey on earth and have gone ahead to God from the Fante perspective, this paper provides an overview of live in the other worldvi. They are revered, honored and regarded as the Oguaa indigenous religion, the indigenous Fante names of God the custodians and the guardians of the land. This belief is common and finally draws a conclusion on the discussion. to all African indigenous religious practitioners. Another belief is the belief in smaller deities. They are regarded as the children of God A brief overview of the Oguaa indigenous and derive their powers from their Father the Supreme Being for religion specific duties that He assigns to them. The recognized smaller deities in Oguaa are seventy-sevenvii in number. All these seventy-seven Religion has been identified with the people of Oguaa since children are spirits, have personal names and dwell in stones, rocks, antiquity and there is no specific person that can be identified as the founder of the indigenous religion. However, in Oguaa mythology, iiiThe source of information on the Agya Oguaa myth is Supi Kobina Minnah, there is the heroic character who stands out because of his love and the head of the number six Akrampa Asafo Company who doubles as an ii contribution to the indigenous religious practices and Oguaaman as a okyeame and a court historian whole. There was an epidemic and the gods required human sacrifice ivAfrican Traditional Religions are not missionary oriented and this has for atonement in order to halt it. This requirement seemed absurd to been espoused by almost all scholars who attempt to give an account of the the people as it was the first ever required human sacrifice in the land. indigenous religions of Africa. v A man by name Agya Oguaa offered himself to be sacrificed for the Pobee JS. Toward an African theology. Nashville: Abingdon Press; 1979. viAsare-Danso S. African Traditional Religion. Cape Coast: Beret Outlook iOguaa is the traditional name for Cape Coast. Press; 2019. iiOguaaman refers to the Cape Coast Traditional area viiOguaa Fetu Afahyε Brochure. Cape Coast: Nyakod Printing Works; 2008. Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Art Human Open Acc J. 2019;3(6):280‒283. 280 ©2019 Korsah et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Copyright: The Akan experience of God through the eyes of the Fante from Oguaa ©2019 Korsah et al. 281 tree, groves and so on. They all have their specific shrines where they protect all inhabitants of Oguaa. These gods, spiritually, steer the rituals are performed in their honorviii. These are agents of God and affairs of the Oguaa traditional area and also the success of the Oguaa fetu afahyεix depends on them. At every festival, sacrifice is offered viii These are the personal names of the seventy-seven deities and their specific to all at their various shrines. These are the traditionally recognized places of location: 1. Nana Tabir: a rock in a creek in South-eastern part of and accepted ones that Oguaaman calls on in times of problems for Cape Coast and in the end of the right dungeon of the Cape Coast Castle. 2. Nana Paprata: a large depression under Kingsway store and Tema Food assistance. They can bring blessings and curses upon the individual Complex Corporation building in Cape Coast with water flowing into the and the state depending on how they are responded to. It is believed sea now covered with swish. 3. Nana Fosu: Cape Coast Lagoon – west of that on Thursdays, all the lesser deities (77 children of God) leave the town. 4. Nana Aduia: a rock on site between old Methodist cemetery and the earth to meet Onyankɔrpɔnx concerning Oguaaman. They are second mission house. 4. Nana Etuel: a stone in a shrine at the south-east of not invoked on Thursdays because they do not respond to the call the police station. 5. Kotowuraba: a stream once flowing from Minnow street of men while in the presence of Onyankɔrpɔn. Any god that appears in Kotokuraba in and enters into the sea. 6. Abaka Awuonsu: a pond at Siwudu on Thursday is evil and has no good intention for the individual and village in Cape Coast. 7. Nana Abuaku: a stream running from the valley of Oguaaman at large. The earth is also believed to be a goddess by the first ridge and enters Tantri via Agriculture Station and Electricity Corporation area in Cape Coast. 8. Nana Nkenyi: a stream flowing from the valley of the name Asaase Afua. She was created by God and is regarded as His hills at Amanful. 11. Nana Sapraku: a stone, which was at the eastern side of wife. She has been put in charge of farming by the Supreme Being. the Methodist Church where a chop bar is erected. It has now been relocated to The people of Oguaa acknowledging the existence of smaller deities OLA and placed among the gods of No. 1 Asafo Company. 12. Nana Akutompo: besides the Supreme Being does not make them polytheistic. To refer a grove at Emisa- ekyir (King Aggrey Street), now cut away. 13. Nana Amissa: to them as polytheists will be a hasty conclusion, it is better to classify chain of stones behind north-east of present No. 5Asafo Company Post. 14. their religion as henotheistic. Nana Kumkensen: a genius giant once in Abowinim (Jerusalem Street) site of Basel Mission Church. 15. Nana Ante –Yesu: pond at Siwudu village. 16. In his contribution on the nature of African Traditional Religion, Worakobir: a pond once in the area lading to the site of the District Education Kwame Gyekye asserts that “God is the supreme being but not the Office.
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