African Religion Defined : A Systematic Study of Ancestor Worship among the Akan 9780761853299, 9780761853282

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AFRICAN RELIGION DEFINED

A Systematic Study of Ancestor Worship among the Akan

Anthony Ephirim-Donkor

University Press of America,® Inc. Lanham · Boulder · New York · Toronto · Plymouth, UK

Copyright© 2010 by University Press of America,® Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard Suite 200 Lanham, Maryland 20706 UPA Acquisitions Department (301) 459-3366 Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America British Library Cataloging in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Control Number: 2010932584 ISBN: 978-0-7618-5328-2 (paperback: alk. paper) eiSBN: 978-0-7618-5329-9

Cover photo by Harvey Nerhood.

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CONTENTS Preface Chapter I: Cosmology Chapter 2: Witchcraft Chapter 3: Sacrifices and Offerings Chapter 4: Living Ancestors Chapter 5: The Ancestors Stool Endnotes Glossary Selected Bibliography Index About the Author

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Preface African religion, that is, ancestor worship, is not Africanized Christianity, Islam, or any other religion originating from outside the African continent. Rather, ancestor worship, from the perspective of the Akan and their neighbors in Ghana, is funeral preparation of a corpse, burial of the dead with ceremony and pomp, belief in eternal existence of the dead called Nananom Nsamanfo (Ancestors), periodic remembrance of the ancestors, and the notion that the ancestors exercise direct influence on the affairs of their living descendants. As defined by Ernest A. Wallis Budge when he studied ancient Egyptian religion, African (ancient Egyptian) religion is the ''worship of the souls of the dead," which he also termed as "Ancestor worship." How, then, are the ancestors or their souls worshipped? The basis for ancestor worship is the continued notion that the ancestors are intimately involved in the affairs of their posterity and therefore the need by the living to worship them in order to receive favor, blessing, and protection from the ancestors and deities. In the African context, ancestor religion is the worship of the esteemed names of founding ancestors of a people, because every ancestor that Africans worship has a soul, an eternal component of the living believed to survive death and invoked by name by descendants periodically. Among the Akan, for example, death is dreaded and so people do everything humanly possible to avoid death and prolong life. However, once death arrives as an inevitable existential reality, society puts on elaborate funeral obsequies for the dead, followed by weeks and even years of intermittent remembrances led by elders. The dead, or rather the posthumous abstract personality of a deceased person that the Akan call the :JSaman (posthumous abstract personality), is thought to undertake a difficult and arduous journey to the realm of the dead called the Samanadzie, which is headed by the NaSaman (Spirit Mother). So difficult is the journey that at the moment of death, and where conditions allow, family members offer water to those about to die in order to mitigate the arduousness of an :JSaman 's journey to the Samanadzie. The journey includes crossing a river, climbing of a ladder, before journeying to the Samanadzie. Ontologically, human beings originate in the Samanadzie, believed to be high (emblematic of pregnancy) when an :JSaman becomes a fetus and descends from the Samanadzie to the corporeal world below. Similarly, upon death the same person, although now in a spirit form, :JSaman, again crosses the river of parturition before climbing a nine-step ladder to enter the world from whence it came, the Samanadzie. Once in the Samanadzie, the Akan believe that an :JSaman is first offered a stool to sit on, then given water to drink, and finally asked to give account of its sojourn in the corporeal Wiadzie (world) before the esteemed ancestors, in accordance with the :JSaman 's Nkrabea (a unique existential career blueprint or destiny). Judgment is rendered as to whether an :JSaman is an :JSaman pa (ideal or good) or :JSaman b:Jfl (bad or evil). And, contingent on whether an :JSaman lived a full life

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as either good or bad :Jsaman, it is allowed to reincarnate in order to fulfill an nkrabea cut short too soon leading to an unfulfilled existence, or denied reincarnation as having lived a full life but as a bad or evil person. The ideal :Jsaman then was the personality that successfully integrated and survived all stages oflife' s vicissitudes and mastered the art ofliving as an adult, elected to eldership, and who upon death bequeathed to succeeding generations a name worthy of evocation. Such an :Jsaman is rewarded as an ancestor, joining the esteemed company of Ancestors that the Akan refer to as the Nananom Nsamanfo. It is they, the Nananom Nsamanfo, the most powerful of which are deities, who are worshipped by their descendants as influencing the affairs of their posterity in the corporeal world. Often misunderstood, non-Africans have through the centuries repeatedly described African religious beliefs and their obsession with ancestors, and gods and goddesses as "animistic," "superstition," "primitive," "tribal," "savage," "barbaric," etc. Yet, African religion, as known today is no different from their ancient ancestors, like the ancient Egyptians, whose dead also climbed a ladder and went through similar perilous journey aided by a slue of spells to ward-off evil and ensure safe passage of the dead to heaven. For example, the ancient Egyptian dead, in addition to traveling dangerously, went though forty-two separate gates, each time facing a deity and surmounting its tests until finally it faced Osiris, head of the world of the dead. Before Osiris, one's heart is weighed against a feather of the goddess Maiit. It was only then that the dead lived happily perpetually, if its heart balanced perfectly against the feather. However, if the dead is thought to have lived less than ideally, meaning if a heart weighed more than the feather, then the dead was devoured by the deity Amrnit. Recently, and perhaps in the spirit ofliberalisrn, religious pluralism, and academic freedom, a more polite though still paternalistic term, "traditional" is used to describe African religion. This might suggests that ancestor worship has evolved from its so-called primitive state to become a modern religion, that is, Christianity, Islam, and all the non-African religions of the world. And yet ancestor worship, whether called Akwiisidai, Akomasi, Homowo, Voodoo, Akwanmb::>, Candomble, Nyanbr (Aboakyir), Santeria, etc. in Africa or the African Diaspora, still centers around certain historical and mythical ancestors, like most founded religions. The ancestors and deities are worshipped because they established the paradigms for ideal living and taught their descendants exactly what ethical living should entail, namely, festivities meant to honor the ancestors and deities. Under the auspices of their earthly representatives, kings and queens, the souls of the ancestors and gods and goddesses are summoned periodically to receive sacrifices, offering, and gifts of various kinds from their descendants individually and corporately. More than recalling names or souls of ancestors for propitiatory purposes, ancestor worship also uses symbols and objects that serve as physical reminders of the presence of the ancestors and gods and goddesses. These emblems, when touched, exposed, revealed, seated upon, or approached, evoke the kind of fanatic awe that is existentially and metaphysically transforming, as well as psychologically assuring for adherents. The symbols instill faith in the living and for moments of high ritual crescendos the founding ancestors and deities descend from heaven in

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order to dwell among the living in the very symbols that the ancestors themselves made. As objects ofhierophany, symbols house the souls of the ancestors and thus the symbols represent covenantal relationship between communities and their respective ancestors and deities, because the objects serve as tangible basis for insuring divine-human equilibration. In praxis, ancestor worship is tenable because living descendants are genetically linked to their ancestors and deities, making it possible for Africans to revere and honor their ancestors periodically in personal ways. Therefore, whenever life's problems become overbearing individuals invoke the names of their loved ones of blessed memory, believing that the ancestors are aware of their problems intimately. In return, the ancestors and deities bless, protect, and influence the affairs of their posterity, as there is no future without the past, that is, the ancestors, and gods and goddesses. Unfortunately, this view of African religion is hardly taught as a viable religion in the West or even in Africa itself without arousing suspicion and curiosity. Africans have been influenced, for good or ill, by non-African peoples, religions, and cultures, to the extent that many Africans actually believe that they do not have a religion or that their religious practices are inferior to non-African religions. As a result, many are shocked to see variations of African religion practiced by African descended peoples in the New World as Voodoo, Obeah, Santeria, or Candomble. The shock of African students turn to shame when they realize that they have to attend universities abroad in order to learn about the religions of their own ancestors, because they have been conditioned to think that being a Christian or Muslim is superior to following one's own ancient religion. I must also confess that I too experienced the same until midway in graduate seminary when I rediscovered myselfleading to my cultural reclamation, although I did not disavow my non-African religious faith. However, this condescending attitude towards African religion was not shared by ancient European historians like the Greeks who witnessed firsthand African religious practices and actually admired African piety and religiosity. Thus, following the way the Greek historian, Diodorus, for example, described the nature of African religion, as comprising ofhonoring of the Gods, sacrifices, rituals, festivals, processions, etc., this book introduces readers to the phenomenon and nature of African religion. Furthermore, the book provides practical rites and rituals of contemporary Africans like the Akan as a paradigm for Africans and African descended peoples in the African Diaspora who still follow the beliefs of their ancient ancestors disguised as Santeria, Candomble, etc. Chapter 1takes an in-depth look at Akan cosmology, with emphasis on the structure of the corporeal and incorporeal worlds, inhabitants ofthe cosmos relative to Gods and God, how both spiritual and corporeal beings converge in the corporeal world, and the meaning oflife in the corporeal. Therefore, the chapter takes a comprehensive look at the nature of the corporeal and incorporeal worlds in order to explain existential conditions. The next chapter looks critically at witchcraft as a phenomenon that uses both spiritual and corporeal means to frustrate realization of existential goals and objec-

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tives. The role of the supernatural in African life, just like the belief in the spirit world is very real, as such witchcraft is feared as a supernatural agent capable of thwarting anything and anyone with the potential for good. In the context of ancestor worship, witchcraft seeks to prevent the ancestors and deities from receiving their propitiatory sacrifices by rendering sacrifices and offerings unclean through their human hosts. While chapter 3 deals with sacrifices and offerings, in which practical instructions and ritual formulas are discussed in relation to propitiation of the ancestors and deities designed to make life worth living on earth: a life free of witchcraft and other malevolent forces that impedes progress. Ancestor worship has to do with propitiation of the ancestors and deities and that responsibility falls on living ancestors who must honor and offer clean sacrifices of all kinds. Thus, this chapter examines the ways in which propitiatory rites are performed by living ancestors in particular. Ancestor worship revolves around dead elders turned ancestors posthumously. Although spiritual in existence, the ancestors are manifested physically in the person of their earthly representative, the king or living ancestor who commemorates the birth, life, death, and vindication in heaven of the founding ancestors and deities of one's community. The commemorations encompass festivities honoring the ancestors presided over by living ancestors, and so chapter 4 focuses on living ancestors and how certain elders are chosen as living ancestors. There is the notion among the Akan that the kingship is divine, instituted forever by God and therefore the fundamental question is: Who can best serve the ancestors and deities of a community wholly as a living ancestor, that is, by propitiating the ancestors and deities? Thus, the chapter takes an in-depth look at the politics of choosing certain individuals as rulers to, among other things, lead in festivities and processions honoring the ancestors and deities. To be nominated, elected, and installed king one must have been born into a royal family, because it is the royal family that knows the esoterica of an ancestors' stool and deities. Even where a non-royal person is nominated for the kingship, it is the royal family that must still perform secret rites of king-making in order to legitimize a non-royal's accession to a throne or ancestors stool. Whether royalty or not, the competition for the right to be seated on an ancestors stool is fierce and hence the politicking. Finally, chapter 5 takes a comprehensive look at the very definition of religion as a "system of symbols." From this perspective, the ultimate religious and political symbol of choice for the Akan and their kindred peoples is the ancestors stool. This singular stool, the ancestors stool, evokes the kind of fanaticism that all ultimate religious symbols evoke and more: it is the very symbol of temporal and spiritual power. Thus, the final chapter focuses on the nature of the ancestors stool as the object of transformation for a living ancestor, as well as the object of manifestation for the ancestors and deities. The book is an invaluable resource for those interested in the phenomenon of religion, because it provides insights into African religion in ways that are different from studies that take perfunctory cosmological and symbolic view of African reli-

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gion. Here, I offer a systematically look at African religion as praxis by someone like me who is not only an active participant, but as an object of devotion around whom ancestor worship revolves, as the ruler of the Akan community of Gomoa Mprumem. For this reason, those interested in religious studies, Africanists, sociologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, those not ritually conversant with ancestors worship, as well as Africans and African descended peoples would find the book very insightful. The book demonstrates that ancestor worship is a viable pragmatic religion. Further, it demonstrates that ancestor worship is as systematic, theologically sound, with God Almighty at the helm, dogmatic, teleological as well as soteriological, and symbolic as any other religion in the world. Ancestor religion follows certain prescribed rites and rituals, formulas, precepts and laws designed to ensure the highest ritual efficacy, and dances and music meant to provoke spirits into join in festivities honoring them. The goal of ancestor religion, existentially, is the attainment of good and healthy living, a life that is potentially free of witchcraft and the pains and hassles of life. Teleologically, believers not only implore the blessings and protection of the ancestors and deities, they actually live in anticipation of when the living too at old age may live face to face with their ancestors, as African and African descended peoples are obsessed with one's ultimate end in heaven. In addition, the belief in reincarnation whereby those unable to fulfill their existential potentials and die are born again in order to better their lives means that soteriologically ancestor religion offers salvation to all, in that ultimately one may live a fulfilled life. The appeal of ancestor worship as a praxis is based on adherence to certain essential principles. First, Africans have always believed in a monotheistic, almighty, creator, and sustainer God. This notion is so widespread that Africans from the very beginning have had no need to house God or even for God to have clergy. So powerful is God that God entrusted the affairs of the corporeal world, the Wiadzie, with primeval gods and goddesses manifested all over the corporeal world as intangible forces. As powerful spiritual forces, the deities or Abosom, as the Akan call them are the ones that Africans worship directly as a matter of praxis, because it is they, the abosom, who have temples, shrines, clergy, and in charge locally and to whom sacrifices are offered directly. Even so, Africans summarily call upon God as the giver of life and sustainer of all things. Second, there is belief in God's ubiquity and accessible to all and yet the deities are the ones who implement God's mandate corporeally and cosmically. Consequently, ancestor religion does not proselytize; instead, it allows adherents to practice their religion experientially as a way of life and as guided by the clergy. Life must be lived in relative peace, orderly, and free of misfortunes so when things go arid culminating in a series of maladies, then the tendency is to seek spiritual redress first because the source of all maladies is spiritual. Existentially there is no need to convert people en masse since socio-culturally everyone experiences the same existential problems although one may be directed to the best shrine, elders or clergy in order to obtain holistic health. Thirdly, African religion revolves around dead ancestors thought to be alive

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after all and believed to influence the affairs of their posterity. Like God, death is the ultimate existential reality, which forces the living to grapple with their mortality and ask questions about the purpose and meaning oflife. These issues require culturally based ritual solutions and advise from elders and clergy able to mediate between the living and the dead-alive (nsamanfo) and answer questions about death and one's passage into the spirit world upon death. For this reason, ancestor religion does not discriminate against anyone, because the locus of ancestor worship is death and death does not discriminate. Forth, African religion has a clearly defined group of ancestors and pantheons of deities for communities and peoples. These ancestors and deities are genetically connected to the living and therefore respond to the needs and desires of their posterity. In consequence, the ancestors and deities are prayed to directly, sacrifices offered to them, and asked to protect and defend the living against foes, prevent misfortunes and evil from befalling the living, and above all, allow the living to enjoy good healthy lives. Fifth, ancestor worship is a highly interactive, participatory, and yet individualistic religion, in which adherents and clergy and elders alike actively engage in ritual reciprocity. During religious ceremonies, for example, deities may alight on heads of clergy, with deities manifesting themselves in the lives of devotees. In this way, deities take residence among the living and are experienced wholly during temporary ecstatic unions with clergy. Furthermore, during divinations, clients are able to converse with gods and goddesses, allowing clients to describe their maladies directly to divinities who respond by prescribing a series of ritual remedies. In addition, the clergy prescribe herbal medicines, rites, and ritual formulas and instructions for devotees who enact them in ways that make them masters of their own healing destinies. Finally, to assist people in the proper application of rites and magi co-medical medicines, African religion-ancestor worship--makes use of a well-structured and organized eldership class and a highly trained and disciplined clerical body (priests/priestesses, mediums/prophets, and doctors). Both elders and clergy are chosen because they embody certain qualities and attributes, called by gods and goddesses, and receive intensive training for years, as in the case of the clergy. Together, they combine to administer medicines, instruct patients in the proper ways of undertaking rites and make known the mandates of the ancestors and deities when the clergy enter into trances. Above all, elders and clergy offer themselves as mediators between the living and the ancestors, intercede on behalf of those seeking their help, ensure orthodoxy of ritual traditions, and deliberate and adjudicate faithfully on behalf of the ancestors and deities. For completion of this book, I am indeed grateful to all those with whom I held formal and informal discussions in Ghana. I also learned a lot from the cases that I heard when I held courts at Mprumem, and from those who visited and complained to me about personal matters, like witchcraft, festivals, stool matters, funeral rites, and many more. I am also grateful to Professor Baffour Takyi, University of Akron, with whom I engaged in discussions on some cultural and religious issues intermittently.

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My thanks to my colleagues, Professors Isidore Okpewho and Nkiru Nzegwu of Binghamton University, State University of New York, for reading drafts of some chapters and offering insightful comments. Finally, I am extremely grateful for being the recipient ofthe Dean's Research Semester Award, which enabled me to complete this book by affording me the time to bring the book to its successful conclusion. Anthony Ephirim-Donkor, Ph.D. Binghamton University, State University ofNew York.

CHAPTER 1 Cosmology The Dinka creator God, called Nhialic ... created Adam from clay and Eve from the man's rib. Nhialic told them not to eat the fruit of a certain tree, but a snake ... persuaded Eve to eat it, and Adam ate it too. Knowing that the couple had disobeyed, Nhialic confronted them, and they admitted their wrongdoing, for which Nhialic punished them. He told Adam that he would have to labor to cultivate food, Eve that she would suffer pain in childbirth, and both that they would experience suffering and death. 1 When the Akan think about the cosmos, they have in mind a single world that is composed of two parallel worlds, one spiritual and the other corporeal. The corporeal world is the domain of humans suggesting that the corporeal would naturally take precedence over the spiritual or incorporeal. However, in the African scheme of thought this is actually not the case, because the spiritual reigns supreme in all matters, spiritual and corporeal. The corporeal world is merely a reflection of the spiritual, the original and "real" world of humans, because everything corporeal originated in the spiritual. If the spiritual world is the real and ideal home of humans, then how do we explain the presence of humans in the corporeal world? In the search for answers, we must first tum to the Y oruba people who also view the cosmos in spiritual (Orun) and corporeal (Aye) terms vis-a-vis humans and their role in the corporeal. The Y oruba maintain that: '"The world is a marketplace ... [while] the other world is home"'2 In other words, the corporeal world is where life exists entrepreneurially and when existence is over in the corporeal after shopping, then one goes back home to the spiritual world for rest. 3 Actually, the corporeal is where one works, engages in business and trades and manages all kinds of enterprises, knowing that life in the corporeal is fleeting, because one is destined to

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return home to the Orun. The promise of ideal life at the Orun is predicated on the notion that after buying and selling in the corporeal, one must return home in other to cook or prepare what one purchased in the mundane. The promise of returning home also assumes that if one purchased good items then one would enjoy the fruits of one's labor in the corporeal, first, and ultimately the spiritual. Existentially, the, one must cultivate certain "goals and aspirations in the world" leading to "long life, peace, prosperity, progeny, and good reputation. Ideally, these can be achieved through the constant search for ogbon (wisdom), imo (knowledge), and oye (understanding). ,.4 Similarly, if one arrives at the marketplace (corporeal) and engages in illicit or unethical business practices, then one would reap the benefits of one's bad business activities. The ethical imperative of the Yoruba and how a human being journeys through the corporeal Aye is also true of how the Akan conceptualized their world. In general, the Akan envisioned two worlds: the spiritual and true world, and the other corporeal and fleeting. The spiritual realm the Akan refer to as the Samanadzie, while the corporeal is the Wiadzie. Although the two worlds are the same, the Wiadzie is a reflection of the Samanadzie, the original and permanent home of the Akan. From the Samanadzie, a human enters the Wiadzie enjoined to be morally and ethically responsible for existential and spiritual matters and accept the consequences of all deeds undertaking in the corporeal realm. This moral and ethical imperative is what the Akan refer to as :Jbra (ethic).

Akan Cosmos

The Samanadzie (World of the Dead) Abosom (Gods)

Nananom Nsamanfo Queen NaSaman (Ancestors) Nsamanfo

The Wiadzie (Comoreal World) Mmortsia (Dwarfish Gods) Aofo (Agitated Nsamanfo) Adasa (Humanity): Ahenfo (Kings and Queens) Nananom Mplinyinfo (Elders), As:>fo (clergy) Amanfo (Citizenry)

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The interfacing of these worlds is important because the corporeal cannot exist without the spiritual. Although a miniature form of the spiritual (Samanadzie), the corporeal (Wiadzie) reveals so much about the Samanadzie and other spiritual realms existing alongside the Samanadzie within an infinite cosmos. The spiritual realm has several spheres, including spheres for the dead-alive (the Samanadzie), the Ancestors (Nananom Nsamanfo) within the Samanadzie, and the Abosom (Gods and Goddesses). As for the corporeal, there is the Wiadzie, which encompasses the living and all tangible things, as well as intangible beings like the agitated and revengeful spirits of the dead in limbo (at:fo), and dwarfish gods. God (Nana Nyame), finally, holds all these spheres together at the center, where the Almighty occupies exclusively.

1. The Abosom (Gods and Goddesses) The Akan would say: Bosompo b:Jtoo abo (literally, the ocean Goddess, Bosompo, met a cluster of rocks). Contextually, it means there was already stationed cluster of rocks (abo) prior to the arrival of the ocean or sea goddess resulting in the union of the ocean (Po) and the cluster of rocks (Abo). In other words, the only entity capable of stopping the ocean or raging water or bodies of waters from its destructive force is rocks. Essentially then the tangible universe is composed of rocks and water (ocean), with everything else fallen in-between the two elements. For the Akan, these two primeval elements, the Abosom or Gods, are worthy of worship, because they are visible expressions of a more powerful primeval spiritual forces whom the Akan called collectively abosom (Gods). Chronologically, the creation of the earth follows in this order: "Rocks preceded the ocean" (Bosompo b:Jtoo abo), meaning the world or rather the earth existed as a cluster of rocks before the arrival of primeval mass of ocean as the female counterpart of rocks. While there is no question about the theological basis for the above statement, politically it has major implications when quoted during royal discourses. Ordinarily, to state that the Bosompo b:Jtoo abo is to speak of the premier of two competing objects, claims, or situations as to which version is older. In a court oflaw, the quotation in itself does not suffices as one must proceed to demonstrate how the former precedes the latter, especially so during royal disputes determining which particular lineage is oldest amongst competing families. Indeed, many of the raucous and even fatal royal disputations among the Akan today are the direct results of exactly such claim and counter claims. Every huge piece of rock is viewed as an Jbosom (god), an immovable visible altar on which an otherwise intangible power or force is expressed. On a sacred rock or rocks, a god or goddess periodically expresses itself when devotees invoke and offer sacrifices to it. This is why whenever people come upon rocks, they tum them into altars and worship there. 5because insightfully worshippers view primeval mass of rocks as more that barren masses, they are imbued with spiritual entities that devotees are keenly aware. In fact, any cluster of rocks is a constituent of a family of abosom and probably the reason why the primeval mass of rocks was able to trap the ocean.

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What then did the meeting of the two deities produced? The primeval cluster of rocks was imbued with abosom, meaning the rocks were infused with deities so that when the ocean joined with the rocks, it triggered the emergence of the abosom unto the surface who then manifested themselves as rivers, bodies of waters, etc. In other words, the ocean literally gave birth to the gods that existed in the cluster of rocks, causing them to express themselves outwardly. It also suggests that all the deities in the corporeal world had pre-Wiadzie existences, at least existed in a realm unique from what it is in the corporeal world now. One of the most common and fascinating stories about how a trio of primeval abosom emerged from a single rock-source involves the gods Ayensu and his hairy, three-headed younger brother, Densu (and their middle sister Birim). 6 The god ~bina Ayensu arrived on earth pursued by his younger brother, Yaw Densu, because Ayensu quickly and secretly prepared a meal and tricked their blind father into eating it pretending to be the hairy Yaw Densu who was supposed to prepare the meal in return for their father's gold. This was in preparation for their journey to the corporeal Wiadzie and the gift each deity was to receive from their father before entering the mundane to start their independent existence. Afterwards, their father, perhaps skeptical and knowing all along that it was Ayensu, nonetheless offered Ayensu the gold that was to have been giving to Densu, because Ayensu passed the test set by their father. Outwitted and incandescent with rage, Yaw Densu set out in pursuit ofKJbina Ayensu, to claim what he thought should have been his. However, Ayensu ran quickly into the ocean and gave the gold to the sea-goddess, Abina Mansa, for safekeeping and ending any chance ofDensu ever getting the gold. As to why the deity Ayensu did what he did, his answer in Twe was that he, Ayensu, is the oldest (Me ni ptinin). Besides, he was there when their father instructed Densu to prepare the meal and so he took the opportunity to do whatever he could to obtain the gold. Moreover, he continued, he has given Densu his share of the gold. This act created an enmity between the two brothers, although Densu maintains that what humans consider as enmity among gods equals the highest expression oflove any living thing, including humans can ever hope to achieve. Most importantly, the story of the Ayensu and Densu go to show that the abosom had a pre-earthly or corporeal existence. Furthermore, it demonstrates that not all the gods, like the father of Ayensu, Birim, and Densu, have a mundane or corporeal existence, meaning they have existences beyond the known cosmos or universe. What is important is that at some point "parent" deities allow their children to depart their "world" in order to be born in other realms as mature deities. Even so, the abosom do not all share the same source or sources, each family of gods have their unique sources, characteristics, form, and nature. Therefore, when one visits the source of the Ayensu, Birim, and Densu rivers, one discovers that though they emerged from one source, each deity was unique and yet the same as the others. Similarly, the ocean too is a goddess (Bosom po), with her own pantheons. Most importantly, she is endowed with all the abundance oflife and probably why the primeval mass of rocks found her attractively desirable. According to tradition, the sea or ocean goddess came into existence on a Tuesday as a female and hence her first name Abina. For the Akan every girl born on a Tuesday goes by the same

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name as the sea deity, Abina. However, the goddess has another name that reveals something more about her character and nature, and that is, she is the third of three consecutive goddesses and hence her last name Mansa-a name also assumed automatically by every third consecutive daughter. As Mansa, the ocean goddess is feisty, stubborn, and strong-minded and yet very charmingly majestic and extroverted as every Tuesday-born. In recognition of the Goddess Abina Mansa's day of ascendancy, Tuesday is sacred to her and therefore no fishing is carried out on Tuesday at sea. The majestic beauty, mystery, fecundity, fury, and power of Abina Mansa are attributed to the fact that she embodies the essences of all the gods on land and sea. Most of the deities express themselves visibly as rivers or bodies of waters that flow into and fuse with the sea, and in the process each deity takes along what makes it a unique deity into the sea. Thus, the sea is essentially most of the deities combined, meaning Abina Mansa reigned supreme above each individual deity as mother of the gods. However, there may be exceptions because not every deity fuses entirely with the sea even after flowing into it-some choosing to remain unique after joining the ocean. One such deity is K:>bina Aysnsu, a river that empties itself into the sea at Simpa (Winneba), Ghana. According to some fishermen in Simpa, the "Ayensu ... never mixes with the sea, so that one notices the river flowing through the ocean for miles, especially during floods." Some elders even maintain that when "we go fishing, we are still able to taste it [the Aysnsu River] as pure water, even at sea." The reason for this phenomenon may be explained by the fact that both Abina Mansa and K:>bina Aysnsu share the same essential attributes in that they both originate on a Tuesday. As a result, K:>bina Aysnsu can resist the propensity to join the collective, the ocean, and yet maintains his uniqueness as pure water. The gender of Abina Mansa, the ocean goddess, further suggests that the primeval mass of rocks is male and probably in need of a female counterpart. As evidence, all gods originating on land or rocks are distinguished by the unsalted water that they produce as opposed to the more caustic and salty seawater. However, the joining of the two groups of gods and goddesses produced exactly what was needed for life when they first procreated the earth (soil) thought to be a female and who in turn made life possible. For the larger Twe speaking Akan the earth was born on a Thursday and so they call her Asasi Yaa, while the Fante speaking Akan believe that she came into existence on a Friday, hence Asasi Afua. Whether the earth was born on a Thursday or a Friday, what the Akan concur is the fact that the earth has a day of origination resulting from the union of the Abo (cluster of rocks) and the Bosompo (the ocean). Still, the fact remains that the earth has two names suggesting that the Abo (Rocks) and Bosompo (Ocean) may have given birth to two female earth goddesses: one on a Thursday and the other on a Friday, hence Asasi Yaa and Asasi Afua. For the two names to survive to the present times suggest that there were two traditions deeply entrenched in respective Akan camps. The two female-earth-deities hypothesis is further strengthened by the fact that all gods originate in pairs of two rival deities of the same gender, one older and the other younger. 7 The appearance of only a day separating the goddesses Asasi Yaa and Asasi Afua should not be taking as equality of the two female deities,

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because a cosmic-spiritual day cannot be computed on the same scale as human computation of time. Spiritually, time is computed in terms ofweight,8 so that Asasi Yaa's currency simply means that she is the younger of the two goddesses, while Asasi Afua' s status appears to be limited only to the F ante speaking Akan, because she comes from an older tradition. Logically, the fact that Thursday precedes Friday, at least from the way humans reckon time would make it appear as though Asasi Yaa originated before Asasi Afua chronologically. But it could be argued, equally, that a Friday-born came into existence long before a Thursday-born when speaking about the two earth goddesses. The point is that a day that a deity comes into existence is not the basis for determining the "weight" or age of a deity, because deities existed long before there were seasons and certainly before humans ever existed. Another common notion among the Akan is the ascendancy of women and their blood (mogya) as basis of physicality and belonging. After all, the Akan follow a system of inheritance based on a mother's bloodline calledAbusua. Physically the Akan contend that they descended from women, indeed, the first woman to walk the earth, hence the name Akanfo (First people). In addition to equating blood with women, the Akan also equate blood with the earth and therefore a taboo to spill blood, especially human blood on the earth. The whole principle of abusua is based on seven or eight original female bloodlines, going back to the first human, the Abrewa (Old woman). Humans, then, descended from seven (or eight) unique blood groupings, meaning each human must have descended from one of seven original blood types or groupings. What the sea and the cluster of rocks were able to accomplish was to make it possible for rocks to express themselves corporeally and make life sustainable on earth. The sea, it appears, enlivened the fresh waters within rocks, which then burst up into the surface in style and with essence uniquely different in taste from the sea's and the more reason why the ocean is the mother of the gods. Manifested corporeally as bodies of waters, the abosom have their spiritual domiciles apart from the corporeal, however. For the abosom, all life forms in the corporeal world are their offspring, including humans and therefore society must be judicious with its use of the environment. In the past, the Akan were careful with nature and treated it reverently, believing that nature was infused with spirits ready to mete out punishment on those who disrespected nature. The forest was a fearful place to traverse and so indiscriminate tree felling, for example, was rare; the misuse of earth or land was prohibited with certain acts like copulation and spilling ofblood considered taboos. Now, the situation is different. Spurred by greed and get-rich-quick mentality, it seems that nature has lost its spirits and deities, as the earth is being unclothed and penetrated in order to rid her of both her internal and external beauty and resources. Granted there are harsh economic difficulties facing Ghana and Africa in general, however, there is no justifiable explanation for the continued loot by politicians, the military, public officials, and governments of the earth's resources. Earlier in my reign, I placed a ban on farming and felling of trees on the Agya KwEku (Eku-Eku) mountain at Mprumem in an attempt to end the rapid rate of

Cosmology

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slash-and-bum farming around the mountain. As a trained agriculturist and a leader, I knew it was only a matter of time before my people destroyed the beautiful mountain in the name of farming and so I acted quickly. Even so, I am constantly battling against some greedy elders and citizens who surreptitiously farm and fell trees on the mountain. My situation is complicated by the fact that I rule from the United States, only visiting Ghana once a year. In general, the ban is holding. By abosom, I am looking at about three groups of deities: the primeval abosom who have existed from the very beginning of time, deified ancestors, and a dwarfish deities (Mmortsia) who occupy the corporeal Wiadzie. The first group of abosom is the ones who will their children into the corporeal and are born as humans, with the goal of maturing into eldership and ultimately become ancestors. In terms of substance, the abosom are of the same essence as God, meaning they are not human or have physical forms, rather they are spirits (iisunsum) although capable of changing into or putting on any form they so desire. As "creatures" of incomparable force and power, they have features that are strangely scary, having multiplicity of heads, eyes, hands, legs, etc. When they move, they do so with even more "stuff' preceding them that herald their approach and warning others spirits and even humans with paranormal sights to take cover and not spy on them at their own peril. Similarly, after passing by huge stuff followed, to watch and protect them from behind. In their natural form the abosom are inconspicuous although the have levels of"revelations," to the point of being perceived by living things. The abosom are gargantuan in size and height. They are extremely tall, a mile may be a conservative height, and when they ''walk" the ground shakes, with deep bumps so that one could hear the rattling sounds of the apparatus-like bells and jewelry that they wear. However, they rarely walked like the way humans do, choosing instead to levitate on air in a variety of transportation modes, such as in brass trays, cars or trucks, airplanes, and other apparatus that are had to describe. The most important thing is that their feet never touch the ground when in motion, in the same way as the feet of traditional rulers do not touch the ground. In addition, every :>bosom (singular of abosom) has its own unique weapon, like swords, spears, clubs, guns, etc. Of course, they have had these weaponries and many more indescribable ''weapons" from the very beginning of time, so that what humans are using now are just mimicry of a fraction of what the gods already use. Each :>bosom, moreover, is known for its unique specialty, attribute, and capability. As eternal awesome creatures, it follows that the abosom grow taller naturally, but growth is not limitless, as the abosom also grow old. Growing old means that an Jbosom ceases to grow taller at some point and simply exists perpetually. There lies the godliness and power of the abosom: they have lived perpetually for so long that they are simply There; that is, they exist. Thus, an :>bosom, like God, is an immoveable primeval being or force, sometimes expressed symbolically as a rock, moon, ocean, etc. because these objects are perpetually there. It is exactly in the context of Thereness that the deity of the ocean, Bosompo Abina Mansa, met the cluster of rocks making the Abo (Rocks) the premier of the two Gods. In this context, humans also attain the Thereness or abosom status at eldership and old age. There also lies the enigma and goal oflife on earth. Ideally, longevity is the

8

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existential goal and therefore the attainment of old age is tantamount to achieving godly status on earth, the ultimate existential stage of Thereness. Whereas a primeval :>bosom exists forever, a finite being at old age dies when living attained godlike status existentially. Of course, old age is contingent upon an individual having attained the highest existential stage of eldership in one's community and in pursuance of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding as we have already seen among the Y oruba. Then upon death at old age, the abosom conferred on the deceased elder (Nana) or its posthumous abstract personality (:Jsaman) the perpetual title of :>bosom, making an elder (Nana) one of their own (abosom) and worthy of worship and praise. This then is the basis of ancestor worship. There persists the notion among Ghanaians that the abosom act swiftly in matters affecting humans, especially concerning the administration of justice or injustice. In reality the abosom are actually judicious, slow to anger, and judge every case before acting in accordance with their judgment. The fact is that when human beings are confronted with evil and injustice, the tendency is to raise their voices first to God for an immediate and swift justice and when recompense is slow in coming humans go berserk and then tum to the abosom. Perhaps the only time that a deity may act precipitously against living things is when an evil deed is extremely egregious, but even here retribution would not be dictated by a human time or action, because the abosom too tend to conceal their actions. Naturally, there are deities thought to be hot-tempered, like the three-headed deity Densu, which, as a river, empties itself at sea in Accra, Ghana. He is believed to act swiftly and without mercy when he finds one guilty, but even during such instances he acted only after repeated warnings have been ignored. Also among the Y oruba, for example, there are deities thought of as having either cool or hot temperaments, with Obatala/Orishanla, Osoosi!Eyinle, Osanyin, Oduduwa, Yemoja, Osun, Yewa, Oba, Olosa, and Olokun being cool or calm deities; and deities like Ogun, Sango, Obaluaye, Oya, and Nana considered hot. 9 Like humans, the deities too accept bribes or are certainly influenced when a culprit repented and offered menagerie of offerings, including money in order to forestall retribution. Of course, the abosom have their own currency in gold, but they always take delight in receiving money and sacrifices from humans. The primeval abosom are divided into two: the non-angelic abosom and angelic or messenger abosom. Angelic abosom serve as divine messengers, like the deity Elegba of the Yoruba carrying messages among the various abosom realms in the vast universe and to and fro the abode of God. As a result, the angelic abosom are unimaginably faster than their non-angelic abosom. They also serve as spokesdeities for their respective galactic spheres, since they convey messages from one sphere to another. One such angelic deity that I know, in fact, the only one I know to be a female and also served as spokes-deity for the deities ofMprumem is called :>baa Yaa, today referred to as :::>bo Yaa. 10 She is indescribably beautiful, and I have often wondered as to why she, as a female, is a spokes-deity, a position traditionally reserved for males and invariably her response is that some females are more capable than men. Finally, the abosom do not enter the Samanadzie, the world of the dead, be-

Cosmology

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cause they do not die or are capable of death as deities. Yet they know death enough to use it as a last resort against incorrigible and recalcitrant humans. When a deity needs an ::>saman (a citizen of the Samanadzie), for instance, they send for the ::>saman (singular of nsamanfo) in question through other spirits in the corporeal world capable of entering the Samanadzie. Ordinarily, where all spiritual and nonspiritual beings rendezvoused is in the corporeal. This may occur when an ::>saman is summoned before the ancestors as a witness or when a community was holding festivities honoring the abosom and Ancestors (Nananom Nsamanfo), during which time the nsamanfo (plural of :Jsaman) are invited en-masse. The abosom also exercise control over who is reincarnated making sure that evil nsamanfo are not reincarnated, since many of them would want another chance to undo their evil deeds in the corporeal Wiadzie. Most importantly, the abosom exercise strict control over all spiritual beings in the corporeal world making sure that the boundary between the corporeal and the spiritual worlds are not breached but respected. They, for instance, prevent spiritual beings in the Samanadzie and those residing in the upper sphere of the Wiadzie (corporeal) from making apparitions that may petrify and even kill living things. Otherwise, apparition of spiritual beings like the nsamanfo would be commonplace, warning their descendants to desist from their evil deeds on earth or suffer the consequences that waited them in the spiritual world. Such interventions in the affairs of humanity would indubitably render life in the corporeal morally and ethically inculpable and soteriology and ancestorhood impertinent. The dwellings of the abosom are extremely beautiful, with walled fortresses all around each cluster of cities. The entrances are guarded preventing unauthorized spirits from entering. From what I have seen at Mprumem the entrance to the city of the deities is guarded by two lions ready to confront anyone entering it illegally. All the buildings are columns of skyscrapers and painted reddish-pink (ntwima) color, with what appears to be numerous satellite dishes and antennas on top of the roofs. At the earthly Mprumem, there is an area where the ntwima soil is located at the southwestern base of the Agya Kweku Mountain. In the past, the soil was collected and used for all kinds of earthenwares when I was growing up. Sometimes, the ntwima is dissolved in water and used to decorate mud houses, floors, and earthen mound fire-hearths by women. Actually, I observed my mother paint her earthen mound fire-hearth with ntwima several times a week to keep it tidy and beautiful. Topographically, the abode of the abosom in Mprumem is much higher in elevation than the spiritual Mprumem where ordinary spiritual citizens resided. The current layout ofMprumem relative to the mountain overlooking the community is the same as the spiritual. In other words, the spiritual Mprumem is just below this magnificent abode of the abosom of Mprumem. Before entering the spiritual Mprumem on my way toward the city ofthe abosom, I levitated upon a lake, and on my return, I even stopped and gave an elderly woman a dollar upon asking me for money to her utter surprise andjoy. It would seem that the current Mprumem, with a single broad road dividing the town, is the same as what I saw confirming the notion that communities in the corporeal are the exact replicas of the spiritual.

Cosmology

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1.1

The Mmortsia

Unlike their incredibly tall abosom counterparts, the mmortsia are dwarfish abosom also thought to have had their own dwarfish human race, at least in the past. There is plenty of historical evidence that point to dwarfish races in the forest regions of Africa. For example, Herodotus, the Greek historian of the fifth century B. C. E. who visited ancient Egypt, was told of a dwarfish race of waist high who seized the taller Nasamonians royals at what appears to be Western Africa when the Nasamonians adventurously attempted to crossed the Sahara. 11 Furthermore, these dwarfish races were sorcerers, according to Herodotus. The ancient Egyptians, as well as contemporary Africans, revered, and still revere, dwarfish peoples as having incredible spiritual power, as gods, dancers, and ancestors. 12 Thus, one can only imagine when the ancient Egyptians captured a "pigmy" from the interior of Africa and the "governor of Elephantine ... ordered to bring for king Pepi II a pigmy ... to dance before the king and amuse him." What is interesting are the instructions for transporting the pigmy to the Pharaoh. Davidson quotes: Come northward to the court immediately; thou shalt bring this dwarf with thee, which thou bringest living, prosperous and healthy from the land of the spirits, for the dances of the god, to rejoice and (gladden) the heart of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Neferkere, who lives forever. When he goes down with thee into the vessel, appoint excellent people, who shall be beside him on each side of the vessel; take care lest he fall into the water. When (he) sleeps at night appoint excellent people, who shall sleep beside him in his tent; inspect ten times a night. My majesty desires to see this dwarf more than the gift of Sinai and Punt. 13

What was true about the ancient Egyptians concerning the way they viewed dwarfish peoples is also true of the Akan today, whether as deities or mmortsia humans. For the Akan, the mmortsia are mysterious creatures, thought to possess incredible spiritual powers, and masters of prestidigitation. Whether as deities or dwarfish people, the Akan refer to them as mmortsia, which means short creatures or animals (singular is aboatsia, meaning a short animal) and confirming the notion that the mmortsia, as gods, did indeed produce human offspring of their own kind. Their human offspring, however, appear to have been displaced by their taller cousins. Perhaps due to their incredibly short statures and in order to make up for their height deficit relative to the abosom and their human offspring, the mmortsia are thought to be particularly dramatic, sly, disingenuous, and subordinated to the abosom, in the same way as their dwarfish human offspring are to tall humans. I have heard fantastic description of mmortsia, including what Rattray has described as follows: The most characteristic feature of these Ashanti 'little folk' ... is their feet, which point backwards. They are said to be about a foot in stature, and to be of three distinct varieties: black, red, and white, and they converse by means of whistling. The black fairies are more or less innocuous, but the white and

Cosmology the red mmoatia are up to all kinds of mischief .... The light-coloured mmoatia are also versed in the making of all manner of suman [amulets] which they may at times be persuaded to barter to mortals by means of the 'silent trade' .... Little figures of mmoatia of both sexes are often found as appurtenances of the abosom, the gods, whose 'speedy messengers' they are.14

II

When my wife and I lived in Gbamga, Liberia, we used to visit a Mandinka medium by the name ofBangali for herbal medicines. During our visits, I suspected Bangali of owning and using mmortsia during divinations. My suspicions were based on my boyhood experiences at Simpa (Winneba), Ghana where a medium, believed to use mmortsia, performed spectacularly feats by swallowing a knife, playing dead for about an hour-or-so, and then rising up and removing the knife from his anus during public displays. 15 Years later in graduate school, my suspicions were again confirmed when I researched the phenomenon. Each time we visited with our medium friend in Gbamga, he summoned his mmortsia and when they arrived Bangali would scan the walls ofhis room speaking to and sending them off to bring herbs, vines, or whichever combination of herbal leaves needed for ablution and spiritual protection. Within seconds, the mmortsia returned and Bangali would look around the walls again, and then suddenly tum around and slap a wall and grab, literally, from the wall a bunch of vines, leaves, herbs, etc. from each of the mmortsia and put them into a tray readied for a concoction in the room. Then Bangali sent them away. He performed other spectacular conjurations for us and there is no other way for me to explain, except to say that intangibles were routinely transformed into tangible objects right before our eyes, without him having to leave his seat or send any human out to fetch ingredients form him. On the contrary, most Akan mediums relied on human assistants called abrafo (messengers, collectors ofherbal medicine, and executioners), whose tasks it were to collect herbs as prescribed by mediums during divination. Our medium friend in Gbamga was, however, the only medium, as far as I know, to have used mmortsia agents as his abrafo. The abosom too are spectacular during alightment, 16 but their mediums rely on humans (abrafo) to perform errands. The mmortsia are spectacularly dramatic, because they are tiny creatures relative to the abosom and even humans, which enabled them to perform and conjure up things that are otherwise difficult for massive creatures like the abosom or even humans to grab readily. It is for this reason that the mmortsia live out of sight, preferring to reside in rocky areas and forest away from humans. Just as other dwarfish humans were displaced by taller humans, dwarfish deities too also suffered the same fate and hence their elusiveness nowadays. With regard to speech or language, the mmortsia deities make whistling or hissing sounds, although I do not think that this is entirely true because as deities or intangible beings of some sort, the mmortsia too speak like other deities when invoked. Naturally, the human dwarfish entities are bound to have tiny voices relative to humans, although their small voices are still audible enough for them to engage in normal conversation. The hissing sound has sometimes been applied by some me-

12

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diums to deceive unsuspecting clients during divination rites. These mediums are mostly those who have lost their ability to communicate with the abosom for one reason or another17but continue to make a living feigning spirit alightment by hiding tiny whistle-like instrument under their tongues and claiming alightment. Meaning, the mediums are the only ones capable of deciphering what is being communicated. The mmortsia are crucially indispensable to offering instructions to mediums, especially novices as they study for the clerical profession. 18 Stories abound of novices claiming abduction by mmortsia for days, months, or even years. Recounting one such abduction, a friend of Rattray told him that: "he lived for forty days and forty nights in company with the mmoatia, being fed only with an egg a day with which his tongue was touched." Those claiming abductions contend that their abductors were kind to them. However, because only abductees perceived their abductors in a world utterly unseen by human, it is impossible for abductees to find their way home until the mmortsia were finished with those that they abduct. Searches for abductees are also futile, even though abductees may not be far from their homes or communities, because the mmortsia seem to cast a blind spell on search parties. Invisible to humans, the mmortsia bring abductees under their total command and influence after putting abductees under complete hypnotic and submissive states required for proper instruction of students. During the period of captivity, abductees are not alighted upon, as that is reserved for the abosom seeking mediums and only after abductees have undergone complete training as mediums. Most times, the mmortsia work at the behest of the abosom when inculcating would-be clergy about the secrets ofthe clerical profession, because many mmortsia are owned by abosom. However, the mmortsia too may initiate calls to candidates for the clerical profession and as noted above, those called by mmortsia are spectacularly dramatic during public displays. Since the mmortsia are adepts in herbal medicines because they reside in the forest, they are used by abosom to teach would-be mediums all kinds ofherbal knowledge pertaining to curing and healing in the clerical vocation. In the final analysis, the Akan view the mmortsia as mischievous creatures who work in league with witches and the devil called Sasabonsam. Concerning the personification of the devil, the Sasabonsam, Rattray writes: The Sasabonsam of the Gold Coast [Ghana] ... is a monster which is said to inhabit parts of the dense virgin forests. It is covered with long hair, has large blood-shot eyes, long legs, and feet pointing both ways. It sits on high branches of an odum or onyin a tree and dangles its legs, with which at times it hooks up the unwary hunter. It is hostile to men, and is supposed to be especially at enmity with the real priestly class. Hunters who go to the forest and are never heard of again ... are supposed to have been caught by Sasabonsam. All of them are in league with abayifo (witches), and with mmoatia, in other words, with workers in black magic. 19

Ultimately, the mmortsia are lesser deities residing in the corporeal Wiadzie and with the capacity for causing mischief. In general, they are messengers of and act at the behest of the abosom, although they are certainly capable of acting as their own

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agents. As dramatic as they are, the mmortsia are capricious creatures, abandoning their human owners during critical moments of need, sometimes. That is, at some point the mmortsia take the lives of their human owners as just reward for rendering spectacular services for those clergy falsely claiming supernatural powers.

2. The Ancestors (Nananom Nsamanfo) Religions, no matter how one views them, are essentially the same, because they revolve around deified (dead) ancestors. In other words, descendants of and those believing in deified ancestors simply refuse to let those ancestors die by worshipping them ritually and symbolically, while evoking their names periodically and during crises. In this context, E. A. Wallis Budge/0 an English Egyptologist who acquired the Scroll of Ani (Egyptian Book of the Dead) in 1887, defined predynastic Egyptian religion and by extension African religion as "the worship of the souls of the dead, commonly called ANCESTOR WORSHIP." To worship an ancestor suggests that the ancestor was already a deity and has bequeathed to succeeding generations a name worthy of evocation, praise, honor, and sacrifice. What concerns me in this section is how the ancestors are worshipped as a collective body, who the ancestors are, and how they get to become ancestors. As Budge defines the subject, to speak about the ancestors is to speak about dead elders now thought to be alive in heaven as souls. Yet ancestor worship is not random worship of any dead person or persons, but rather the worship of a special, esteemed group of ancestors. What is also inherent in Budge's definition is that to worship a soul is to believe in the continued perpetual existence of an otherwise dead elder. In the context of the Akan, a soul is known as :Jkra, which originates with God accompanied by an Nkrabea (a unique existential career blueprint) of what is to become a human on earth. Before taking leave of God, an :Jkra, which is an essence of the divine (God) itself, informs God about a potential human's existential career plan or blueprint, which then is decreed as a unique coded destiny called nkrabea for the journey into the corporeal world. The nkrabea is put in motion when a young adult male, the abrantsi, or young adult female, the akatiiesia, embarks on an ethically individualized life on one's own for the first time. The period when a young adult becomes morally and ethically responsible for one's own actions, concerned with existential and spiritual issues, and critically reflected on the repercussions of actions wholly is called :Jbra b:J. In praxis, :;bra b:J is a long and arduous journey in the corporeal world as one maturated, because :;bra b:J can be led creatively and altruistically or destructively, delinquently, and miserably. However, the integration of :Jbra b:J ultimately leads to the highest existential state of eldership when society confers on a generative individual the stage title ofNana (Elder). Eldership is the highest socio-political and spiritual estate achieved after a successful integration of :Jbra b:J. An elder is that generative individual who masters the secrets and arts of living. That is, after living an altruistic life, marrying and having children, and living a productive life of giving back to the community that first nurtured and sustained the individual the same community now confers on the generative individual the title of elder. In other words, the community now sees in

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the elder qualities and attributes that society deemed beneficial to its well-being and survival. Thus an elder, or rather eldership is a state which called for generative individuals to be duly nominated, elected, and installed with commensurate rites and rituals, set aside but not apart from citizens, and charged to counsel, mediate, deliberate and adjudicate, and judge without partiality all who seek an elder's assistance. As elected representatives, elders wear special outfits, jewelry, beads, cloths, etc. and enjoy certain privileges, as land set aside for an elder's special use, free labor by citizens, and general upkeep of an elder's household. At old age, the creativity of eldership is on full display intellectually in the face of physical atrophy and death. Concerned about legacy and posterity as to whether the next generation is inculcated properly in sacred traditions first entrusted to the elders by their predecessors, the ancestors, elders creatively and pedagogically pass on ritual formulas and wisdom in order to insure continuity and sameness of cultural heritage. Furthermore, it is not necessarily the fear death at old age that concerns elders, as it is the anxiety of when death would occur because the elders so long ago transcended death by coming to terms with the inevitability of the death psychologically. As such, they live in anticipation of death not because they do not love life or living, but because after successfully carrying out their mandates as elders, they now look forward to a fulfilled homeward journey to the world of the ancestors, the Samanadzie. No matter how philosophical death is to the elders, the fact remains that death is the ultimate existential reality for all living things and the poignancy of grief is expressed profoundly. Death, in fact, is eerie, cold, silent, alone, empty, and eternally complete. Yet, growing up other youngsters and I were taught that the elders, particularly kings and queens, never die but merely traveled to other villages when the reality for me and others was that living things do indeed die. What then is the reason behind this obviously contradictory thought that elders do not die? To confound people elaborate rites were performed for decedent elders. Women in particular bravely treat corpses as though taking care of their dead babies for burials, in the same way as mothers and women in general received a neonate at parturition and bathed it before the larger community had the chance to welcome it into the corporeal formally. The dead body orfuun is prepared meticulously by women, and in the case of a ruler, certain select individuals, readied the fuun for its final homeward journey. Deification of elders, particularly rulers began immediately upon death with blood sacrifices for the dead. In the past human sacrifices were common and while such sacrifices have generally ended, rumors still persist of human sacrifices. The notion is that it is blood that deifies as a spiritual sustenance, whether the blood is that of a human or an animal, because when one offers blood sacrifice to an entity, one acknowledged the divinity of the entity as a god, having the power to effect one's socio-religious, psychological, economic, and political condition existentially. Therefore, kings are sacred in that they undergo blood purifications throughout their lives as living ancestors. The reality though is that blood quickens, nourishes, and empowers the souls of the dead as well as living kings, making defunct rulers even more powerful, because prior to the demise of a traditional ruler he or she was al-

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ready receiving blood sacrifices periodically. According to tradition, elders do not die but only embark on ajourneyto villages to meet the ancestors. Yet an :Jsaman (posthumous abstract personality) does not immediately enter the Samanadzie and when it finally does, it may never return to the corporeal world contradicting the notion that elders only travel, with the implications being they would return. In fact, the journey to the world of the dead is a one-way ticket evidenced by the fact that the dead never return, at least not in the form. In preparation for this so-called journey, ample time is giving to an :Jsaman before it embarked on its final journey homeward. Consequently, an :JSaman lingered in the corporeal for a culturally designated period of forty days, during which time apparitions are believed to be common. Just as it takes nine months for an ancestor to journey to the corporeal in the form of a fetus, the journey to the world of the dead takes forty days literally and symbolically. But however long it takes, on the fortieth day or thereafter, a period timed to coincide with the forty-day cyclical feasting of ancestors, an :Jsaman is once again remembered by his or her matrikin (iibusua) in a final preparation for itsjourneyto a world set aside for all living thing who die, the Samanadzie. The discrepancy between the forty days that it takes for an :Jsaman to journey to the incorporeal world and the nine months it takes an :Jsaman to enter the corporeal Wiadzie from the Samanadzie may be explained simply in terms of human biology and epigenesis. Developmentally, human physiology in the corporeal requires a longer time epigenetically, while it takes a short time to enter the incorporeal in the sense that upon death the emergence of a spiritual identity from the material is immediate. The reason for the delay has to do with the difficulties of the journey to the Samanadzie, in the same way as nine months was needed by humans to prepare for a child, not mentioning the anxieties and difficulties associated with pregnancies. Speaking as a parent of premature twins, I know how painfully difficult it is when fetuses arrive (born) prematurely. Actually, not every :Jsaman enters the Samanadzie immediately-some choosing instead to stay in the corporeal Wiadzie because of manner of death. For the forty-or-so days prior to departure to the Samanadzie an :Jsaman roamed the corporeal freely visiting kinfolks. A distinction between the ancestors, the Nananom Nsamanfo, and ordinary citizens of the Samanadzie, nsamanfo, suffices here. Every dead person becomes an :Jsaman or what might be referred to as an abstract form or reflection of the former human upon a death. All posthumous abstract personalities (nsamanfo), regardless of whether one is an ancestor or ordinary :Jsaman, first travels to its spiritual father, the god or :>bosom that willed it into the corporeal in order to present itself to the :>bosom. In other words, the :Jsaman reports to one's :>bosom father and only after that did the :Jsaman enter the Samanadzie, that is, its mother's domain permanently. However, like a human having a shadow, an :Jsaman too has a sunsum, which returns to the corporeal world at a biological father's house for a possible reincarnation. The Nananom Nsamanfo (Ancestors) after convening with their abosom fathers also return to the Samanadzie but resided at a place set aside for ancestors within the Samanadzie. After all, even on earth rulers lived exclusively from the

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citizenry within their communities. The most powerful of deified ancestors enjoy a special relationship with the primeval abosom, because they served the abosom while on earth and therefore the abosom reciprocate by willing their essences to the ruler and thus making them powerful deities. Deification of some ancestors means that the ancestors acquired the requisite knowledge and wisdom sufficiently comparable to those of gods and the basis for independent existence of an ancestor as a god. Such is the power and relationship between the abosom and an ancestors stool, for example. Actually, good rulers enjoy abosom status before their demise, because they did not remiss their propitiatory responsibilities to the abosom as rulers. On the contrary, an :Jsaman who did not achieve eldership status existentially and died, and depending on the kind of life the deceased lived in the corporeal world, after entering the Samanadzie is either allowed to reincarnate or barred from ever reincarnating. If, as a human, an :Jsaman lived less than ideal life into old age then the :Jsaman is prevented from reincarnating. Reincarnation (Bebra) is the phenomenon whereby those individuals who lived unrealized nkrabea because their lives ended prematurely, are reincarnated to enable them to achieve their nkrabea and aspire to eldership and ultimately ancestorship. Chronologically, the goal of existence is longevity enabling people to aspire to the highest socio-political and spiritual estate as a senior elder, die at old age, and then be transformed into ancestor and ultimately a god. Short of this, an :Jsaman returned to the corporeal Wiadzie provided the individual was not an evil person previously and try to achieve eldership. The Samanadzie then is inhabited by countless nsamanfo many of whom are vying to re-enter the corporeal. The Akan also make a distinction between the ancestors as Nananom Nsarnanfo and the elders, Nananom Mpanyinfo, because to be an ancestor one must have been an elder, first, although not every elder is automatically an ancestor, in the same way as not every ancestor is a deity. Sometimes certain elders simply do not live up to expectation after their elections and end up as bad elders. While some may be removed from office, most continue to hang on until death, in which case they are denied ancestorhood. However, most elders are good, hardworking, and wise individuals who impartially intercede on behalf of citizens who humbly sought their advice and counsel. A good elder constantly thinks about his or her predecessors, quoting them during deliberations and living in respect ofthose whose position one now holds. The hallmark of an ideal elder is wisdom, which is the wisdom to serve the ancestors and deities. Indeed, the ideal king or ruler is one who does not remiss one's propitiatory responsibilities toward the ancestors and the gods of the land. An ideal king will dutifully perform periodic rites and feeding of the ancestors and deities, invoke, check with them about affairs of state, and honor them unabashedly before their posterity. Such a ruler, upon his or her demise, is exalted as a deity among the ancestors. Indeed such kings are the most powerful of all the ancestor deities, having dutifully served the ancestors and deities existentially. The Nananom Nsamanfo (Ancestors) occupy a unique position in the spirit world: strategically placed at a bi-cameral Samanadzie adjacent to the realm of the abosom. As the name nsamanfo illustrates, the world ofthe NananomNsamanfo is

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technically a part of the Samanadzie headed by the NaSaman and yet distinct from the Samanadzie proper, because the Nananom Nsamanfo constitute a pristine body of gods whose abode is unique from the rest of the nsamanfo. The distinctiveness of the world of the ancestors is necessitated by the fact the Nananom Nsamanfo achieved what ordinary citizens of the Samanadzie, the nsamanfo, could not achieve, divine or godly status in recognition of which the Nananom Nsamanfo are rewarded with a world that is unique but not apart from the Samanadzie. Symbolically, the realm of the Nananom Nsamanfo is still on earth, because the ancestors stool, the symbol par excellence, is on earth housing the souls of the ancestors. That is to say, that the ancestors make repeated visits to the corporeal world in order to commune with the ancestors stool. Likewise, the abodes of the abosom are symbolically on earth, i.e., mountains, rivers, rocks, etc. so that the corporeal worlds ofboth the Nananom Nsamanfo and the abosom are on earth. As deified beings, most importantly, the Nananom Nsamanfo achieved a feat that even the primeval gods have not, and that is, they conquered death as human. For this reason, the Nananom Nsamanfo are wholly gods and wholly human in nature. Their combined human and godly natures make them unique gods, understanding the human condition in ways that primeval gods cannot. It must be recalled that the primeval abosom do not experience death and therefore they do not enter the Samanadzie. However, as wholly gods with human natures, the Nananom Nsamanfo do enter both the worlds of the Samanadzie and of the primeval gods, although the ancestors stool hardly goes anywhere, because symbolically it is on earth. It also follows that when a primeval :>bosom needs an :Jsaman (a citizen of the Samanadzie), the :Jsaman is sent for through the mmortsia or even the Nananom Nsamanfo. What this also means is that the Nananom Nsamanfo are consulted by the abosom with regard to matters affecting their human descendants, the abosom holding regular meetings with the Nananom Nsamanfo, especially the grand ancestor, the ancestors stool. The Nananom Nsamanfo are a collective body of ancestors, notably dead rulers and worthy elders. Therefore, every Akan community has its own Nananom Nsamanfo that make up their ancestral world headed by the original founder of the community. Every dead ruler, provided the ruler was legitimate, joined his or her predecessors in a lineal order, although each king is ranked according to how a king served the ancestors and deities on earth. During divination, for example, only the original ancestor is invoked as founder of his community, but even here the patron deity of a community invariably responds first in order to ascertained as to why the ancestor (synonymous with the ancestors stool) is being summoned. The Nananom Nsamanfo do not reincarnate and yet their presence are felt everywhere as they are named by their posterity. They insure reincarnation by streamlining the phenomenon and preventing evil ones from ever making appearances in the corporeal. The unique role of the Nananom Nsamanfo in human affairs is predicated on their human qualities and attributes, as sages, intercessors, mediators, and ultimately judges. From their panoramic perches in heaven, the Nananom Nsamanfo continue to influence the affairs of the world and particularly those of their posterity. In return, their descendents propitiate them continually in order that

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life on earth may be free of the aches and pains of being human.

3. The Samanadzie (World of the dead) About the Nsamanfo who reside at the Samanadzie, it would often be said that their only interest is augmentation of their kind (Nsamanfo per h::;ndodo). Therefore, the question is: Why? In a cosmos that is indescribably vast and infinite, it makes sense to want to have more of their kind to inhabit it. In the same way as the gods originate in realms other than the corporeal world as mature entities intellectually, the nsamanfo, particularly the Nananom Nsamanfo also originate in a corporeal world destined to inhabit a world that is different from both the mundane and that of the abosom's, a different part of the Samanadzie. And like the abosom, the nsamanfo enter the Samanadzie with their full faculties, intellectually equipped and ready for new modes of existence. The nsamanfo who achieved Nananom mpiinyinfo (eldership) status become pioneers of new frontiers in the vast space of the cosmos. Consequently, the number of nsamanfo needed for any colonization becomes very important and hence nsamanfo per h:mdodo. Teleologically, in acknowledgement of the notion that the nsamanfo are interested in populating their world, the Akan would admit that indeed a human being is destined to travel to some place, literally (Nyimpa W.J hebe b). Interpretively the statement has two possible meanings: namely, it may be taken ethically to mean that as an adult one begins to find one's own niche in pursuance of a destiny in a corporeal world that is full of uncertainties; in fact, one may interpret the whole of adulthood as a journey. Actually, the Akan view the conception of :Jbra b.J (ethically existence and generativity) as a journey in pursuance of nkrabea (existential career blueprint). And two, ultimately, nyimpa w.J bebe b, may be seen as the journey to the Samanadzie upon death, that is, human beings are not destined to stay in the corporeal forever but must move on to an ultimate place in heaven, the Samanadzie. Either way, it supports the notion that the ultimate destination for humans is a place other than the corporeal world, where ideal existence is promised in a spaciously limitless world called the Samanadzie. The Samanadzie then is a definite ideal world in which the corporeal is modeled and reserved for those who have tasted death in the Wiadzie. For this reason, the abosom do not enter the Samanadzie because they never tasted death. The Nananom Nsamanfo, including the nsamanfo, upon death do indeed enter the spheres of the abosom and the Samanadzie, but only the Nananom Nsamanfo make periodic visits to the abode of the primeval abosom, while ordinary citizens of the Samanadzie, the nsamanfo, visit the abosom per an invitation. About the nature of the Samanadzie, it is often said that: Samanadzie ye sum (the Samanadzie is dark). The darkness ofSamanadzie is due to its remote location from the sun or as a place shielded from the influence of the sun. Symbolically, the Samanadzie is emblematic of the womb. Consequently, the Akan have a genuine fear of darkness, which for the Akan is synonymous with the Samanadzie and in consequence makes the Samanadzie a dreaded place with humans making everything humanly possible to avoid returning there (Samanadzie wonnb). In addition to the symbolism of the womb vis-a-vis darkness, the Samanadzie

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is ruled by a woman, the NaSaman, making the connection between the Samanadzie as dark and the womb the more interesting. Etymologically, the name NaSaman means Mother (Na) Saman (posthumous abstract personality) pointing the fact that the NaSaman was definitely a deity with physical human form, as opposed to her male counterpart who remained intangible as a spirit (sunsum) and who only transmit his sunsum (spirit, image or shadow) to his offspring. Now a spiritual being, the NaSaman continues to send her offspring into the corporeal, the Wiadzie, from Samanadzie in order that they may achieve eldership existentially and live perpetually as deified ancestors. If deification is the ideal then it is because there are certain privileges, including the ability to marry and produce abosom offspring. On the contrary, the nsamanfo at the Samanadzie do not marry or produce offspring, because they lacked abosom attribute to produce life on their own. The reason for this phenomenon is that the Samanadzie is entirely a female world and the opposite of maleness of the abosom world, which the Samanadzie lacks. Even though, both worlds are comprised of males and females the citizens of the Samanadzie are incapable of reproducing offspring without the abosom. Even so, the Samanadzie is home and source of all that exist in the mundane after it has been joined by the abosom as progenitors. The world of the nsamanfo is a world far and beyond any human imagination where, upon entering it after death, no :JSaman is capable of leaving it except needed by an :>bosom, invoked by a medium, reincarnation or willed into the corporeal world by the NaSaman. To be born into the corporeal world means that all living things are destined to re-enter the Samanadzie upon death as nsamanfo. Yet, a small number of nsamanfo, known as at:fo (those who suffered violent, sudden deaths) defer entering the Samanadzie due to the nature and circumstance of their death. What this means is that they never had the chance to realize their nla-abea but determined to live fulfilled lives, they put on pseudo human forms and live normal lives in the corporeal world. Or they continue living as agitated and revengeful spirits in limbo called Asasa. Despite this anomalous phenomenon, all nsamanfo enter the Samanadzie at a culturally defined time. Unlike the world of the abosom where the abosom travel back and forth between their world and the Wiadzie, there is a single gateway to-and-fro the Samanadzie. The round trip journey from the Samanadzie to the Wiadzie, and from the Wiadzie to Samanadzie is guarded by a ferryman who regulates entrants. A river runs between the two worlds, the corporeal Wiadzie and the spiritual Samanadzie where only the ferryman crosses nsamanfo, as progenitor of all life both to the Wiadzie from the Samanadzie and from the Wiadzie to the Samanadzie. No entity enters the Samanadzie from the corporeal Wiadzie or departs the Samanadzie into the Wiadzie without first crossing the river joining the two worlds. In this way, every :JSaman is accounted for; even the numbers of spiritual beings who defer entering the Samanadzie, the at:fo, are accounted for. That is, no matter how long an :Jt:fo stayed in the mundane in the end it will be forced to return to the Samanadzie. The nsamanfo citizens of the Samanadzie are also immortal beings like the abosom although the nsamanfo are essentially entities yet to fulfill their destinies (nla-abea), while others lived to the fullest but are incapable of reincarnation be-

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cause of unethical lives on earth. On the contrary, the Samanadzie is different from the world of the abosom in that the abosom are incapable of entering the Samanadzie, since the abosom do not taste death. What this means is that the abosom are different from deified ancestors who actually tasted and conquered death and hence their exalted positions. Psychosexually, the Akan firmly believe that the male is emblematic of the abosom and therefore progenitor oflife. Meaning the source oflife originates with a father, because every father is sunsum or spirit, which imparts life to a non-spirit, a female, enabling the creative process to commence in-utero. 21 Similarly, as purveyor of spiritual beings to and fro the two worlds, the ferryman, the spiritual father and custodian of the river oflife, is the guarantor and progenitor oflife, in the same way as the corporeal father is said to be the progenitor of his offspring. Experientially parturition is via way of water, which facilitates landing (parturition) on either side of the worlds, in this case, the corporeal. After crossing the river to the Samanadzie, the :Jsaman climbs a ladder in order to enter Samanadzie proper. Similarly, upon parturition in the corporeal world, the :Jsaman-neonate is nurtured and taught about corporeal living so that upon reaching young adulthood let go to begin one's :Jbra b:J in pursuance of nkrabea.

4. The Wiadzie (Corporeal World) and :Jbra B::; (Ethical Existence and Generativity) The goal of Samanadzie and therefore the nsamanfo is to increase their population; meaning, the problem facing the infinitely vast Samanadzie is under population. This being the case, life in the corporeal should be understood teleologically and in the context of the Samanadzie as being the ultimate destination. The enigma is why should there be a corporeal existence in order to augment the population of the Samanadzie when the same could be achieved in the Samanadzie, especially since the Samanadzie was in existence long before life in the mundane. In other words, what is the purpose oflife in the mundane, if not a farm and breeding ground for the Samanadzie? The Wiadzie (under the sun, literally) is by far the most intriguing of all the worlds in that it is where all spiritual and corporeal beings rendezvous. These forces include beings who traditionally do not reside in the corporeal but make periodic visits into it, like the abosom and the mmortsia who reside in the corporeal as intangible beings. The convergence is essentially the rendezvous of the primeval deities, females with "physical personalities" and males (abosom) with spiritual forms meeting on earth and the resultant birth of humanity, as recounted in the Akan cosmogony of the Abrewa (Old woman) and her children vis-a-vis God Nyame. 22 Saliently, since the abosom do not enter the Samanadzie and yet need to exist in the corporeal in physical form, and since the nsamanfo, by virtue of being the blood of the NaSaman and therefore "material" form needed to complete the fusion of spirit and matter, the corporeal world becomes the likely venue for the rendezvous. That is to say, when an :>bosom departs its world, simultaneously its

Cosmology 21 female counterpart also departs the Samanadzie. And since the male is the source of life, insofar as a spirit is active, creativity commences when the sunsum or spirit, transmitted via semen (huaba) fertilizes the mogya (blood) or egg/eggs during copulation. Thus in a paradoxical way the Akan would say: Agya na .JWou (the father is the progenitor) of his offspring because he is spirit (Agya ye sunsum) and spirit activates. The Wiadzie is gargantuan, encompassing the earth (Asasi), things seen and unseen, and unknown to humans. Of the nature, character, and mysteries of the Wiadzie, they contain voluminously incalculable palavers (Wiadzie musem d.:J7so). That no matter how hard humans try to resolve these palavers, which humans are destined to tackle as matters of duty and responsibility, there are still inexhaustible supply of palavers left. This realization is meant to reassure as well as warn humans to take things easily and not try to carry the world's problems on one's shoulders alone, especially those who think they should have answers to every problem. These palavers are existential and metaphysical in nature and could not be resolved in a lifetime, otherwise existence or living would be so easy. Socio-culturally, religiously, economically, politically, and philosophical issues are simply too overwhelming to be surmouated by individuals or groups of elders. To this end, a human can only do so much (Nyimpa beyebe, na woanbeye ninyenaa). This is in acknowledgement ofhuman finitude after exhausting all possible means necessary to problem solving. Meaning, ultimately humans will leave the world behind, because humans found the earth or rather the Wiadzie already in existence upon their arrival. About the Wiadzie the Akan would often say that the Wiadzie is dark (Wiadzie ye sum), literally. Incidentally, the Akan, as we have seen above, make similar claims about the Samanadzie. Why would the Akan make a seemingly oxymoronic statement about the Wiadzie when they know that the Wiadzie is characterized by the light of the sun (iiwia) as opposed to the Samanadzie (or the womb) characterized by darkness? So powerful is the fear and notion of darkness, that it is etched in the collective consciousness of the Akan, so much so that it is impossible for them to exculpate themselves from such a deeply engrained psychological idea? Collectively, is the darkness phenomenon simply a part of a much larger matrix to which living beings are symbiotically connected and to which they must return ultimately? Whichever the case, the Akan would make the contradictory claim that the corporeal world is dark without, perhaps, thinking about its psychological and metaphysical connotations. Like physical causalities of problems or illnesses that may lead to death and which the Akan and their neighbors are aware of, it is, however, the spiritual causalities of societal ills that they are interested in discovering. Therefore, when people say that the corporeal is dark even though they know this to be untrue they are referring to the mysteriousness and secrecy that the corporeal has to offer. Apart from the natural order, the earth, which conceals a lot about itself, living things, i.e., humans, are indeed mysterious creatures. The double-entendre of saying one thing but actually meaning something entirely different and yet understood by like-minded peoples in African is at the heart of understanding African philosophical, psychological, and metaphysical thought. Hence, it is not so much about the darkness of

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the world as it is about the sinister motives and secrets that people keep from one another, even loved ones. The reason for this mentality and attitude has to do with witchcraft (to be discussed in the next chapter) and the fear that sharing one's innermost plans with anyone before implementation may lead to abortive plans. Thus darkness is associated with the secrecy arising from a genuine fear of malevolence so that when one laments that the world is dark, it is a simple acknowledgement of evil powers bent on destroying anything with the potential for good in contrast with one's inability to prevent them from happening . The darkness of the corporeal world, ultimately, has to do with the unknown as finite beings.

4.1 :Jbra b:; (Ethical existence and Generativity) Ontologically, for the Akan the first human, the Abrewa (Old woman), is acknowledged as the originator of ultimate justice, because she was the originator of speech and language as mother of her children. From the very beginning of time the Abrewa taught her children everything there was, and is, to know about fairness and in return her children consult with her as final arbiter whenever they reached impasses. The principle of fairness and equity is based on the notion that all humans are the children of the Abrewa physically and therefore there is no reason for her to discriminate against her own children. Biologically, they descended from her womb and therefore constitute what the Akan called the Abusua. Spiritually though a father is the progenitor of children courtesy of the abosom, while divinely all human beings are children of God (Nyame) and none the child of the earth (mother). Viewed psychosocially, the Abrewa symbolized truth and justices, as the principle of truth and justice is the first psychosocial instruction taught to a neonate during a naming rite, when water and liquor are touched on a neonate's lip or tongue with the accompanying words: 'when you say it's water or liquor, then it's water or liquor.' Meaning, throughout existence, one should let one's yeses be firm, and one's no a resounding no. Ritually, water (truth) is also giving to the dying to facilitate its journey to the Samanadzie, and upon reaching the Samanadzie water is again offered to an .JSaman. Psychosocially, :Jbra is the internalization of the ethical principles inculcated at childhood reaching maturation in young adulthood when the young adult male, the Abrantsi, and the young adult female, the Akataesia, embarked on independent living. In praxis, :Jbra maturated during adulthood when a young adult became morally and ethically responsible for one's decisions and actions making :Jbra theoretically sound but in praxis hollow until put into practice or action. Thus, the praxis of :Jbra, that is, the intellectually creative attempt to put into action ethical principles as guide to daily living is called B:J. While the Akan speak of :Jbra as ethical guide to living, the process or act of actually putting into practice those ethical principles known as :Jbra b:J. The addition of"b:i' is crucial because it sets the stage for potential successes as well as failures or mistakes during the ethical journey. Ideally, the notion of b:J is creativity, as in leading a creatively good or ideal life, although it also means leading a destructive life, as in leading a delinquently bad or unethical life. In praxis, :Jbra b:J is thought of as a hard and difficult existential activity for

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most people. What then is the purpose of :Jbra b:J in the Wiadzie? We have seen how the Y oruba see the corporeal world, Aye, as a market place where humans engage in all kinds of entrepreneurial ventures. What the Akan would add to the Y oruba rendition of human activity in the corporeal is ::Jbra b:J or ethical principles accompanying entrepreneurial ventures when one engaged in business enterprises in the mundane. In all entrepreneurial practices, one must do so ethically because there is an implied accountability at some point in the Samanadzie or the Orun. Essentially then both the Akan and the Y oruba view the corporeal world the same way. There is a spiritual component to the whole conception and practice of :Jbra b:J and that has to do with the Akan concept of nkrabea, defined invariably as either destiny or fate. In the past, I have defined nkrabea as existential purpose or mission, but I now think that nkrabea has to do with one's decreed existential career blueprint or plan actuated in adulthood. The fact is that the soul, :Jkra, originates with God (Nyame) accompanied by an nkrabea as a unique, preordained existential career blueprint actuated at adulthood when an individual began one's :Jbra b:J or ethical existence. Though originating with God (Nyame), the nkrabea is not selected by God, only that God decrees as a unique career blueprint to be accomplished in the corporeal after the future human has decided on its own nkrabea before God. Having decided thus, failure and culpability rested solely with an individual human, especially when as an ::JSaman returned to the spirit world upon death without fulfilling one's nkrabea. The point is that young adulthood is the beginning of ::Jbra b:J and the actuation of nkrabea. That :Jbra b:J is the exact moment when an nkrabea is put into action, as an individual attempted to implement one's nkrabea in the corporeal world in terms of career. At the same time, an individual becomes morally and ethically responsible for one's own actions relationally, occupationally, and socially. Furthermore, it means that one becomes concerned with existential and metaphysical issues relative to the ancestors, deities, and God. Soteriology also becomes a real concern, especially when repeated failures in one's career choices and misfortunes are interpreted as displeasure of divinities thought to allow witches to thwart one's endeavors. How then must a young adult proceed? When God Nyame created the corporeal world, God placed and made available on earth everything that living beings need to survive existentially. While God made certain natural resources readily available for use, he also hid other natural and mineral resources in the earth to be discovered for the edification of humans as well as the ancestors, deities, and God Nyame. In charge of all these natural and mineral resources, above all gold (money), God placed in the hands ofhis own kind, the primeval abosom. The abosom themselves had to search for these resources in order to own them, which some found and became rich, especially those who found gold, the currency of the gods. This means that most abosom, like humans, are not rich and therefore earned a living by working for rich abosom. Therefore, the goal of humans existentially is to work hard in order to discover the hidden treasures that the gods have hidden away from people until they served them. Thereupon the abosom revealed the gold to certain humans during their Abra b:J(plural of ::Jbra b:J)

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and go on to become rich and wealthy. Symbolically, the search for hidden treasures starts immediately upon birth, when on the eighth day of parturition a neonate is enjoined to grow up, work hard, and acquire money. As evidence during a naming rite, money is introduced to a neonate who is then exhorted about the values of money, taught how to acquire it, and bury its parents with pomp and ceremony. Following that, a gold ring provided by a father is put on a finger of the neonate. In the past many parents (fathers in particular) made gold rings for their neonates and although it signified the value of money, it also protected neonates from malevolent spirits. The resultant ethic in the past was that people actually worked harder, with the sole purpose of acquiring wealth. Therefore, the European economic theology that sought to explain poverty in the context of slavery and colonialism, where people were told to serve on earth in anticipation of reward in heaven was, and is, wrong. It was designed to put Africans in perpetual servitude while their natural and mineral resources were carted away. Unfortunately, many Akan have lost the work ethic of their forebears. Instead, they spend valuable productive hours in churches praying in the hopes that a God would offer them their daily bread from heaven, their wards abroad would send them money, while Western governments would solve their problems for them. Nowadays, government even finds it necessary to grant public religious holidays spanning many productive days to devotees of non-African religions so that believers may engage in private religious matters. How can Ghana or any African country for that matter compete productively and economically with the rest of the world when an entire nation like Ghana is shot down for days because of private religious celebrations. There is no justifiable reason for this pray-and-wait-on-God syndrome, where whole generations of young, healthy, strongmen and women simply idle about in anticipation ofjobs from government and politicians that never materializes. What happened to the injunction placed on the Akan in infancy to search for money that God (Nyame), through the abosom, hid from people and the need to work hard and find it? If the whole purpose of :Jbra b:J is implementing one's nkrabea or career blueprint, then why can't people work hard and achieve their nkrabea instead of waiting for others to create work for them? Sometimes it may take many tries, but ultimately everyone is destined to find one's nkrabea if they work hard enough. The whole reason of inculcating in children the values of life is to enable them to be production citizens. Idleness has led to people questioning their nkrabea, as to whether or not they had taken proper leave of God. In despair, nkrabea is unfulfilled resulting in premature deaths, sometimes. Inherent in the praxis of :Jbra b:J is the moral imperative of accountability and judgment existentially and spiritually. There is the notion that if one leads a good ethic, :Jbra pa, then in general everything will end up well ultimately, but if one lived a bad life (:Jbra b:xz), then one reaped misery. Inherently then, nkrabea is good, especially since it originates with Nana Nyame, making the soul (.Jkra) and the nkrabea the same. How then does one explain failures or unfulfilled nkrabea? The question oftheodicy (God and where evil originates) comes into play here, but for the Akan the concern of having failed existentially always loomed heavily on

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many people's mind, especially after observing some of their peers succeed. Consequently, judgment is pronounced on people long before their demise before they actually appear before the ancestors, the Nananom Nsamanfo. When an :JSaman reaches the Samanadzie, the ancestors simply affirm the pronouncements of their earthly representatives, the elders (Nananom Mpanyinfo), and reincarnation denied if an :JSaman is found to be guilty. Since the objective of life on earth is ::Jbra b.1in the context of pursuing one's nkrabea, what would cause a person not to successfully realize one's nkrabea, since the blueprint oflife was already available at birth and the only thing that an individual has to do is build upon the foundation? The answer lies with the spiritual, witchcraft and how it is used to thwart nkrabea. Indeed witchcraft and other malign forces are incapable of altering an nkrabea because it originates with God, but malevolent powers do certainly thwart and prevent peoples from realizing their nkrabea. While people acknowledged the physical reasons of their struggles to actuate their nkrabea, it is the spiritual, the unknown spiritual causalities that people blamed and diligently seek ways to remedy the causalities of their physical maladies. For many, it is only a matter of time before the spiritual causalities of their problems manifest themselves physically. Naturally, then, people arrest the first signs of any physical malady by seeking spiritual healing confident that holistic healing would follow.

5. Nyame (God) The cosmos, as we have seen, has three spheres: below, middle, and above (or left, center, and right). Strategically God Nyame is positioned in the middle (center) of the cosmos, holding the entire cosmos together, in the same way as the sun is positioned at the center of our solar system. Position thus, God is exactly between the heavens or sky and the earth or everything below the heavens. The mystery is: Where exactly is the middle of the cosmos since the cosmos is infinite? From the perspective of the solar system, where will the middle be? Is the middle the Milky Way galaxy and if so where is the middle, that is, God? Wherever the middle or center is, the logic of Africans worshipping the abosom because they are directly in charge of specific areas and locales on earth is proved. The conundrum about God's exact location has confounded humanity from the very beginning of time, because to know the middle of the cosmos is to find God. According to the abosom, the center or middle will continue to be a mystery forever for humans although they would continue in their search for God. Of course, unlike humans the abosom know and visit God when necessary. Moreover, there are those special angelic abosom who traverse the cosmos as divine messengers to and fro God's domain and to other abosom realms. Contextually, then, God cannot be directly in charge ofhumanity's affairs, because God has the stupendous responsibility of holding the cosmos together and managing the affairs of the cosmic gods. Therefore the responsibility of managing the affairs of the earth and other existences, including those of humans, are entrusted with the abosom explaining why from antiquity only the abosom are worshipped directly by Africans. Besides, only the abosom are the ones with clergy, temples, and shrines.

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Further, unlike the abosom who require propitiations locally, Africans from the very beginning perceived Almighty God as the universal spirit and therefore incapable ofbeing propitiated either individually or collectively. Yet, God's name is the first to be called upon from sunrise to sundown. Long before any religion developed a theological statement about God, African priests in Memphis, for example and thanks to the inscription of King Shabaka of Nubia, originated a doctrinal treatise about God Ptah, the God ofNarmar/Menes 4,000 years before the Christian era that still astonishes contemporary theologians, which they have incorporated into various theological treatises. Budge writes: To them PTAH was a spirit self-created, self-existent, without beginning and eternal. He was the Mind of the universe, the Cause of Causes, whose thoughts had produced every material thing and being in heaven, earth, and the underworld. The gods were merely forms of his thoughts, and he was therefore God alone. Light was an emanation from his heart, his influence pervades all nature, through his breath of life every creature lived, and almighty power resided in the Word of his Mouth. 23

Incredibly, this ancient theological piece still pervades every African society, to the extent that for Africans God has never had temples or clergy for the simple reason that God is spirit universal. Therefore, God cannot be contained in structures or controlled and owned by any single group of people. Yet there is the tendency by peoples to take ownership of a God exclusively and even claim special status as the only chosen people. This is what Erikson calls "cultural pseudospeciation."24 But unlike deities that are also spirits and whose jurisdictions are localized and incapable of giving life, when African peoples assert that God is spirit they are speaking about the fact that God is the wind, air or breath, making God the sole source oflife. Therefore, the "remoteness" of God in Africa religious thought perpetuated by non-Africans is false, because Africans have always been aware of God's accessibility and ubiquity and proceed to invoke God's name instantly. Ontologically, it is the deities, who were produced by the "motions or thoughts" of the ancient Egyptian God Ptah's mind. Thus for the ancient Egyptians, it was the gods, like gods elsewhere, who receive offerings and sacrifices on behalf of God, because the deities are in charge of the created order locally. Actually over six centuries before the Gospel of John, King Shabaka ofNubia found an ancient tablet and copied it on a stone tablet, which among other things, states that in the beginning, God Ptah said words and the world came into existence. Therefore, since it is the deities, and not God, who had temples, shrines, and clergy, the pragmatism of utilizing their sacred spaces and clergy for ritual edification, with ancestors as mediators made practical religious sense. In consequence, tradition clergy in Africa, like many religious practitioners everywhere, receive years ofaustere professional training until they attained the highest socio-religious and spiritual estate, invested in the esoterica of ritual applications and processes. Qualitatively, God is Everlasting (Jdomankoma); meaning, God has no beginning or end, having always been There. Singularly important is the fact that God (Nyame) is :::>domankoma boadzie brebre (God Nyame is the creator of all things

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below), and since he is in the middle, also created all things above. Sometimes during prayers, rather than pronounce the name of God, only God's creative attributes are used euphemistically, as Jdomankoma boadzie brebre, together with other qualitative attributes like, Tweeduapon Kwame (Dependable One of Saturday). Oftentimes, the appellation Nyankopon is utilized alongside Nyame as though they were two different entities. Nyankopon, however, is derived from nyankonton (rainbow), which, together with the crescent moon are physical representations of God. However, Nyame alone is the name of the Akan monotheistic God who created all things alone and without assistance. Further, the eternal nature of God may be understood in the context of death. It is sometimes said that: Nyame b:JWU nona mawu, which may either mean, before God dies I will already be dead, or the death of God would mean that I have died already. This philosophically baffling statement is meant to be didactic, demonstrating to humans the everlasting nature of God and not because God is capable of death. The paradox is that God created death and yet death killed God who is eternal (Nyame b:xJ owu no, owu na okuno), meaning God never dies. Often the statement is quoted as a solace for the bereaved to take heart in that even the God who created death was himself killed by death, meaning death, like God, is inevitable, certain, and true. Like life itself, only God can bring about death by taking away life. Pedagogically the Akan would even point to a grave and say: lyim owu a hye nda to means that if one does not know what being dead is, then one should observe a grave-it is forever. The key to making sense of the enigma of death and God may reside withYoruba cosmology. Per the instructions of God Olodumare, the deity Orisha-nla created an inanimate human being (death), after which God exclusively and unilaterally gave life to the otherwise dead body, which then became a living person. The mystery of God creating death is, therefore solved. Conceptually, since it takes a living thing to give life to another living thing, how did God give life to a dead entity, like an inanimate human? This mystery is what sets God apart from the gods, like Orisha-nla who actually attempted to spy on God in order to discover the secret of what made God alone the giver oflife. The source of what made God alone the giver oflife is what the Akan called Tum (Absolute, Incomparable Power). God is Otumfo (All powerful) and this power enable him alone to give life. Most importantly, the life that God gives causes living things to reproduce their kind perpetually, but they are unable to reproduce their kind from dead stuff, as that will make other living things Gods. In lgbo theology, for example, God Chukwu is Chi, meaning God has caused all "living beings to procreate themselves from generation to generation" in a "never-ending process." Human beings are incapable of forming other human beings from, say, plastic or clay and then offer them life as living beings, because to be able to do so would make a human being God. The mystery of God as the life giver is even hidden from the gods, as Orisha-nla was put to sleep when he tried to spy on God before God gave life to the lifeless body that Orisha-nla had formed at the behest of God Olodumare. Since only God is capable of giving life to a dead thing, it also happens that at some point all of life as created entities must die, because life cannot eternally .

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exist in created life forms in the corporeal. Death, which God created, has in turn, killed God when God departs the very life that it created. It gets to a point where a body, for example, makes it impossible, due to old age or accidents, for life to dwell in it. In the final analysis, God and death are one and the same in that they both share the same eternal title as :Jdomankoma owu and :>domankoma Nyame. 25 Perhaps the single most important key to the mystery of God, the giver and taker oflife is that only God encounters an inanimate body and not be defiled. The reason is that God alone has Tum (Power) to cause a dead body to have life before God could be defiled. Unlike God, the gods do not approach dead bodies for fear of being defiled, as they are incapable of giving life to dead objects. Similarly, their earthly representatives, living ancestors, also do not go near dead bodies or anything that could defile them. God for the Akan is Sunsum (pronounced soon-soom}, that is, spirit. And like the abosom, God is immaterial or intangible. As Sunsum or Spirit God is inscrutable and imperceptible except when one is an :>bosom. In this connection, God is the wind (mframa) in the sense that one must: 'converse with the wind when intending to speak to God' (Se ipede ikasakyire Nyame a kakyire mframa). What the Akan mean is that God is accessible and evident to all and the more reason why no structures are needed for God. The awareness of God's accessibility is why the Akan pray and praise God constantly, because God is actually in the air. Exegetically, the whole of existence is sustained by the grace of God felt extrinsically as the air (adom WJwim). Still, along the lines of intangibility of God, the Akanequate breath (Ahom) with God thus making God the very breath oflife, ::Jkra. The ::Jkra (soul) originates with God so that there is a God-self in all living things. The ::Jkra enters the human at the exact moment ofbirth when a neonate utters its first words crying and in the process inhaling its first breath of life as ::Jkra. Intrinsically, the ::Jkra stayed with a living thing until just before death when it exited the body. Finally, with regard to the role of the cosmos and the abosomrelative to God, the Greek historian, Diodorus, asserts that black peoples were the first "to be taught to honor the gods."26 As we will see in chapter three as to who taught Africans how to honor the gods, it is abundantly clear that the responsibility ofhumans and indeed the whole of the cosmos it to honor the abosom and God. 27 Thus, the Akan constantly sing the praises of God and give glory to God for all that there was, is, and will be in spite of the fact that ritually God is not worshipped directly. Upon hearing the constant praises of God, one would think that the abosom do not factor in the equation, far from it, the abosom too are in constant praise of God, giving God all the glory. However, when it comes to the practical aspects of worship, then one is confronted with the specific role that each :>bosom plays in glorifying God. Traditionally God has no shrines, temples, or clergy and therefore no blood sacrifices are giving directly to God. Rather, it is the abosom who have shrines and temples and whose clergy receive all offerings in the name of the abosom, because the abosom are capable of resolving all societal issues.

CHAPTER2

Witchcraft Whenever I have taught witchcraft as a belief in the context of African religion, the subject has always generated interesting comments like "how can one be a witch," "how can we catch a witch," or "can one empirically demonstrate witchcraft." In response, I have often said that there is really no compelling reason for anyone to "catch" a witch or demonstrate its existence, because it is not the business of anyone to disrupt someone else's life when no one has offended or harmed anyone using witchcraft. Furthermore, I explain that I have been an African long enough to know that there is so much mystery about ideas like God and religion that are empirically hard to prove and yet there are no qualms about the existence of God or practice of religion. As such, Africans and African descended peoples around the world also do not need lectures about the existence or nonexistence of witchcraft, because witchcraft does not fall on the scientific radar. First, from antiquity, Africans have believed in the phenomenon of witchcraft irrespective of their geographical locations, meaning there is something intrinsic about witchcraft among black people. Second, the witchcraft phenomenon as an intrinsic attribute is widespread throughout Africa and in the African Diaspora. And third, the nature and structural characteristics of the witchcraft phenomenon are the same all across Africa and in the African Diaspora. When there are hundreds of millions of African peoples in Africa and tens of millions more African descended peoples in the Diaspora all sharing and believing in the same phenomenon, then the impertinence of any scientific evidence is proved. Africans and African descended peoples "know" that witchcraft exists; all of them seem to know what this entity called witchcraft is about-what it does spiritually, socially, and psychologically; its disruptive effects, and the fear visited on those who find themselves under the control of witchcraft. What this chapter does not do is prove or disprove the existence ofwitchcraft; 1 rather, it discusses witch-

30 Witchcraft craft as a socio-cultural and psychological matter of fact among the Akan in particular and Africans in general. By Africans I am speaking about the way the Greeks defined Africans, when a Greek historian, Diodorus of Sicily, quoted by Davidson, wrote in the first century B.C.E. that: Now the Ethiopians [i.e., the black peoples], as historians relate, were the first of all men, and the proofs of this statement, they say, are manifest. For that they did not come into their land as immigrants from abroad but were natives of it, and so justly bear the name of 'autochthones' is, they maintain, conceded by practically all men. 2 In other words, Africans are those first peoples who never entered Africa from outside the continent. Therefore, the discussion of witchcraft here is about the shared phenomenon of those ancient first peoples of Africa and their contemporary descendants in Africa and the African Diaspora. Anywhere modem Africans reside their belief in witchcraft has remained unchanged. Epistemologically, there is no basis for an empirical approach to discovering the existence of witchcraft, as scholars tend to favor. If something cannot be proved scientifically then it cannot exist, as science is really the attempt to obtain a rational explanation for irrational phenomena by demonstratively obtaining the same results repeatedly. However, the scientific method presupposes that there are things such as God or religion that are simply irrational or nonsensical and therefore need to be rationalized and controlled or else relegated to the realm of superstition, primitivism, and barbarism. Consequently, witchcraft, in the context of empiricism, falls under the superstitiously irrational, although for Africans, and particularly the Akan, perfectly rational. To deny the existence of witchcraft and witches because one cannot prove it is to reject the existence of a genuine African religious and spiritual phenomenon and relegate the ideas into the realm of animism, tribalism, savagery, superstition, etc. 3 Recent scholarship has applied a more polite and seemingly benign term ''traditional" to refer to African religion as if to say that African religious and spiritual beliefs have evolved from the Darwinian racist scale to a modem, western religion like Christianity or Islam. Actually, attempts to empirically study witchcraft and witches, like the history of African itself vis-a-vis Arabs and Europeans, is just another attempt to own, control, and manipulate witches for esoteric information or capabilities that witches are thought to possess in the name of science. Since that is not forthcoming, to the chagrin of scholars, witchcraft is often dismissed as an "illusion." What may be missing when studying witchcraft and which may provide the key to understanding the witchcraft phenomenon as "real" has to do with the African perception of reality. As we have seen from the previous chapter, the spiritual or intangible world, as opposed to western conception of reality as that which is tangible, is the primary difference between Africans and African descended peoples and Westemers and how either group views the cosmos. Therefore, I will begin discussing the conception and practice of witchcraft and witches within the context of the spiritual, which invariably manifest itself in the realm of tangibility.

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The Akan popularly refer to witchcraft as Biiyee, derived from Koyee, meaning, ''to take" and shedding light on the notion that witchcraft is an acquired phenomenon. A witch, however, is called Obiiyeefo although Ayen, utilized mainly by the Fante, is used interchangeably with obayeefo. R. S. Rattray's account of witchcraft among the Akan (Asante) in the 1920s is still the conventional view of the Akan. 2 Thus in this section, I will only add to Rattray's work by drawing on my experiences with witchcraft growing up as an Akan, my research into the subject for years, and above all, my experiences presiding over charges and complaints of witchcraft as the traditional ruler ofMprumem. Some of the cases that I heard are bizarre, nonsensical, and even sad, but it would be equally silly to dismiss or poohpooh the stories as superstitious, because witchcraft, whether real, imagined, or a superstitious belief without any basis, is alive and well in Africa. For example, an Associated Press report on Sat., Oct. 17, 2009 about children accused of witchcraft by pastors in the Eket, Nigeria reads: The 9-year-old boy lay on a bloodstained hospital sheet crawling with ants, staring blindly at the wall. His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him-Mount Zion Lighthouse. A month later, he died. Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in halfof200 cases of"witch children" reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files. Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." "It is an outrage what they are allowing to take place in the name of Christianity" said Gary Foxcroft, head of nonprofit Stepping Stones Nigeria. 4 My own introduction to witches occurred when I was a boy in Simpa (Winneba) and living with my paternal grandmother. One day I went to the Nkwantanan Market in downtown Simpa not far from where we lived, and there I saw a group of about seven or eight women on the other side of the street dividing the main market grounds from the residential area. Each of the women, some probably in their late teens, stood near pots believed to contain witches' enchantments (juju or gris-gris) and looking very sad-at least from my perspective as a boy, as some of them were clad in only a piece of cloth. Then I saw a man, probably the so-called witchdoctor, preaching or shouting orders at the women to confess because they had been "caught" in acts of witchcraft, allegedly. Occasionally, a crowed, mostly children as I was, would gather around the alleged witches, but other than that, people went about their business unconcerned as though what was going on was a routine occurrence. I never heard any of them ever confess, and for three days-or-so the spectacle continued. Again, during my early teenage years I began selling bread when I went to Jive with my elder father whose wife was a baker. After baking the bread, she would

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arrange the bread in wooden trays and make me and another boy also living with her carry the trays of bread to go and sell. We roamed the entire town trying to sell every loaf of bread, because sometimes if we failed to sell enough bread she would deny us food, saying that we went around playing rather than sell the bread. As a result of the chore of selling bread and other commodities, I grew up knowing every comer of Simpa, and one of the sites that I sometimes visited in order to sell bread was a vivacious shrine or "church" called Tumano. It is a very famous shrine at Simpa because it is notorious for allegedly "catching" witches and from its name, Tumano, meaning 'where power resides' one can understand why it was such an active place. One of the centerpieces of their services was showcasing alleged witches by chaining them to a tree that stood on the compound. During service the "pastors" would repeatedly order the alleged witches to confess as a precondition for their healing and freedom. As I watched them from the periphery of their sacred ground, their sad countenances always moved me to pity; I knew instinctively that they were hungry, but no one would offer them food or something to drink. And there I sat with a tray of bread in front of me and unable to do anything, while enthusiastic believers danced joyously for hours to their "church" music and songs of praises about their "prophets" or pastors. I felt pity for the so-called witches and wondered why things had to be this way for them. The irony was that their own kins had turned them over as witches. Under the headline "Women accused of witchcraft dying ofhunger," a report shed light not only the number of alleged witches in northern Ghana but also their conditions. The report read: Mr. Saani Yakubu, Northern Region Development Programme Manager of Action-Aid Ghana has called on government, philanthropists and civil society organizations to support inmates of identified 6 witch camps in the Northern region to make life bearable for them. He expressed worry that the about I 0,000 inmates of the 6 witch camps in the region were dying of hunger, poverty and lack of other basic amenities that were needed to make their lives comfortable. In an exclusive interview ... in Tamale, Mr Yakubu told northemghana.com the establishment of such witch camps in the Northern region was unnecessary and concluded that the existence of such structures was a clear violation of the fundamental human rights of the inmates. The six camps are Gushegu, Gambaga, Naboli Kukuo, Gnani and Basingwe. 5 Whether at the Nkwantanan Market or Tumano, the sight of women left their indelible imprints on me forever, especially with regard to the powerlessness that I felt. Of course, parading of people suspected of witchcraft has stopped due to the intervention of police and government, relatively speaking but the humiliation still continues because the police cannot be everywhere. Alleged witches are often forced to carry pots believed to contain juju or medicines about conjurations. There

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is the notion that every witch has a pot which he or she hides in the ground so that when they are caught then they are forced to dig up their allege pots, which they are forced to display as evidence of their witchcraft. Incidentally, mediums too have pots offered to them upon graduating as mediums for water gazing during mediumistic rituals. Thus, the only difference between witches and mediums-most of whom are believed to be witches--one might ask, is that whereas witches allegedly conduct their activities secretly and nocturnally to the detriment of society, mediums performed their services in the open for the well-being of society and for money after successfully undergoing rigorous training as mediums. Stories about witches and witchcraft are commonplace in Africa; but among the Akan nowadays, to accuse a person of being an obiiyeefo or ayen, especially in the urban areas, means that an individual has disrupted the social order of a community. In the past, order was restored when an accused person was shamed in public or expelled. Nowadays in the urban areas particularly, an accuser and the accused may trade insults at each other, or the accused may bring defamation charges against the accuser before the elders, during which time an accuser would be asked to prove the presence of witchcraft. Since witchcraft is empirically and demonstratively impossible to proof, two things happen. First, before a case may be considered by elders an accuser may admits his or her fault, because she or he would be unable to prove the existence of witchcraft and in which case she or he would pay restitution fee to an accused. Or second, the case goes to trial and invariably the accuser would be asked to show evidence of witchcraft and how she or he could make that determination. Since witchcraft is a spiritual phenomenon and cannot be proven empirically an accuser is found guilty. Either way an accuser loses. The trend now is that witchcraft, at least in the urban areas, is viewed entirely as a spiritual struggle and which must be confronted spiritually rather than physically accusing and blaming persons as witches and therefore responsible for individual woes. The larger question then is: Will urbanization and modernity reduce the incidence of witchcraft among the Akan and other African groups? On the contrary, "the influence of witchcraft as an idiom has grown" in Africa. In fact, "With the development of market economies, the integration of cultural and economic networks into the international arena, and the increasing influence of Western-style education, the role of witches and witchcraft in Africa has flourished, not languished."6 An iibusua relative of mine, an ::>bosornfo or so-called witchdoctor or healer, was one day rumored to be practicing witchcraft because someone allegedly saw him around midnight inside the Methodist church building naked. Actually, it is common knowledge that witches engage in nocturnal escapades in the nude, in order to recreate originality of the womb and maximize their effectiveness. That is, people are born naked and so in order to enter the spirit world as a witch or a nonwitch, one must do so in nakedness in order to cross the threshold of the corporeal world and enter the world of spirits. The efficaciousness of all high rites must be performed in nakedness and at nights, that is, in spirit. However, to be able to operate effectively in nakedness and in the dark means that a witch must be able to spew fire, to enable a witch to "see."

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Every witch then has a fire that glows intermittently during a witch's nightly escapades. Fire powers witches in flight and announce their presence to potential intruders. The size of the fire depends on how powerful a witchcraft. Actually, all spiritual agents, including the abosom possess fireballs, such as what I observed in the mid 1990s at about midnight. As I drove home and as I was about to make a turn onto the road that led to my house, my headlights went dead. I looked straight up and about one hundred yards in front of me, and I saw a huge, reddish or yellowlike, sinking sun-like fireball on the horizon dripping ambers that did not burn the forest either. It hovered on top of the trees about fifty feet from the ground in a spectacular fashion. As I watched for some minutes not really knowing what it was, suddenly my lights came back on and so I turned and drove home without thinking much about it. It was days later that I learned about the nature of the hierophany and then I became afraid and at the same time wished I had moved closer to examine it. Word quickly spread about the ''witchdoctor's" night incident at the church and as the ruler, the case was brought to my attention by the Jbosomfo. He threatened to bring charges against the person who allegedly saw him naked inside the church and anyone found to be spreading such a rumor. As a respectable member of the church and an elder in the community, he thought it was a matter of protecting his reputation. The threat of suing any citizen caught spreading rumor of him practicing witchcraft effectively ended all discussions of the matter publicly. The fact is, that nowadays it is hard to "prosecute" witchcraft among the Akan in the urban areas although belief in and frivolous accusations of witchcraft still persists. However, in the rural areas, witchcraft is taking seriously still, because communities are smaller making its disruptive impact felt immediately and relationally by almost everyone. An Jbosomfo 's (witch-finder, doctor, healer) role is to ensure social order and any witch thought to have breached that order is "arrested," treated, and rehabilitated. Most abosornfo (plural of Jbosomfo) are male and themselves warlocks or sorcerers and in league with witches. My Jbosomfo relative, for instance, was selected by the ruler of his community to train as an Jbosomfo. When an Jbosomfo discovers or catches a witch the earthen pot containing the witch's enchantments must be dug up and the powers of the enchantments destroyed. One day my Jbosomfo relative told me about pots belonging to witches caught through his years of practice and where they were buried and that he would dig them up for me to observe. But as he was digging the ground where the pots were believed buried he fell into the hole that he had dug. Following that he had a stroke and never fully recovered from that and died a few years later. I guess the witches had the last laugh, not wishing their pots to be discovered. What then is this phenomenon called biiyee? Discussing the subject with his friend, Yao Adawua, "a famous witch-finder or priest," Rattray wrote down what he was taught by Yao Adawua, which is still prevalent today. The majority of witches are women ... but they need not necessarily be very old women. If an old witch wishes her daughter to become a witch she will bathe her repeatedly with 'medicine' at the suminaso (the kitchen-midden). The great desire of a witch is to eat people, but she will not do this so that

Witchcraft anyone may see; they suck blood. Each witch has a part of the body of which she is particularly fond. All witches know one another and are in league. They have their regular court officials, 'linguists,' executioners, and so on; a witch can cause a woman to become barren. Witches walk about naked at night, and when they come to a house where someone is lying asleep they will turn round and press their buttocks against the outside wall of the hut. A suman they carry, called atufa, will then make a connexion between their bodies and the body of the person who is asleep, and by this connecting link the blood is drained. The person, on awakening, will complain of illness and may die before nightfall. Witches always try to obtain some object that belonged to the person whom they wish to kill, such as hair, nail-cuttings, or waist beads; witches can transform themselves into birds, chiefly owls, crows, vultures, and parrots; into houseflies and fireflies, into hyenas, leopards, lions, elephants, bongo, and all sasa animals, and also into snakes. Some witches have waist-belt of snakes .... Witches are often visible at night by a glowing light they give forth. They are all connected at night by a spider's webs with the doors of all dwellings. As soon as a door is opened, they are thus warned and flee. They eat all together, each supplying the feast in tum. A witch can only kill in her own clan. 7

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Rattray's account captures the essential characteristics and belief in witchcraft among the Akan. With this description one can see the spiritual power witches are thought to wield in society as malevolent agents of destruction and the length people would go to protect themselves from the snares and grips of witches. One of my discussants emphatically stated that they, witches, divide the world into two: one for God, the good one, and the other for the Abonsam or Sasabonsam, the evil one or the devil which they serve. He added, however, that they greatly feared the abosom as agents of God, because they are immensely powerful and so they must constantly hide from them to avoid offending them and being caught by the abosom. Since the ways or snares of the abosom are incalculable, the abosom can easily catch any witch whenever they want, especially if a witch uses his or her biiyee for evil against those protected by the abosom. Still witches try as much as possible to go after the very individuals under the aegis of the abosom, because such individuals are special as powerful elders, which make them prime targets for witches as the most desirous "meals." Therefore, witches play hide-and-seek with the abosom and so long as witches do not attempt to temper with those under the aegis of the abosom, then the abosom ignore the witches. After all, if a witch is not causing any harm to anyone then there was no reason for such a witch to be harmed either by any higher power. If, as Rattray was informed, biiyee is feared by the abosom, 8 then it is because bayee is unclean, while the abosom are pure essences and therefore averse to evil and anything unclean. Meaning, they are incapable of getting near anything that is unclean in the same way as the clergy and kings do not go near anything that would defile them, like a corpse. Since witchcraft is a dirty spirit, the abosom do not approach it for fear of contamination, and unlike kings and clergy who could be purified, the abosom may summarily kill any witch or unclean human who attempted to challenge them.

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The question then is: How are the abosom or deity able to catch and kill witches? The abosom have an array of means (weapons) at their disposal, but above all, they have patience and time on their side. Moreover, the abosom know all the tricks employed by witches and go about setting up their snares on every conceivable avenue utilized by witches. Then the abosom waited until a witch forgot and let down its guard or became so confident in her or his abilities, then the abosom struck. Even though the abosom are capable of striking at ant time, they never bother any human who has not committed evil deeds, instead letting the evil deeds of witches or non-witches for that matter do the killing. In other words, the wages of evil deeds is death, and in this way the abosom are inculpable. Even so, the abosom will kill when they see imminent danger affecting a person they protect. For example, Agya Kwtku, the leading deity in Mprumem, has array of guns as a soldier and fires them at anyone who threatened a person under his protection without having to get close to a witch or any unclean entity. On the contrary, it is witches who fear the abosom, as intimated by another abusua relative of mine, K wtku, a linguist of his witch-pack. But just as the abosom do not die because they are not human, so the phenomenon called witchcraft even when the witchcraft is shot, "killed," captured, or struck. The one actually killed was the human host whose witchcraft is "killed" because spirits do not die; the witchcraft agent simply finds another human host and attaches itself to the human, because no dead witch traveled along with its witchcraft to the Samanadzie-the witchcraft is left behind in the corporeal world. My informants intimated that the need for witches to engage in evil deeds is exacerbated when a witch joins a witch-pack or an association (kuu). As Rattray correctly notes, witches feed en masse as members of a witch-pack or colony when a member secured a kill, a human soul. This kill may be a relative of the witch who provided the spiritual meat. Like all packs, associations or clubs, each member is required to contribute to the spiritual well-being of its members by taking turns to bring human subjects, albeit spiritual, to be feasted upon by a pack. This being the case, a witch cannot partake of a witch feast provided by another and then refuse to provide one when his or her tum arrived. Thus members are obliged to contribute one's share ofhuman meal and so as each witch's tum got closer pressure builds to find and kill a human for the collective. Failure to contribute one's quota invariably results in the forceful taking of a delinquent witch's child or relative by a pack of witches. As a general rule, witches only killed their relatives that they loved the most. In other words, witches must provide those humans so dear to them that they would do everything to save them in real life. And the higher in status or successful a potential victim was, the more powerful the witch providing the victim was rewarded and promoted. In other words, the blood of such a high-valued victim was greatly valued by a pack, because such blood nourished the pack for quite a while. This brings to mind a woman, believed to be a powerful witch, who attempted to kill her only daughter who provided for her mother's every need. The story goes on to say that, first, the elderly woman, the witch, sent a younger male witch (warlock) to bring the soul of her daughter, but the warlock refused out of fear of his

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own life. The daughter, though not a witch herself, was thought to be very powerful spiritually too. Finally, the mother decided to kill her daughter herself, saying that she was the one who brought her into this world. When she allegedly "flew" to fetch her daughter one night she was struck by the abosom protecting the daughter. On the morning the mother could not get up from bed; she had suddenly fallen gravely ill and for about three weeks, lay dying. Everyone suspected that she had been struck because she was a healthy and energetic person. Some of her own relatives even left her for fear ofbeing struck too, because they may have participated by not preventing her from doing what she did. She died about a month later, because she attempted to bite more than she could chew. For this reason witches do not kill indiscriminately, always making sure that their potential victims could be killed successfully without causing a witch's own demise. To be struck by a god or an :Jbosomfo means one of two possibilities. One, to be have been captured by a much powerful entity like a deity, or two, to have a witch's rope (ahonma) or what Rattray described as spider's web linking all witches in a pack together, severed causing a witch to fall to its death or lose its way back into the pack and consequently being captured. If, however, a witch whose rope has been severed survived capture or death, then it remained inactive until such time as it is reconnected to the pack, that is, until it recuperated from the fall and subsequent illness. During the period of inertia what was actually taking place was the witch being nursed back to "life," because it must be able to feed again on its own as soon as possible. The rope network of witches is complexly elastic, enabling them the fly as far as possible and still be connected. It follows that when they catch a human prey, as a spider does, witches quickly cast their web of rope around their victim disabling it and preventing it from escaping. In this mode, the more a victim tried to untangle itself from a witch's snare of ropes, the more it finds itself tangled in the web. The only way out of such an entanglement is through the intervention of an :Jbosomfo or a god; even this may depend on several factors, including the ability to pay for a ransom, if a witch or witch-pack demanded it from an :Jbosomfo. What a god does, however, is drive a witch away from the captured victim-because a witch would run away leaving its victim behind when a god intervened-and then painstakingly the deity would untie the rope one string at a time until the victim was freed. Aware that gods do not approach anything unclean, a witch may cast an unclean spell on a victim in order to prevent deities from corning near it and saving the victim. Still, the gods have a myriad of resources at their disposal to free a person caught in the snare of witches if they so desired. Alternatively, a captured victim's relative may seek the intervention of a medium or an :Jbosomfo since he was also a warlock. During consultations, a medium or :Jbosomfo would demand payments of money, animal sacrifices, cloths, and other items to be used by a medium or :Jbosomfo as bargaining chips in return for a captured person's life. Sometimes a captured person is freed if the items in exchange for a life pleased a witch or witch-pack. As Rattray points out, a witch-pack has a well-structured leadership, which ultimately decides if a captured person was freed or not. However, once a victim ended up with a witch-pack, it was virtually imposs-

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ible, even for the gods sometimes, to free that captured person. Therefore, it is always best to intervened quickly before a captured person's spirit is delivered to a witch-pack and be killed. As for an intransigent witch whose rope has been severed sometimes the only way to recovery for such a witch is a forced confession of a witch's alleged crimes. One day a woman who was very ill for allegedly attempting to kill her brother but was instead struck by a deity and at point of death, was forced to confess her "sins" to her brother during a family meeting. During the meeting and while the woman knelt before her brother asking for forgiveness, the head of the family poured a cup of liquor on her head. Later, when I asked about the significance of the act I was informed that she was being prevented from flying again by wetting her feathers from the head down; while another person told me that the head of the family was actually extinguishing her fire, without which she would be unable to fly effectively. The Akan talk about witches' wings being broken to prevent them from flying again or feathers' being plucked all the time as a way of grounding a witch. Similarly, a grounded witch who begins to act up again is said to have re-grown its feathers. Either way, to be grounded usually means that a witch may have committed a crime that could have led to a witch-pack's exposure, for which the offending witch is grounded by plucking its feathers and preventing it from flying until the feathers grew back. To fly is to be able to feed with the pack or look for prey alone. Therefore, to have a witch's feathers plucked is to use starvation as a means of punishment. The implication is that all witches fly by transforming themselves into birds and other creatures and then terminate the physical body flying, as already enumerated by Rattray above. Changed thus, they use secret outlets inside their rooms and other places through which they fly back and forth during their nocturnal escapades for prey and conventions. Thus, witches sleep too deeply, and depending on their nocturnal destinations, may take them awhile before returning to the bodies. One way to avoid contributing to a witch-pack is not to partake of the pack's meals, leave the fold, or not join a pack in the first place. On several occasions, I fancifully told some of my relatives to feed at kitchen-middens, market places, or at sea where meals are free and do not come with the obligation of having to provide in return for feasting with a witch-pack. However, witches who feast at kitchenmiddens or at public latrines and other places are considered particularly unclean and filthy. The sea, however, is a different story, because there is an abundance of fish for anyone with the necessary fishing skills. Stories abound of witches feasting and sometimes choking on meat or bones that sometimes pierce the mouth or meat getting stuck in the teeth and the lingering effect manifested in real life. On such occurrences, the notion is that a witch has bitten on meat that it could not chew, because a meat may have been poisoned with concoctions poisonous to witches. Such a witch would seek treatment from a doctor, but on rare occasions a witch may die from eating poisonous meat. Therefore to avoid eating meat that is spiritually protected and therefore poisonous, some witches do eat at public places where leftovers may be plentiful and free. The question then is: Why would a witch sacrifice his or her most beloved child or relative to a witch-pack? Witches value themselves and their packs more

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than any filial or consanguineous relationship that they may have corporeally. Therefore, while sacrificing their most beloved and sometimes an only child may cause irreparable economic hardship for a witch existentially the sense of loyalty and duty to a witch's witch-pack family outweighs any economic hardship that a witch may face in life. This unquestioning loyalty and duty defies every imagination of commonsense. Stories abound of people, mostly women, thought to be witches and who allegedly killed relatives who happened to be responsible for taking care of women now impecunious, with no one having piety on them. Whether such accusations are true or not is not important, what is sadly real is the perception and society's attitude towards those thought to be witches due to old age. The "crime" here is that these elderly women, sometimes men too, have outlived their own children, children who supported their parents and other older relatives fiscally. For this, they are condemned as witches. Just as humans need food and nourishment to survive as healthy individuals, spiritually witches too must feed on the blood of their victims to stay powerful, strong, and become very old. Blood is the ultimate food of choice because it is divine and thus contains the very essence of animals (and humans). More than blood, witches take the very souls of their victims and in the process prolong their own physical lives. This explains why some elderly people are reviled as witches when they outlive their resourceful younger relatives and children. In other words, witches need to feed on the blood of young victims in order to be regenerated for longevity. Another general rule that Rattray points out in connection with why witches kill and feed on their own children and other relatives is that "a witch is powerless to use her or his enchantment over anyone outside the witches' clan." A single community may have many witch-packs based on kinship relations the Akan called the iibusua, a consanguineous descent system. Witches of one iibusua tend to bind together since they are composed of the same bloodlines and constitute descent group. In this way, they are able to elect their leaders along the lines ofthe iibusua system, as kings, queen mothers, linguists or spokespersons, etc. This being the case, how can witches of the same kin feed on members of its own iibusua? The fact is that not every member of an iibusua is a witch and therefore most ofthose killed are non-witch members of an iibusua. However, there is a way to circumvent the rule of killing only from one's own iibusua. A witch-pack would usually approached another witch-pack and inquire about a potential victim in the hopes of finding a disgruntle member willing betray a kin. The betrayer would usually demand payment of some sort before granting permission for a different witch-pack to kill a person not from one's own iibusua witch-pack. Other than these occasional betrayals, the rule of only killing in-house is strictly followed. Secrecy is of the utmost concern for witches, hence no witch will openly admit to being a witch, let alone talk about their witch-packs. This is why confession is key to holistic health for witches caught practicing witchcraft, because to confess is to break the code of silence leading to possible arrest of others witches. However, most so-called witches caught do not confess and when they do, based on what I know and experienced, only speak of what they themselves allegedly did and not what other have done, because to name other witches could lead to the death of the

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confessing witch. One such woman who confessed at Mprumem and even named names was summarily dismissed as insane and therefore untruthful. She is now living a very healthy and productive life in my community still. Again, the issue of proof surfaces: how does one prove witchcraft apart from confession, a confession not based on tangible things but rather on things intangible. Unlike the West where there are witchcraft associations that even non-witches can join and learn allegedly the art of witchcraft, Akan witches would never think of forming such mundane associations for fear of ostracism, shame, and punishment associated with the label and stereotype of witchcraft. Associations of witch-packs do indeed exist but they are entirely spiritual, having definite meeting times at nights and meeting places as real as the sun is to the day. On the contrary, witchcraft is not a conventional religion, with overt dogmas or doctrines, clergy, sanctuaries, liturgies, etc. Yet, witchcraft is a religion in every respect with countless adherents and a belief system that is as comparable as any other religion, albeit spiritual. In the absence of any organized communities ofwitches, it has been said that witchcraft is a superstition, but as a spiritual entity witchcraft is real to Africans and that is what is important. One day during my early teens, I visited my mother at her hometown because I missed her since I did not live with her when I was growing up. I was rather raised by my father (my father's older brother) in Simpa (Winneba) where I was born. Moreover, my father warned me not to visit my mother's hometown because he said many of those there were witches. As a teenager, I did not really grasp the full extent of his warnings for me to stay away from my mother's town and so I persisted until one day he agreed and allowed me to go and visit my mother for about a week. I was excited to go and spend some time with my mother. On my first night, I thought I had what appeared to be a dream, except that the experience was so realistically different. I saw my mother holding my hand, and together we flew off to the top of a huge odum tree just at the edge of town, which is still standing after several decades. Atop the tree was a complete town like any other town, with roads, houses on "solid" ground, people, and the scenery as bright as any ordinary day. Then my mother took me around and introduced me to the people who had gathered there, because most of them did not know me even though they knew that she had me and my sister with her husband from the city of Simpa (Winneba). Afterwards, we returned through the same entrance between the roof and a top wall of the single room. On the morning I told her that I was returning to Simpa because I felt terrified and sick and her response was whether I did not sleep well enough. When my father saw me back only after a day, he started laughing and sarcastically asked when I would visit again. While my experience, after several decades, may have just been a dream, I have always regarded it as my real encounter with witchcraft due to other factors later on in adulthood; it was not a wish fulfillment because of what my father said years earlier. The fact is that witches have their own nightly rendezvous, while in real life witches knew and acknowledged one another with secret greeting codes and signs, but they will never reveal their true identities as witches to non-witches, never. Sometimes to deceive people, witches may pretend to be enemies in real life but are

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actually the best of friends and relatives in a witch-pack. To break this code of secrecy definitely results in expulsion and even death for a traitor witch. Nothing about their nocturnal activities must be revealed in real life. As a result, members conduct themselves in ways that concealed their true intensions about persons that they may want to kill, pretending to be their loyal and faithful friend or relative, while at the same time searching for their weaknesses and reporting them to the pack, especially if the potential victims are thought to be powerful. A phenomenon that has always intrigued me is the notion that witches have the ability to walk upside down on their heads or actually on their hands9 with their feet suspended in the air during the day when they are not sleeping. When I asked a discussant as to how he could tell since he pointed out an elderly woman to me as walking on her head, at first he was surprised that I did not see the same thing as he, thinking that I was tricking him since it was a common phenomenon. This "normal" upside down position is actually a suspend-mode intended for witches to find secure places to lie down in order to depart their bodies, as they may have been summoned. The way that witches thought to walk in upside down modes are caught is to throw sand at the "feet" when passing by one. How then does a non-witch detect a witch walking upside down since no witch, even if he or she was walking with a nonwitch, would tell on a fellow witch? There is no way that non-witches can perform the sand experiment except if one was looking for trouble. However, snares could be set to catch witches thought to be walking upside down, with the intention of causing harm when they visited high places and certain powerful individuals. There is the notion that when witches are visiting sacred places or certain individuals, for fear ofbeing discovered and harmed because such places or individuals may be more powerful, a witchcraft may be removed and hid along the way or be left at home before embarking on such visits. Occasionally, a powerful witch would deliberately attempt to test such high places like sanctuaries, shrines, palaces, and certain individuals by walking upside down or in a flying mode to harm those individuals or to test the potency of their powers, as a prelude to causing immediate or potential harm. During a very difficult and challenging moments for me spiritually, an elder showed me three ingredients and instructed me how to concoct them after I acquired them. The entity told me to bury it at the entrance to my house, which also served as a palace without actually telling me what the concoction meant, although I assumed that it fell under the general rubric of protection. Several days later, I summoned the leadership of the women to my house to discuss some issues affecting the women. As each woman arrived she took her seat at the hall and awaited the arrival of the others. Just as we were about to commence the discussions an elderly relative of mine arrived and as soon as she entered she started sneezing unceasingly and uncontrollably, to the point of tears dripping down her eyes to the surprise of all present who started looking at one another. Then it quickly dawned on me that she may have entered my house in a suspended, upside-down mode causing my concoction to counteract her witchcraft by getting into her eyes and nose the moment she crossed the buried concoction. Although the rest of the women could not know anything about my concoction, they knew exactly what was going on with her because

Witchcraft none of us said anything, as we watched her try to control herself to no avail. Having failed to control her continuous sneezing, she left without ever sitting down or saying anything to anyone. Sometimes an accidental stepping of someone else's ankles or kicking sand or dust at the heels may provoke a sharp rebuke, because it is thought that the eyes of witches are actually at their heels. That is, while humans walk upright, it is also normal for witches to "walk" upside down although non-witches only see them as walking upright. This is probably why Rattray maintains that the feet of witches and their master, the Sasabonsam, pointed backwards 10 enabling them to see when walk in a manner that defies commonsense. Many witches are believed to transform themselves in suspend modes during the day in order that they may escape from the realities ofhunger, pain, and harsh economic conditions no matter how fleeting such escapisms may be. What then is this superhuman ''thing" called witchcraft and which some people are capable of putting it on and off like a coat? Describing the source and nature of the witchcraft phenomenon, Owen writes:

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It is sometimes hereditary, indwelling in the witch quite apart from intentio-

nality; it is often generally available from the storehouse of magical powers which can be employed for good or ill; and it is also supplied by various supernatural beings such as demons or evil spirits with whom witches are believed to make compacts. Whatever the particular source of their power, witches are thought to be in league with cosmic forces of evil. 11 After I repeatedly asked what biiyee (witchcraft) is, the overwhelming response was that: Bayee ys sunsum fe (Witchcraft is a dirty or unclean spirit). Indeed, for the Akan biiyee is a spirit that is different from any ordinary spirit: it is a dirt, unclean, and evil spirit. An obiiyeefo (a witch) then is someone who possesses this dirty spirit. More than a dirty spirit, witchcraft is a spiritual disorder manifesting itself socially as a result of spite and vice. So witches are generally thought of as insolent and exhibiting anti social and disruptive behavior, because the witchcraft spirit has the propensity for evil, meaning it is inherently evil although not all witchcraft are used from ill. In general, my discussants maintain that witchcraft resides in a person, making witchcraft an innate phenomenon. However, since witchcraft is sunsum (spirit), it has an independent existence of a person, meaning it has the capacity to depart and return to a body explaining why, for the Akan, witchcraft is transferable, passed on from mother to daughter or grandmother to grandchild. The enigma is that the Akan believe the sunsum to be masculine and therefore a male phenomenon. Moreover, witchcraft is an unclean evil sunsum or spirit and so what then do we make of the fact that most witches are believed to be female? In other words, how is an intrinsic agent transmitted exclusively by males as spirit find expression mostly in their daughters? The enigma is further deepened by the fact that witchcraft, in general, is passed on consanguineously from mother to children and not agnaticaly from father to children, because males are incapable ofgestation. If witchcraft is sunsum in origin, as the Akan tend to believe, then it should not be transmitted from mothers to their offspring, particularly daughters. The answer to

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these questions may lie with the type of sunsum that we are talking about, and that is, sunsum fe (unclean or dirty spirit) or sunsum b:Jn (bad or evil spirit). Whether sunsumfe or sunsum b:Jn, we are still talking about an entity that originates with a father as something to be taking (Koyee). To be exact, we are not talking about the same sunsum or spirit transmitted by fathers to their offspring, but rather an anomalous spirit, a disorder, originating with a father and finding expression in mothers during gestation. This explains why witchcraft appears to be inherited from mothers, because gestation and parturition are exclusively female biological events. Thus if witchcraft is a blood-borne agent of some sort and women are repositories ofblood, then women are transmitters of witchcraft, albeit a spiritual phenomenon. Like mitochondrial DNA or the conception of iibusua (a system of descent based on bloodlines) among the Akan that never changes, the nature of witchcraft as sunsum fe also remains unaltered. Similarly, in the same way as, according to the Akan, a father's sunsum (spirit) fuses with a female's egg or mogya (blood) at conception, witchcraft, as an anomalous sunsumfe, also fuses with blood. Since blood is transmitted only by women, according to the Akan conception of iibusua, it follows that sunsum fe, which is, witchcraft, is transferred by women genetically although its provenance is masculine. The prevailing thought is that women are the ones who transmit their witchcraft to their offspring, because at parturition mothers are the first to see their neonates and therefore readily transfer their witchcraft to their neonates. Expatiating on the dialectically symbiotic relationship between the sunsum and mogya, I state that: Precisely the Sunsum was transmitted via a male's semen (huaba) as a unique masculine stuff called by the Ak.an as Su .... But ... the Ak.an know full well that from the Su was derived the basis of all personality or character traits. However, at birth a girl only had half of her father's Su, or what Rattray termed a "small" Sunsum "which her father gave to her," because girls or women do not transmit Sunsum or spirit in the same ways as they do not transmit Y -chromosomes. And even though it takes a male to produce a male, the very nature of the Sunsum was such that it was capable of producing the female gender, because it required only half strength of what it took to produce a male to produce a female. To Illustrate ... genetically we know that a male had both the X and Y-chromosomes, while a female only had the X, and in consequence a male produced both a male as well as a female offspring, bolstering the Ak.an position that a female does not have a Sunsum or a Y chromosome. Males have X-chromosomes because they are formed in the wombs of females making it possible for them to inherit the female chromosome (blood) in addition to their unique Y chromosome .... What this means is that males and females originally had different proveniences, and while males inherit the female X-chromosome, females were incapable of inheriting and transmitting the male chromosome, because they do not have the Sunsum or a Y-chromosome. In the Ak.an scheme ofthings, what women have ... is blood (mogya or ebusua). That is, the ... spirit that a woman did not have, she compensated for it with her unique mogya, which only required a partial Sunsum in order to produce a female. In terms of an equation, a male has Sm, while a girl had sM. 12

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Further basis for witchcraft as sunsum fe originating with a father is borne out by the notion that males who possess witchcraft are believed to have double of what their female counterparts have. The simple explanation for this is that only males transmit sunsum and so male witches or warlocks acquire double dosages of sunsum at birth or later on in life: the original sunsum and the other sunsum fe making them extremely powerful. This would suggest that fathers too do transfer witchcraft to their offspring, although it is more an extrinsic transfer than genetic because males do not transmit blood, only spirit or sunsum. But whether witchcraft is transmitted by fathers or mothers, the notion is that witchcraft can only be acquired in two ways: either inherited at birth, or through supernatural means when passed on to another by a host, i.e., from ground mother to a grandchild. This being the case, where is the exact location of witchcraft? Evens-Pritchard specifically maintains that witchcraft is in the small intestines. Most of my informants assert that witchcraft is found in blood, while others agreed that witchcraft was entirely spiritual (sunsum) although feminine in practice. Yet when this intrinsic entity is combined with intentionality, then witchcraft is activated as a psychic or spiritual agent, having independent existence of those carrying it. As such, witchcraft is a psychic spell, cast in order to inflict pain and even death on victims without any obvious physical contacts with intended victims. Albeit spiritual, its physical manifestations, expressed in all kinds of afflictions cast out in the form of spells, are often deadly. As intrinsic psychic agents, they are summoned momentarily, often taking many forms as they undertake the biddings of their hosts, witches. Similarly, these spiritual agents are regurgitated into their hosts, meaning witchcraft has the capacity to multiply within a witch or when cast out has the potential to transmute into all kinds of agents in order to achieve their desired effects. The resultant agents when killed do not affect host witches because the creatures were just one of many such agents at the disposal of witches. One day an elderly woman came to see me but she was told that I was taking a nap. Before she went home, she went to the back of the house to see if my wife was there, as we sometimes entertained our friends there. When she got there, she saw an iibusua brother of mine, Kweku, eating a sumptuous meal. She spoke with him and then she left. Afterwards I came out and saw my brother and my wife talking about his meal. He swore that the elderly woman put a spell into his food and if he ate it he would have stomach pains. Sure enough, he threw the food away even though he could have heated the food to cast out the spells. I asked him why he thought the woman would put a spell in his food. My wife interrupted and said that the woman had come to me for money for food because she said she had not eating all day. Not seeing me but then seeing Kweku eating such a sumptuous meal while she was hungry, she probably cast the spell into his food out of spite. Kweku, being a warlock himself, discovered the spell and threw the rest of the food away. In this sense, witchcraft is parasitic; but whereas parasites are generally thought of as living on hosts, witchcraft lived inside the body and nourished by the blood of their victims. In return, the witchcraft protects the host, the witch, from attacks from other witches and powerful spiritual forces, illnesses, dangers, and

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anything that might threaten the safety of a witch, which in turn affected the survival and well-being of the witchcraft itself. In this vein, witchcraft, as a psychic agent, sees anyone loved by a witch as potential food and forces a witch to seek its destruction, even at the point of killing their own family members who support them fiscally. This happens when the witchcraft is very powerful and exerts control over the witch rather than the other way round. The evidence that witchcraft is a psychic agent of some sort is further borne out by the notion that prior to death a witchcraft, as an intrinsic agent having an independent existence, must be vomited otherwise a witch will never die. Stories abound of witches who tenaciously held on to life, because they resist coughing up their witchcraft or the witchcraft resisting attempts to be expelled. However, resistance is futile as a body eventually forces the witchcraft out to enable a person to die. Thus expelled, a witchcraft finds another host already identified by a witch prior to death. Normally, grandchildren are the favorite targets because longevity is the goal of witchcraft and since grandchildren have longer life expectancy than parents, a witch searches for those younger ones with longer life expectancies. Even if a death occurred suddenly, the witchcraft will still find a way to escape and latch on to another family member that happened to be around. As a result, witchcraft remained a family possession perpetually, passed on from one generation to the next. In this sense, witchcraft is true to its etymology, Koyee (to take). Witchcraft then looms larger among the Akan socio-culturally, economically, politically, and psychologically than is actually acknowledged due to the stigma associated with it. Still, the Akan take witchcraft very seriously, always being aware of the ubiquitous network of traps designed to thwart attempts by hardworking people to lead meaningful lives. Thus, ::Jbra b"is undertaking with extreme care and caution, with an explicit aim of navigating one's ethical life through a maze of witchcraft snares designed to thwart anything that has the potential for success. Indeed no witchcraft can alter an nkrabea (an existential blueprint), but sure enough witchcraft has the ability to know of an nkrabea and thus prevent one from successfully completing an nkrabea; that is, one's existential career blueprint or destiny. For this reason, people are constantly seeking spiritual healing, protection, and assurance against witchcraft through traditional means or churches. Either way, redemption for those believed to be under the control of witches requires sacrifices and oblations, intervention of clergy, traditional or modem, as we will see in the next chapter. Finally, pertaining to ancestor worship vis-a-vis witchcraft, there is a relationship between the two albeit ambivalent. The relationship may be cordial if a living ancestor is himself or herself a warlock or witch. This enables a ruler to fend off attempts by witches to weaken an ancestors stool, because they may all belong to the same witch-pack enabling such a ruler to discover mischievous deeds before they are implemented. Still, witches continually entice rulers in order to get them to break taboos pertinent to their office in order to render an ancestors stool weak and less potent. As a result, a living ancestor, whether a warlock or not, must be strong spiritually and avoid the temptations of the flesh, tyranny, corruption, etc. This is why it may help if a ruler was a witch or warlock, otherwise a ruler must wholly

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come under the aegis of an ancestors stool and deities of a community. Thus, prior to and after installation of rulers, occupants of ancestors' stools undergo days or weeks of spiritual fortifications meant to strengthen and enable them to withstand attacks from all kinds of powers. In fact, astute rulers never relent fortifying themselves as long as they are occupants of stools. As one elder told me, if your enemies have not stopped their pursuance, how can one stop from running. Hierarchically, witchcraft comes under the authority of an ancestors stool, as it is the supreme deity and progenitor of citizens of any particular community. As occupant of an ancestors stool, a ruler's spiritual powers are unparalleled regardless of whether a particular ruler was a warlock or not. However, as agents of superhuman capabilities, witches constantly try to find ways of overpowering an ancestors stool in order to weaken it and avoid capture by an ancestors stool and deities. A weakened ancestors stool can even lead to the death of a ruler. Thus weakened, witches commit evil in the name of an ancestors stool by making victims think that they have offended a stool, which sometimes results in sacrifices purportedly for the stool when in fact witches are the ones receiving them. In other words, witches exploit the weakness of an ancestors stool as a cover for their evil deeds prompting victims to blame an ancestors stool for their misfortunes. However, the more powerful an ancestors stool, the more spiritual control a king has over a community and inability ofwitches to commit evil deeds in the name of an ancestors stool and be killed. To be a powerful king is to have an ancestors stool and all deities solidly behind a ruler, which in tum instills fear and respect temporally and spiritually among witches and non-witches alike. The rapport between king and one's ancestors and deities is strengthened, indeed contingent on a king's propitiatory responsibilities to ancestors and deities.

CHAPTER3

Sacrifices and Offerings All across ancient Africa, and to some extent contemporary Africa, sacrifices, human sacrifices to be exact, were, and are, commonplace. Recently incidence of albino killings and harvesting of their bones for allegedly magical and medicinal purposes are widespread in East Africa especially, and while some perpetrators are prosecuted, sometimes the prosecutions come too late. During the civil war in Liberia, for example, soldiers killed and ate the flesh, especially the hearts of their enemies believing that it made them invincible and powerful. In Uganda, children are beheaded and buried underneath foundations of buildings to serve as spiritual protection, while others were sacrificed for wealth, that is, to make certain people allegedly rich. In Ghana, there persists the notion of sika-duruo (money medicine), whereby certain individuals allegedly sacrifice their most beloved relatives in exchange for riches. After the alleged sacrifices, perpetrators are offered certain animals like snakes thought to have the ability to cough up money for them intermittently. Indeed these stories are commonplace, but it may be entirely possible that many of the so-called sika-duruo stories are nothing but insurance schemes, whereby certain affluent relatives may conspire with others to killed relatives that they have insured and then tum around and claim the insurance money. But no matter how one was, and is, killed and the reasons offered for such ritual killings, the belief in and reality of human sacrifices in African are facts oflife. Why do human beings offer sacrifices, especially human sacrifices at all? What is it about sacrifices that human beings are willing to kill relatives and nonrelatives alike? And, to whom do humans sacrifices? According to Knipe: Essentially sacrifice involves the voluntary giving up of a valued substance or mode of being to a sacred power or a being of higher status. Often the

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Sacrifices and Offerings giving up is understood to be a destruction of the life or essence ofthe offering, or in personal terms a death, necessarily involving the sacrificer in the ambiguities of a killing, an act ofviolence, and a valued transmutation, perhaps even a liberation, of both the offering and the offerer. 1

There is a belief in Ghana that traditional rulers or kings are somehow associated with human sacrifices directly or with their tacit approvals. As a result, traditional ruler are viewed with suspicion, because they are still thought of as being active participants in the killing ofhumans for secret rites. For example, upon the death of rulers there is a widespread notion that executioners ( Abrafo or Adumfo) engaged in an orgy of human sacrifices for their decedent rulers in order to transform the king into deities. For this reason, kings are viewed as ''uncivilized," barbaric, uneducated, unchanging, and caught up in a past wrought up in ancient rites that have no place in the so-called modem world. Indeed, kings are custodians and repositories of sacred traditions, which, in the past, also meant allowing sacrifices of all kinds to proceed as part ofthe kingship institution. However, contemporary Akan kings are not trapped in archaic rituals, but are actually current on socio-economic, political, educational, and above all cultural changes taking place around them. As catalysts, many traditional kings were at the forefront of the fight against colonialism that led to Ghana's independence from colonial rule. Yet the image of the king as an uncivilized and uneducated individual still lingers, to the extent that some people are readily dismissive of traditional rulers and yet without them the rich cultural traditions of many ethnic groups in Ghana would have withered with slavery, colonialism, Christianity, and Islam. As a traditional ruler myself, I have, one way or another, felt some of these contemptuous characterizations until those making them realize that I am not uncivilized, uneducated, or primitive after all. Even my wife has experienced some of the negative effects ofbeing married to a traditional ruler. By association, she too is lumped together with a past in which human sacrifices and secret rites were the norm. When some of her friends realize that she is married to a traditional ruler, they suddenly restrain themselves as if to say that she was now a different person, which she is, but for a different reason. They would deliberately ask her if she would be able to marry a king and especially the ruler of my community ofMprumem. Yet the same friends knew that we were married for about fifteen years before I became a traditional ruler and they still react in awe upon hearing that now her husband is a ruler. In fact, some of her friends would not even attend our annual festival thinking that they might be killed and sacrificed at the festival if they got lost or strayed from the crowed. Apparently, some people in Simpa harbor an unfavorable view ofMprumem as a scary place-a place somehow associated with sacrifices. When and how Mprumem came to be associated with such notoriety, I have not been able to ascertain. While in Ghana in 1998, I recall a woman that my wife and I knew in Liberia making it a point to come to our restaurant and asking my wife if she was still married to the same man that she knew in Liberia. Apparently, the woman was one of several who had argued to the contrary that my wife divorced me in Liberia and married a king instead. When our friend insisted that I was the same person, the

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other women would not believe her and so she decided to ascertain the truth. Actually, they were all right except the divorce part. In Liberia, I was the agriculturist in charge of an agricultural project for the United Methodist church in the town of Gbarnga and our relatives and friends in Ghana knew that my wife was married to an agriculturist. Then when I was ordained a United Methodist clergyman in the United States, there were those who thought she left the agriculturist for a pastor. Again, when I became a professor and then finally the traditional ruler of Mprumem, there were still those who believed that my wife divorced her pastor husband, married and divorced the professor, before finally marrying a king. Hence, the women's argument and the insistence of our friend that my wife had been married to the same man all along. Needless to say, that they were concerned that my wife married a king, because in their view and the view of society the kingship came with secret rites that rendered those associated with it untouchables or rather sacred. As for me, I have had friends and relatives wishing to know if what they believe with regard to human and other secret sacrifices were true. Yet they do not come out directly and ask fearing that they might offend me, but as someone who once believed as they did there was no question in my mind about what they were trying to insinuate. The puzzle for some of my friends was why I left the clerical profession for the kingship instead. Often these people are oblivious to the fact that some pastors hailed from royal families too. Actually many people fail to make the connection between the clerical profession and the kingship, in the sense they are unaware theologically that the spirit that "called" the clergy was the same spirit that also called the king. Somehow, and thanks to the psychological effects of colonialism, many Ghanaians have been conditioned to think that God is the one who calls European trained clergy, while a king was called by an :>bosom or a lesser God, failing to realize that the Almighty God never calls any human being into the clerical profession. 2 Traditionally, though, the Ak:an always acknowledged the kingship as divine (Ahendzie fir sor). King Ghartey V ofSimpa (Winneba) was an ordained Methodist pastor before he became king ofSimpa from 1946-1977. His father, King Ghartey IV, although not an ordained clergy but a devout Christian, in 1893 invited the then governor of the Gold Coast (Ghana), W. B. Griffith into the Methodist church's pulpit in Simpa where king and governor preached together, with the king serving as the governor's interpreter. Yet, in spite of this there is a deep-seated notion that when a Christian or better yet a clergyperson becomes a ruler, there appears to be a spiritual or theological conflict because, allegedly, the ruler engaged in some sort "idol" worship. 3 In other words, the kingship is ancient meaning it still engages in human and other secret rites incompatible with Christianity. Consequently, the kingship is viewed as dangerous, idolatrous, powerful, unforgiving, and mysterious; whereas Christianity, with its form of clergy, is seen as forgiving. That is, Christianity is easier to follow than African religion which actually required adherence to certain precepts, laws, rites, etc. or else. Often non-followers of African religion (ancestor worship) are oblivious to the fact that symbols or the so-called idols, whether celestial or mundane, are central to all religions and that ancestor religion actually offer people access to ancient rites of

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meaning-making and ordering oflives in ways that non-African religions do not. As evidence, Africans continually gravitate toward ancestor worship, because it offers people spiritual and existential foundation and meaning. Thus, most Ghanaians of royal ancestry, regardless of their religious affiliations, jump at opportunities to become kings, as they view the kingship as the highest socio-political and spiritual estate existentially. Actually, society is the one that continues to think in the past and not at all modem kingship, because the kingship too is dynamic. Many traditional rulers like me are as educated as the most educated segment of society. Even in ancient times, kings were among the most educated segment of society, receiving traditional education and training long before the advent of Europeans and Arabs in Africa. Therefore, the notion today that traditional rulers are illiterate trapped in archaic ideas and engaged in orgy ofhurnan sacrifices are false. Such ideas are borne out ofignorance and the lingering psychological control the kingship still exercised on people. Furthermore, the sometimes contemptuously attitude towards the kingship and its alleged pagan past is the result of undue western influences that indoctrinated conquered peoples to swear allegiance to European monarchs and not African kings thought to be savages. Some Ghanaians would rather admire foreign rulers than their own, because they have been taught to think and view traditional rulers with ambivalence and disparagement. Needless to say, that in general people, especially the Twe-speaking Akan still have high regards for rulers. I made it a point to check with my queen mother, Nana Apaaba III, about human sacrifices at Mprumem and whether she and the late king ever engaged in human sacrifices. Now about 90 years old, Nana Apaaba was elected in 1970 as queen mother ofNana :lbrafo :lwom VIII who died in 1982 after 38 years as ruler. For history and ritual efficacy and continuity, she has no reason to conceal anything from me, as her king and my aunt. She categorically denied ever seeing the late king, her uncle and my granduncle, engaged in or participating in any form of human sacrifice. Nana Apaaba emphatically stated that "our stool does not eat humans," and to confirm her claim I have never seen any evidence of human skulls paraphernalia associated with our ancestors stool. Moreover, when Nana :lbrafo :lwom VIII died in 1982, she asserted that she did not see any evidence of human sacrifice, although there was an attempt to kill his youngest wife in order for her to "travel" with her defunct husband. That never happened because she was taking into hiding. I interviewed the royal wife on at least two occasions and not only did she confirm the account, each time she went on to tell me about her harrowing ordeal. As a result, she never remarried. With regard to sacrifices and the exact form of ancient African religion, Diodorus Siculus,4a Greek historian of the first century BCE and living on the island of Sicily asserts that black people: were the first to be taught to honor the gods and to hold sacrifices and processions and festivals and other rites by which men honor the deity; and that in consequence their piety has been published abroad among all men, and it is generally held that the sacrifices practiced among the Ethiopians ... are those which are the most pleasing to heaven. 5

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Black piety, as it happened, did not escape the Greek deities, whom we are told by Homer in the Iliad several centuries before Diodorus, that the entire Greek pantheon, led by "Zeus went to the blameless Aithiopians at the Ocean yesterday to feast, and the rest of the gods went with him."6 If Zeus and the entire Greek gods traveled to Ethiopia in order to partake of sacrifices offered by Africans, then it was because the Greek gods were originally African (Egyptian) and so they were simply returning home, according to another Greek historian, Herodotus, writing about four hundred years after Homer. From where and whom did Africans learn to offer sacrifices and offer them so honorably? As we have seen, black peoples were ''the first to be taught to honor the gods." But by whom? While we are not told by Diodorus who taught Africans how to honor the gods, indubitably it was the gods themselves who first revealed their sacrificial esoterica to their black devotees and the basis of this assertion lie with the fact that black peoples were the first people to walk the earth. 7 In other words, blacks could not have learned how to honor the gods from any one else but the gods themselves since there were no other humans around. Historically, since life began in Africa, only the gods could have taught the first humans how to honor them, the gods. In fact, blacks were so efficient in whatever religious esoterica taught to them by the gods, that sacrifices offered by blacks were ''the most pleasing to heaven," according to the Greeks. Subsequently, African and Greek deities gather in Africa to partake of sacrifices offered by blacks, because the Greek deities were originally African. However, it was not just black ritual efficiency that was praised, in general black piety was also widely acknowledged. Blacks have never been known to be irreligious as borne out by the ancient Egyptians who left us with documentation of their religiosity and acknowledged by outsiders. Later, other Europeans also observed black religiosity during their encounter with black Africa through slavery, missionary and individual adventurism, colonialism, and ending with independence for Africa in the late 1950s and 1960s in particular, although what Arabs and European observed was contemptuously dismissed as irreligious and replaced with Islam and Christianity. Unquestionably, originally African religion involved human sacrifices, a practice so pervasive that Europeans during the colonial period wrote about them without, sometime, verifying their sources8 and in the process exaggerated the numbers involved. Recent discoveries in Egypt have also shed more light on the scope of human sacrifice in ancient Egypt as well, to the extent that the "findings 'really tell us a lot about the social structure and belief systems of the early Egyptians."' In a New York Times article titled "With Escorts to the Afterlife, Pharaohs Proved Their Power." Wilford writes: When ancient Egypt was on the threshold of greatness, about 5,000 years ago, the rulers were already wielding fateful power over life and death and obsessing over their own afterlife. The haunting evidence has lain buried for ages in the parched sands of Abydos, resting place of the earliest pharaohs known to history. In excavations over the last two years, archaeologists have

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Sacrifices and Offerings recovered that evidence: the remains of human sacrifices. The practice of human sacrificial burials in Egypt, presumably to coincide with the pharaoh's own funeral, had long been suspected but never substantiated. Now it has been for the first time. 9

The article further stresses that the Abydos "discoveries ... 'are embarrassing for Egyptologists, who like to stress how relatively humane the ancient Egyptians were,"' because Egyptologists have persistently attempted to tum the ancient Egyptians into what they wanted the ancient Egyptians to be: Europeans and Arabs. Yet, the ancient Egyptians, like other African peoples, according to Diodorus, never arrived in Africa from outside the African continent to settle the Nile valley. The evidence, according to Davidson, shows a long continuum of African peoples from inner Africa, that is, south and southwest moving into and settling the Nile valley. Conversely, there is evidence of non-African groups like the Hyksos, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Turks, and Europeans moving into African. Those who later left Africa after centuries of occupation also left behind their indelible religious, cultural, and political imprints and heritages on Africans, while those who remained seized and divided huge areas of Africa, especially northern Africa amongst themselves as nation states after killing off most of the African inhabitants. As far as human sacrifices are concerned, perhaps more perplexing is the fact that some of those killed in ancient Egypt, like elsewhere in Africa, actually volunteered to travel along with their decedent rulers, as Wilford's article "found 'no trace of any kind of trauma on any of the skeletons.' The individuals appeared to have died peacefully, probably by poison." Rattray certainly found evidence of people ready to volunteer and die along Asante rulers when he studied the Asante in the 1920s. One of the things that intrigued me when I was growing up had to do with ritual time and when rites were performed. Elders would often say that the time was not right for enactments of certain rituals and so I became aware that performance of certain rites involved precise timing in order for rites to be efficacious. For example, the Akan name their children on the eighth day after birth when a week has run a full cycle coinciding with the day a neonate was born eight days earlier. Similarly, in the United States, I became fascinated by the time that presidents of the United States took their oaths of office. From Reagan to Obama, the times were always the same: 12 noon. For example, 12:03 on Saturday, January 20, 2001 was when George W. Bush took the oath of office, while Obama's time was 12:05. The timing of 12:00 noon is not a coincidence spiritually, and while it is the established tradition, it offers more than a ritual time. It reminded me of the sacred day of the lagoon deity Kwsku Moni of the Awutu-abe of Simpa (Winneba). Wednesday is sacred to the deity and therefore no fishing activity took place in it on that day. In addition to fishing, the lagoon also produced abundant salt, which was collected by the citizens. Due to the competition for salt, my aunt would order us, the children, into the lagoon after 12 noon on a Wednesday to collect salt, justifYing her timing by saying that Thursday had already begun. Did she know something that we did not know as children? Often we will be the only people in the lagoon until

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late in the evening before others joined us and one can imagine how overly sensitive we were as children, thinking that the deity would reveal itself or strike us dead at any moment. Later in adulthood, I came to realized that my aunt was right. Midday and midnight occupy such important sacred periods that for certain rites like sacrifices to be efficacious, they must be enacted with certain times in mind. While ceremonies commencing at noon might be thought of as public fanfare, the spiritual significance is gargantuan. Similarly, midnight ceremonies are esoteric and highly secretive, because they are witnessed by forces other than humans who operate nocturnally between the hours of midnight and three in the morning. Ritual time also involved numbers, which in tum called for observance of certain important days. In Yoruba cosmology, for example, God created in four days and then rested on the fifth day, making both days important but for different ritual reasons. I recall my son bringing home his homework and one of the assignments involved the number four. When I asked him to form a sentence with the number he wrote that four was an even number. I then proceeded to ascertain from him what he meant by an even number as opposed to an odd number. Of course, numbers play significant roles in all societies, but for the Akan, numbers may be categorized into two main groups: sacred and secular. Even numbers are secular and therefore mundane because they are divisible for humans, while odd numbers are sacred and considered unlucky for humans. However, rites for deities are efficacious when performed in oddity and may be repeated three times. The Akan would say that a deity is visited or approached three-times (mprensa) to indicate finality. For example, when offering a libation to the ancestors or deities the wine may be poured on the ground three-times before accompanying prayers commenced. The oddity of numbers in relation to the deities indicate that the deities are themselves odd in form, character, essence and nature. While odd numbers are indivisible in the realm of the corporeal Wiadzie, in the sphere of the sacred, they are perfectly proper and divisible. If a deity makes its will known three-times, then it indicates finality, completeness, totality, and accepting wholly. Likewise, when an elder refers to the deities as 77 during prayers and libations, he does so collectively since the number 77 is the metaphor for the totality of the divinities. What the number 77 suggests is that at some point the Akan had a pantheon of seventy-seven deities but in time the number symbolically came to represent the totality of all the deities when, perhaps, individual names of the deities defused. The normative nowadays is that every community among the Fante invoked the number 77 during prayers and libations, so that this number has become synonymous with the deities collectively. For example, in my community ofGomoa Mprumem, whenever the elders offer prayers and libations to the gods and ancestors, they invoke them collectively by saying: a//77 deities ofMprumem, proceed and partake ofyour wine. Or, an elder may only invoke the spokes-deity (:Jkyeame), :Jbaa Yaa and then proceed to say that: by invoking you, :Jbaa Yaa, I have invoked the 77 deities ofMprumem. As far as time vis-a-vis God is concerned, we know that God created the sky or heaven above and the earth below in an orderly fashion and at a time beyond

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every human imagination, because God's creation was hidden from humans. Indeed, there is no way that human beings can know when or how long it took for God to create, whether creation was an instantaneous act or a prolonged operation. However, time is indispensable with regard to the created universe, especially in trying to fuse together the sacred and the secular. What this means is that divine and secular times are not the same existentially, because divine (God) time existed long before secular (human) time. For this reason, the Akan would say that Nyame ni mbir nye mbir pa (God's time is ideal), because God's time is a surety in that God and time are one and the same. No matter how long things take, everything will be fulfilled ultimately, because God's time is inscrutably exact, curvilinear, and enigmatic (Nyame nikwan ye akyiwakyiu). As the author of time, only God has advance knowledge of both divine and secular times and how God intends to fulfill his own time. Even when people think they can predict or announce certain events based on past experiences, invariably they come up short, because time changes or takes turns (Mbir dze adandan) for the simple reason that God's time is not the same as human time. Consequently, human beings cannot know divine time for the simple reason that humans are not the originators of time. However, what human beings can do to actuate divine time is to recreate divine time ritually since sacred time does not change. Ritual or sacred time is the exact moment that a rite is performed in order to obtain the maximum effect. A ritual is the routine and repeated manner that a group undertakes certain tasks unique to that group. In the religious context, a ritual has to do with the precise, step-by-step, preparation of certain ritual formulas. And unlike rituals that may take place at regular intervals on a daily basis, like greetings, rites are periodic, taking place at a culturally define time, age or stage. Therefore, rites are secret teachings and the laws governing them. In praxis, rites are only available to initiates who meet society's criteria of personhood and are therefore ready to be inculcated into what it means to be. Initiate may be set aside for day or weeks, taught the esoterica, infliction of certain bodily marks, share in communal meals, and then emerge from experiences that transform them physically and psychological forever. Thus, no one undertakes a rite and remains the same: an individual always emerges a new creation. These secret practical and oral teachings have been passed down from antiquity to contemporary elders. But where does the secrets governing rituals, rites, offerings, sacrifices, and the honoring of ancestors and gods originate? Even though Diodorus does not offer us details of the sort of sacrifice and offerings black people offered, according to Davidson's quote, it suffices to say that ancient African religious sacrifices and offerings were not different from their contemporary descendants. Naturally, whether in Africa or in the African Diaspora today, sacrifices may have undergone significant ritual modifications in conformity to changing times, especially for those in the Diaspora. Still, the unchanging nature of ancient and modern African sacrificial objects, i.e., humans and animals, are borne out by the fact that the ancient Egyptians, for example, sacrificed human beings, 10like Africans everywhere. For the Akan and their kindred peoples, a sacrifice is Kha-mogya, meaning ''to spill blood." Specifically, the Akan conceptualize kha-mogya as slashing the

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throat of an animal or human with the sole purpose of causing blood to gash out. In this vein, kha-mogya, if it involved human blood, represent the ultimate propitiatory act, although the efficacy of the sacrifice itself is contingent on several factors, including the ritual purity of the sacrificer. Sometime, a sacrifice may not entail slashing a throat and exposing blood; rather, deities may partake of an animal or a human's blood wholly by "drinking" the blood of the sacrificial animal internally through supernatural means without having to kill the animal. Phenomenally, such a sacrificial animal does not suffer death immediate but would linger on for a while until it died eventually. Spiritually, the sacrificial animal died the moment its blood was zapped. Such delayed deaths are explained by the notion that when an :Jkra departs a living being precipitously, there is a divine thread or cord that is not severed immediately, taking a while for the "thread" to terminate the body before physical death finally occurred. Symbolically, an umbilical cord and a neonate and the severing of the cord after parturition best illustrate this phenomenon. Similarly, there is a spiritual cord or thread, which originates with God the moment an ::Jkra enters a being making it a living entity. Upon death and depending on how traumatic and sudden a death, it takes a while for the spiritual cord to recover from the shock of a sudden death before returning to its source. Visually, the experience may be likened to an extinguished candle light and the subsequent trail of a thin smoke dissipating into the air after extinguishing the fire. The phenomenon of a soul being taking suddenly by a deity is such that there is a delayed reactionary effect of physical death enabling a living thing to prolong existence. Of course, if one were to die a natural death, then the spiritual cord and the ::Jkra terminate a body almost together, with the divine cord following the ::Jkra as it returns to its source. Sometimes, an ::Jkra may depart a person long before one actually died, especially if such a person is highly developed spiritually unless an ::Jkra is zapped suddenly. For an animal taken wholly and until the animal finally died, it would be discovered that its meat had turned "dark" a clear indication of a spiritual death or sacrifice. Phenomenally, among the Awutuabe (Effutu) ofSimpa (Winneba), Ghana, this exact ritual sacrifice occurs annually during their Nyanbr or deer festival, as would be discussed below. Synonymously, the Akan equate life with blood and it follows that the basis of their family unit is determined on consanguineous principles thought to originate with a mother. Thus, there are seven (or eight) consanguineous grouping called iibusua from which current and antecedent members all descended. Incidentally, the seven or eight iibusua groupings that the Akan belong corresponds to the blood types that humans have. Did the ancestors of the Akan know all along that there were seven or eight blood types in the world? Contrary to popular western notions, men do not transmit bloodlines, at least not in the way that the Akan speak ofblood. The challenge, and certainly my fascination with this idea, is to conduct research into the blood types of the seven (for the Fante) or eight (Twi speakers) iibusua groupings to see if members of each iibusua group shared the same blood type. Essentially, every human is the very blood of its mother, as evidenced by menstrual blood being a unique female biological issue, in the same way as the transmission of mitochondrial DNA is to females. Still, there is a divine component

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to blood that makes blood the ultimate ambrosia, and that is, the :Jkra (soul) or living essence of all living things originating with God, Nana Nyame. The combination or association of :Jkra with blood is the reason why the Akan and their kindred peoples equate blood with life and precisely the desire to feed on blood, since the :Jkra is divine. Sacrificial blood must be fresh or warm and un-coagulated, because coagulated blood has already lost its spiritual potency, as the :Jkra has already departed. For example, the meat of a dead animal is not to be consumed because its :Jkra is trapped spiritually within its body in spite of its :Jkra having departed prior to its death. Such meat is considered "blood meat" because the throat of the animal or human was not cut to enable blood to gash out and free the soul. The ritual ingestion of sacrificial blood must be deliberate and immediate and with the expressed intention of augmenting or prolonging a life both physically and spiritually, because one has appropriated an eternal part of that which is sacrificed. I do not mean here fanciful and erotic ingestion of the blood of a living person or animal, as that does not tantamount to death of the victim, rather blood must emanate from an animal about to be killed with accompanying prayers and libations, in which the :icra is in the process of departing the body. The intention of taking a life sacrificially must be unambiguous, as clearly stated by Knipe. I am speaking of sacrificing an animal or human, with the expressed aim of taking its life via the consumption ofblood and meat of a victim. Human blood then is premium because there seem to be no animal higher than humans that can be sacrificed and its blood offered to the deities as supreme as that of a human. If blood is collected in the process then it must remian uncoagulated and one way to achieve this is to add salt. But adding salt also dilutes sacred meals and may render an entire rite ineffective. Therefore, one must know when to add salt, because the deities may not consume an ambrosia containing salt. The preferred addition to a bowl of freshly collected blood is liquor, because it does the same thing as salt and more in that it prevents blood from coagulating. First, it gets the gods and any spirit that partakes of the ambrosia drunk, which in tum makes a meal more pleasing, enticing, and the deities feistier. And secondly, liquor enlivens an :Jkra, in the process envenoms the spirits even more and ready to strike. In feisty states, spirits readily accede to the demands of sacrifices by inflicting punishment on perpetrators of crimes against the innocent. While blood alone suffices as an ambrosia because it brakes down the wall separating the corporeal and spiritual worlds, certain parts of a sacrificed animal thought to be repository ofblood may also be thrown into a bowl ofblood. Ritually, "the sacrificial animal had certain essential parts taken and then cut into 77 pieces each and mixed with the animal's blood and scattered at certain sacred sites. This was to ensure that every deity received some of the animal's essential parts. Hence the number 77 symbolized completeness or totality of the deities. " 11 The prime portions may include a liver, lung, intestine, stomach, flank, and some contents of the food in the stomach. It is important to note that none of the portions contained a bone or heart. Then each portion is meticulously cut into whatever pieces determined by a group and the cuts mixed with blood and distributed or scattered at designated sacred sites, with the appropriate accompanying prayers by a suppliant.

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Ideally, an ambrosia should be taking to a river, scooped, and scattered or thrown into the river with accompanying prayers. This method is highly efficacious and universal because as blood ambrosia fuses with water, it diffuses enabling humans, creatures, plants and animals, and deities to partake of the ambrosia directly. Moreover, as a river ofblood ambrosia flows into the sea, it is joined by other rivers and bodies of waters making an ambrosia a universal sacrifice. It is important to note that whenever there is a sacrifice of any kind, while the focus may be on a particular deity or spirit, there are also a host of uninvited spirits in attendance because gods do not feast alone. A host deity or spirit would have invited its friends too; but also in attendance are malevolent as well as benign spirits, dropping in to ascertain the reason for a sacrifice. Therefore, the accompanying prayers and libations during the scattering of an ambrosia must acknowledge this fact, inviting malevolent forces to partake of the offering but imploring them to depart upon partaking of an ambrosia. As for benign spirits, they should partake of the offering and in return stay to bestow their blessings on everyone, especially the sacrificer. In this way, one mitigated potential spiritual spoilers paving the way for blessings to be bestowed. Ultimately, blood is highly desirable spiritually, because deities and spirits in general do not have blood thus they crave it, as blood contains the very essence of the divine, God.

Animal sacrifices In general most animals-cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs, cats, chickens, etc. may be sacrificed, but for the Akan cattle, sheep and goats, and chickens are preferred for good or ill. The Akan place cows on the pedestal of most preferred sacrificial animals as long as a community is able to afford them. It would seem that in the absence of human sacrifices, bulls (male cattle) have risen to the ascendancy of sacrificed animals. Cosmically its huge seize guaranteed plenty ofblood and meat for a host of spiritual and human beings. Ordinarily, bulls are sacrificed during communal festivities for purification of entire societies after the animals have been paraded. Significantly, parading bulls assume upon themselves societal ills, which they died with and in the process ensured rebirth and sustainability of societies. The rite by which an animal assumed social ills and then be killed or let loose in order for the animal to carry away the ills of society or an individual is known among the Akan as Pa-musu. Cleansed thus, the renaissance of society is assured because the cosmic doom that awaited society for transgressing against deities is averted, as cosmic powers accept the blood of bulls as just reward for their anger. The term musu means a taboo, prohibition, abomination, uncleanness, and therefore an ominous doom. Consequently, whoever breaks a taboo (b:J musu) has endangered, first, oneself, and second, one's family and community. In consequence, one must purify oneself (Pa musu) in order to ward off an impending doom or avert a revengeful spirit's anger and be re-admitted into a family or society in good standing. To describe the complicated nature of a musu, the Akan would use a tabooed bird called Santrowfee to illustrate the diabolically menacing nature of musu, saying that to catch a Santrowfee bird is to have caught a musu, while freeing it

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also tantamount to catching a musu. Since there appears to be a no win situation for a person who has committed a musu, the only logical response to the doubleentendre maxim is to kill the bird since freeing it does not exculpate one from a musu offense or curse. Indeed musu must be killed and gotten rid of through blood sacrifice once a musu offense has been committed. Didactically what the maxim expresses is the avoidance of musu in the first place. The reality is that musu may be very inviting and tempting and therefore unavoidable, sometimes. So the question is: How does one rid oneself of a musu once a musu offense has been committed willfully or unwittingly? When the Akan say to someone: Ab.1 musu (one has committed a musu offense), it means they want such a person to atone or risk alienation and doom. The concept of musu is not limited only to individuals but extends to include the mere discussion of certain subjects or referencing of them. The notion is that musu renders an individual or even a group unclean, requiring purification before an individual is restored to a state of wholeness. While a person committing a musu might not be required to sacrifice a bull for an individual offense no matter how egregious, a community, however, must offer such a sacrifice. In this sense, the term musu may necessarily apply to society as a whole although musu is individualistic than corporate. Occasionally the collective evils of a group may rise to the level of musu, which would then require bull sacrifices. Also, during prayers a suppliant would use musu in connection with Asan (danger, threat of danger) and then implore God to ward off iisan and musu meant for a state or individuals. More than simple prayers to ward off impending dangers (iisan) or an ominous doom (musu), the ritual of warding off evil may take the form of charities. Indeed, altruistic deeds, acts ofkindness, periodic throwing of parties, etc. may all act as substitutes for warding off evil. In other words, one does not have to commit a wrong before performing acts of kindness aimed at preventing evil from occurring, because good deeds may serve to forestall a musu and asan from affecting a benefactor. What this suggests is that musu and asan, as evil threats, are always lurking around for opportune moments to avail themselves ominously against those committing evil deeds, particularly. Aware of such threats, people constantly pray and implore God to avert mishaps in their daily lives and those of their loved ones. Under what circumstance then would a community be required to sacrifice a bull if, in practice, a community does not commit a musu offense? The sense of social responsibility is enough to force a group to sacrifice an animal. This is where the evil deeds of an individual may affect an entire community, because certain individual crimes and evil deeds are such that their harmful effects endanger entire societies, forcing the collective leadership to take immediate propitiatory acts in order to ward off a doom. Furthermore, a series of natural disasters, misfortunes, a sudden calamitous event, anomalies in the natural order of things, like draughts during raining seasons or vice versa, and unexplained sudden illnesses or deaths would cause a community to examine itself and offer propitiatory sacrifices. Etiologically, catastrophes are invariably explained in the context of the spiritual; that is, they must have spiritual causatives, otherwise things should progressed orderly in the

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scheme of nature. If there is reason to believe that something has gone wrong, then invariably sacrifices are offered to mitigate the causative agents. In the 1980s, I observed sacrificial events among the people of Simpa (Winneba), which illustrated corporate responsibility stemming from a series of anomalies that their leadership felt required sacrifices to their deities led by Otu. I write: This brings to mind a weeklong ceremony that I witnessed in 1988 aimed at placating the deities to "release" fish. The beginning of the herring season in June had long passed without any sign of herrings for the community's fishermen. Exacerbating the situation was the fact that fishermen in the towns bordering Simpa were all having bountiful catches. The priests decided to act by imposing a week-long ban on fishing while a series of rites were performed. At designated sacred sites each day, the clergy, clad in white, barefoot, and holding sacred brooms that designated their ranks and authority, and with twisted vines wrapped around their heads, sang and chanted the praises of the deities. Leading the way were three priestesses beating a double-shaped gong as they made their way to the shrine of [the deity] Otu. At certain sacred sites they ran, while at others they came to a complete stop. At Otu's the shrine, the clergy circumambulated the shrine once. Next, each person took off the sacred vine and threw it towards the entrance to the shrine, after which a high priest welcomed and addressed them. The ritual continued throughout the week, during which time three animals were killed at different sites, with the third, a bull, sacrificed on Sunday, July 31, at a crossroad believed to be the ancient route of the deities and the founding party that first left Dwomma. Thus, the weeklong ceremony formally ended with the final benediction pronounced by a high priest. However, fishing did not commence until the following Tuesday evening. The festive atmosphere on Tuesday evening was incredible as every boat in a good fishing condition was put out to sea. There was no doubt, when I spoke to people that on Wednesday morning when the fishermen were expected to return, the dry spell on fish would end. I was awakened by the shouts of professional (women) fish sellers Wednesday morning at my residence about two miles away from the beach. When I went outside, I saw three women, all fish sellers, scrambling for customers, and so I inquired from them as to where they got the fresh herrings. The reason for inquiring was that usually women from the neighboring communities came and sold their fish in areas where fish was scarce. When told about the plethora of fish at the beach I hurried there and discovered an incredible catch, with thousands of people converging on the beach in order to purchase all they could. As I made my way home, I reflected on the weeklong ceremony in relation to the catch. I tried to make sense ofthe events leading to that morning and whether there was any cause-and-effect relationship. Would the rites have been efficacious regardless ofthe week-long ban? Or, was the one week moratorium really the reason for the abundant catch? That is, did the moratorium allow fish to move to the inactive waters of Simpa away from areas that fishing was actively been pursued? Whatever the reasons, they must be understood in the context of the religious. What is important is that the end justifies the means. 12

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While the bulls sacrificed were to purify the Simpa state and ward offbad omen, the goal also was to appease and compensate (mpata) their deities led by Otu for the omissions and commissions of the community due to their long and rancorous kingship internecine struggle. Moreover, since the Awutu-abe are fishermen and fishmongers and since Otu is a sea deity, the sacrifices were meant to cause the deities to relent and cause fish to be caught, once again. Following bull sacrifices there seem to be a preference for sheep and goats as sacrificial animals respectively. Hierarchically, sheep are valued greatly over their sturdier, faster and agile counterparts, goats because goats are viewed diabolically as devilish and linked to witchcraft for nefarious activities. For this reason, goats are not used for life-saving sacrificial rites; rather, they are used for sinister rituals, like the wish to harm someone. Yet some deities prefer goat sacrifices to sheep and so there is nothing wrong with goat sacrifices although one must inquire first before making any animal sacrifice. Even so, many goat sacrifices are understood from the context of warding off evil and therefore may be undertaking in secrecy. Goats in particular, and depending on the crime, are sometimes used as bearers of musu when a musu is sympathetically transferred to them and set free. The family of a person who has committed a musu and taken ill would purchase a goat (or sheep and sometimes chickens too) and then wipe the sick or offender's entire body from head to toe with a life goat. Then the goat is let loose carrying, literally, the illness, the musu crime or offense of an offender. Cleansed, an offender is absolved of one's musu, because the musu offense is exchanged for the life ofthe goat after transferring the musu illness onto the goat. The loosed goat consequently becomes a taboo (musu) animal and anyone, particularly family members of the sick or the person who committed a crime, who touches the goat again or worse killed the goat inherited a far greater musu than the original crime. However, there is the notion that after awhile, perhaps days or even weeks, anyone else discovering and owning such a roaming animal was free of the musu that the goat was carrying, meaning the discoverer was free to kill the goat for meat or even rear it. In general, though, no one would consciously consider having anything to do with a roaming musu goat or any other animal and incur the evils of a former musu person. Conversely, sheep are associated with all kinds of rites and rituals. Their meekly and docile nature makes them preferred sacrificial animals. Like bulls, sheep are used for any sacrifice that bulls are used for except on a smaller scale. To compensate for a bull, for example, several sheep may be slaughtered like when a ruler died. Whenever a ruler dies, for example, a declaration is made to the effect that the earth had opened up, literally, meaning any animal, particularly sheep found wandering was subject to immediate sacrifice in honor of the decedent ruler. The goal is to spill as much blood as could be obtained in connection with the deification ritual processes of the deceased ruler. Unlike goat sacrifices undertaking in private because of the nefarious connotations associated with goat sacrifices, anyone sacrificing a sheep need not do so covertly. One of the musu offenses which undoubtedly required sheep sacrifices is incest. Incest is a grave musu crime and society is adamant about its penalty for anyone who engages in a sexual intercourse with any member of one's own family

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to slaughter at least one sheep in order to cleanse those involved, their families, and community. Even more sheep are slaughtered if the affair resulted in a pregnancy, in which case the pregnancy may be aborted. I am aware of at least two cases where "couples" who met in communities other than their own but later discovered that they were blood relatives were required to end the relationship immediately and sheep sacrifices offered. Those involved were young people who did not know one another because they or their parents resided outside of the original hometowns. They met and fell in love and thinking that they were ready to get married subsequently informed their respective parents. However, upon ascertaining the backgrounds of the would-be husbands, their families realized that they were blood relatives. One of the women involved was already pregnant, while the other couple lived together until they decided to return home to seek the blessings of their respective families. This explains why in Africa two people do not just meet anywhere and marry, they must be married in their communities in order to avoid such accidental marriages and relationships. The reality, though, is that with rapid urbanization and migration into urban areas from rural communities, such mistaken marriages are bound to happen, as they already have. Notwithstanding, such marriages are deemed musu and those involved cleansed with blood, the blood of sheep or else the stigma remains permanently. Indeed, a child born as a result of incest or similar relationship is called Musu ba (Cursed or taboo child). Another rite in which sheep sacrifice is celebrated is called iisu (thanksgiving, purification, cleansing). Contextually, iisu is effected after escaping from a grave danger, difficult situation, or having recovered from a grave illness and requiring a thanksgiving rite for one's soul (:Jkra). This is meant to, first, purify oneself, and two, to feast with loved ones in acknowledgement ofhaving a second lease on life. Normally, performing iisu is quite expensive since, like musu, it is individualistic in nature. Even so, family members chip in to defray the costs associated with iisu b:J (the process of undergoing iisu rite). In December of 2007, a wife of my granduncle and former ruler of Gomoa Mprumem that I succeeded approached me for an assistance to enable her to afford the cost of an iisu rite for her son who had recovered from a very debilitating illness. Her son had been ill for several years and sought treatments in hospitals as well as from traditional practitioners to no avail until finally a traditional "spiritualist" was able to cure him. To celebrate his successful recovery and in appreciation for the spiritualist healing him, the patient, her son, must first pay the healer for his or her services by providing all kinds of predetermined items and money, including at least a sheep before the healer would released him. It was in this context that the former royal wife approached me for help and although I could not be of assistance as I had previously contributed towards his hospital costs, I congratulated her for her son's successful recovery. In this sense, iisu is freedom from indebtedness and servitude after an illness. And in the case of the royal wife's son, he needed to offer a sheep sacrifice and other items as payment in exchange for the life of her son, otherwise a recovered patient remained with his or her healer until all debts were settled.

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Ritually, iisu is similar to Mpun hun (graduation) payments made after a trainee, as in the clerical vocation or an apprentice, successfully completes apprenticeship and has to pay one's master cash, goods, and animals for training students. While iisu is effected after recovering from a grave illness, 'Pun hun is undertaking after voluntarily entering into a profession as a novice and successfully completing training, after which all rights and privileges are conferred upon the graduate as a full member of a particular profession. Essentially, 'Pun hun is a traditional baccalaureate ceremony, although inability to complete final ritual payments by a student to one's master or institution results in a student becoming an indentured servant to a master or an institution. I explain elsewhere as: Traditionally, whenever a family sought treatments or when novices for the priesthood completed their training but were unable to graduate, because they could not pay for services rendered to them as patients or trainees, then by custom the patients and priest-to-be remained with the priests or shrine (deity) as indentured servants forever, including all children and services rendered by them. 13

The phenomenon whereby animals, like sheep and goats, are demanded as final sacrificial payments by religious leaders during healing rites, seem to have been adapted by some independent Christian denominations in Africa. As such, one discovers a syncretistic Christian and African ritual practices where animal sacrifices are the vogue, as discovered by Britt 14 during his study of the United Church of Salvation in Liberia. Concerning the church's dichotomous utilization of sheep and goats, Britt writes: Against a spiritual dualist backdrop, UCS animal sacrifice was performed with concrete purpose and for immediate reward. The two most constant forms observed were the Sin Sacrifice that mandated a goat victim and a life Sacrifice that mandated a ram victim. Unlike other offerings, neither the Sin Sacrifice nor the Life Sacrifice could be replaced with a stop-gap. The Sin Sacrifice represented a rite of confession or purification that a sacrifierperformed before making other sacrifices. The Life Sacrifice was a rite of restoration or protection that forestalled the threat of death. Thus, it always implicated the need for purification within the community, since the threat of death signaled the presence of witchcraft. Considered together, these two rites manifested the dialectics of sin and redemption, death and life. 15

Chickens and Eggs Some decades ago, the Zambian national soccer team played Ghana in Accra. But when the Zambian team arrived in Ghana and while the plane was still on the tarmac, the leader of the Zambian team got out first and smashed an egg on the tarmac before anyone else could come out. Apparently, the team brought an egg from Zambia to Ghana with the sole aim of performing this ritual in order to propitiate the gods of Ghana. The act caused a furor in the Ghanaian newspapers, because they realized the spiritual significance of what the Zambians did: they respected the gods

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and ancestors of Ghana. It seemed, psychologically, that Ghana had already been defeated. Surprisingly to Ghanaians, Zambia beat Ghana by a lone goal and as expected people blamed the loss on what the Zambians did at the airport when they arrived. Even though chickens and eggs do not compare in seize to cattle, sheep or goats, they feature prominently in most sacrificial rites. In fact, without chickens or eggs many sacrifices would not be efficacious and the results known, because chickens are used to ascertain ritual efficacy of many sacrifices and offerings. Their indispensability to rites of all kinds are predicated on the fact that they are the most common, least expensive, and therefore readily available sacrificial animals and objects. Yet, it would be a mistake spiritually to conclude that their commonality rendered chickens valueless sacrificially. Actually, chickens and eggs grant access to the spirit world because they are emblematic oflife and even death. Thus, eggs are, for example, the first ambrosia of the deities. Concerning chickens and some of their specific usages sacrificially: sometimes before or even after a high rite was performed, a chicken may be killed to ascertain from the deities if a rite was accepted or rejected by the deities. After cutting a roaster's windpipe it was let loose to see in which position it fell dead. If it fell faced down or on it left side, then it meant rejection of a sacrifice; however, if it died facing up or fell on its right, then a sacrifice was accepted. 16 I recall one of my first rites involving a chicken at Mprumem in connection with my kingship in 1999 "during that community's weeklong Akwanmbo festival." I had observed many rites involving chickens growing up, but this one affected me personally as a relatively new ruler and how it pertains to the effectiveness ofthe festival . The festival was my first five-year cycle on the ancestors stool and therefore I had to perform pha rites. Meaning, a "special purification rites were performed for the ruler to begin a three-day sequestration period .... During sequestration, the royals only wore white cloths, ate oto meal every morning before they ate anything else, and only a few people allowed to visit them." Moreover, the ancestors stool had been moved to a new location prior and to ascertain whether my five-year cycle has been a success or even a failure, the moving of the stool, and the state of the festival, my elders had to sacrifice a chicken. Unbeknownst to me the ritual had already begun in front of my residence where many people had gathered to observe about a dozen-or-so traditional clergy perform. A few elders came to my throne hall where I was seated with other elders and guests and asked if I could proceed outside. Not exactly knowing what was going on I muttered, 'what next,' as I was really exhausted from a series of rituals, meetings, and visitations. When I got outside, many of my elders had already gathered and awaiting my arrival. Then the person holding the chicken slit the chicken's throat without severing its head completely causing it to jump about while it struggled to die. Somehow, as it jumped around with blood splashing everywhere it came and rested at my feet momentarily and then finally at the feet of the head of the royal family (Abusua-panyin Takyi) standing several feet away at the other end

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of the semicircle and died face up. Suddenly, there was a burst of exhilaration and excitement, with people jumping and shouting for joy: we had been vindicated. While I never doubted the outcome with regard to which position the chicken would fall, the way the dying chicken fell at the feet of the two of us for several seconds each, out of the many in attendance, was quite intriguing to me. The community of faith was seeking confirmation from their ancestors and deities about the course of events and the response came in a resounding affirmation. The color of chickens for sacrifices also matters. In general, all colors except black are acceptable sacrificially although red may be used during times of agitation, as red signifies anxiety, danger, urgency, and turbulence. Ideally, white chickens are preferred, but any chicken with a predominantly white color, meaning a combination of red, black, etc. is acceptable for sacrificial purposes and ascertaining from the deities the status of a rite. Black chickens, like goats, may be used for musu and other nefarious activities ideally at nights. Otherwise, chickens have favorable usages, especially when dealing with psychosis, asu, and 'Pun hun. Chickens are used for most forms of spiritual payments, like ailments and illnesses, because health practitioners demand them as mitigating animals. To facilitate holistic healing, a white chicken may be used to wipe or swipe the sick by circling the head of a patient three-times, touch the shoulders, the seat of the :Jkra also three times, and then the rest of the body. Then the chicken, together with food ingredients and money, preferably coins, are put together in a tray and taking to a crossroad and dumped at the center thereby freeing the musu chicken carrying the illness of a patient. All traffic, spiritual and physical, good and evil, meet at a crossroad and deities take notice of offerings placed there and may actually partake of them. Chances are that the human or a spiritual entity causing an illness would undoubtedly come across the offerings and be obliged to accept the offering. Thus forced, a spiritual causative agent releases the patient from its control. A crossroad ritual is really a trap, carried out to force an unforgiving power to relent, as long as the causative malevolent power utilized the crossroad. In other words, a causative spirit has been exposed to other powers and who therefore force it to relent and free a sick person or be reminded each time it used the crossroad. In human as well as spiritual terms, ingredients for any crossroad rites are meant as a taboo for a causative human or spirit, meaning every time that one ate the same ingredients and used money then one is reminded of the harmed or cursed it is inflicting on a victim. Eggs are unique in that they represent the ultimate primeval ambrosia. For the ancient Egyptians, the world originally was an egg containing all that there was to be, in opposite pairs. Meaning, an egg originated before a chicken, since an egg does not need a chicken in order to hatch, only the right temperature and rotation. Thus to offer a deity an egg is to have offered it all that there was, and is, and will be, wholly. However, not just any egg is offered, rather a fertilized egg is the ideal because it contains potential life. Therefore to brake, crack, or smash a fertilized egg on an altar as food is to have offered a spirit a complete essence of a life. Eggs are the least expensive and yet the most efficacious sacrificial meal that anyone can utilize. Most sacrifices involved eggs because it is the first spiritual food

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and therefore the most common gift for deities. Eggs can be used with or without the assistance of adepts, meaning anyone can pick up an egg, pray over it, and simply smash it on an altar, a sacred ground, or abject and the effect would be as potent as any sacrificial act. Before any activity, for example, a suppliant may have to smash an egg as a propitiatory act announcing an impending ritual, in the same way as the Zambian national team did when they got to Ghana. A smashed egg offered to the gods of Ghana was rewarded with a single goal when the Zambians beat Ghana. This singular act by a foreign nation pleased the gods of Ghana more than any other rite that the Ghanaian team may have perform in preparation for the game against Zambia. In this vein, an egg is used to mitigate magical spells when immediately upon entering an unfriendly territory, an egg is smashed as a sign of respect for the spiritual powers of a locale. A person may act to pre-empt a hostility of certain spiritual agents against individuals or a group by first offering the deities food and eggs. After all, no one invokes a deity or any spiritual agent without offering it a gift of wine or liquor, blood, meant, money, flowers, clothing, fruits and vegetables, candles, etc. The Akan have a fascination with eggs spiritually and figuratively. The yoke of an egg is thought to be emblematic of the color red and representative of a woman's blood, while the white of the egg is masculine and emblematic of semen. Most importantly, color symbolism is replicated when preparing sacred meal called Jt:J prepared in connection with eggs. That is, eggs are used in combination with Jt:J and offered to a person suffering from psychosis to enable one achieve holistic health. Concerning the exact nature of Jt:J meal and eggs vis-a-vis the :Jkra I state the following: In order to rejuvenate a sad or grieving Okra, family members may perform rites meant to propitiate the Okra. The ritual may include the preparation of an oto sacred meal of yam and boiled eggs, which usually was comprised of two meals: one white and symbolic of a father's spirit (semen), and the other red and symbolic of a mother's body (blood). Of course, eggs too had the same color composition as the meals. On an individual's Krada or soul day and with family members around, a parent or elder offered prayers as to why the individual was sad or grievous and then proceeded to take an egg, touched the shoulders (the seat of the okra) of the grievous person while calling his or her Kradzen or soul-day name, and simultaneously circling the individual's head with the egg. Then an egg was put into the mouth of the sad individual and eaten whole by him or her. The ritual may be repeated with the other egg, after which the grieving person ate as much of the Oto meal as possible. Others may later join in but the focus was on the sick individua1.17 This goes to reinforce the notion that an egg, like an :Jt:J meal, is emblematic of a complete "person," as it has the ability to rejuvenate a sad and grievous individual. It takes a life to offer life to another and so when the Akan realize that a person's life force, the :Jkra, is in flight, grievous or at a low ebb, it is rejuvenated. A sacred meal of the same substance as the soul, egg and Jt:J, are fed to a sick person and the individual is restored. Ritually, both Jt:Jand eggs represent the first and last sacrifi-

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cial meals, because nascent life begins as a fertilized egg, while in order to save a life, the same egg, together with its symbolic meal, :Jt:J, is offered. Again, the symbolic relationship between a female and an egg (and :Jt:J) is ritually illustrated when a girl first sights her menstrual blood. Immediately her father, emblematic of white :Jt:J (semen) and fertilization, presents his daughter with gifts of eggs and a chicken to be prepared for her ::Jkra for attaining womanhood, that is, capable of reproduction. Traditionally, this period also marks the commencement of sex education, which hitherto has not been taught overtly. Explaining, I state that: Fonnally, the mark of womanhood was menstruation and as soon as thematrikin was made aware, a girl was given a sacred oto meal. This rite was usually private, carried out without any public pomp. A father may pour a libation and ask the patri-deity or Egyabosom for fecundity, guidance, and protection of the new adult member of the family. The father may honor his daughter with gifts of chickens, which may be used in feast for the young adult and her friends. This marked the advent of sex education, if there was any such education. A mother or older women from this time on began with the pedagogical tasks of womanhood, instructing the young woman about the taboos and prohibitions of menstruation, marriage, dietary laws, and societal responsibilities and expectations. Whereas in the past little or no attention was paid to her movements and activities as a child, her activities will now be circumscribed to prevent her from engaging in dishonorable conducts. From now on her actions have ethical repercussions, so she was advised to be careful in public. 18 Additionally, anyone confronted with a traumatic experience and survived, such as escaping from a harrowing encounter, automobile accident, a deadly situation, illness, incarceration, or petrifaction resulting from "other-worldly" encounters require eggs, :Jt:J, chicken meals, and other sacrifices. The reason is that not everyone is innately suited or has the inherent strength to deal with the aftermath of some traumatic encounters aforesaid enumerated. The resultant effect is the lack of desire or will of some affected persons to live anymore and which invariably prompted family members to intervene ritually. The reality is that an individual may be traumatized by such near-death experiences that one's soul is put to flight, requiring restoration of the soul to its former state. With a family's attention focused on a victim, loved ones feed the individual with :Jt:J and eggs meal, at which time each egg is touched on the victim's shoulders three-times, the seat of the soul and the egg put into the patient's mouth whole. Chickens are also killed and the blood allowed to drip on the shoulders of persons whose souls are in flight. During the entire period the 'kra-dzin (name of a person based on the day ofthe week born) is repeatedly invoked and asked to proceed in order to partake of the offering. Ideally, the rite of restoration commences on the day of the week that a person was born, because efficaciously this will be when a person's ::Jkra is in residence. Divinely, this was also the day that the particular attribute of God that governed the day reigned, meaning a child's soul was in alignment with God making any ritual highly efficacious.

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Deer sacrifices of the Awutu-abe 19 The Awutu-iibe ofSimpa (Winneba), Ghana, now referred to as Effutu, settled their present homeland at the beginning 15th century CE from Timbuktu, Mali, with a host of gods and a mysterious old man named Kwame Gyata Ayirebe Gyan, with Kwame Gyate as his praise name. Originally a Guan speaking people, the Awutuiibe have been Akanicized socially and culturally, to the extent that they have adopted Akan iibusua system of descent. Originally, they practiced patrilineal system of descent whereby a king was succeeded by his brother, son, grandson, or even great grandson. However, beginning in the 19th century a faction of the Awutu-iibe with mixed Akan (Fante) and Awutu descent favored adopting the Akan mode of succession. Under the Akan iibusua matrilineal system, nephews, not sons, are the ones who mount ancestors' stools. The resultant Akan influence caused Simpa to install three nephews kings in 1858, 1898, and 1919 and for awhile appeared to have affected their traditional patrilineal political system. Although the royal family, Otuano Royal Family, was able to regain power and restore patrilineal succession in 1946, the effects of electing nephews at all as rulers still lingers on among the Awutu-iibe. Symbolically, too, both the Akan and the Awutu-iibe share a common political symbolic object, and that is, they both seat their rulers on ancestors' stools. However, there was a qualification difference between the Akan (Fante) and the Awutu-abe candidates for the kingship. Unlike the Fante and following their Guan tradition, all Awutu kings were required to be priests first, as lay down by the grand ancestor of the Awutu-abe, Kwame Gyata Ayirebe Gyan. This Awutu tradition continued until the mid 18th century when the priestly and kingly positions were divided between two princes competing for the kingship. So now, like the Akan, candidates for the Awutu kingship need not be priests. For centuries, training in the clerical profession was required for all potential kings, because as priest-king an Awutu ruler was also responsible for propitiating the numerous deities and ancestors through elaborate rites, which included sacrificing humans initially. Attempts to substitute leopards for human sacrifices proved a fiasco when the leopards instead hunted the hunters who attempted to catch them alive. Following this, the elders made a decision to use a deer as their ultimate sacrificial animal and in the process developed the most dynamic festival in Ghana today, the Nyanbr (Aboakyir) Festival. So, at the center of their ancient festival, Nyanbr, now Akanicized as Aboakyir (a misnomer), is a deer. Not just any deer, the deer must be hunted and caught alive by the militias of Simpa and brought to their king to be sacrificed annually to their ancestors and deities led by Penkyae Otu. While the preparations of the militias and hunt and capture of a live deer itself is dramatic and indubitably the highlight of the festival, it is the ritual sacrifice of the deer that is the focus here. 20 The choice of deer is by no means original, as it is the third sacrificial animal demanded by the deities ofSimpa. The decision to use deer was based on the notion that the blood of deer and humans are akin, if not the same, according to their deity,

Sacrifices and Offerings 68 Otu. Thus for over two centuries at least, the Awutu-iibe have carried out their annual deer sacrifice for their ancestors every April making the Nyanbr Festival a springtime celebration coinciding with planting and sowing. To make sure that the date remained unchanged, the Awutu-iibe followed a unique ancient calendrical system among their neighbors, which calculated the seasons to coincide with their annual festivities, which predates the current deer festivities. Their Akan neighbors relied on the Awutu clergy to calculate the seasons following their ancient calendrical system, because it also marked the onset of planting and sowing. Now, the Kweemu priestly family has the responsibility of calculating the calendrical system. The priests begin by entering the shrine of the deity Otu to tidy the shrine and while there, a priestess tied a sponge fiber into a knot to mark each week. Explaining further, I state that: Every fibre unit had four knots, which equaled one month of four weeks, meaning 13 months times four equaled 52 weeks. However, since ritual preparations began four weeks prior to the 13th month, it means that the commencement ofthe festival was announced on the 12th month and ending on the 13th month. It is interesting to note that the Awutu-abe were perhaps the only ethnic groups in Ghana to adhere to such a definite ancient calendrical system of 52 weeks in modem times. Nowadays, most groups simply follow the western calendrical system, so that the ancient ways of calculating events and times are oblivious to most people and even to many ofthe clergy.2 1 From the ancient times to the present, the neighbors of the Awutu-iibe awaited anxiously the Nyanbr Festival in order to determine when to plant their crops, because the festival herald the raining season. Culminating on a Saturday, the two militias of Simpa, the Tuawo Number One and the Dentsiwo Number Two, converge at their respective forests making noise with all kinds of implements to frighten the deer population. Naturally, as the deer panicked and attempted to flee some are caught alive and giving to a militia unit that carries it on shoulders high. Hurriedly the deer is brought to the king and his elders awaiting the catch at the outskirts oftown. Only the first deer brought to the king alive was used for the sacrifice. In order to make sure that a deer was alive, ''the king ... removed a royal sandal from his right foot and stepped on the deer three times, each time also stepping on his sandal and reciting an ancient prayer." Immediately after the third stepping, the deities partake of the live deer's blood wholly; meaning, they sap its blood while it was still alive. Even so, the deer remained alive a while longer. After the stepping ritual, the deer is returned to the militia who hoist it again and parade it through town for the tens of thousands of spectators to observe. The display ultimately ends at the shrine of Otu where the deer is intricately tied with twigs of the plant called asabeng, in a manner that completely buried the deer inside the twigs. Still, the thousands of spectators and visitors unable to catch a glimpse of the live deer hurry to the shrine to observe the deer now long dead. Occasionally, a deer died before reaching the shrine of Otu due, perhaps, to the trauma of capture or because its blood was long "drank" by the deities spiritually or maybe from the noise, shaking, and tossing about. Most times, though, the militia try as much as

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possible to reach the shrine before a deer died. After visitations have subsided in the evening (Saturday), elders (priests) from an agnatic household called Akyeampong-ano picked up the tied deer and sent it to the shrine of a deity called Akyeampong. There, prayers and libations are poured and the deer slaughtered. Carefully the hide is removed for further treatment later and preservation, while the meat is cut into pieces. Then in the morning, the deer meat is brought back to Otu's shrine where an elder from the Otuano Royal Family picks up small pieces of the fleshly cut meat and throws them as far out toward the direction ofPenkyae; that is, where Otu's house stands and where the Awutu-abe first settled, as symbolic ambrosia for the gods. It must be recalled that the deities "drank" the blood of the deer when the king stepped on it the three-times a day earlier, therefore the casting of the deer meat toward Penkyae is purely symbolic, although other spiritual forces eagerly shared in the meat. Following this, priests from another agnatic household, Dawur, readied an earthenware pot containing water on fire to cook the meat. The fire is made with special woods fed through the openings of a three-hearth stones, or three mounded earthenware pots specifically made for cooking sacred meals and intended to be reused annually. Then the Dawur clergy receive and cut a portion of the meat into 77 pieces and paste them in three concentric circles in the pot and cooked. When the cooking is over, the high priest of the Otuano Royal Family is again called upon to pick up some cooked meat for distribution to the gods. He performs this ritual accompanied by an assistant with a pot of cold water. Then the priest dips his hand into the cold water and immediately dips it into the hot pot containing the cooked meat still on the fire and boiling, picks up one piece of cooked meat at a time until he gets 37 pieces, each time dipping his hand into the cold water. The 37 pieces of meat are further cut into tiny pieces and then distributed to the deities by scattering the pieces. At this point in the afternoon a rite of divination is performed. 22 F. Crowther, Secretary for Native Affairs in the 191 Os, described the rites briefly as follows: The object of the ceremony is to foretell the fortunes ofWinnebah during the coming year. Three stones which form the altar ofPenin-jan [Otu] are placed I front of the tent, and on these is stood a pot on which is balanced another stone (a meteoric stone?). A circle is drawn in the ground with the altar as its center and equally divided into three sections painted red, black, and white. The priests and their attendants dance round this until the upper stone falls and the colour on which it rests indicates the fortunes ofthe coming year. Black forecasts a good year with much rain; White, drought and famine; Red, war and bloodshed. 23 After the rite of divination, the rest of the meat is distributed, with an arm of the deer sent to the king and the other piece sent to the head of the Otuano Royal Family. Then all the participating elders, priests and priestesses of the deities-Kwemu, Kwekum, Akyeampong, Dawur-the Piato militia unit and their followers are all given their shares, with the head of the deer going to the Dawur household. The remainder of the cooked meat is shared among all those participating in the ritual

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cooking at the ancient market site called Tsitsitsi-eguaso. When cooking is done, the fire is not extinguished immediately; rather, the burning firewood are partially pulled back from all sides of the three-hearth stones or mounded earthenware hearth pots, allowing the burning woods to smother gently until the fires extinguished on their own. With the cooking pot still on the fire hearth, two men from the Dawur household lift up the hot cooking pot from the hearth-stones and quickly takes it to their household at Diiwur, a short distance away. There, they cook the head of the deer, making sure that they remove all meat from the skull. Then on the following Sunday or the eighth day, the elders return the head (skull) to the king, together with a customary liquor. The skull is then preserved together with other skulls and paraphernalia for posterity. They serve to remind the Awutu-iibe and visitors alike about the social, cultural, political, and a sense ofhistory of the A.wutu-iibe ofSimpa. It was in this context that, Crowther, Secretary for Native Affairs in the Gold Coast, wrote in 1914 that "under the shelf are piled the skulls of the deer killed in the Aboakyere [Nyanbr] custom," in affirmation of patrilineal succession among the A.wutu-abe (Effutu). This was after he inspected and sketched the configuration of the only ancestors stool and other royal paraphernalia kept in sacred rooms in Otuano, 24 the earthly abode of the god Otu. On the eighth day, Sunday, the sacrificial rituals ended although tradition dictates that it must rain during the eight-day cycle. In other words, the deities must cause rain to fall to show symbolically that the gods have washed their pots after feasting. The relationship between the deity Otu and rain is embryonic in that Otu is associated with fog and therefore rain. Still I asked the clergy as to what would happen if it does not rain and their response was that since the deer custom (Nyanbr Festival) took place just before the raining season "any precipitation is interpreted as the deities having washed their pots or dishes after feasting." Still, if no rain fell during the duration of the sacrifices, then royal priests from Otuano enacted a contingency ritual put in place just for such rare moments. The priests prepared a concoction of seawater and some special herbs to wash the bowls of Otu. Then all sacred utensils and pots, objects of manifestation for the gods, and other sacred paraphernalia brought along for the sacrificial deer rituals are returned to their sacred abode in Otuano. Regardless of what is used or which method is applied during sacrifices, blood is the ambrosia and blood must be exposed in order that it may be drunk by the gods, ancestors, other spiritual powers, kings, and even witches when a throat of an animal or human is slashed or when saps of plants are squeezed. These liquids-blood and saps--contain the very essences of victims to be drank raw and immediately in order for any sacrifice to be efficacious, because blood permeates the spirit world as none other substance. Also, since meat of sacrificial victims are consumed by citizens after a sacrifice, it follows that slashing of the throat is the preferred method of killing sacrificial victims, as some people refuse to consume meat thought to be blood meat (Mogyanam). Ritually, the squeezing of saps from fresh plants and gashing out of warm blood while the heart of a sacrificed victim still palpitates, is of particular interest and significance because the living essence

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must be received fresh. Blood may be poured directly on altars of deities, smeared on a person for healing purposes, or plied to sacred symbol like ancestors' stools accompanied by prayers and poring of libations. Additionally, liquor may be plied to altars or whichever symbol of hierophany in order to get spirits drunk and make them feistier. Most importantly, objects of veneration also served as objects of manifestation, because the objects are where the holy makes itself known during invocations. The holiness of objects ofhierophany are predicated on the continued renewal and replenishing of objects with blood and other offerings. In other words, it takes sacrifices of blood to make something sacred; that is, to make it possible for the in-dwelling of spirits. Uniquely, blood is spiritually the single highest efficaciously desirable offering there is, because it is primal, pure, and above all, fresh. In acknowledgment the Akan would say that: mogya ye yen (blood is fresh, original), especially as fresh blood flows emitting a distinctive odor, the only divine substance continuously transmitted in utero going back to the very beginning of physical existence, the very essence of the very first goddess in physical form and from whom all life forms emanated. Moreover, mogya ye dru (blood is heavy, thick), to the extent that it emanates from a collective matrix, a belonging that enables a person to meet a stranger and readily and intuitively realize that they are related. Even so, blood's potency must be activated, when accompanying prayers or incantations are uttered and libations poured to bring sacrifices, blood sacrifices to life.

CHAPTER4

Living Ancestors By living ancestors, I am specifically referring to tradition rulers or kings; that is, those duly nominated, elected and seated on an ancestors stools of respective communities, and installed (out-doored) and set aside as representatives ofthe ancestors. Still other elders-those elected by their kins but do not occupy stools, as well as those unelected like grandparents but who lived exemplary lives into old age-are empowered to preside over certain rites, although only kings and queen mothers, as eldest among elders, are uniquely elected as living ancestors and the ones from whose hands the ancestors and deities feast. In every respect, a ruler is an ancestor in human form and as such, a king is a living ancestor. The transformation into an ancestor is invested in the singular rite of seating an individual, regardless of a person's background or station, on the one stool that all previous rulers of a community were seated on. In other words, every Akan community has one stool for the king or :Jdikro (sovereign ruler) originating with the founder of a community. On this stool, all genuine rulers are seated three-times during a high ceremony opened only to a select few of royalty. A living ancestor comes under the aegis of an ancestors stool the moment one is seated on it three-times. It signaled the final transformation of an ordinary person by the N ananom N samanfo (Ancestors) and the primeval deities into a living ancestor, although continued protection of a king by the ancestors was contingent on the relationship cultivated between a particular ruler and his or her ancestors stool and deities. The point is that there are good as well as bad rulers and so deification is not automatic. Some rulers are vilified for their bad deeds and do not attain ancestorhood status upon death. In some cases, bad rulers are deposed, having been rejected first by the ancestors and gods. Aware of this relationship, rulers worked hard to earn the favor of the ancestors and gods by propitiating them constantly. Mean-

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ing, a ruler must be committed wholly to the stool and not remiss one's duties when it comes to propitiating the ancestors and deities, all the while making sure that the ambrosia is ritually pure and clean. How then is a ruler able to keep sacrificial meals ritually clean when he or she would have to rely on others to prepare them? Traditional rulers are always concerned about ritual purity and try their possible best to delegate orders in the hopes of ensuring immaculate ritual preparations. The fact, however, is that a king will have to rely on his elders for ritual purity of sacrifices honoring the ancestors and deities, because a ruler would have to submit oneselfto the same ritual purifications as the ancestors by also rely on the elders and certain relatives. These elders, including the clergy-priests, mediums, and the so-called witch doctors must "perform purification rites, sacrifices and preparation of scared meals ... scattered at sacred sites on behalf of the king. But most importantly, the mediums are possessed by the spirits of ancestors, dead kings, and deities, who ... commend ... or even admonish the ruler or the community for not properly carrying out a ritual process." Simply, it is impossible for a ruler to know or see everything that goes on as much as one may want to know how everything is prepared. Yet, the very presence of a king ensured sanctity of festivity, for it is he or she who presides over the state as both a human and an ancestor. Therefore, whatever activity a ruler undertakes, the cosmic importance of the activities cannot be overemphasized because they are undertaking in order to propitiate the ancestors and gods, as well as to insure existential and metaphysical balance for the well-being of humanity. Another indispensable role of elders has to do with their function as suppliants, offering prayers and libations to the ancestors, and gods and goddesses on behalf of kings. Therefore, every elder must know how to offer prayers and pour libations so that during meetings elders must first honor the ancestors and deities by invoking them prayerfully into their midst before commencing with the matters that brought them together. This invocatory act paves the way for the elders to commence with what brought them together. An elder begins a prayer and offering of libation by first lowering his cloth covering his shoulders and remove a sandal from a foot. This ritual is the same whenever speaking to a king, because a king is an ancestor in human form and so he or she is accorded the same obeisance as the Nananom Nsamanfo (Ancestors). Then, seeking approval from other elders and approval granted, a suppliant elder commences praying with a cup of liquor in his hand. First, his hoists the cup ofliquor or wine in acknowledgment of God's sovereignty and then withdraws it from the heavens without offering any liquor to God. In other words, even though God's sovereignty as creator and sustainer is affirmed, no human is worthy to offer the Everlasting One pdomankoma) liquor. Following this, a suppliant elder's attention turns to the deities and ancestors, imploring them to bless and give the living good health, protect and defend the king and elders from their enemies, and informing the ancestors as to why they are invoked. Each time that a suppliant utters a word or phrase, he pours to the ground appropriate drops ofliquor, with his cup replenished by an assisting elder repeatedly until prayers were over. Afterwards, the suppliant elder is congratulated by his colleagues, after which he is offered some of the same

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liquor offered to the ancestors to drink. In praxis, ancestor worship is woven into the social and political fabric of society so that everyone is capable of worshipping the ancestors of one's own particular family or lineage without having to consult with a medium or wait for the periodic corporate festivities presided over by a king. Ritually, it is customary for anyone who arrived home safely from a journey and offered a drink as the first act of welcome, to pour some of the water to the ground in acknowledgement of the accompanying spirits who brought one home safely. This ritual inculcates the awareness of presence of"others" in human endeavors and the notion that people are never alone existentially. On a more practical level, the cup of water is meant to refresh and replenish lost energy resulting from traveling long distances in societies where most travels are still done by foot. Among the Yoruba, for example, kola nuts may be offered, but regardless of what is offered, there is a clearly expressed intent of honoring those unseen deities and ancestors. Another social ritual performed for the ancestors and deities is the act of first putting a morsel of food on the ground or in a plate and setting it aside for the ancestors and other spirits. Elders in particularly are those apt to performing this ritual and when an elder forgets it the notion is that the ancestors would still take their share of the meal by causing some of the food to fall as one took a morsel. When that happens, a forgetful elder would suddenly remember and put a morsel down or simply remind himself not to forget again. Other items offered may include money, cola nuts, eggs and other delights about to be consumed. Along the same lines, another social expression of ancestor worship takes place in bars. It is a common practice to observe an individual or a group about to drink pouring drops ofliquor on the ground or floor first and then call on ancestral spirits to share in the drink. I vividly recall accompanying my father at age three or so on some evenings on his way to his house to sleep from his mother's and my father stopping at a specific liquor bar to take a shot or two. He would then ask me sometimes to pour libations with a shot, and as little as I was holding a cup ofliquor and unable to say anything to his disappointment. In areas where palm wine is the favorite drink, one may observe that after most of the drink is drank, a drinker splashing the remainder of the palm wine on the floor. Sometimes an argument may even ensue about the patterns left by a splashing, as drunks try to interpret whatever they thought the designs meant. I think, though, that these second splashes have to do with the impure residue at the bottom of calabash cups and the need to dispose of the impurities than any offerings to the gods and ancestors, as drinkers may have already given the spirits the top portions of their wines.

Politics of Becoming a Living Ancestor The kingship, as a divinely ordained institution, is like the most precious gift that a courier takes to an addressee. As soon as the courier enters the outskirts of a town, eligible and even ineligible candidates emerge from their homes thinking that they were the recipients of the gift of king. But one by one the courier passes them all until he reached his intended reci-

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To contextualize ancestor worship and demonstrate the ritual processes involved in how an elder becomes a living ancestor, I now turn my attention to my own community of Gomoa Mprumem in order to use them as a model for exploring specific ways in which living ancestors are chosen and worshipped. As the traditional ruler ofMprumem, which enables me to preside over festivities honoring my ancestors and deities, I intend to put a real face on what Budge has described as ''the worship of the souls of the dead." What this means in practical terms is that I am intimately conversant with the way that the people of Mprumem go about worshipping their ancestors and my ancestors, too. Most importantly, I choose Mprumem because it offers me an opportunity to bring forth for the first time the history (which needs to be written for posterity) and ritual details of festivities honoring the ancestors and deities of Gomoa Mprumem. Finally, I discuss festivities in Mprumem because they show the same essential features or characteristics of ancestor worship as enumerated by Diodorus over 2000 years ago, as comprising of honoring the deities, sacrifices, festivals, processions, and other rites. Most importantly, ancestor worship is more than the worship of the souls of the dead, it the history of a people and so I will talk about the history ofMprumem, and like any other Akan community, the history is essentially the history of the ancestors stool, because an ancestors stool houses the souls of a community's ancestors. The village ofMprumem is located in the Central Region of Ghana, and like every Akan community in Ghana, the festivities propitiating the ancestors ofMprumem too has a story and history behind it. This history, no matter how peculiar or generic it may be, needs to be recalled uniquely and even dramatically as though told for the first time annually. After all, a festival is a one-time, socio-political, historical, and a religious event re-enacted annually in order to inform, educated, and inculcate in contemporary generations the experiences of their ancestors relative to the founding of their community. Mprumem was founded in 1830 by Nana Kojo Jwom and his teenage sister, Nana Adjoa Apaaba, as a direct result of the Asante wars of the mid 1820s that swept the southern part of what is now Ghana. Both Kojo Jwom and Adjoa Apaaba were nephew and niece respectively ofNana Aduoni Kwagyin, the forth ruler of the Fante people at Mankessim, also in the Central Region. Concerning King Aduoni Kwagyin, Meyerowitz writes: After the collapse of the Bono Kingdom in 1740, Fante and the Djomo from Takyiman, dissatisfied with the conditions in their overcrowded town, emigrated in large numbers to join their brothers on the coast. Rebelling against their ruling class, they chose three old fetish priests as leaders: Obunumankoma, Odapegyan and Osono (or Ason). All three died on the long road through Asante, but before Osono died he called his people

Living Ancestors together to choose a bold and courageous man as chief. They selected Aduoni Egyin, and it was he who finally led them to the Fante-Gomoa town near the Etsi chiefs Akerakurom, where they settled, renaming the town Mankesim.2

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Nana Aduoni Kwiigyin was what the Fante called :Jbabanyin or son of a male royal for those practicing matrilineal system of descent making him ineligible to mount his father's ancestors stool. The reason is that although a prince, he was not a member of his father's ruling family or iibusua. Instead, he belonged to his mother's royal Asona iibusua at Nkwanta, a town near Mankessim, meaning he was ineligible to mount his father's throne or stool. This being the case, why was he installed king? The answer lies with what Meyerowitz failed to include in her account about events leading to Kwiigyin's selection and subsequent election and installation. Nana :>son (Oson), the last of three original Fante rulers, on many occasions demanded that his iibusua provide him with a person for a very special rite that he would like to perform. Thinking, perhaps, that the king would sacrifice such a person on the stool, none of his iibusua members would volunteered anyone. One day when Kwiigyin' s father returned home from a meeting with the king, Nana :>son, as he was one of the Icing's elders and member of the Icing's iibusua or matrilineage, his wife, Kwiigyin's mother, noticed her husband's sad demeanor and inquired as to what had happened. Her husband replied that it involved the same demand from the king. Perhaps tired of hearing about the same issue, his wife retorted as to why he would not offer their son, Aduoni Kwiigyin, up to the king. Startled, Kwiigyin's father reminded his wife that he alone could not make that decision. So after consulting with Kwiigyin's maternal uncle who offered his blessings, Aduoni Kwiigyin was presented to the king, Nana :>son. Aduoni Kwiigyin was described as a strong, courageous, and a bullying youth and probably the reason why his parents offered him up to the king. Thereafter, Nana Oson convened a meeting of his people and asked his iibusua ifhe should use Kwiigyin for the rite. They urged him to proceed. Then the king took a knife and made an incision on an upper arm ofKwiigyin and as blood oozed the king wiped it with a piece of cotton and placed the bloodstained cotton in a container. He repeated the ritual three-times, each time demanding to know if he could continue. Throughout the ordeal, Kwiigyin never once winced and after the third time the king stood Kwiigyin up and told his people that Kwiigyin would succeed him as leader. The Icing's royal iibusua was irate because Kwiigyin was an :Jbabanyin and therefore ineligible to mount the ancestors stool of theirs, but there was nothing anyone else could do since they approved of every act of the king. Aduoni Kwiigyin, it seemed, had paid for the stool of the Fante people with his blood. According to the Abusua-panyin of the Asona iibusua at Nkwanta, whom I visited when I acceded to the ancestors stool ofMprumem, one of two original ancestors stool of Aduoni Kwiigyin's iibusua, and the blood-stained cotton ofNana Aduoni Kwiigyin still exists at Mankessim although I have made no attempt yet to ascertain the relics myself. However, I know that my late granduncle and ruler of Mprumem, Nana :::>brafo :>worn VIII, always stopped at the palace ofMankessim

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whenever he visited Nkwanta, because of the historical connection between him and Aduoni Kwiigyin. In fact, it was Kwiigyin's nephew, Kojo :Jwom, who later settled at what became Mprumem in order to protect his sister, Adjoa Apaaba, who fled Nkwanta with her family's ancestors stool to the Gomoa area on her back. That is, Nana Adjoa Apaaba secured and fled with her family's royal stool as word spread that an Asante invading force was approaching Mankessim and its environs in the mid 1820s. The report caused people to flee for their lives. When the citizens ofNkwanta returned home after things quieted down, Apaaba's parents realized that their youngest daughters, Apaaba, was missing and thinking that she was dead, they held her funeral. Several months later, a citizen ofNkwanta who also fled to relatives in another village returned home and upon hearing about the fate of Apaaba, reported seeing Apaaba fleeing with what appeared to be a baby on her back toward the Gomoa area during the advance of the Asante army. Immediately, :Jwom, the younger of two brothers, was dispatched to the Gomoa area to go and find her. He found his sister perfectly healthy, but the ruler of Apreh, a village near where Mprumem now stands, had impregnated her and could not make the journey back to Nkwanta with her brother, a distance of about twenty miles. :Jwom returned to Apreh about two years or so later and found his sister pregnant, again. Finally, the family decided that :Jwom relocate to Apreh or at a location near his sister in order to protect her. The other reason why :Jwom's family asked :Jwom to relocate to the site of the future Mprumem was because Adjoa Apaaba still had the family's ancestors stool, which had been brought by their ancestors from Takyiman, an ancient capital of the Akan. During the time of the invasion, Apaaba was said to have been preparing soup, while an older sister was also preparing mb:ri (benku) meal for their family. As people ran helter-skelter, Apaaba left the soup on the fire, ran inside their house, picked up the stool, tied it on her back in the same way as women carry babies on their backs, and fled with it to Gomoa following a fleeing crowd. What caused her to take such a bold action is difficult to say. Perhaps her family had been instructed never to leave behind the stool under any circumstance. Whatever her reason might have been, she had the presence of mind to remember not to leave behind the ancestors stool. The royal family of Apaaba and :Jwom had reasoned that since Apaaba had the stool under the protection of a ruler, it was probably more safer with her at Apreh than with them at Nkwanta, which was near the capital, Mankessim, the focus of Asante attacks. Thus, Kojo :Jwom arrived the third time, established a temporary settlement at an area called Esi-mppiah near a mountain and secured the stool from his sister. Within the next few months, :Jwom surveyed an area not claimed or owned by anyone with the help of his elder brother, :Jbeng, who joined him temporarily, and their sister, Apaaba, who provided her brothers with meals as they surveyed the future boundary of their new settlement. From Esi-mppiah they moved north and crossed the Bronyi-shern River and came upon a lot of Kroboo trees, continued northeast and climbed the mountain called Agya Kweku (Eku-Eku) and came down

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on the other side. Then they followed the southward flow of a creek (Jhunwura) to the border with Aprsh, moved west along the Aprsh border before turning north again until they arrived at where they saw plenty of aprun and ::Jman dua trees and stopped. There, they laid the permanent foundation for what would became Mprumem and in time the deity of the mountain, Agya Kwsku, known today as Eku-Eku and who resided in the mountain with his elder brother called Obiri, "revealed" himself to :>worn and soon Agya Kwsku became the deity of the ancestors stool of :>worn and Apaaba and their descendants. Nana Kojo :>worn was in his mid twenties when he settled at Mprumem. A sculptor by trade, he set up his workshop in the midst ofthe aprun trees on the main road to and from Simpa (Winneba), because the area had plenty of an especially durable aprun trees. His workshop was also his home and so he spent most of his time there making various kitchen, fishing, and market implements, like ladle, paddle and oars, trays, which were purchased by travelers who stopped at his workshop and purchased his goods on their way to and from Simpa. Soon, travelers would only refer to :>worn as "the man who lives in the Aprun mu" (Mprumem) since they did not know his name. In time :>worn's workshop began taking on the semblance of a village when years later his sister and her daughters, due to periodic flooding of their village, joined him. From this point on the village simply became known as Mprumem (Aprun-mu). Nana Adjoa Apaaba was a potter by trade and passed on her skills to all ofher ten or so daughters who in turn passed them on to their daughters and female descendants. I vividly recall accompanying my mother, Ama Amissah, on some occasions to a place near the foot of the mountain to collect a special red clay (ntwima) used for making pots for my grandmother. Unfortunately, due to the changing economic times and the fact that there is no money to be made from pottery nowadays, the pottery business has completely ceased at Mprumem. For example, none of my sisters picked up pottery from our mother. Many of those who later joined Nana :>worn and Nana Apaaba were also from the same Asona Abusua as theirs, although not from Nkwanta. Among those who first arrived was a carpenter from Apam (originally from the Elmina area) who became :>worn's most trusted friend, brother, and successor, because :>worn did not have nephews old enough in Mprumem to succeed him immediately upon his death, even though he had at least ten grown nieces. Later, the carpenter became :>worn's royal :Jbrafo (executioner, messenger, and collector of herbs) and in time, everyone simply referred to him as :>brafo, because that was his role vis-a-vis the ancestors stool and Nana :>worn. Originally, the :>brafo hailed from the town of Elmina, and according to a former Abusua-panyin ofMprumem and descendant of the :>brafo, Nana Kobina Takyi, when he and others went in search of the :>brafo's roots at Elmina they could not locate anyone who knew him. The problem was that they went looking for him as a "carpenter" rather than his real name, which no one knew. It was highly probable that he did not hail directly from Elmina but rather from one of the satellite villages of Elmina. Even today, it is still a common practice for many Ghanaians from rural areas

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working in the cities to claim citizenship of the nearest town or city closest to their villages until something tragic happened to them and have to be taken to their hometowns. Thereupon, one discovers that they indeed come from villages nearest to cities. Initially the "descendants" of the ::>brafo maintained that he arrived in Apam during the time that the Apam Fort was being built by the Dutch in the 1660s. However, the problem with this date is that Mprumem was not founded until about 170 years later and so that claim was abandoned. Then, they proposed another date in conjunction with the establishment ofthe Methodist church at Apam in the 1860s and early 1870s, when the ::>brafo was alleged to have helped build the sanctuary that the congregants used in the 1890s. This date is plausible as that would place him in Mprumem about three or so decades after Nana :>worn founded his village and consistent with the time that he ruled Mprumem after the death ofNana :>worn, as we will see below. The fact is that the ::>brafo arrived in Apam in search of work as a carpenter. And it was while searching for lumber for his carpentry work that he was directed to ''the sculptor who resided at the Aprun mu." During his visit, Nana :>worn invited his guest to drink palm wine with him and soon they realized that they both were of the same Asona Abusua and therefore brothers. That is, upon finishing his drink, the ::>brafo splashed the remainder of his wine to the ground and said: W.:N~ pir kwa (They don't hustle for nothing), the Asona Abusua's slogan. So from that point on whenever the ::>brafo arrived from Apam, he had a place to stay while he acquired some Aprun wood and ran errands for Nana :>worn since he, the ::>brafo, was younger and lived in town, while :>worn and his nieces and two nephews lived at the village. The first group of people to arrive several decades after the settlement of Mprumem was an Asona group from the community ofGyankoma led by an elder called Bsntum and a medium by the name of::>komfo Kum. Fleeing from years of war, they arrived in Mprumem and placed themselves under the protection ofNana :>worn. In welcoming them, Nana :>worn offered them a grove called Benyank:Jr (arrived but did not return) to his west to bury their dead and the land south of Mprumem to farm on Not long after that, another Asona family, led by Kwa'bo, arrived and since they were not refugees as those from Gyankoma, Nana :>worn offered their elder the position of Abusua-baatan but told him never to contest his stool. They, too, were offered land south ofthe Gyankoma family to the border of the village of Apn:h. And finally, in the early 1870s a young man by the name ofKofi Ansah from the Gomoa village of::>buasi also arrived and asked for land to farm on. In granting his request, Kofi Ansah was offered a grove east ofMprumem but not offered any position in the affairs ofMprumem, because his stay was understood to be temporary or seasonal even though he never returned to ::>buasi, his hometown. The areas given to all these immigrants were significant strategically, in that they secured the boundaries of Mprumem with people to farm on it. Spiritually, Nana :>worn always maintained that he was protected in the north, his back, by Agya KwEku, the mountain and the lands beyond, which stretched farthernorth to a

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deity called Kawoanopaado at what is now the village of Lome. In this way, all the immigrants were to his sides and south in front of him, as leader of his community. After the death ofNana :Jwom a portion of land between the mountain and the village of Lome was later offered to an Agonaa Abusua woman and her children to farm on after being married by an Asona elder. After a number of years, the leader of the Gyankoma group, Bsntum, one day asked Nana :Jwom if he would allow him (B~:ntum) to mount his ancestors stool. Startled, Nana :Jwom dismissively exclaimed: :JWoa! :JWoa! I Ast:m nyee affirime anasa; ast:m nyea, affirime anasa akyire kyire (You! You!! The matter has caught me unawares; this matter has completely caught me unawares). 3 Then BEntum replied saying: "A warrior loves to fight, really" (:Jkatakyi pt:r Jko, papaa). However, Nana :Jwom reminded Bsntum that he, B~:ntum, and his family were rather cowards (akootowfo) chased out of town with nowhere to go until he, :Jwom, offered them a sanctuary. Therefore, Bsntum could not be a warrior because real warriors fought, defended, protected, and preserved their peoples, not run away from battle. Consequently, neither he, BEntum, nor his descendants would ever occupy his stool. Rebuffed thus, Nana :Jwom became the enemy of the Gyankoma group who sought to use any means necessary to annihilate the king, their benefactor. The attempt by the Gyankoma group to usurp Nana :>worn has lingered on to the present time, as we will see below. As a consequence ofBsntum's presumptuousness, Nana :Jwom adopted his dismissive statement (:JWoa! :JWoa!! Ast:m nyee affirime anasa; ast:m nyea, affirime anasa akyire kyire) to Bcntum as his praise song, sang by his horn blower whenever he sat in-state to warn potential usurpers of his ancestors stool to stay away. In the mid 1870s, a major storm caused flooding and the destruction of Mprumem and in the process put out every fire in the community. With his people cold and hungry, Nana :Jwom somehow managed to cross the raging BrushEn (Bronyi ShErn) River and traveled to the Assin village of Abortia and brought fire to his people (he brought the first for the founding ofMprumem from the Village of AprEh). Amazed by his intrepid act, Kofi Ansah said to him: "Nana, lye: :Jbrc:fo papaa" (Nana, you are indeed a hustler). Obviously enthused by the "JbrEfo" praise title, Nana :Jwom sculptured his heroic deed into a royal staff. The staff depicted him holding a fire-touch about to light three-log wood joined together with his sister, Apaaba, and her children huddled around the fire. Before this state staff (Jman poma), Nana :Jwom depicted himself as an Jwom bird standing on the back of a tortoise. What Nana :Jwom was communicating politically to his people was that when one lights a fire, that is, lays a good foundation as a statesman, invariable people will huddle around it and build a nation. In time, the :JbrEfo praise-name of Nana :Jwom and the :Jbrafo, the executioner and messenger friend and brother of Nana :Jwom fused, as later generations mistook the two names to be one, :Jbrafo. During his elder years, Nana :Jwom contracted leprosy on a thumb and a finger and since the disease had no cure and fearing that others would get the disease, an elder from the Agonaa abusua by the name ofKwagyir wentto Sirnpa (Winneba) and reported the king to the health authorities. However, determined to protect their leader from government health authorities, the elders built a secret settlement south-

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east ofMprumem and called it :>worn K waabam for Nana :>worn. Away from public view, only his elders visited him there. One night, as he lay asleep, his Gyankoma political enemies, led by Bentum, ~mfo Kum, Sakyir, and Tawiah, went to where Nana :>worn's hut was, sprinkled petrol and kerosene on and around his hut, torched it, and left him to burn. Btntum and his conspirators reasoned that the death of the king would offer them the opportunity to rule, especially since the king's grandnephews were too young to succeed him. Awakened by the blazing fire, Nana :>worn found his thatched roof gutted and struggled to get out but just then the roof collapsed on him. Gathering his strength he managed to get out but fell to the ground outside. Then the conspirators poured a solution of pepper that they had prepared on him and ran away. By the time help arrived from Mprumem proper, about a quarter of a mile northwest of :>worn Kwaabam, Nana :>worn had sustained burns all over his body. In agony, Nana :>worn died a few hours later, but not before he named the perpetrators of this heinous crime whom he saw hanging around momentarily to see ifhe would survive the fire. He was about 81 years old when he died in 1885; he never married despite the fact that both he and his sister were beautiful, tall, very fair in completion, with soft hair "like white people," while :>worn was described as having a very thick moustache and an excellent orator. The death ofNana :>worn as an :Jt:fo (a sudden and violent death) saddened and greatly incensed the elders who turned their anger on Btntum and the Gyankoma group, many of whom ran away. Following the sad incident, the :>brafo assumed responsibility of the ancestors stool in a caretaker capacity throughout the late 1880s and early 1890s until one ofNana :>worn's two grandnephews assumed the reins of power. However, by the mid 1890s the :>brafo too was dead. Due to the treatment Nana :>worn received in Mprumem, his two known nephews, one of whom was called Amponsah and resided at the village ofSimbroful, refused to return to Mprumem to succeed Nana :>worn for fear of being treated the same way as his uncle, Nana :>worn. In fact, many of the children of Apaaba left town after the death ofJwom. Consequently, a "nephew" of the :>brafo through one of his Apam wives by the name ofKwtku Affadzi acceded to the stool in 18981901.4 The :>brafo never had any known sister or blood relative, because he did not originally hail from Apam and so one of his wife's iibusua in Apam adopted him and hence the accession of Affadzi from the :>brafo's wife's iibusua. Nana Affadzi was succeeded in 191 0-1911 5by Charles Mason (Mensah) who died within a few weeks. Meaning, even before Nana Mason took the reins of power there was an interregnum from 1901 to 1910. That is, before the ephemeral accession ofNana Mason in 1910, Mprumem went without a ruler for ten years leading one to ask as to who was in charge for all those years. Maybe the lack ofleadership was what prompted Nana Mason to attempt to rule Mprumem but died about a month later. What is also uncertain was the relationship between Nana Mason and Nana Affadzi, especially in light of the interregnum. Was Mason a "nephew" of Nana Affadzi? However, what is certain is that Nana Mason also came fromApam. The deaths of the three rulers, namely, the :>brafo, Affadzie and Mason in relatively quick successions struck fear among the elders, especially since Nana

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:>worn had ruled for over 55 years in relative peace. Moreover, it was believed that none of the three rulers after :>worn was actually placed on the ancestors stool in order to avoid the wrath of the stool since Nana :>worn died as an :Jt::fo, making the stool (:>worn) a particularly revengeful and agitated ancestor. The stool once again became vacant with the death of Nana Mason. But in 1913, Kofi Ansah, the man who arrived in Mprumem from :>buasi to farm presented three sheep to Abusua-baatan Kwa'bo and asked him to pacify the ancestors stool to enable him (Kofi Ansah) to mount it. The Abusua-baatan agreed to sacrifice the sheep but told Kofi Ansah that he could not perform the installation rites for him (Kofi Ansah) because he was afraid of retributions by the stool, because Nana Mason had died within weeks even without him being seated on the stool. However, the Abusua-baatan advised Kofi Ansah to consult with the king-of-state at Ajumako, the capital of the traditional area. Following the consultations, Kofi Ansah invited the :>manhen (King-of-State) of the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Area, Nana Ansa :>ssam, to Mprumem for the :>manhen to install him (Kofi Ansah) as ruler ofMprumem. However, this drew a swift challenge from BEtltum resulting in Bentum bringing a summons against the :>manhen, Ansa :>ssam, before Nana Kojo Nkum, the :>manhen (King-of-State) of Gomoa Assin (Akyempim). Consequently, Nana Kojo Nkum sought an injunction against Nana Ansa :>ssam restraining him from performing installation rites for Kofi Ansah on the grounds that the Mprumem stool was being contested by Kofi Ansah and Bentum. Furthermore, the installation ofKofi Ansah could lead to a riot in the community. However, Nana Ansa :>ssam felt insulted by the injunction place on him by a rival king and "refused to go to Omanhene Kojo Nkum" and proceeded to Mprumem to install Kofi Ansah. The two kings-of-state, namely, Nana Kojo Nkum and Ansa :>ssam were enemies and the source of their enmity goes back to the 1890s at least when :>kyir Ansa of Gomoa Ajumako, Ansa :>ssam's predecessor, declared his independence from Kojo Nkum ofGomoa Assin. Subsequently, Nana Nkum attempted to reassert control over his former subordinate6 and the territories under him and so any case that came before him pertaining to rulers from Gomoa Ajumako, he jumped on. The case restraining the Gomoa Ajumako king seemed clear on the merits, but since the kings were enemies, none would listen to reason as each of them was determined to show the other as to who had the authority over Mprumem. The attempted installation of Kofi Ansah, as predicted, resulted in "a riot" leading to the arrest ofNana Ansa :>ssam. He was charged ''with taking part in a riot" and "aiding an act with intent to provide a riot." Ultimately, Nana Ansa :>ssam was found guilty and fined 10 pounds "under sect. 340 ofthe Civil Service Code" or one month in prison. Consequently, Kofi Ansah's installation was held in abeyance until such time as the dispute was resolved. In a handwritten report to J.P. Farley, his superior in Cape Coast, the District Commissioner ofWinneba, C. H. P. Lamond, explained in his cover letter that: This case arrived out of a riot at Imprumem before I took office. On the evidence Ansa Ossam insisted on installing one Kofi Ansah on the stool in de-

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Living Ancestors fiance of injunction from Omanhene Kojo Inkoom that the stool was in dispute. There was also other evidence to the effect that a disturbance was likely to ensue-as in fact it did. 7

What is unusual about the whole incident is the invitation to Nana :Jssam and his subsequent acceptance of the invitation, when according to Nana :Jssam's own testimony ''there was a dispute" between Bmtum and Ansah a ''year before" he (Jssam) went to install Kofi Ansah. His explanation for going to Mprumem was that he thought the dispute had been "settled." Of course, the explanation could not be true because as the :Jmanhen of the same area as the disputants, he would have been privy to any such resolution to the problem. Moreover, "Bentum claimed to be chief' ofMprumem, but as :Jmanhen ofthe Ajurnako Traditional Area, Nana Ansa :Jssam would have also known about Bmtum's claim of being chief, because BEntum would have appeared before the :Jmanhen for a swearing-in ceremony. Clearly, the case was not resolved when :Jmanhen Ansa :Jssam went to Mprumem to install Kofi Ansah. The real reason was political; Ansa :Jssam acted quickly in order to preempt Kojo Nkum from installing Bmtum ruler and taking Mprumem along with him to join Gomoa Assin headed by Kojo Nkum. It seems that the two kings were trying to outwit each other for control ofMprumem, with each king trying to be the first to install their candidate ruler of Mprumem on a stool that none of the disputants owned. Regarding Bmtum's claim as chief ofMprumem, we know that to be untrue because neither his own :Jmanhen, Ansa :Jssam, nor the district commissioner knew about it. How else could the :Jmanhen have gone to install Kofi Ansah as ruler of Mprumem if the community already had one? Furthermore, ifBmtum's claim was indeed true then wouldn't BEntum have been listed in the Civil Service List, since all chiefs or rulers in every community in the Gold Coast, including Mprumem were listed in this document by the colonial authorities, going back to the latter part of the 19th century when one starts seeing the list of Mprumem rulers? And finally, the district commissioner would have known about Bmtum's kingship, because it was District Commissioner Lamond himself who dealt with the dispute between BEntum and Kofi Ansah as rivals for the vacant ancestors stool ofMprumem. About the election of a ruler, normally the ruling abusua nominates and installs its own ruler, after which the new ruler is introduced to the :Jmanhen (Kingof-state) and the traditional council. Therefore, it was odd for Kofi Ansah to have invited :Jmanhen :Jssam to Mprumem to have the :Jmanhen install him as chief when Kofi Ansah did not have such an abusua in Mprumem. The invitation meant that Kofi Ansah recognized that he was illegitimate, as he did not hail from the royal abusua, let alone have an ancestors stool. Thus his legitimacy, since it takes a king to install a person as king, was contingent on a superior king, Nana :Jssam, making him royalty by installing him on an ancestors' stool that was not his. The larger question is why were the two elders fighting over an ancestors stool that did not belong to either of them? What is indisputable is that both Kofi Ansah and Bsntum were usurpers and with the legitimate heirs, descendants of Nana :Jwom and Nana Apaaba, silenced or ran out of town, it was now up to imposters to quibble over the stool, as the district commissioner's report clearly showed. The gist

Living Ancestors 85 of the dispute, as judged by Lamond, the District Commissioner, was that the "Stool oflmprumem [was] vacant for several years," and that both "Bentum & Kofi Ansah each claimed stool." If Lamond's assertion is correct, which it was, that the Mprumem stool had been vacant for several years, then Charles Mason's kingship might not have occurred at the time that it was listed in 1910-11 unless the few weeks that Nana Mason was king was regarded as inconsequential. At best, the stool may have been vacant for not more than three years from 191 0-1913, because Kofi Ansah' s claim to the throne started in 1913. If we dismiss the ephemeral reign of Mason, then the stool had indeed been vacant since 1901. Bmtum's goal of attempting to become a ruler goes back to when he initially petitioned Nana :>worn to allow him a share of his throne, a request emphatically rejected by Nana :>worn on the ground that Bmtum was not royalty but a refugee. Now, with the deaths ofNana :>worn, ::>brafo, Affadzi, and Mason and the stool vacant, Bmtum resurrected his claim once again. Still irate by the deeds ofBmtum and his Gyankoma faction against Nana :>worn, the Abusua-baatan Kwa'bo resisted Bmtum at every turn and at one time even offered guns to some of the elders to defend the ancestors stool against Bmtum's attempt to usurp Nana :>worn. It is against this backdrop that Kofi Ansah entered the picture as someone able to stand up to Bmtum. Even so, the Gyankoma group continued to press their claim to the throne resulting in violent confrontations between the supporters of Btntum and Kofi Ansah and Kwa'bo. Bmtum and Kofi Ansah and their sympathizers would loggerheads well into the early 1920s and 1930s. During the protracted proceedings, it was decided initially that the two groups, Bmtum and Kofi Ansah, alternate the kingship, but Bmtum and his Gyankoma faction refused arguing that since they arrived long before Kofi Ansah, they should be the sole occupant ofNana :>worn's stool. Bmtum had claimed Nana :>worn as his elder, while Kofi Ansah also claimed the ::>brafo as his, although both disputants had no blood relation to either :>worn and his ::>brafo, as both Bmtum and Ansah each hailed from a community other than those ofNana :>worn and his ::>brafo. With his back against the wall Kofi Ansah then attempted to exploit Nana :>worn's illness and tragic death by claiming that Nana :>worn was after all a patient of the ::>brafo, in his efforts to establish the primacy of the ::>brafo and make Nana :>worn illegitimate. However, when he was asked as to why :>worn, an alleged patient, and not the ::>brafo, would own an ancestors stool, receive both the Gyankoma and the Abusuabaatan families to Mprumem, offer land to Kofi Ansah himself to farm on, and Kofi Ansah praising Nana :>worn as ::>brtfo ofMprumem, and then finally assist in building :>worn Kwaabam for Nana :>worn, Kofi Ansah had no answer. The impasse was, however, broken when the District Commissioner, unable to determine in which order Nana Kojo :>worn and the ::>brafo arrived in Mprumem, asked the disputants as to where each buried their dead. The District Commissioner had earlier been briefed about the importance of burial sites, because where one is buried usually determined whether one was royalty or not among the Akan. Kofi Ansah responded by saying that he buried his dead at the royal :Jtsentsow-asi grove where previous rulers were buried even though neither he (Kofi Ansah) nor any of his relatives had died yet. After all, Kofi Ansah was the first person from ::>buasi to

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move to Mprumem. Since he had claimed the Jbrafo as elder, Kofi Ansah was referring to the Jbrafo and his descendants from Apam buried at the sacred grove. Bmtum, however, replied that his dead was buried at the Benyank:Jr (Arrived but did not return) grove, the grove given to Brotum and his family by Nana Jwom apart from the sacred royal grove. This response proved to be Bentum's Waterloo, especially in light of the fact that he claimed Nana Jwom as elder. For one thing, he could not claim Nana Jwom as ancestor and still maintain that his dead are buried at Benyank;;r, because Nana Jwom could not be buried at Benyank;;r. Furthermore, Brotum could not say that his dead are buried at the sacred royal grove, because everyone knew that his dead relatives were already buried at Benyank;;r and Nana Jwom was not one of them, meaning Nana Jwom could not be Bentum's ancestor as claimed. Based on Bentum's response, the case was ruled in favor ofKofi Ansah, because the name ofBentum's burial grove, Benyank;;r, suggested that Brotumand his relative from Gyankoma indeed arrived as refugees and never returned and therefore Brotum and his people could not be royalty. With the ruling in his favor, Kofi Ansah was now free to succeed to the throne in the name of the Jbrafo since his opponent, Brotum, had claimed Nana Jwom as elder during the proceedings. Still by 1917, Kofi Ansah was listed only as "Acting"8 chief of Mprumem and not as ruler, because he (Kofi Ansah) was still afraid of Bentum's protestation ifhe (Kofi Ansah) went through with his installation as ruler of Mprumem. Furthermore, with the fiasco of his earlier attempt to have the Jmanhen of Gomoa Ajumako install him ruler, Kofi Ansah now has to convince someone other than the Jmanhen to install him ruler of Mprumem. The problem with Kofi Ansah was that, like Bentum, he too was not royalty and therefore his initial attempt to let Jmanhen Jssam legitimize him by inviting the Jmanhen to Mprumem for his installation. On the second time around, however, he chose a different route, having learned from his mistake. After acting for few years, in the early 1920s Kofi Ansah decided to take the ultimate step. Knowing that he was a usurper and coupled with the fact that no one had actually sat on the stool since the death ofNana Jwom, Kofi Ansah presented three sheep to Abusua-baatan Kwa'bo and pleaded with him to pacify the ancestors stool to enable him (Kofi Ansah) to mount it. Emboldened and somehow vindicated by the court proceedings, the Abusua-baatan and his elders agreed to perform the rites of king-making for Kofi Ansah. However, in order to legitimize the rites and avoid divine retribution, the Abusua-baatan and the elders required ofKofi Ansah to sacrifice a total of seven sheep at different sacred sites in order to propitiate the gods fully. lnl913 Kofi Ansah had also offered three sheep for the same rite but the attempt to install him as ruler ofMprumem ended in a failure when Bentum objected violently, meaning the sheep were never sacrificed. This time, Kofi Ansah complied with the wishes of the elders and sacrificed seven sheep, and was subsequently placed on the stool for the first time since Jwom as ruler of Mprumem in the early 1920s. In the interest of pace the Gyankoma faction was appeased with a consolatory position of Mankrado, a position still held by the Brotums. Even so, Bentum was denied any dealings with the Royal Asona Abusua ofMprumem, including the sharing of funeral expenses or revenues generated by the royal family in line with Nana

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:)worn's wishes. Hitherto the position of Mankrado, as Nana :)worn himself instituted for Mprumem, was held by Nana Kwame Ankama. How the elders took the position ofMankrado after the death of the holder and offered it to a non-royal like Bmtum is difficult to ascertain, although one can understand their reasoning and peaceful intentions. The Royal Asona Abusua ofMprumem is comprised of the original lineage of Nana :)worn and his descendants through his sister and bearer of the ancestors' stool, Nana Adjoa Apaaba; the :)brafo and his adopted Asona descendants from Apam; Abusua-baatan Kwa'bo and his descendants; and Kofi Ansah and his descendants. Technically, by virtue of the fact that both the Jbrafo and Kofi Ansah occupied the stool, their descendants too may occupy the stool but only if the descendants ofNana :)worn are unable to provide a candidate for the stool, while the gate of the :)baatan never occupies the stool as mandated by Nana :)worn. As we will see below, the Kofi Ansah faction that usurped the :)brafo wing of the family would return the ancestors stool to the descendents of:)wom when Nana Kofi Ansah III suddenly abdicated and insisted that the elders choose the rightful heirs from Nana :)worn's family to occupy the stool. This action effectively eliminated the :)brafo and Kofi Ansah wing of the royal family as contenders to the stool. As far as the struggle for power between Ansah and Bmtum in the 191 Os, both Ansah and Bmtum knew that the Jbrafo had no sister and since the :)brafo did not originate in Apam, he (Ansah) would usurp the :)brafo successfully. Similarly, Bsntum was aware that Nana :)worn had no nephews ready to succeed him immediately and so by attempting to succeed to the stool in N ana :)worn's name, Bmtum wanted to become Nana :)worn's pseudo nephew and in the process deny :)worn's true descendants their right to the throne. Perhaps due to the extensive ritual oblation required ofhim during his installation, once he tasted the reins of power, Nana Ansah attempted to supplant Nana :)worn also by attempting to eliminate all traces of him as founder of Mprumem, especially so since his opponent referenced him as the first elder and founder of Mprumem. Even though Nana Kofi Ansah used the name ::>brafo during his struggle with Nana Bsntum, he had no intention of using the Jbrafo name but every intention of establishing his own dynasty. For example, during the period that he was the acting "Odikro" or chief and when he finally became chief of Mprumem, he was referred to as Nana "Kofi Ansah," while his successor also utilized the same name "Kofi Ansah II" rather than, say, Ansah Jbrafo, as would have been the case if he had actually succeeded the :)brafo. First, Nana Ansah ran most of:)wom's descendants out of town and for those who remained he meted out harsh sentences on them for the smallest of offences and denied royal privileges to those who remained. The fact, though, was that most ofNana Apaaba's many daughters were married to men who resided in communities other than Mprumem and so, naturally, their husbands' hometowns became their homes and only returned to Mprumem during crises. Even today, most of the descendants of:)wom and Apaaba are still in communities like Kokofu, Dominase, Ayensuadzie, Takoradi, Simpa, Amanfopon, etc. The few children of Apaaba who remained in Mprumem and those who returned with their families when their spous-

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es died were targeted and persecuted by Kofi Ansah. In consequence, many ofthem fled town again. If they could not pay the hefty fines levied against them over insignificant charges, then there was no other alternative but to run away. In this way, Kofi Ansah made sure that no challenge came from Jwom's descendants to his claim to the stool after successfully usurping the Jbrafo. Early in the 1920s, for instance, he refused to allow a granddaughter ofNana Apaaba, Nana Bortchway, who resided with her husband at Simbroful, a neighboring village, to be buried at the royal grove in Mprumem. However, elders from both villages, including a nephew of Jwom by the name of Amponsah, rebelled against him and went ahead with the burial ofNana Bortchway without his approval at the royal grove. Humiliated, Kofi Ansah turned his attention to finding other ways to fight the descendants ofJwom. Next, he tried to destroy Jwom Kwaabam as a point of reference for Nana Jwom by felling the trees that marked the site as a settlement. However, each time he fell the trees and even burned the stumps, they grew back during the raining season. Incidentally, in the 1970s, another descendant of Kofi Ansah, Kofi Bruce (Brew), also attempted to destroy the JwomKwaabamgrove in the guise ofagricultural development, but each time the original trees grew back when the farming season was over. Finally, as a Muslim (Fante Kremmo ), Nana Ansah claimed authority over all spiritual matters and used his religion to justify marrying and having countless children with many ofMprumem's women even before he became ruler. His intention was to populate Mprumem with his own offspring in order to consolidate his own dynasty, with the lingering effect still in evidence today. Ultimately, Nana Ansah could not live long enough to consolidate his dynasty, as his reign came to a sad end. In 1927, a funeral violence in the town ofDwikwa (Jukwa) led to Kofi Ansah's incarceration and ultimately his death. A deposition filed in "The Supreme Court" by Nana Anu, ruler ofDwikwa, in an attempt to get the court to offer fourteen ofhis citizens who took part in the fighting a new trial, detailed what occurred.

That on Monday, the 3rd day of January, 1927 the above named persons were charged before this honourable court pleaded guilty and sentenced to imprisonment. That the nature of the offence with which they were charged was not understood by them. That we all were informed ... that we would be charged with disturbing the peace and quarrelling and we so understood the charge. That we all were further informed ... that the maximum penalty was forty shillings. That two women by the name of Amba Atchire [and] Amba Assanwah died at Dwikwa and the son Kofi Botsi of the latter woman invited the chief and people of Mprumem to come to the ceremonies. That on account of the said chief and people, [they started] singing songs disrespectful to the dead woman. Botsi presented them with four shillings and requested them to go. That they took the money but on leaving started stoning us and the said chief of Mprumem struck one Kwamin Ninsin on the head with a beer bottle full of water and rendered him unconscious. That the said chief and people

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of Mprumem then set fire to our huts and five were burnt out. That the said persons stole the goods out of the burning huts, including trinkets and money. That I went to the Omanhene of Adjumako to report and on my return met the Corporal aforesaid. 9 The official police report also stated that: A stone and stick fight occurred at Dwikwa on the Apam-Winneba road on 1st instant between people who had come from Mprumem for a funeral custom and those of Dwikwa. It apparently started as the result of a drunken brawl. In the Assistant Commissioner of police report ... 'the people who took part in the fight ... all ran away before.' It was reported some wounded were at a village called Otsio and these were sent for and taken to hospital where 5 were admitted. Five houses were burnt. On 3rd instant 28 men, including the chiefs ofMprumem and Dwikwa were charged before the police magistrate. With the exception of the chief of Dwikwa all pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 9 months imprisonment. 18 were from Mprumem and I 0 from Dwikwa. 10 Incidentally, Amba Assanwah was a daughter of Apaaba and mother ofKojo :>kyir, a future ruler ofMprumem. Like most of Apaaba's daughters, she too was married and taken by her husband to Dwikwa, today's Otsio-Jukwa, but since Nana Kofi Ansah was obsessed with destroying the descendants of:>wom and Apaaba, it was not surprising that he would urge his party at the funeral to sing disparaging songs against the deceased Woman. Ironically, Kofi Ansah, as we have seen, started his quest for the stool of Mprumem violently in 1913 and ended his reign, sadly, also violently which ignominiously landed him in jail. Upon his release from prison he was stricken with a very debilitating skin disease which caused his epidermal skin to peel off as if burned by fire. This caused his body to developed sores, to the extent that he could not even lay down to sleep. He died shortly thereafter in late 1920s. Nana Kofi Ansah was succeeded by Nana :>donlor as "Kofi Ansah II" in 1931. Fearing not to repeat the ephemeral reigns of all the rulers since Nana :>worn, according to Yaw Nyarko whose father also became chief after Kofi Ansah II, the elders secretly fashioned a second stool for Kofi Ansah Il's installation. The reason was to stem the tide of deaths within years of acceding to the ancestors stool, even when one was not actually placed on the stool. For example, people actually believed that Nana Kofi Ansah's illness was caused by the ancestors stool for daring to be seated on Nana :>worn's stool, breathing life in the belief that only descendants of:>wom could mount the throne and reign the longest. This was even before any of :>worn's descendants succeeded him, because the notion still persists that Nana :>worn or the ancestors stool spiritually poured fire on Kofi Ansah causing Kofi Ansah's skin to peel off, in the same way as Nana :>worn was burned alive. However, it is also entirely possible that Kofi Ansah contracted an incurable skin disease in prison. In any case, it took several years before another ruler in the person ofKofi Ansah II (Jdonlor) mounted his own stool in the guise of acceding to the original stool.

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Mounting the stool in Kofi Ansah' s name meant perpetuating Kofi Ansah I' s dynasty. Indeed that was the plan, as the name Kofi Ansah II was used throughout :::>donlor's reign, to the extent that people today still confuse the two Kofi Ansahs. The confusion is justifiable because Kofi Ansah II continued his predecessor policies of persecuting the descendants of:::>wom. However, he abruptly abdicated on December 28, 1942 after 10 years on his pseudo stool, which he took along and had it destroyed, according to Yaw Nyarko and his brother K::>mfo Adu, because their father and successor to Kofi Ansah II was installed on the ancestors stool ofNana :>worn. Kofi Ansah II was in turn succeeded by another relative ofhis, Nana Ahoro, unofficially as Kofi Ansah III in the early part of 1943. However, on the one anniversary of his reign, he suddenly abdicated saying that he was haunted by the stool. He subsequently took the ancestors stool to three of his elders, Kwame :::>beng, Obisau, and Kwame Donlor (with both Kwame :::>beng and Kwame Donlor being grandnephews ofNana :>worn) and urged them to find and install a descendant of :>worn on the stool. Perhaps, the alleged haunting ofNana Ahoro by the ancestors stool would have been avoided if he had been installed on his predecessor's stool, but it had been destroyed and thus his abdication. In any case, he wrote a letter to the effect that he was stepping down. The return of the ancestors stool to the descendants ofNana Kojo :>worn and his sister, Adjoa Apaaba, by the Ansah wing of the royal family who succeeded to the stool on behalf of and in the name of the :::>brafo was significant. First, it ushered in legitimacy by ending a long and rancorous era marked by internecine struggle among pretenders who first drove most of the legitimate heirs out of town. Second and most importantly, it ended anymore claim to the stool by the Ansah-:::>brafo wing of the family. Indeed, when Nana Ahoro abdicated and returned the stool, there was a sigh of relief on the part of the elders who believed thattheywere on the threshold of peace and stability, because they believed that they were being punished for not seating legitimate heirs on the ancestors stool. For this reason, the elders were united in their resolve and determination to find not only a legitimate person to occupy the stool but an ideal candidate. Consequently, they turned their attention on a younger brother ofKwame :::>beng who resided in the city ofTakoradi. Finally, for any family to take an ancestors stool and turn it over to another branch of a royal family or even non-royals, is for the family that turned the stool over to terminate all rights to the ancestors stool forever. Such was the importance ofNana Ahoro's action as it relates to his own Ansah-:::>brafo lineage vis-a-vis Nana :>worn's ancestors stool. In fact, one finds precedence all over Ghana and one such example is the paramount ancestors stool of the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Council itself. When members of the ruling family refused to fight in defense of the ancestors stool, the king gave the stool to another lineage that bravely fought in defense of the stool resulting in the current occupants, the Nyamfu Krampahs, as kings of the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Area. Stories like these are commonplace in Ghana, although sometime the ruling family may not offer up the stool but instead install a non-royal as king while retaining the ancestors stool. This was the route

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that the .Awutu-abe (Effutu) of Simpa took resulting in three non-royals, the Acquahs, as kings of Simpa on three separate occasions in 1858, 1898, and 1919. However, on all such occasions the original ruling family, the Gharteys, retained the ancestors stool enabling them to end the practice of installing non-royals on their ancestors stool. The point is that a family cannot give up an ancestors stool and then expect to be kings again on the same stool that one gave away. In 1944, Kojo :lkyir, a grandnephew ofNana :lwom and the youngest of seven brothers, was installed Nana :lbrafo :lwom VI. In a letter dated 27th July, 1944 confirming his installation to the Secretary for Native Affairs in Accra, the Commissioner for the Central Province of the Gold Coast Colony wrote: I have to report the unopposed election and installation with effect as from the 7th March, 1944 ofKojo Okyir, under the stool name ofObrafu Owam VI as Ohene of Mprumem (Adonten Division) of the Gomoa Ajumaku State. The Omanhene, in reporting this, states that the previous occupant of the stool Obrafu Ansah II abdicated to this office in this respect. 11 Interestingly, the commissioner's report did not acknowledge the one-year reign of Nana Ahoro meaning Nana Ahoro's reign did not even make it to the traditional council level. It further suggests that it was not recognized by the traditional council, but the fact that he was nominated, seated on the stool (elected), and installed meant that he was only legitimate locally. Normally appearing before the traditional council is very expensive and so many newly elected rulers waited until they were fiscally able before undertaking a traditional council appearance. Such rulers are considered widows or widowers and therefore they do not appear among other rulers who have appeared before the council and fulfilled rites pertinent to their office as rulers. For rulers regarded as widows or widowers to associate themselves with non-widow or widower kings is to defile the gazzetted kings and subject to fines meant to purify the kings defiled. If, however, Nana Ahoro's kingship made it to the traditional council level but the council failed to mention him as ruler of Mprumem, then it means that Ahoro did not fulfill his traditional council rites. With his abdication just a year ofhis election, the council probably felt it best to ignore Ahoro's reign altogether than to incur sanctions from the Commissioner for the Central Province in Cape Coast for not reporting an election. To have reported Ahoro's kingship to the Commissioner for the Central Province would have meant setting in motion the process of government recognition ofNana Ahoro and which would have generated a letter to the Secretary for Native Affairs in Accra, as we have seen in the case ofNana :lbrafo :lwom (Kojo :lkyir) above. What then is the role and responsibilities of a ruler who is not gazetted by government, as obviously Ahoro and many traditional rulers are today. Even though rulers in every respect, activities of rulers not gazetted are local and circumscribed, however. Weighing in on the matter the Central Region House of Chiefs states that: It would be very unfortunate if a chief should not be regarded as ruler because he has not yet been gazetted. There are so many customary and tradi-

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Nana ::>brafo :>worn VIII, as we have seen, was fully a gazetted ruler ofMprumem although wrongly listed as "VI" when he was actually VIII, an oversight later corrected. Furthermore, although the commissioner said that Nana ::>brafo :>worn VIII was elected and installed unopposed, actually he faced opposition prior to his installation by a descendant of the ::>brafo by the name ofEssandoh. Just before the installation ofNana ::>brafo :>worn VIII, an influential opponent of his and a descendant of the ::>brafo, Essandoh, went to the police at town of Apam and reported that there was a disturbance at Mprumem, because a group was opposed to the installation of the king-elect. He then hurried back to Mprumem and convinced a few men to seize him instead for the leadership of Mprumem, and in the process caused a commotion in town, as he correctly reasoned. Indeed, when the police arrived and found Essandoh on the shoulders of some men, they were bewildered and confused. How was it that the person who reported to the police about violence against the installation ofthe king-elect end up being the same person attempting to install himself ruler? Upon ascertaining the truth, the group carrying Essandoh was ordered to put down Essandoh who was subsequently arrested for disturbing the peace and filing false police report. Essandoh had tricked the police into thinking that the elders were the ones opposed to his (Essandoh's) installation and by bringing the police to town, he wanted the citizens to think that he had police backing for his ambitiously diabolical scheme. Unfortunately, Essandoh's plan backfired and produced the exact opposite result when police intervened and instead ensured the peaceful installation ofKojo ::>kyir as Nana ::>brafo :>worn, because the elders had informed the authorities about a week or so earlier of the installation of the king-elect. However, the hypocrisy of Essandoh's selfishly diabolical scheme lies with the fact that during the Ansahs gripe on power not a single descendant of the ::>brafo protested their exclusion from power. What Essandoh's protestation demonstrated was that the ::>brafo wing of the royal family actually accepted the Ansah rulers claim to have succeeded the ::>brafo, otherwise they would have protested when the stool was returned. For the descendants of::>wom, it was their protestation that led to their persecution by Ansah I and Ansah II, not mentioning the fate of Nana Kojo :>worn himself by the hands of Bmtum and his conspirators. Incidentally, in the 1944letter confirming Nana ::>brafo :>worn's kingship, we find the name "Obrafu Ansah II" used for Kofi Ansah II. However, the fact remains that even in the letter the name "Ansah II" was still used, confirming the fact that Nana Kofi Ansah had no intention of succeeding the ::>brafo, in which case the name ::>brafo would have been last. What Obrafu Ansah II clearly shows is the fact that Kofi Ansah succeeded the ::>brafo and not Nana Kojo :>worn. With the installation ofKojo ::>kyir as Nana ::>brafo :>worn VIII, the primacy ofNana Kojo :>worn was

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restored. Along these lines, it is sometimes said that the ancestors stool and indeed every ancestors stool, fights its own battles for legitimacy, and not human beings. To avoid the appearance of multiplicity of royal names and ensure unity of ancestors stool in Mprumem, the elders reaffirmed the primacy ofNana Kojo Jwom not only as founder ofMprumem, but that all rulers shall use the Jwom name beginning with the new ruler, Nana Kojo Jkyir. The next issue was what happens to the names of the previous rulers. The elders also agreed that Jwom's name be applied retroactively to all rulers of Mprumem. Having resolved that issue, some of the elders suggested that since Jwom himself chose the Jbrafo as his brother and went on to succeed Nana Kojo Jwom, and since the Jbrafo's name has been "used" by the Ansahs, the Jbrafo name should be mentioned as a supplementary royal name. This suggestion was, however, rejected on the grounds that since the Ansahs who succeeded the Jbrafo returned the stool to its rightful owners, their role in all royal matters had also ended and therefore the Jwom name should remained the only name. In the spirit of unity, however, Nana Jbrafo Jwom VIII (Kojo Jkyir) agreed to allow the Jbrafo's name included as long as it was not the last name, reasoning that indeed the Jbrafo was a brother ofJwom. Besides, Kojo Jkyir continued, it was the Ansahs who returned the stool as pretenders and not the direct descendants of the Jbrafo, as we have already seen. Thus, Nana Jbrafo Jwom VIII (Kojo Jkyir) became the first to use the name Jbrafo Jwom as ruler. Immediately upon mounting his ancestors stool, Nana Jbrafo Jwom VIII adopted a new praise-song, Apaaba ii; Awo yiie o (Hail Apaaba, procreation is worthwhile) in addition to Nana Kojo Jwom's (JWoa! JWoa!! Assm nyee iiffirime anasa; Assm nyea; iiffirime anasa iikyire kyire) to honor Nana Apaaba's fecundity, although he never used Nana Jwom's for fear of alienating some of his citizens. In using a new praise-song, Nana Jbrafo Jwom VIII was reminding the larger community that the legitimate rulers of Mprumem are indeed the offspring of Nana Apaaba (and Nana Jwom) who have returned and claim their rightful place on the throne ofMprumem. The change disappointed many of his elders who felt that it was a betrayal of his grand ancestor, Nana Jwom, especially in light of what the Gyankoma faction did to Nana Jwom. In response, the new king explained that he wanted to avoid recriminations and instead focus on uniting the people. But were the descendants ofBmtum whom he was appeasing repentant? (I would later combine the two praise songs when I became ruler in 1993). To commemorate the return to legitimacy, Nana Jbrafo Jwom VIII fashioned a new golden state staff for Mprumem, which is still in use today. On the staff is depicted a king seated on his stool and eating afufu meal. Standing in front of the king on the other end of the table with his hands clasped on his stomach is a hungry man asking to have a share of the king's meal. However, the king, stretching his left hand across the table toward the hungry man (the pretender) and his right fingers still inside the bowel of fufu, objects to the hungry man's request. What is being communicated is that an ancestors stool is seated upon by its owner and legitimate heir and not by a pretender or one hungry for power. Shortly after his installation in late 1944 Nana Jbrafo Jwom VIII toured the major towns that some of Apaaba's descendants resided. When he got to Kokofu,

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which had the largest group of Apaaba's descendants, the people there also asked him to be seated on a stool that they had created, but Nana :>brafo :>worn refused saying in effect that a servant cannot serve two masters at the same time. Therefore rather than allow the stool to remain in Kokofu and divide the family politically, he brought it along and added it to the original stool at Mprumem to this day. The addition of the second stool created confusion amongst some descendants ofKofi Ansah who are of the assumption that the second stool is the one created by Ansah II. The fact simply is that Kofi Ansah II did not add his pseudo stool to Nana :Jwom's, because he was afraid of the real stool and the reason why he made his own in the first place. And from what I could ascertain from elders like Yaw Nyarko, Kornfo Edu (both custodians of the original stool and sons of Ansah III), Kwame Mensah, Nana Apaaba III (Queen mother), Arna Arnissah (my mother), Opanyin Boabeng, and Opanyin Budu, Nana Kofi Ansah II's stool disappeared with him when he abdicate. All of these individuals confirmed the source of the second stool to be Kokofu and explains why when Nana Ahoro was installed on the original stool, he abdicated on his anniversary claiming to be haunted by the stool. Most importantly and according to the elders, when Nana Ahoro abdicated he only took one stool, the original in his possession to the three elders, namely Kwame :>beng and Kwame Donlor with Obisau who attested to the fact that indeed the stool was the one and only ancestors stool of Mprumem. Besides why would Nana Ahoro have taken his predecessor's stool together with the original ancestors stool to the descendants ofNana :>worn when he knew that Nana :>worn only had one stool? The key as to whether there were two stools prior to the enstoolment of :>brafo :>worn VIII is found with what Nana Ahoro said to the elders when he returned the ancestors' stool: "take back your stool and place the rightful owners on it." The only way that Nana Ahoro thought of ending whatever haunting he was experiencing was for him to dispose of the ancestors stool by returning it to its owners. Finally, according to my mother and several elders that I interviewed, including one by the name ofKwame Mensah who was actually one of the elders who helped bring the stool to Mprumem, after Nana :>brafo :>worn VIII brought the stool to Mprumem from Kokofu, he convened a meeting of the Asona Abusua and informed them about the new addition. The fact was that Nana Kofi Ansah II created a second stool for future kings of the dynasty began by his predecessor, Nana Kofi Ansah I, and when that failed to materialize because he abdicated, his stool also disappeared with him. Still, in the early 1970s two men, Ohia and Kwesi GyrnihwE, both descendant ofKofi Ansah stole the stools when Nana :>brafo :>worn was away attending a funeral. About midway along the road from old Mprumem to new Mprumem, they claimed that the stool became so heavy that the carrier began to quake as if possessed or alighted upon by a spirit. Unable to move they hid the stool in the bushes and ascertained from some passersby as to which of the stools belonged to them, that is, descendants ofKofi Ansah. Awestricken, the passersby raised the alarm and the two were apprehended and the stools recovered. This was the only time, I am told, that :>brafo :>worn VIII thought of actually sacrificing the men involved on the stool, but he could not because the men were already in police custody by the time he returned

Living Ancestors

95 home. In the mid 1970s, a descendant ofNana Brntum, probably BEntum III, resurrected his claim to the throne and brought a summons against Nana :::>brafo :>worn VIII. During the ensuing deliberations and adjudication, the spokesperson (:Jkyeame) for the militias (Asafo), Nana Kwame Piintsil, demanded to know two things from Nana BEntum. First, Kwarne Piintsil wanted to know why the ancestors ofBrntum accepted a lesser position ofMankrado during his ancestors' contestation of the stool with Kofi Ansah, if their claim to royalty was indeed true. And second, he asked Brntum as to who was the senior, he, Brntum, or Nana Kojo :>worn? Unable to answer both questions, the summons was subsequently dismissed. Humiliated, Brntum III left town and never returned to Mprumem until he died and his body brought home for burial at Benyank:r. I asked Asafo Jkyeame Kwarne Piintsil what prompted him to ask the questions, and his response was that he was just trying to ascertain the truth, something that they already knew, he added. The death ofNana :::>brafo :>worn VIII in 1982 was sudden. He and his citizens had finished a communal work of clearing the bushes along the main road. After having lunch, he asked his senior wife to give him his cough syrup, but his wife (or his oldest daughter, according to others) mistakenly brought him a solution oflice in a bottle similar to the cough syrup's placed next to the cough syrup. Without checking, he took a tablespoon full of the lice poison and drank it. Immediately he realized what had just transpired. Sweating profusely, he fell unconscious within moments of drinking the poison and died while being transported to the Winneba Government Hospital. He reigned for 38 years, more than all his predecessors combined, except Nana Kojo :>worn, his granduncle. He was in his mid eighties when he died. He was a tall, handsome, and strong for a man his age. Ignoring or perhaps oblivious to history and precedence, some elders succeeded in choosing a candidate from the :::>brafo's side of the royal family, Kwa Bondze, to succeed Nana :::>brafo :>worn VIII as Nana :::>brafo :>worn IX in 1984. However, like his predecessors he abdicated two years into his reign in 1986 for acts unbecoming of a ruler. I recall that during my own seating on the ancestors stool, the head custodian of the stool, Opanyin Yaw Nyarko, inquired from his colleagues as to who might have performed the rite-of-seating for Nana :::>brafo :>worn IX. The reason was that neither he (Yaw Nyarko) nor any of his colleagues was invited to perform this extremely important rite, especially since he and Abusuapiinyin Bruce controlled the keys to the stool room. If the custodians are right, especially since the Abusua-piinyin is prohibited from performing such a rite because he is prevented from seeing the stool, then Nana :::>brafo :>worn IX too was not seated on the ancestors stool, as his predecessors from the :::>brafo branch of the royal family. Following Nana :::>brafo :>worn IX's abdication, the queen mother, Nana Apaaba III became the regent ofMprumem until the elders decided that the Mankrado should be the regent as a male. By this time, a descendant ofNana Kofi Ansah I, Kofi Bruce (Brew), appointed by Nana :::>brafo :>worn VIII as Abusua-piinyin after Bruce retired as the principal of a training college decided to contest the stool. However, after the death ofNana :::>brafo :>worn VIII and the abdication ofNana

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Jbrafo Jwom IX, Bruce decided that he would mount the throne himself rather than find a descendant of Nana Jwom to mount the throne, as his duty as head of the royal family required. The queen mother, however, objected and reminded Bruce not to ignore the fact that his ancestors returned the stool to its rightful owners. Unfazed, Abusua-panyin Bruce took the queen mother to a royal court in the mid 1980s, for opposing him. When the case was heard at Gomoa Ajumako, the capital of the traditional area, Kofi Bruce and his supporters not only lost the case, it turned out to be a sad humiliating experience for him particularly, as a former teacher and principal, head of the royal family, and the District Chief Executive for the Gomoa District. Abusua-panyin Bruce saw an opportunity and rather than preside over the election of a new ruler as head of the family, he instead decided to use his influence, education, and position as chief executive to muzzle his way to office and failed. During the queen mother's successful defense against Abusua-panyin Bruce, Yaw Frempong, a descendant ofNana Apaaba, teamed up with the queen mother in defense of their ancestors stool. Afterwards Yaw Frempong, who always thought that he would be king, put enormous pressure on the queen mother to choose him (Frempong) as ruler ofMprumem. Again, the queen mother resisted, pointing out to Frempong that even though Frempong was royalty he and certain members of the royal family do not automatically mount the stool without first the fulfillment of certain preconditions. Yaw Frempong felt slighted and from then on Frempong not only loathed the queen mother, he did everything overtly and covertly, most times hiding behind others, to undermine the queen mother in order to have her deposed. For example, Frempong evicted the queen mother and her women accompaniment from his house. Hitherto, Frempong had allowed the queen mother to use a portion of his house since Frempong resided elsewhere in the hopes of influencing the queen mother, Nana Apaaba III. Unable to secure the nomination himself, Frempong decided to work against the queen mother by making himself a "king-maker" and set out to pre-empt the queen mother as she decided to nominate her choice. He quickly contacted potential candidates and attempted to convince them to accept the kingship. Those that he contacted include a retired soldier by the name of Asiedu, but Asiedu, like others that Frempong contacted, rebuffed his attempts knowing that he was a man of dubious character. Asiedu informed me that he was repulsed by Frempong's eviction of the queen mother and others women from his house, especially when there was no one occupying the house when Frempong asked the queen mother to move in. Asiedu feared that Frempong could do the same to him if he (Asiedu) accepted the kingship and did not become Frempong's stooge. In the meantime, Abusua-panyin Bruce resurrected his desire to mount the throne once again and started preparing to install himself as ruler, taking advantage of the rift between the queen mother and Yaw Frempong. Abusua-panyin Bruce set a date for his installment over the objection of the queen mother. However, Abusuapanyin Bruce died a few months before his self-appointed date of enthronement in 1991 at the age of 61, probably from diabetes, according to his wife, although the consensus was that his death was spiritual. Immediately upon Abusua-panyin Bruce's death, Frempong tried again to get

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himself elected but failed when K:>bina Takyi, the new Abusua-panyin turned him down yet again. The new head of the royal family, K:>bina Takyi, who descended from the :>brafo wing of the royal family and whom Frempong helped elect in the hopes that K:>bina Takyi would in turn support his bid to mount the stool, would not go against the wishes of the queen mother. Desperate, Frempong did everything to make life a living hell for the queen mother, to the extent that the queen mother hardly visited Mprumem from the town of Ankamu, a distance of only two miles. Against this backdrop in 1993, the queen mother, Nana Apaaba III, nominated me to be the next ruler of Gomoa Mprumem and in the process I became a pawn between Frempong and the queen mother. I was totally unaware of the politicking that had gone on between Yaw Frempong and the queen mother, because I was born and raised in a different community (Winneba). Moreover, my father would not allow me to visit Mprumem except on two-or-so occasions that I can remember, and also as a young adult lived outside of Ghana and only visited my mother when I returned to Ghana. I also had no idea as to what had transpired politically among the various aspirants before my nomination and even when I visited Ghana I lived at Simpa (Winneba). Besides, I had no interest in the kingship, because I was brought up to believe that I was from Simpa, which I am paternally. When Frempong realized the inevitability of my election, he pretended to support me by suddenly taking an interest in me. In so doing, he deliberately attempted to limit the influence and role of the queen mother in my election and installation processes. It became obvious that Frempong was seeking to gain my favor and even used his house, instead of rpy .own house, as the staging ground for activities associated with my seizure by the Asafo (militia). I had gone to Mprumem to inform my mother about returning to the United States within two weeks. Not finding my mother at her house I was told that she was at Frempong's house and after she did not show up for awhile, I went to Frempong's house where I was told to wait for her there as we may have passed by each other. Unbeknownst to me she, Abusua-panyin K::~bina Takyi, and the rest of the royal family had loggerheads with the Mankrado, the regent, because he was demanding payment for his stewardship before he relinquished power and enable the royal family to seize me as the next ruler. Recounting the experience elsewhere, I state: When the family told the regent, the Omankrado, that they have nominated me and needed to be seized right away before I left, the Omankrado was rate. He argued that in the absence of the king, he had governed Mprumem for six years or so and if a new king was about to be installed then he should be paid one million cedis for his stewardship. The Ebusua panyin was outraged and asked him if he, the Omankrado, paid anything besides the bottle of schnapps that tradition demanded when he was installed. To be paid for one's stewardship without first accounting for the period of stewardship to the owner after which payment is made based on one's performance, was hard to swallow. This was what the Omankrado was demanding. Finally, in the interest of peace the Ebusua panyin paid him over a I 00 thousand cedis and a few bottles of schnapps liquor (money I paid later to the Ebusua panyin).13

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For most parts, regents are problematic. As soon as they taste the reins of power, they refuse to step down and when they do, they intentionally make things difficult for new rulers. Recently in the city of Tamale in northern Ghana, a regent caused some men to kill their ruler installed only a year earlier. 14 Concerning the royal family's negotiations with the Mankrado, I later learned that the queen mother who had nominated me was not even there and when I asked as to where she was Frempong lied to me that she was ill. My impressions ofhim as someone of a dubiously, manipulative and controlling character were formed quite early. For example, when I first visited Yaw Frempong together with the queen mother and my mother after arriving from the United States two years before my nomination, I vividly recall him telling the queen mother and my mother that I will die upon acceding to the stool, if the two women insisted on my installation. I thought it was odd for Frempong to have made such a statement but I brushed it aside, as I was not even contemplating becoming a ruler. As a grandnephew ofNana :)brafo :)worn VIII and great, great grandnephew ofNana Kojo :)worn, I was installed the :Jdikro (sovereign ruler) ofMprumem under the stool name ofNana :)brafo :)worn X. My mother, Ama Amissah, had married an Owutu-ni (Effutu) from Simpa (Winneba) and bore me and my sister. My father had married six different times earlier without having a child and so when he saw me for the first time when I was born after he returned from fishing all night, his words to my mother were: "You have delivered a ruler" (A woo :iten). Growing up I never really understood what being royalty was all about although my mother periodically reminded her children that we were royalty and should therefore conduct ourselves well. Later in adulthood when my mother impressed on me that I would one day rule Mprumem, I readily dismissed the idea saying that I was from Simpa and not Mprumem. Indeed, I was being naive, because I did not understand what an iibusua was all about. Even when my mother wrote to me in the United States in 1982 informing me that my granduncle (Nana :)brafo :)worn VIII) had passed away while I was in West Virginia pursuing my first degree, I did not put his death in context, to the extent that I could and would one day succeed him. I was more concerned with my studies as a struggling foreign student who was trying to make ends meet financially than anything happening in my homeland. Later in graduate school at Emory University when I became aware that I was being "pursued" because my mother and her cousin and queen mother, Nana Apaaba III, had nominated me, I still thought that I was safe in the United States. I was a pastor of churches in Georgia while I was in graduate school and thought that I had my occupational choices well in hand. Moreover, there were other iibusua brothers who it seems had sought the kingship forever. According to Nana Apaaba III, Queen mother ofNana :)brafo :)worn VIII, a few weeks before Nana :)brafo :)worn VIII died in 1982, he privately reiterated to her about his desire to have me succeed him apparently upon hearing that I left for the United States from Liberia in January of 1982, a few months before his death. Unbeknownst to me the king had earlier told his queen mother about his wish to have me succeed him when I first traveled to Liberia in 1979. Perhaps another reason why he wanted me to succeed him may be attributable

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to the fact that he had asked me to marry one of his daughters upon my return from Liberia to Ghana on a visit in 1980 when I was already married. Even before he formally asked me or rather told me to marry a daughter ofhis before I got married, he would say when I visited my mother that he would offer me one ofhis daughters to marry (he only had daughters with his eldest wife), but I thought he was just being playful. One thing about an installation is that most of the time, a king-elect is not in charge of events, as people and elders dictate to the king-elect what to do and what not to. Such was how I felt when I could not find my queen mother during my installation ceremonies. Thus, as soon as my installation was over I went to see her and that was when I learned the details of the feud between Frempong and Nana Apaaba Ill. Upon a return from the United States two years later, the queen mother formally complained to me that Frempong was trying to have deposed. As a result, I convened a meeting of an uncle ofFrempong and I, K wsku Anaku, the queen mother, and Frempong in my attempt to make it an entirely a family affair. During the deliberations, Frempong vehemently denied attempting to have the queen mother deposed, but all of his activities, whether done personally and clandestinely or overtly through others confirmed the queen mother's point. In the end, I urged all of us to work together as a family, although the queen mother and I always kept an eye on him because of his dubious nature. For over a decade, I personally sent thousands of dollars to Yaw Frempong for various community projects, but he diverted most of the money for his private use, each time asking me to bring more because the costs of everything was too high. For example, he squandered a substantial amount of money that the royal family gave him toward construction of an O.busua flue (royal household). When I pressed him for the money after I returned from the United States, he managed and bought a few bags of cement and made "cement" blocks that were so sandy that when it rained many of his blocks washed away. Personally, the last straw came when he spent most of the money I send to him for my mother's initial funeral rites ifuundah~). as I could not attend. When I confronted him about his misappropriation of money and other subversive acts against me, he became sanctimoniously defensive, but I reminded him, to his utter disbelief, about his death wish for me fifteen years earlier. This was after I had asked the paramount king of Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Area in January of2008 to help me investigate missing royal morues. The fact is that most of the aspirants to the ancestors stool, including Frempong are corrupt, lacked vision, humility, and qualities and attributes of good leadership and for that reason they were all rejected a decade or so before my installation as ruler of Mprumem. Actually, the citizens saw through their self-serving egotism and rejected them. For example, in his usual cowardice scheme of using others to do his dirty job, in January of2008, Yaw Frempong called on his supporters, Kojo Muhammad Quansah, Kojo Amoako, Bruce Acquah, Krarnpah, the Mankrado (BEntum), and Y EWodzeyae, in an attempt to force the queen mother to resign. He had hoped to replace the queen mother with an eighteen-year-old girl whom the queen mother had earlier designated as her likely successor. This was

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after the queen mother, with my support, dismissed the eighteen-year-old for acts unbecoming of a future queen mother. However, like Abusua-panyin Bruce who also tried to depose Nana Apaaba III, the queen mother, and failed, Yaw Frempong also realized the futility of his deposition attempts and so he recoiled into his shell shamefacedly at his house. All these men had been fighting with a simple elderly woman, who had no formal education like Frempong or Abusua-panyin Bruce and certainly not as wealthy as the men who loathed her for defending her position and therefore the ancestors stool. During her battle with Abusua-panyin Bruce, for example, the queen mother had to sell some of her personal items in order to raise the needed money for her defense. After fifteen years as king, Kojo Muhammad Quansah, a member of the royal family whom I designated as my man-in-waiting after my installation, even claimed to be the ruler of Mprumem after all. His explanation was that in my absence Abusua-panyin Takyi asked him to represent me at a traditional council meeting as my man-in-waiting and even took an oath on my behalf and that act seemed to have gotten into his head, while another iibusua brother, Kojo Amoako, also carries himself as ruler ofMprumem in my absence. It appears that my absence created opportunities for want-to-be rulers. The plan of Frempong and his accomplices was to have the queen mother deposed and then replace her with this eighteen-year-old girl and then finally turn their attention on me too, replacing me with Yaw Frempong. However, their mischievous schemes all failed because they could not come up with any charge against the elderly queen mother, especially when I challenged them to bring formal charges against her at the judicial council of the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Council if they had any. How can one man like Frempong, it may be asked, intimidate and exercise so much control over that many people for such a long time? For many years, Frempong carried himself as a rich and village scholar (ekurasi krakyi) at a time when most of the elders, including his uncle and ruler were uneducated in the western sense. Even though Frempong had no significant education, the elders and citizens thought that the fact that he had some schooling at all qualified him as krakyi or scholar. We are talking about a society where even having a middle school education qualified one as krakyi and so luxuriating in that capacity, Frempong carried himself as a de-facto leader even though he neither held any elected position nor was he ever elected to one. This continued until the arrival ofKofi Bruce, a retired principal, a lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, and chief executive of the Gomoa District. To the chagrin ofFrempong, his uncle and ruler ofMprumem, Nana ::>brafo :>worn VIII, elected Bruce instead as his Abusua-panyin. Now, he was no longer the center of attention, because Abusua-panyin Bruce was famous, wealthier, and certainly more educated. Slighted Frempong never forgave Nana ::>brafo :>worn for rejecting him as Abusua-panyin. Beside other family reasons compelling Nana ::>brafo :>worn VIII not to elect his own nephew Abusua-panyin, Frempong came to reside permanently at Mprumem under dubious circumstances. During the military regime of Rawlings, some people accused Frempong of allegedly embezzling money of theirs and consequently reported him to the military authorities. As a fugitive, he came to Mprumem

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where Nana ::lbrafo ::>worn VIII hid him. People recall how soldiers came to Mprumem in search ofFrempong and in the process harassed many people. An uncle of both Frempong and I, Kweku Anaku, once told me how some soldiers came and beat him mercilessly because he would not reveal the whereabouts ofFrempong. In the end, Nana ::lbrafo ::>worn VIII had to tum him over to the military authorities who took him to jail. After the deaths of both Nana ::lbrafo ::>worn VIII and Abusua-piinyin Bruce, Frempong once again found himself in the limelight from about the mid 1980s to the early 1990s. Then the queen mother nominated me over him. Her choice of me as Mprumem's next ruler was received enthusiastically and when Frempong realized that he was fighting a losing battle, he pretended to support my nomination and tried to tum me against the queen mother. After failing to secure my help against Nana Apaaba, Frempong turned to Kojo Muhammad Quansah and Kojo Amoako who, on queue from Frempong, loathed, behaved, and did everything that Frempong asked them against the queen mother. Yet she held everything together for the royal family after the death ofNana ::lbrafo ::>worn VIII. Sadly, some members ofher own family led by Yaw Frempong, Kojo Muhammad Quansah, and Kojo Amoako find it necessary to revile her. Still, the queen mother remained unfazed by the vilification ofFrempong and company, arguing that her enemies only attack her because she is a woman and because they are afraid of her king. Since 1993, I have devoted myself fiscally to helping improve the lot of my people, even as I travel between the United States and Mprumem, Ghana. For one thing, being in the United States has helped me to accomplish many of my goals and objectives for my people in ways that I would never have been able to accomplish living in Ghana. William Easterly, a prominent World Bank economist and Professor of economics at New York University and his team visited Mprumem twice in the early 2000s and wrote down his impressions of some of the progress in Mprumem. In his book, The White Man 's Burden, Easterly writes: The older village elders tell us about how life has changed over time. Many villagers used to suffer from Guinea worms disease when they had to get their water from a contaminated water hole. Guinea worm disease is caused by a tiny water flea .... When people drink water containing such fleas, they get infected with the larvae. The larvae ... eventually growing to worms as long as three feet. The worms eventually emerge from open sores on the skin. They take weeks to emerge, during which the victim is in agony and cannot work or attend school. Now the villagers get pipe water from the nearby city ofWinneba, and there is no Guinea worm. The expansion of water services was financed partly by foreign aid. Even though the water supply is periodically interrupted, the chief has built a water reservoir (financed by Western donations) to store water to tide the people over during water cutoffs. Children are healthier. What's more, the returning chief has also built a junior high school, also financed by Western donations. 15 The fact is that I could not have improved on the education, water, electricity, and agricultural needs of my people without support from private institutions, churches,

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and individual citizens ofthe United States, some of whom, like Easterly, I have never met but who are determined to help ameliorate the lot of my people.

The AkwanmbJ Festival Some of the most important features of ancestor worship practiced by black people and mentioned by Diodorus, a Greek historian who wrote about 50 B.C.E., includes "processions and festivals." 16 Also, among the Akan, processions and festivals are inextricably linked, with kings walking or being carried in palanquins, while celebrants sing praises to their leaders. Similarly, in ancient Egypt, Baines states that: Public festivals-listed in offering fonnulas from the early Fourth Dynasty onward-were the chief occasions when ordinary people could come close to the gods and perhaps present to them their own concerns. At festivals the gods were carried out of the temples, almost all of them enclosed in shrines placed on portable barques. The audience could know that the gods were there but could not see them. Even to attend some festivals was a privilege to which people aspired in perpetuity. 17 Cosmically the dead of a community (nsarnanfo), the Nananom Nsamanfo (Ancestors), the Abosom (primeval gods and goddesses), and other spirits-both good and bad-converge to partake of festivities honoring them. Spiritually, in a palanquin with the king are all his or her predecessors, who acknowledge and accept their praises and honor of their posterity. For good or ill, everyone is allowed to feast, while celebrants recall, consciously or unconsciously, ''the history and heroism of the ancestors" just by participating in the festivities. In ''their exuberance, the people affirm their faith in the ancestors and gain greater hope for the future, believing that the nation has been purified and brought into the homeostatic relationship with the ancestors" and gods. Based on my own experiences as the ruler ofMprumem, the periodic feasting and honoring of the ancestors and deities are the most important responsibility of kings, because it is only from the hands of a living ancestor, the earthly representative of the Nananom Nsarnanfo and deities, that the Nananom Nsarnanfo (Ancestors) and the Abosom (Deities) partake of their ambrosia. This is exactly why a ruler must be divine at all times and open up oneself to "other-worldly encounters" during such times as feasting of the Nananom Nsarnanfo and Abosom especially. These periodic feastings propitiate the Nananom Nsarnanfo and deities by commemorating the lives and deeds, deaths, and resurrection and vindication at the Sarnanadzie of the Nananom Nsarnanfo. However, many Ghanaians are quick to dissociate themselves from the notion of ancestor worship when asked if they worshipped their ancestors, because they have been conditioned, thanks to colonialism, into thinking that worship is spending several hours at sanctuaries and doing whatever non-Africans have taught us to do once inside those sacred spaces. This, for many Ghanaians, is religion as taught to us by Europeans and Arabs so that anything unsanctioned by Christianity or Islam is

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irreligious and therefore evil, primitive or uncivilized. And yet the same people who deny ever worshipping their ancestors are among the first to jump at every opportunity to be living ancestors-kings and queens-and attend annual festivities presided over by kings honoring the very ancestors that they disavow publicly. Perhaps they fail to make the connection between these annual festivities and ancestor worship, because they do not see them as worship, at least not in the same way as Christianity and Islam. However, ancestor worship is a religion wholly, practiced as a shared way of entire peoples, their ancestors and gods and goddesses, language, and a cultural lifestyle. It is within this context that citizens heed the call of their living ancestors to return home periodically in order to participate in festivities honoring the ancestors and gods. Thus in this section, I will discuss how the annual festival called Akwanmb-7, which honors the ancestors and gods and goddesses of Gomoa Mprumem, is held annually as leader of that community. From the beginning, it was Nana Kojo Jwom and his sister, Adjoa Apaaba, who ritually took care oftheir ancestors stool, because they alone knew the esoterica of the stool. Later, when the Jbrafo arrived from Apam or Elmina, he became the executioner for the stool and hence his "name":Jbrafo (executioner, messenger, and collector of herbs). The Jbrafo assisted in the forty-day cycle ambrosia, in accordance with Akan ritual feast called Akwasidai and as directed by Nana Jwom. Initially, there was no special annual ceremony for the stool only a sacred meal during the month of August when yams were first harvested. Today, the forty-day rituals ~re held in private, with few members of the royal family participating, while the annual festivities have taken on communal and national importance. But as Mprumem grew the need to include other Asona elders in the ritual processes became necessary, even though the ritual esoterica still remained a family affair. Following Akan ritual traditions the people ofMprumem came to celebrate a generic ancestral festival among the Fante in the Gomoa area called Akwanmb:>, which literally means clearing of paths or bushes to tidy the community for the homecoming ofthe ancestors. Prior to the Akwanmb:> Festival, in April and per the ruler's announcement, the elders gathered at the shrine (Pusuban) for a ritual of remembrance for Mprumem's dead called Ahoba. Just before daybreak on the morning of the remembrance, the ruler convened the militia leaders, offered them customary gifts ofliquor and money, and sent them out with the militia to weed and tidy the cemetery. Then upon their return at about mid morning, adult members of every household that lost a member during the year met at the shrine together with their lineage heads. There, the names of the dead are called out individually three-times, as bottles ofliquor are presented to the ruler for libations and prayers for the deceased. Afterwards, the :Jkyeame (the king's spokesperson) took one bottle ofliquor and offered collective prayers and libations for the dead and ancestors at the entrance of the shrine. Following that, the assembled crowd disbanded and from that point on, the attention turned to the Akwanmb:> festival in August. A month prior to the festivities, the ruler prayed and offered libations to the stool, ancestors, and gods ofMprumem reminding them about the upcoming festival in a private ceremony. This ritual allowed the spiritual powers to inform other divin-

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ities about the impending annual feasting ceremonies. From this point on to the end of the festival, the king and queen mother refrained from acts potentially unclean in order to open up themselves for "other-worldly" experiences. The Akwanmb:> festivities start on Monday morning at 12 midnight to the following Monday at the same time, because the founder ofMprumem, Nana Kojo :Jwom was born on a Monday. At midnight, the ruler privately performed certain prayer rituals in the stool room to mark the formal start of ceremonies. In general, libations and prayers followed what Rattray has pointed out that: "The edges of the years have come around, we are about to celebrate the rites ... do not permit any evil at all to come upon us and let the new year meet us peacefully." 18 Before prayers, however, there was a three-time ritual knock on the door of the stool room, while concurrently saying: agoo, agoo, agoo, to which the response, albeit spiritual, is amen, amen, amen. If the year coincided with a ph a (a five-year cycle), then before daybreak special purification rites are performed for the ruler in order to begin a three-day sequestration period-a reduction from the one week (eight days) sequestration period required in the past. During sequestration, the royals wore white cloths, ate only ;)t.7meal of yams and boiled eggs every morning before they ate anything else, and only a few people allowed to visit them. At the same time, citizens are prohibited from tilling the land although farmers may be allowed to fetch food items for consumption when necessary. As owners and custodians ofland entrusted to them by the ancestors, the sequestration of the rulers was tantamount to closure of the land to all persons. Usually there were people who enforced the ban. On daybreak on Monday, sub-rulers and elders converge at the palace in order to receive traditional gifts of money and liquor from the ruler for the formal commencement of ceremonies. Then, the party departed to the shrine of the goddess :Jbaa Yaa, the spokes-deity for the Mprumem pantheon and offered prayers and libations there to mark the public beginning of festivities. The invocation of:Jbaa Yaa is tantamount to informing all the ancestors and gods about the commencement of the weeklong festivities. On Monday night, there was a bonfire ceremony near the town's shrine, where people congregated for merry-making all night. Prior to the lighting of the bonfire, the militia leaders visited the ruler and requested from him a fire torch to light the bonfire. Once lit the fire is not extinguished until the festival ended a week later, because the fire represented the fires lit by Nana :Jwom at Mprumem in order to make the community habitable on two separate occasions. The first was when he established the foundation for the town, and the second after Mprumem was flooded. Ironically, it was also fire that ultimately killed Nana :Jwom and therefore while the lighting of the bonfire on Monday night, the krada (soul-day) ofNana :Jwom, symbolized the life of Mprumem, it also reminded people, sadly enough, that fire also takes away life, in a dramatic fashion. Therefore, for the king and queen mother, the lighting of the bonfire represented a profound reflective and sentimental period in the history of the royal family. Ritually, Wednesday is the high day of the weeklong festivities, because it is the day that deities, ancestors, and posthumous abstract personalities (nsamanfo)

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feasted and the state purified. Wednesday is also significant in that it is the day of the leading god of Mprumem, Agya Kw~:ku (Eku-Eku). As a result, it is ritually important for rulers and elders to cleanse themselves before handling rites, sacrifices, and ambrosia, otherwise the festival is rendered unclean and rejected by the ancestors, and gods and goddesses. In view of this, the king and queen mother especially kept a fastidious supervision of those who prepared sacred rites to make sure that everyone was properly cleansed. Of course, the rulers would have undergone secret consecrations prior to the festival in order to ensure a successful conclusion of ceremonies. For example, sacred water in trays are prepared and placed at the entrance to the palace for ablution for those entering the house. The ill may also massage their bodies with the medicated water for recuperation after dropping some coins into the water in exchange for their well-being. Others may simply rub some of the medicated water on their body or symbolically splash some of the water to rub their hands and pray about their conditions or wishes. Thus purified, one may participate in ritual activities with a clear conscience. As a soldier, the deity Agya Kw~:ku ownes several military vehicles, guns, most times wore army and sometimes police uniforms, and drives around in a jeeplike army truck equipped with antennas and walkie-talkies-like apparatuses. The deity Obiri, Agya Kw~:ku's elder brother, however, stayed behind in other to administer the affairs of the realm when Agya Kw~:ku is on patrol. Agya Kw~:ku hardly chose a medium, because he does not want his human subjects to approach him readily, and consequently he does not respond to mediumistic invocations, with few exceptions. On his sacred day during the festival, Wednesday, Agya Kw~:ku summons all the gods and goddess of Mprumem and beyond, to proceed in order to partake of the offerings of wine-liquor, ambrosia of :Jt:J, mportroba (made from fermented dough and red palm oil), sacrifices of sheep or a bull, and other items offered to the deities and ancestors. The sacrificial animal has certain essential parts taken and cut into 77 pieces each and mixed with the animal's blood and scattered at certain sacred sites to ensure equity distribution of the essential parts. Thus, the number 77 symbolized completeness or totality of the gods receiving animal sacrifices. As Turner correctly points out: "The killing of an animal in sacrifice sends a message of power to the spirits--death being the membrane between mortal and spirituality. The blood, the result of the penetration of that membrane." 19 Similarly, on this day, Nana Jwom, the grand ancestor ofMprumem and his ancestors, the Nananom Nsamanfo, also receives all posthumous spiritual citizens (Nsamanfo) ofMprumem and beyond in a grand celebratory way, receiving them to partake of the offerings of his descendants. Ordinarily, by sunrise the sacred meals would have been scattered already by the clergy at various sacred sites, with accompanying prayers and libations although Nana Jwom would have already received his special sacrifice on Monday morning during the start of festivities. Nana Jwom, founder ofMprumem, almost never goes anywhere as a symbolic stool, but once in flight as a bird (Jwom) he is extremely fast for a bird its size. He is a huge and awesome bird (Jwom), with a pony-tail-like feathers on the back of its head. Otherwise, he is always seen symbolically as a stool.

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As living ancestors, the rulers also receive homage from citizens and visitors alike. Wearing white outfits, they eat some of the same ambrosia offered to the ancestors and deities. Afterwards, they appear in public and sit-in-state to receive audiences and gifts. If a festival occurred on a pha year-a five-year anniversary-then both rulers end their sequestration and emerge for the first time in three days on the Wednesday of the festival. On the Friday morning, the youths in particular and every able-bodied person converge around the town's shrine in order to run (trot) the Nana Apaaba Race or Nkwa amerika (Race ofLife). It will be recall that it was Nana Adjoa Apaaba, who, as an intrepid teenager from Nkwanta, fled with the ancestors stool of her family tied on her back to Mprumem. Therefore, the Nkwa amerika commemorates the courageous flight ofNana Apaaba from Nkwanta to Mprumem. Before the citizens depart, their leadership present themselves to the ruler for the formal sending off blessings. With the racers gone, the rulers and elders awaited their arrival at the shrine. On their return, the leadership once again reports to the king saying that they have successfully completed their mission. Then, the leadership is presented with their traditional gifts of money and liquor. From this point on the crowd entertained the royals by staging and competing in various contests, games, and amused the royals.

Procession Processions are essential for all festivities honoring the ancestors and deities in Ghana. Indeed, while some rites during festivals are private, processions allow people from all walks-of-life to converge in a huge public display of cornradery and good will. Above all, religious processions are when deities and ancestors, kings and queens, and some icons and symbols are showcased. In addition, instruments, new musical compositions, songs about heroisms, cowardice, social and political events, and ignominy of certain elders are sang for the first time; also elaborate costumes with distinct patterns and colors are debut. I recall one day when a sub-ruler ofMprumem approached and implored me to stop the militia from singing certain songs about her during an upcoming festival and procession. She got wind that the militia has composed a song about her and were planning to sing during the procession. For the people of Mprumern, the weeklong Akwanmb:> festival reaches its zenith on Saturday, with a procession of traditional rulers in full regalia. Citizens and visitors also put on their best attires and costumes. Prior to the durbar, the king received visitors until about mid-morning when he departs with his handlers to the sacred grove of::>wom Kwaabam to prepare for the procession at noon. There, he is readied and meticulously adorned in golden and other ornaments. At exactly noon or thereafter the king and the queen mother are ready to proceed in their palanquins after final prayers and libations. As the :>hen and ::>henrnaa (sovereign rulers) of their community, both rulers are carried in palanquins, while sub-rulers walked. Even if a king chose to walk, then he stayed at the rear of the procession as the chief shepherd overlooking his or her flock offering spiritual pro-

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tection. However, among the Awutu-ii.be (Effutu), for example, the king-of-state is strategically positioned in the middle of the procession separating the two competing militia groups during their annual Nyanbr (Deer Hunt) Festival. In this way, the king-of-state is viewed as politically neutral of the militia forces ofSimpa. In the palanquin, a king reigns supreme, as he towers over everyone else so that when he rose up or sat and danced, his hand-gestures communicating ownership ofhis world: north, south, east, and west as, indeed, his. For this reason, it is important for a king to be in full regalia and in the best oflights. Judgment is always rendered by a crowd about a king as to whether or not he is beautiful, impressive in his regalia, appears kind and gracious, youthful, strong and courageous, or quite simply, whether the king is worthy of their praise and honor. The procession, and perhaps more than any single public activity, epitomizes outward expression of ancestor worship, because it culminates in a series of events commemorating the heroism of the founding ancestors and deities of state. During processions, the corporeal and spiritual worlds converge in the middle, in the personality of the ruler in a palanquin. Acknowledging and responding enthusiastically, citizens sing the praises of their ruler even as they dance to royalfontonfrom and martial (Asafo) music in affirmation of their loyalty to the king as a living ancestor and representation of the stool in human form. Reciprocating in kind, a ruler acknowledges and accepts the praises of citizens with his hand gestures on behalf of his predecessors, ancestors and gods goddesses. Obviously, rising up and dancing boldly in the palanquin communicates more than just acknowledgement of praises, it demonstrates a king's claim, control, and ownership of his state as first warrior and living ancestor. The Akan do not take lightly their rulers in palanquins and regard the conclusion of each event as a significant achievement. These occasions are viewed with intense anxiety, especially as a new king anticipates what lies ahead concerning the reaction of citizens and throngs of people waiting to catch a glimpse of their ruler for the first time, perhaps. I was personally amazed when I came face to face with the crowd while in my palanquin for the first time. Having been sequestered for days, I could only imagine what the atmosphere was like outside and so when I came upon them for the first time I naturally became anxious for a moment but gathered my courage and rose up and danced. Conversely, the crowd also looks for elements of surprise and mystery about a king, as they anxiously awaited their ruler. Symbolically, a king is the crescent moon and consequently must be aesthetically revealing and concealing simultaneously, as a ruler makes his or her apparition with his soul-wife (Jkra-yeri) seated in front of the king in the palanquin in the same way that the crescent moon appears with Ky&ky& p&r-awari, his wife. A king's elusiveness as the crescent moon is, however, revealed gradually, as a ruler takes upon himself the praises (as well as the ills) of society while being carried from one end of a community to the other, in the same way as the crescent moon crossed the sky and then disappeared as full moon. Again, in the same way as the Akan sing the crescent moon's praises, exuberant citizens shout and sing the praises of their king who, in return, instills faith in the survival of his people by acknowledging them with gesticulations.

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Once lowered to the ground and a king sits among the company of rulers and elders, the procession is, in effect, over. The rest of the time may be devoted to making speeches, congratulatory greetings from other royals and citizens, presentation of gifts, more drumming, dancing, and singing of the Icing's praises. On the following days, the king continues to receive guests and visitors. At midnight, prayers and libations are offered to end the Akwanmb:> festivities existentially although, spiritually, it may take two or more weeks before the festivities are over. The competitive nature of nominating, electing, and installing living ancestors is to ensure orthodoxy, streamline the process, and eliminating undesirables. The Akan would often say, that the ancestors stool is the only one who chooses its own child (tigua nara na onyee niba). Indeed. Like a one-way love affair, it is initiated unilaterally by a divine. It follows that only a divine like an ancestors' stool can choose the person it wishes to marry. Chosen thus, a king-elect is seated on the very symbol and soul of a people and is immediately transformed as Nana :>hen (King), growing to reciprocate the love affair and becoming one with an ancestors stool. Conversely and most importantly, human beings are incapable of initiating this love affair with a divine for the simple reason that humans do not see the abosom. Therefore, while many people fight for the right to occupy an ancestors stool and never succeed, others too may not contest the kingship and yet end up nominated, elected, and installed kings to the chagrin of those royals who felt they should have been kings. Sometimes in reaction affluent princes may even bribe their way to power but end up being deposed, have ephemeral reigns, become notoriously evil, their kingship marred by violence and litigations, and their kingships ending in ignominy, or even die prematurely because they were not "chosen" by the ancestors and deities to represent them. That is to say, while many indeed compete for a kingship position because the kingship is the highest social, political, and spiritual estate, only persons chosen by the deities get to occupy the stool of the ancestors for any extended periods.

Living Ancestors Rulers of Gomoa Morumem

6

6 ::>brafo :>hen ::>brafo :>worn II R. 1885-1895

~

I Kweku Affadzi

~

:>hen Kojo :>worn I R. 1830-1885

::>beng

~

~

~

I

~ Amba Ansawah

::>henmaa Adjoa Apaaba I (R. 1830-?)

~

I

I

~

~

I

~

AmbaAnowah

:>hen ::>brafo :>worn II R. 1898-1901

I

I

6

Aba.Affi

I

Charles Mason (Mensah) :>hen ::>brafo :>worn IV R. 1910-1911 Kofi Ansah I (:)hen ::>brafo :>worn V) 1920-1928

~

Afua Ansawah ~

Bergyigyiim

I

::>donlor Kofi Ansah II (:)hen ::>brafo :>worn VI R. 1931-1942

I

Ahoro Jr. Kofi Ansah III (:)hen ::>brafo :>worn VII) R. 1943

6 KwaBondzie :>hen ::>brafo :>worn IX R. 1984-1986

Kojo ::>kyir :>hen ::>brafo :>worn VIII R. 1944-1982 ~ ::>henmaa Adjoa Apaaba II R. 1947-1967 ~

6

Adjoa ::>bima ::>henmaa Adjoa Apaaba III 1970-

Kojo Effirim :>hen ::>brafo :>worn X, PhD R. 1993The

~

sign denotes female, while 6 is male.

CHAPTERS The Ancestors Stool There is a customary practice among the Akan that when guests arrive home safely from their journeys, they are welcomed by first offering them stools or seats to sit on. Next, they are offered water to drink and at which time guests pour some of the water to the ground or floor for the ancestors or spirits believed to accompany them. And finally, they are asked to offer a synopses of their endeavors abroad, after which hosts also summarized what transpired during the absence of guests. Sometimes, it is during the synopses portion of this simple ritual that one finds the hypocrasy of some guests, especially those claiming to be more "civilized" because they have traveled or lived abroad. These Akan guests suddenly pretend to forget how to offer orderly sequence of events since they left home and yet they follow the same rituals all the time overseas, especially if they claim to be educated, because the process of presenting arguments in an orderly manner is a discipline also required in Western scholarship. Moreover, those feigning ritual amnesia while in Ghana belonged to ethnic associations abroad, which assiduously adhered to the same cultural traditions as they attempted to recreate semblances of their national and ethnic cultural traditions. However, concern here is not so much the third of this three-fold ritual, which, incidentally, is also the same as the Samanadzie, as it is about the first-the ritual of welcoming guests by offering them seats or stools to sit on. To be offered a seat is to be welcomed paving the way for a series of events to follow. When my youngest son was a child, my wife and I took him to Ghana. Unlike his first visit where he was not aware because he was still a baby, this time he was old enough to appreciate certain cultural events. We asked a sculptor to fashion a small stool for him as his kra-gua or soul-stool, because the Akan name their children in accordance with the days of the week, which they believe correspond to the seven souls or quality attributes of God Nyame. In the past, a kra-gua (soul-stool)

The Ancestors Stool 112 was made for every Akan child as a symbolic way of welcoming a human being into the corporeal world and representing seating of child's soul or ::icra on a stool. In other words, the soul or :Jkra has to be anchored (Woab::mo tsina 'si) symbolically in the corporeal now that it has landed, literally-a ritual without which a soul (child), it is believed, could return (die) to whence it came, the Samanadzie. Nowadays this ritual offashioning a stool for infants have largely gone undone in the urban areas especially, because those in the urban areas are either oblivious to this practice or have simply ignored it entirely for one reason or another. However, when my wife and I returned to the United States without our son's kra-gua (he really wanted to bring it along but we just had no room for it and had to convince him that it actually belonged in Ghana) he repeatedly demanded to know if his stool was still safe whenever his mother or I traveled to Ghana. This indeed surprised us because normally many children born outside of Ghana did not appreciate certain cultural traditions of their parents. Clearly then the stool, which the Fante called Sese-gua because it is fashioned mainly from a durable Sese tree (dua) and another tree called Nyame dua, 1 is the physical emblem of the :Jkra or soul, as it provides anchorage for a neonate as a living being. How did the Akan come to associate a stool fashioned from trees to conform to certain configurations with a soul? In general, every Akan home and sacred sites have stools, because traditionally stools are the only seating apparatus. In older homes and shines one finds many stools for different elders, men, women, occasions and purposes. There are outdoor stools used by anyone for daily activities and have no special importance, as well as indoor stools used by elders and occasionally when elders convened meetings. For outdoor stools, before going to bed all stools must be tilted against walls or laid on their sides, because of the notion that at nights spirits also arrive in homes to undertake their chores and they must be prevented from seating themselves on the same stools used by humans or else illnesses or misfortunes would befall the living. These spirits are not necessarily good spirits like the ancestors; they are rather other nocturnal forces, like witches, thought to leave spells on stools used by those that they may want to harm. However, in addition to the spiritual reason for positioning stools in a certain way before going to bed, the practical explanation-in wide-open African households where all activities are performed outdoors-is to prevent birds and other nightly scavengers from standing on them and leaving droppings on stools. However, for good spirits (ancestors) and the need to seat them upon their arrival home, Rattray states that: a demand arose for shrines of varied shapes and forms to serve as dwellingplaces for the various spirits. The souls of ancestors are supposed to have found an acceptable abode during life, and even more so after death, in the stools upon which the owners sat in their lifetime. Hence arose the desire for seats of artistic forms. "2 Stools in shrines may be subsumed under sacred or priestly stools, because every clergy, i.e., a priest or priestess, medium, and doctor has a set of stools used by clients. And, in addition to these general shrine stools, there is always one special

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stool that belongs exclusively to a clergyperson as his or her kra-gua offered to a clergyperson upon graduating from clerical training. 3 This priestly stool is retired upon the death of the clergyperson and referenced by subsequent clergy associated with a founder of a particular shrine. In this way, an original stool attained an ancestral status and used by its owner whenever the ancestor was invoked. Furthermore, priestly stools may be associated with specific ancestors, gods or goddesses and are therefore distinct from ancestors stools used by kings. In 1914, for example, Crowther, Secretary for Native Affairs in the Gold Coast Colony, wrote that in addition to the Ayrnsu River "fetich" or stool of the Awutu-iibe (Effutu) ofSimpa (Winneba) as ''the principal" outdoor stool, he also wrote about ''two very important indoor fetiches [stools]. These are Penin-jan [Sskum] and PenchiOto [Penkyae Otu]. They are kept in the house known as Oto-ana [Otuano]. The latter stands in a degree of subordination to the former, but they are intimately connected one with another.'"' These godly or abosom stools are made specifically for deities that may want to be worshipped by a group of people so that during divinations the stools became objects of manifestations for the deities, that is, objects on which the deities alight upon when they alight on their mediums. In the ancient times whenever a group of people migrated, they also carried along the priestlygodly stools and invoked their deities whenever necessary. It was from this perspective that Crowther referenced the priestly-godly stools in Simpa, because when the Awutu-iibe arrived at their present settlement, Simpa, they brought along their gods and objects ofhierophany led by the deity Otu (and his elder brother, Sskum). Consequently, there are clergy in Simpa associated with the Aysnsu River who were added to the pantheon when Simpa was settled, and royal clergy of Otu-Sskum since the two are symbiotically linked to the ancestors stool of the Awutu-iibe as a triad. Expatiating on the priestly and private stools of dead kings relative to the ancestors stool of the Awutu-iibe, Crowther states: Visible stools are preserved and reverenced in three houses in Winneba. In the ancient and dilapidated hovel known as Otu-ano in a chamber having an entrance not more than four feet high the fetiches Penin-Jan and Penche-Otu are kept under cloths on shelf in the front of each is the stool of the fetiche-the stool which the spirit is believed to occupy. Under the shelf are piled the skulls of the deer killed in the Aboa-kyre custom and the implements used in the Wi custom. In the box at the side of these and wrapped in cloth is all that remains of a very ancient stool. The seat, a portion of one leg and storn are all that time has preserved. This stool, the Ghartey Family maintain, is the ancient stool occupied by Botsi Komfu Amu and his predecessors. Robertson admits that at his enstoolment as Acquah II he was placed on this thrice by the priests. In the same house of Otuano, but in a different chamber are kept three stools said to be those of Ghartey Gyanpenin II [King Ghartey II], Ghartey Kuma III [Ghartey III], and Ghartey IV. This house is claimed by the Ghartey family to be the old 'Ahenfi' or chiefs house. Close by this is Bondsi Kwae's house in which is preserved his stool ofBondsi Kwae Gyansa [King Gyansah Bondzie Quaye] .... [King] Ayiribe's house lies to the west of Otuano and there is preserved the [his] stoo1. 5

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Although the Awutu-abe ofSimpa are Guan, they have been Akanicized socially and culturally. Politically, the Awutu-abe are struggling to maintain their ancient patrilineal system of descent, because a part of the Awutu-abe favor adopting the matrilineal mode of succession practiced by their Akan (F ante) neighbors in which nephews of dead kings are elected kings. Like the Akan and many other ethnic groups in Ghana, the Awutu-abe too use an ancestors stool for their ultimate political and religious symbol. These stools-the kra-gua for infants, elders, priests, and kings-serve as visibly reminder of a dynastic history and a continuum of social and religious heritage. In African societies where written sources and monumental structures are lacking, these royal stools are the only identifiable source for ancient and modern histories. Clearly, for the Akan and others, these stools are emblematic of the souls of the ancestors whose names are recalled periodically. Moreover, in addition to priestly and godly stools, every elder, including kings, has a stool as one's kra-gua (soul stool), which, like a priestly stool, is retired upon the demise of an elder. In the case of rulers, their stools are periodically purified and kept at sacred rooms. These royal stools are different from an ancestors stool that each ruler is seated on and kingly investiture conferred, because an ancestors stool contains the souls of all the kings combined and the founding ancestor for whom the stool was first made. Unlike stools of each dead king housed collectively at centralized sites and periodically paraded during high occasions, stools of other dead elders are housed at their respective family or iibusua homes and may be used by other living elders during meetings. Concerning the origin of the stool, the consensus is that the stool is as old as when the first humans learned how to sit down on objects other than the ground. Thus, a stool is primal, meaning it is old and ancient making it the first artistic expression there is apart from the human body. Structurally a stool has not changed, especially the top and bottom portions, while the middle portion comes in all kinds of designs, patterns or symbols designed to offer support for those who sit on them. The bottom portion is flat and proportion to the size of the entire stool, also designed to offer balance and prevent a sitter from falling. Other than that, it has remained essentially unchanged. Aesthetically the top portion is shaped exactly as the crescent moon, a protective embrace that eclipses the buttocks completely. Following the emblem of the crescent moon, a stool represents in physical form the soul linking it with the stool as kra-gua. Intrinsically, the precise location of the soul is on the shoulders (krado ), which provides balance for the head, the seat of mediumistic activities. Ifthe stool is patterned after the moon then does it mean that the crescent moon is the emblem of the soul? What then is the relationship between the :Jsran, the moon, and the earth? We will have to understand that the Akan worship the crescent moon as Nana and subsequently sing the praises of the crescent moon as it makes its celestial journey across the sky as sustainer, giver oflife, and one who instilled faith in the survival of humanity. In this sense, there is no question then that the moon is the soul of the earth. From the religious standpoint, there is also no question as to how the Akan and their kindred peoples perceive the stool: it is the very essence, the soul, of a

115 The Ancestors Stool person and corporately the very soul of a people and their departed loved ones. However, since not every dead person owned and occupied a stool, how do we make the collective claim that a stool embodied the collective spirits of a people? The answer lies with the ancestors stool. An ancestors stool is a single sacred stool on which all kings of a community are seated on before attaining the status ofliving ancestors. Every community then has one ancestors stool, which confers sociopolitical and spiritual investiture on those duly nominated, elected, and installed as rulers. The investiture rituals are old and ancient. When Europeans arrived in the Gold Coast, for example, they found royal institutions deeply entrenched among the various communities that they encountered. Some of the colonial authorities in the Gold Coast (Ghana) after observing succession rights among various groups, including the Awutu-iibe of Simpa (Winneba) prompted Crowther to write in 1914 that: "In this colony the possession of a visible stool is usually a necessary adjunct to office."6 While an individual may possess a stool, it is, however, the corporate ancestors stool that conferred power, because it represents collective souls of citizens, ancestors and gods and goddesses so that an occupant automatically came under the aegis of an ancestors stool. The ancestors stool was, and is, the object or symbol of transformation. Its very existence breathes life and faith in citizens by ensuring the survival and eternity of humanity, in the same way as the crescent moon assumes the misfortunes of humanity as it makes its perpetual cyclical journey across the sky, dies at the end of the month, and resurrects as a new being insuring continuity in the human family. To further understand the dynamism of an ancestors stool, two notions come to mind. First, an ancestors stool is a living being: the very first person who fashioned the stool and bequeathed to his descendants the paradigms for living. On this fact Crowther states:

To deal first with the normal Twi-speaking [Akan] tribes, one might say generally that the great stool in each state is believed to be the actual seat made and used by a traditional founder or a consecrated duplicate thereof, and, apart from its association with the highest civil office in the state it is the visible object of ancestor worship. It is briefly, the place which the soul of the ancestor revisits. 7 Clearly, like Budge, Crowther also makes a connection between an ancestors stool and ancestor worship. If an ancestors stool is a living entity which revisits its object of manifestation, then an incumbent ruler can converse with his or her ancestor, seek guidance and counsel from it, and discuss matters of state with the ancestor. I had always wanted to meet my ancestors stool but I was not sure how to proceed. Naturally, I was anxious because I did not know what to expect or even if the stool would come through for me. An encounter with an ancestors stool is excitedly unnerving, but it is important for ritual efficacies. Yes, rites are performed periodically, but to what extent rites are accepted or rejected by the ancestors and deities is an enigma. For example, one day an alleged medium informed a ruler to sacrifice a black chicken and sheep for the ancestors stool, because apparently the king was impressed with the medium's pronouncements and tricks. When one of his elders

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protested that such a sacrifice would weaken the ancestors stool, he was overruled and so in protest the elder refused to attend the sacrificial rites. Within weeks, however, the medium was dead, while the king followed a few months later. This is why it is very important to consult with an ancestors stool and gods as a ruler in order to know exactly what the prohibitions and taboos of an ancestors stool are. After all, one is dealing with spiritual forces that are unforgiving, especially when attempting to dilute their potency. The second realism about an ancestors stool is that it is a symbol: a tangible, immovable object of hierophany, seen, felt, and touched by appropriate persons. Though a real symbol, the existence of an ancestors stool is also an act of faith, because while unseen by most people, there is an absolute belief in its existence as an ever-existing, transforming, redeeming, and yet unchanging reality, making it an :>bosom wholly. Thus an ancestors stool instills faith in that it is an object unseen and yet believed to exist, instilling fear and awe in a community of faith, because it evokes mystery and power. It is sacrosanct, because its numinous nature is heightened and quickened by the periodic sacrifices that it receives and the fanatical reverence shown towards it. Its sacrosanctity as the ultimate symbol of hierophany is evidence further by the fact that it exists indefinitely as a god. Defining religion symbolically, Geertz writes: A religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic. 8 In this context, an ancestors stool, is the ultimate symbol par excellence, exercising ultimate, profound, and even fanatic effect on the Akan and kindred peoples as they deal with their ancestors' stools, to the extent that it alters attitudes in a manner best described as insane reverence. What, then, is so symbolically transforming and redeeming about an ancestors stool, to the point of causing a people to tick fanatically, when perfectly normal, educated, highly intelligent people react dogmatically and even fatally, sometimes, when attempting to succeed to an ancestors' stool? Central to a religion is an object, a numinous symbol embryonically fused with an archetypal personality, an ancestor oftime immemorial who is quickened during certain ritual enactments. Where such an object or symbol is hidden from public observation, its periodic epiphany immediately evokes reactions that are best described as insane fanaticism, because it suddenly quickened devotees' reverence submission to an otherwise inanimate object in ways that are irrational. Religion is mysterious and nonsensical, especially to non-believers, if there are some. Genetically, there are no none believers, because the nascent symbiotic cord is tied to the matrix of being, the very being manifested objectively as a religious symbol. Even if one severs ties with the collective, the mother, one cannot deny consanguinity with the matrix or collective. Ontologically then religion and religious symbols are anchored in ritual expressions that are meaningful only to

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communities offaith. In other words, symbols are meaningful culturally to a people as starting point of their religious and historical exegesis, otherwise symbolisms mean nothing. 9 Does it mean then that those not members of an ethnic group cannot join or convert to religions other than their ethically determined ones? Indeed people are free to choose whatever religions that appealed to them, but they do so in tension with their innate religious traditions, as many African do. Previously, we have seen how Budge defined African religion as the "the worship of the souls of the dead." The Akan equate souls with stools, which makes the Akan definition of religion more holistic than those offered by both Geertz and Budge, respectively. However, when we combine the definitions of Geertz and Budge then we have a context where symbolically the souls of the dead, ancestors, are situated. That is to say, that African religion is the symbolic worship of the souls of the dead, because while souls or essences are divine and therefore intangibles, corporeally the essences-souls with names-are concentrated collectively as tangibles symbols, like ancestors' stools. Meaning, the souls of the dead are not random spirits traversing the cosmos aimlessly, rather the souls of the dead, from a unitary standpoint, are contained in sacred symbols of the ancestors themselves, like stools, skins or hides of animals, staffs, or whatever symbol a people deems appropriate and meaningful culturally. If the ancestors reside in stools, as in the case of the Akan and their kindred peoples, then the stools that contain the souls of kings are the highest socio-political and religio-spiritual object and symbol for the Akan and other groups for whom the stool is their ultimate religious symbol. More than any object ofhierophany, an ancestors stool is the most numinous object par excellence there is for the Akan. How then does an ancestors stool acquire its spiritual power apart from periodic sacrifices? Upon carving an ancestors stool, according to the late Jmanhen ofGomoa Ajumako Traditional Area, Nyamfo Krampah X, a piece of gold may be embedded in it. Then the stool is purposefully and ritually smoked 10repeatedly with a concoction of vines, leaves, roots, and wood from a special tree for day or weeks for durability and empowerment until it acquired its distinctive black color for posterity. 11 In addition, a special blackened concoction is prepared and coaxed over the stool periodically; then, to energize the stool spiritually, special prayers, libations, and blood sacrifice of various kinds 12are offered on the stool, after which it is wrapped in a white calico and kept at a secured place. From this point on, periodic sacrifices and purification rites must be performed in accordance with the idiosyncratic rites of the family that owns the stool. Even so, every ancestors stool is unique, with its own idiosyncratic rites, history, and taboos and prohibitions. Thus, an ancestors stool embodies the collective spirits, consciousness, cultural traditions, and history of a people. In fact, the stool was, and is, the story of every Akan, epitomized by its ruler as the representative of all the ancestors of a community. Singularly important is the notion that an ancestors stool housed all the souls of departed rulers, so that when invoked these souls congregate in and around this singular object of manifestation, the ancestors stool. During such spiritual convergences, each spiritual ruler is seated on his private stool (kra-gua) around the ancestors stool as filial but subordinate ancestors relative

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to the ancestors stool. In other words, all rulers received their kingly investiture when they are seated on the ancestors stool of the founding ruler, so that each rulers derived one's power and authority from the ancestors stool and founding ancestor. Spiritually, the assemblage of ancestors vis-a-vis the original ancestor, the ancestors stool, is replicated on earth by the descendants of the ancestors relative to an incumbent ruler. Being a living ancestor means that all ancestral rulers have conferred spiritual and temporal power and authority on their earthly representative, the king, as custodian of the living and the dead. Spiritually, the legitimacy of a ruler is based on whether or not a living ancestor has been accepted by the ancestors, because "seating" a person on an ancestors stool should establish spiritual and temporal relationship between an incumbent ruler and the ancestors, but that is not always the case. If an ancestors stool imparts divine and temporal power to anyone who is seated on it three-times, then it can also be an instrument of curse and death for any unauthorized rite association with a stool. Actually, an ancestors stool is a taboo for the simple reason that it is sacred, thus anyone who inadvertently touches or sees it may become ill, an outcast, or even die. Stories abound in Ghana about those who stole or touched such stools allegedly being sacrificed on the very stool that they stole when they were apprehended. In fact, Nana :)brafo :)worn VIII, my granduncle, was ready to sacrifice the two men, Ohia and Gymihwe, who stole the ancestors stool ofMprumem had not the police intervened. Even so, one of men died not too long after their failed thievery, while the other became a social outcast and begged for food until he also died. Needless to say, that as the unifying socio-political and religious object ofhierophany housing the souls of the ancestors, an ancestors stool must be propitiated periodically, preserved for posterity, protected and hidden from public view, and defended against internal and external threats at all costs, because it is the soul of a people. Another basis for the sanctity of an ancestors stool, which makes any unauthorized or inappropriate seating on it, touching or sighting of it a taboo, is the notion that even a house containing an ancestors stool also attains sacred status making the house a taboo. Consequently, unclean persons or things are prohibited from entering such a house, otherwise the house in rendered unclean requiring purification rites to be performed. For example, no corpse should be taking to a house believed to house an ancestors stool; however, if a corpse must be taking there then, first, the stool must be removed and if the stool must be returned to the same house then blood sacrifices must be perform in order to purify the house. Similarly, anyone who lives at a house containing an ancestors stool, like a ruler, must not approach a corpse, or else must purify oneselfbefore re-entering the house even if the house is owned by a ruler. Knowing this Akan rulers, whether they resided in homes containing ancestors stools or not, do not go near corpses unless they are sure that purification rites would be performed immediately upon viewing a corpse. Other persons who may not enter palaces or houses believed to house ancestors stools are those who have lost loved ones and have not undergone purification, new mothers not yet three months old after delivery, menstruating women, those who have copulated without taking baths, etc.

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The enigma about taboos and prohibitions vis-a-vis an ancestors stool is: Why will that which is sacred and powerful be rendered unclean by that which is seemingly less than sacred and powerful? Whether menstrual blood or a corpse, they are both lifeless and unclean and the reason why they are both expunged. For example, menstrual blood is believed to be an inactive blood because it has no Sunsum (spirit) and for the Akan, the Sunsum is what activates a woman's blood to form a human body and so any inactivated blood is one that has no spirit and therefore unclean blood (mogya fe) and which must be discarded. This is why the Akan view a human being as essentially the blood of a mother and the basis for their iibusua system of descent. Both a corpse and menstrual blood are the same, even as both are discarded as unclean stuff, because to be unclean is in effect to be dead since one has no life. So then, is death more powerful than life, so powerful that everything death touches also dies? Absolutely, because where death is found life is nonexistent, and when death has a grip on life, death always wins in that life gives way to death by departing a body. Understanding the enigma of death also reveals the mystery of God. God Everlasting (:>domankoma Nyame) created an everlasting death (:>domankoma owu), which turned around and killed God, the Everlasting, and yet God never dies. God is the only entity capable of giving life to an inanimate object, death, as discussed in chapter one. What then can a sacred do to prevent those who deliberately try to desecrate it? It kills them before they have the chance to desecrate it. As for those who may unwittingly violate a taboo, they may be giving warnings and asked to perform oblation, depending on the degree of violation. The fact is that it takes more than a simple violation to cause a divinity to depart a sacred object like an ancestors stool; consequently taboos and prohibitions are meant to warn people, especially those who tend to sacred objects and duties to live above reproach or risk losing the protection of the divine and die. What has a stool, artistically carved out of a tree to do with the dead? How do we know that souls of the dead are indeed "inside" a stool or any sacred object for that matter? Or how does a community come to recognize an ancestors stool as their socio-religious and political symbol of power? An ancestors stool is a stool originated uniquely by an ancestor as an emblem of his life wholly, malleably and deliberately fashioned by an ancestor for his posterity granting spiritual and earthly investiture to occupants of the stool. The ancient Egyptians, for example, believed that the Ka (soul, double or image of a dead person), which went to heaven upon death, traveled back from heaven from time to time and dwelt or "possessed" the statue, picture or painting, and objects that was associated with the deceased person in order to receive sacrifices offered to the dead. From the ancient Egyptian perspective, therefore, we see thousands of years of tradition and history suggesting that the ancestors do indeed share in the prayers, libations, offerings, and sacrifices by loved ones. Moreover, I have witnessed in many societies, especially where no corpses were available, photographs ofthe dead held by loved ones during parades or placed near a bed for mourners to know and pay their respects to the dead. There is the notion that the soul of the dead actually lives on and can see via its own portrait. The point being there is ample evidence to

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show a direct connection and relationship between objects and those who made and used the objects even after death. In other words, inventors, artists, and the living always leave their fingerprints behind in their works and activities so that years and even centuries after their deaths, contemporary generations continue to see and admire the masterpieces of the ancestors. As evidence of the physical presence of an originator, an ancestors stool serves to commemorate the life, death, and vindication in Samanadzie (the world of the ancestors) of an archetypal ancestor as a deity. Similarly an ancestors stool reminds contemporary generations about the eternal presence of the ancestors who fashioned and used ancestors' stools. Thus to be in the presence of an ancestors stool is to be in awe of the originator of the stool and the ancestors of time immemorial. In fact, to be seated on an ancestors stool is the most overwhelming and humbling ritual experience there is existentially. In itself, it is a highly spiritual act, albeit physical. As the most valued treasure, an ancestors stool must be hidden from public view-its actual location known to a handful of people who ceremoniously tend to it. In general, it is assumed that most ancestors' stools are kept in palaces and while this may be true generally, its actual location may be a secret to most members of a royal family. Custodians of a stool, including a ruler, are oblige to protect and defended it at all costs for posterity, because it is the soul and heartbeat of a people. For this reason when citizens converge for ancestral festivities, they do so in order to renew and affirmed their faith in the stool, the symbol of the founding elders, who, in the beginning, pledged their commitment to their ancestral gods who manifest themselves during mediumistic rites. Nowadays, there are many power-hungry individuals claiming to be rulers and yet have never been place on ancestors' stools. In the process, they have become agents of disunity as they attempt to subvert ancient principles of governance. Some, like the Acquahs ofSimpa (Winneba), actually go as far as to fashion a stool or turn an elder's stool into an ancestors stool and then claim, falsely, to be royalty. 13 However, a genuine ancestors stool must have at least four essential attributes. First, it must have a beginning that is shrouded in mystery-a mystery revealed at a ritually appropriate time. In other words, a stool must have originated under circumstances believed to be strange, fantastic, and even tragic for a founding ancestor. In the previous chapter, we saw how Nana Kojo Jwom ofMprumem paid the ultimate price when his enemies burned him to death. Similarly, Kwame Gyata Ayirebe Gyan, originator of the Awutu-abe (Effutu) ancestors stool, disappeared into the ground when he was discovered to have had more than two eyes. 14 Stories like these are commonplace throughout Ghana and re-counted solemnly on occasions during social and political crises or when stools are being propitiated. Of course, the most famous of these stories is the one about the Golden Stool of the Asante people and King Osei Tutu, founder of the Asante kingdom. The king's friend, a medium by the name of Jkomfo Anokyi, conjured up the Golden Stool from heaven (sky) which gently came and rested on the lap ofOsei Tutu. Describing the Golden Stool in the 1920s Rattray writes: The Golden Stool, the shrine and symbol of the national soul ... was borne

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by Amo upon the nape of his neck, and sheltered from the sun by the great umbrella .... This umbrella was known throughout Ashanti as Katamanso (the covering ofthe nation). On either side of the stool walked attendants, each supporting one of the solid gold beJls which were attached by things to the 'ears' of the stool, and formed a portion of its regalia. Two other bells of brass, also attached to the stool, hung down over Amo's chest, the thongs attaching them to the stool being grasped by his right hand, while his left held the stool in position on the nape of his neck. The remaining insignia of the Golden Stool consisted of iron and gold fetters, gold death-masks of great captains and generals, whom the Ashanti had slain in battle since the time of Osei TutuY

Of course, the Golden Stool, as the name indicates, is not a blackened stool and therefore different from other blackened ancestors' stools occupied by traditional kings. But the mysterious nature of any original stool relative to its originators is the poignant fact that at some point many of the originators, like :>worn, Ayirebe Gyan, Osei Tutu and many more, suffered sudden and violent deaths or what the Akan called at:fo wu. It would seem that an ancestors stool takes wholly the lives of its human originators so that a founding ancestor and it stool fuse into a single entity. Such tragic ends are what make ancestors' stools feistier resulting from the manner of deaths of founding ancestors. Therefore, the potency of an ancestors stool has to do specifically with how "hot," revengeful, and agitated an ancestor fanatically attaches itself to symbol that it created and which it jealously guards. In this way, a founding ancestor is overly protective of its ancestors stool and killed anyone who attempted to occupy it without the appropriate ritual acts. Likewise, anyone who occupies an ancestors stool is a sacred sacrificial individual and therefore a taboo. In other words, the life of an incumbent ruler is in every respect the life of the grand ancestor in human form. Even the personalities of custodians of ancestors' stools are sacred and treated with respect. Rattray writes: Stool-carriers ... are always in attendance on a chief. They carry his 'white' stool during life and attend to the blackened or 'smoked' stools ofhis ancestors. The three head stool-carriers of the Ashanti king were in charge ofthe Golden Stool; they might not be killed whatever the offence the committed .... Any one striking one ofthese men would have been killed. Among other privileges, they had the right to intercede for the life of any one sentenced to death. 16

Second, a genuine ancestors stool must span centuries of tradition; that is, it must be old and ancient. Invariably, a genuine ancestors stool will survive the test of time, because its story is verifiably historic and confirmed by communities other than one's own. In the case ofMprumem, for example, their ancestors stool, as we have seen, has a pre-Mprumem existence at Nkwanta, a story confirmed and verified by the Asona Abusua elders at Nkwanta. This confirmation is important because it ensures continuity of ritual orthodoxy, authenticity of ancestors stool, and a sense of history going back centuries. There are many instances in Ghana where groups may claim to be royalty and yet are unable to point to anywhere or anyone

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outside of their present communities to corroborate their claims of royal ancestry. Among the Awutu-abe, for example, during the closing years of the 19th and the beginning of 20th centuries, there emerged a group among them, the Acquahs, claiming to be royalty. During the ensuing internecine royal struggle among the Awutu-abe, the Acquahs, an Akanicized Awutu-abe of mixed Awutu and Fante (Akan) bloodlines, advocated adopting the Akan or female mode of election where nephews are made king over princes. Suddenly the Acquahs claimed to be in possession of an ancestors stool on which their rulers would be installed. However, upon investigation by the colonial authorities in the early 1900s with the help of about six or so prominent traditional rulers, the claims of the Acquahs (nephews) were found to be false. In consequence, two Acquah kings, 17 with the exception of King Acquah I who was installed voluntarily by the paternal Otuano Royal Family in 1858, were obliged by the colonial authorities to be installed in Otuano by the paternal Otuano Royal Family and on the patrilineal ancestors stool of the A wutuabe for legitimacy and recognition by government, which they did. 18 The insistence of the colonial authorities that the Acquahs be installed by the legitimate family, the Otuano Royal Family, is to insure orthodoxy and avoid proliferation of pseudo ancestors' stools. In other words, a genuine ancestors stool ensures a continuum of ritual traditions that survives incidence of socio-religious and cultural changes, wars, and political upheavals. Thirdly, a genuine stool must have originated externally, created or established long before a community was founded, not internally after a community was already settled. That is to say, that an ancestors stool must have been brought along by a group or an individual searching for a suitable land for settlement. Thus, the bearer of an ancestors stool bequeaths his name to the stool, which then becomes the historic name of an ancestors stool, unless a prior name was provided by a founder and owner of an ancestors stool. Above all, the originator of an ancestors stool must have been a royal or empowered by another royal with a stool, in which case the newer stool serves as an extension of the original stool and a point of reference for the new stool. The point is that it takes a king to create or appoint another as king and so the Akan would proudly reference their royal genealogy as they claim ownership of certain positions or lands. Consequently, candidates from both the original and new communities mount either stool, because members are of the same provenience and therefore constitute a single family. Finally and most importantly, spiritually, every genuine ancestors stool must have a patron deity. Such a deity is usually the first to respond during mediumistic rites when an ancestors stool is invoked, because as the founding ancestor in symbolic form, an ancestors stool almost never goes anywhere unless absolutely necessary. The phenomenon whereby a deity responds in lieu of an ancestors stool is because the ancestor and the deity established a covenantal relationship from the beginning, resulting with an ancestor coming under the aegis of the deity before the death of the ancestor and before the ancestor became a god himself. This relationship is essential in making an ancestors stool a deity; that is, the very soul of a people, a powerful object ofhierophany, and the basis of its worship.

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Occupants of Ancestors Stools An ancient Egyptian text quoted by John Baines dating from the Middle Kingdom states that: "the king (in a sense the kingship) is on earth 'for ever and ever, judging humanity and propitiating the gods, and setting order in place of disorder. He gives offerings to the gods and mortuary offerings to the spirits (the blessed dead)."' 19 This ancient view of kingship and the role of a king is the same as the way the Akan think of their rulers and the kingship. For the Akan the kingship is divinely ordained (Ahendziefir sor) as an institution of God. Meaning, the kingship will last forever, as the ancient Egyptian text has elucidated. Specifically, a king must perform rites of propitiation for the gods, 20 ancestors and spirits of the dead, judging humanity, and maintaining order on earth. After all, the elders are custodians of sacred traditions that the ancestors entrusted to them for posterity. Therefore, elders in general take their responsibilities seriously knowing that some day they would have to give account of themselves to the ancestors. Society, then, whether among the ancient Egyptians 21 or Akan today, is viewed as a two-dimensional world of the spiritual and corporeal, with the same divisions of the Abosom (Gods), the Nananom Nsamanfo (Ancestors), and Nsamanfo (spiritual citizens); and existentially, Kings and Queens (Ahenfo), Elders (Nananom), and Adasa (humanity or society). A ruler's responsibility is therefore the welfare of his people on earth and the spiritual needs in heaven of the gods and goddesses and ancestors. If the kingship is divine, then how does it apply to humans? Symbolically there has to be a catalyst, a tangible transforming agent of some sort that when one encountered made an individual or thing sacred regardless of whom the individual or thing might be. Ideally, a king-elect must have a royal ancestry, otherwise anyone that the appropriate family nominated, elected, and installed was indeed king. While a particular royal family always nominated a candidate for the kingship and performed secret rites of election for the king-elect, the installation process of any ruler involved whole communities. For the Akan and other African peoples, a single stool or object on which all kings are seated is that agent of transformation based on what has been expatiated upon already. The Central Region House of Chiefs, one of ten-or-so regional royal institutions composed of paramount kings responsible for chieftaincy or better yet kingship affairs in Ghana, has aptly described the ritual essence and importance of an ancestors stool and its occupant. In a ruling by a distinguished three-member judicial panel headed by then president of the Central Region House of Chiefs, Odeefuo Boa Amponsem III, in 1977 involving the Otuano Royal Family and the Acquahs (nephews), who favored adopting the Akan-female mode of succession over the patrilineal system of succession practiced by the Awutu-abe traditionally, the committee stated as follows: Now one may ask 'what is the essence or importance of this ritual of installation'? The placing of a person on the ancestral stool is the point where his ancestors' spirits granted the power to look after the Oman [State] and in our opinion this is the most important ritual throughout the making of

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The Ancestors Stool a chief or king. In Akan, as well as in the North (enskinment) and all other tribal ceremonies, a person can never be regarded as chief or king unless and until this ceremony of enstoolment or Enskinment is performed. 22

Most importantly, the panel categorically rejected an answer by the Acquahs who favored matrilineal succession in Simpa that only a "the swearing-in ceremony" made one a chief or king and went on to state that: We completely disagree ... and have come to the conclusion that either this witness does not know anything about the making of a chief, or is intentionally not being truthful and is misleading the Committee .... Now, therefore, if the actual ritual of installation-placing the chief-elect on the stool is done by the Otuano people and nobody else, we come to the only possible conclusion, and that is, if the Otuano people do not perform the ritual, no candidate for the Effutu [Awutu-abe] Paramount Stool can be described as having been installed or can call himself the Omanhene. 23

If it takes a mere swearing-in ceremony to make one a ruler, as the Acquahs and people like Kojo Muhammad Quansah, a radio social commemtator in Cape Coast, capital of Central Region, would want those not conversant with ritual processes to believe, then what is the basis of ancestor worship and purpose of having an ancestors stool? People sometimes intentionally distort the truth for their own pseudo aggrandizement in order for them to obtain what they want as long as society acquiesced. If the proponents of the Fante system in Simpa, the Acquahs, maintain that it merely takes a swearing-in rite for anyone to be king, then why would anyone claim to have had an ancestors' stool in the first place? The answer lies with the fact that the Acquahs claim of having an ancestors stool was found to be false and so they concocted a lie to a panel of distinguished paramount rulers who were themselves seated on their respective ancestors' stools. On the contrary, the distinguished rulers of the panel made it quite clear that the rites of king-making entailed far more than swearing-in ceremonies, in fact, they went on to state that "To become a chief a person has to be nominated, elected, and installed." Nowhere did the panel speak of a swearing-in rites a precondition for or an act that exclusively made one a ruler, although a swearing-in ceremony is understood to be part of the overall installation ceremonies. The point is that if it only takes an act other than installing a candidate on an ancestors stool, then the impertinence of the ancestors stool is proved. But, as it were, the legally sanctioned authority in kingship matters, a royal family, ensures orthodoxy of ritual process as final arbiters of ancient acts by nominating a candidate, electing the nominee by seating him or her on an ancestors stool, and publicly installing the king-elect. Therefore, for the Central Region House of Chiefs, there is no question as to which rite is conducted in regards to the installation of a king among the Awutu-abe, it is the Otuano Royal Family, custodians of patriliny, which solely nominates a candidate and performs the seating of a king-elect on their ancestors stool. Most importantly, the primacy of Otuano Royal Family means that to be king one must be born into a royal family otherwise a royal family must make a non-royal king by performing rites of king-making. In the end, the Acquahs, defendants, were found guilty together with

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their leader, the Tufuhen of Simpa whom the panel described his historic responsibility in the kingship of Simpa as: the only part played by [the] Tufuhene ofEffutu throughout the history of Effutu is to direct the Asafos as to what to do during the installation-publication by carrying the new Omanhene from Ayensuano to Winneba town and carrying him to the Ahenfie after the swearing-in ceremony. The Tufuhene plays no significant part in the destoolment process. 24 This is not to say that a swearing-in ceremony, suaa (or nsiw although is more private), does not have its place in the making of a king. The question is: When does a swearing-in ceremony take place? A swearing-in ceremony takes place only after all the secret and private consecration rites have been performed and only after a ruler has been paraded either walking or carried in a palanquin as an :xlikro (sovereign ruler of a town, with sub-rulers under him), a divisional ruler, or a king-ofstate (paramount) of a traditional area. That is, a swearing-in rite occurred only after one has already been a ruler, and as a public act swears to the community at large. This is why the Central Region House of Chiefs and by extension the National House of Chiefs was emphatic as to when one became king exactly, as stated above. In my own case, for example, the first thing that I did after stepping out of my palanquin and seated for a while was to swear to my people that I will be accessible to them at all times, except during illnesses. In turn, through their elders, the town swore to me as their king. Next, about a week-or-so later and together with my elders, went to the :)manhen (King-of-state) of the Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Area and swore to him and elders in private. The final step was for me to swear to the entire traditional council representing about fifty towns, but since the council would not convene until about six months later, I was permitted to return to the United States. Upon my return from the United States about a year later, I hosted the traditional council at Mprumem where I formally swore to the council, after which the :)manhen's representative reciprocated. Therefore, those who periodically make public statements that swearing-in rites are sufficient for making one a king, do not have clues insofar as kingship rites are concerned and the chronological steps taken to complete the ritual processes. If, however, groups like the Acquahs of Simpa (Winneba) are conversant with rites pertinent to the making of kings but continue to make public statements to the contrary, then they are pathological liars. Obviously, the ignorant few who believe that only a swearing-in ceremony is all that was required to make one a traditional king are confused, because they have taken Western swearing-in ceremonies for African kingship swearing-in rites. Following their colonial masters, many African countries like Ghana have adopted Western democratic models, in which elected politicians are sworn into office swearing on the Bible or Qur'an and repeating Western prepared statements, which may or may not mean anything to African politicians. On the contrary, holding swords-of-state traditional kings repeat an ancient statement, to the extent that they would be accessible at all times, with exception of illnesses, or else. Apparently,

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proponents of swearing-in ceremonies fail to take into account what transpires prior to a swearing-in ceremony during king-making rites. In this vein, proponents of swearing-in ceremony are ignorant of African kingship traditions because of their deference to Western demoncratic elections where politicians are first elected before being sworn into office. For one thing, politicians are not traditional rulers elected for life, although many politicians think that they are indeed "kings" and stay in office until they die or forced out of office by soldiers. Even though the rite of seating a ruler-elect on an ancestors stool is relatively simple because of a well-established tradition, rites preceding the seating ceremony and post-seating rites are exhaustive and full of symbolisms. All sorts of ideas ran through my mind prior to my own seizure and subsequent seating of me on my ancestors stool in August 1993. Stories abound of mishaps during the seating of individuals on ancestors stools, like the supernatural nature of an ancestors stool and how a stool is capable of causing harm to those that it dislikes. In general, these are stories in the public domain told usually by people who may have no clue about what actually transpires during such high ceremonies. The seating of a ruler-elect on an ancestors stool usually occurs under the cover of darkness 25 amid sacrifices, prayers and libations. The king-elect would have been sequestered and purified for days prior the nocturnal seating rites. My own seating started at about 10 p.m. when the elders came for me to make the trip to the stool house. Psychologically and emotionally, it was the most anxiously unnerving period for anyone undergoing such rites. For one thing, a candidate must be trusting of his elders and, in my case, I accompanied them obediently and silently and never asked a question throughout the ceremonies unless asked to do or say something. The elders took me to where the ancestors stool was kept like a sacrificial Iamb. I said nothing, perhaps because I was more concerned about what lay ahead than the need to ask the elders what I needed to do when we got there. At the same time, I was anxiously proud to have been chosen and looked forward to being seated on the stool, finally. Upon reaching our destination sacrifices, prayers and libations, and other rites were performed for me or perhaps the ancestors stool. Then the two leading custodians of the ancestors stool or what the Fante called mbabanyin (children of male royals) took the ancestors stool and placed it appropriately in a partially lit room, because only a lantern was, and is, used around the stool. Perhaps deliberately the elders obstructed my view and so that I could not see the stool and other paraphernalia with the stool. Time, it seemed, stool still as things got closer and closer. Finally, they came for me, each holding an arm of mine, walked me backwards toward the stool and offered final instructions to me about how to proceed. Then they seated and raised me up three consecutive times on the stool, each time accompanied by the phrase: .::Mom nana, tsina woagua do (Descendant of Nana :>worn, be seated on your stool). After the third and final seating, the elders congratulated me by saying: Mmoo (congratulations) and led me away to sit on a different stool. It was a humbling, overwhelming, and a transforming experience that only genuine rulers can share. This one-time, historically paradoxical act of seating a person on an ancient and old stool is an experience jealously cherished forever by those lucky or unlucky enough to experience them.

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Furthermore, what I experienced during the seating rite dispelled most of the rumors that I held about ancestors' stools in general. On the contrary, the rites instilled in me something far greater than any religious experience that I have ever undergone: the mystique of ancestors' stools in ways that have nothing to do with many of the hearsays. My experiences have to do the transforming realization that one is actually a living ancestor, both personally and corporately, in a continuum of rulers who underwent the same, unchanging, old and ancient ritual acts of seating a person on the ultimate symbol of transformation of an entire people. More than any singular religious or spiritual act, it is the seating of one on an ancestors stool that makes one sacred, because one has been placed on a symbol that in itself is divine. Paradoxically an ancestors stool is a symbol of dead kings and yet those dead kings are alive and well, having once undergone the same seating ritual. Still an ancestors stool is a relic of the dead, although it is not the dead who are invoked during mediumistic rites, but rather living ancestors-in fact, the same ancestors who occupied the stool. Transformed thus, the ruler embodies his predecessors, entrusted with scared traditions, which he must preserve and protect for posterity. As the personification of the ancestral rulers, the king is a living ancestor, on the threshold between the world of the ancestors and the world of the living, and therefore accorded the same praise and worship as his predecessors. Deriving his divine and temporal authority from a long continuum of the rulers, the king exercises religiopolitical and psychological control over his people, his pronouncements having powerful effect on them. Accordingly he addresses his subjects indirectly through mediators, and he observes many taboos and prohibitions, which he must follow in order to preserve his divinity. The mediators mitigate the potency of the king's pronouncements, and they also attest to the veracity of words emanating from him, verifying that the king never errs. 26 Occupying an ancestors stool is a paradoxical act, because the statement that a king is seated on a stool must be viewed oxymoronically since the act of seating is actually a one-time historic act. Yet a ruler is always described as permanently and continually seated on the stool when actually the king-elect was only seated once on the stool. Nonetheless, a ruler's authority and sanctity is invested in him or her by the singular act of seating a person on the stool of the ancestors. As a result, a ruler embodied his predecessors wholly, entrusted with sacred traditions, which one must preserve and protect for posterity. In consequence, a king is accorded the same praise and worship as his predecessors, because one is seated on the same stool as the founding ruler who, upon his demise, was deified as the ultimate ancestors of a community. Subsequently, anyone legitimately seated on it three-times during secret rites of consecration not only assumed the essential nature of the original occupant, but all those who ever "sat" on it. In consequence, a king's buttocks never touch the ground anymore, because the buttocks in particular and his or her personality in general are sanctified for coming in contact with the ultimate numinous object and symbol, the ancestors stool. For this reason, whenever a king comes in contact with an unclean stuff un-

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wittingly (or even intentionally), like a corpse or having a sexual intercourse without the required ablution before undertaking a rite, then the king became unclean. In other words, the king must remain sanctified and "clean" at all times, conducting oneself with dignity and ready to perform rites at any time. As a living ancestor, a ruler is expected to behave and act honorably and above reproach, like the esteemed ancestors themselves and so there is a whole set of rules that a ruler must follow. However, there are some traditional rulers whose ethics are less than desirable, although most rulers take their responsibilities very seriously and try as much as possible to adhere to the code of conducts associated with the office of king. For example, a ruler's entire personhood becomes sacred and therefore a taboo to all, meaning a king is not touched, struck, insulted, spoken to directly, no one turning one's back on him or her, etc. On his or her part, a king does not fight though he or she is the first warrior. A ruler should never walk barefooted on the ground; should not rain on his or her head, meaning he must be covered by an umbrella; should not insult anyone or speak directly to his people; not eat and drink in public; never travel or walk alone; not to come in contact with the dead or anything unclean; etc. To signify their status as living ancestors, during prayers and libations to the ancestors, kings "drank" the same way as the Nananom Nsamanfo (Ancestors) when liquor and wine meant for them are poured in front of their feet. Only a ruler is empowered to summon the souls of the dead collectively during festivities honoring the ancestors as occupant of an ancestors stool. Of course, family heads can pray to and offer prayers and libations to their respective ancestors, but only a ruler is empowered to invoke the ancestors en mass enabling living descendants to congregate around a community's stool during festivities honoring the ancestors. In this way, a ruler receives homage and honor on behalf of his predecessors as a living ancestor, because a king alone is the one seated on their stool, the very symbol housing the collective souls of a community. Additionally, the Akan look up toward the heavens monthly in order to sing the praises of their celestial symbol par excellence, the crescent moon (Jsran), as the Nana and emblem of God. On earth, the ancestors stool, which is shaped like the crescent moon, receives sacrifices, prayers, libations, praises, and other rites meant to propitiate the gods and ancestors represented by a king. This is exactly how the Akan and other African peoples perceived their rulers-as kings who periodically offered sacrifices to their predecessors, ancestors, and gods and goddesses on behalf of the living as representative of the ancestors. And the reason why a king assumes this role, according to the ancient Egyptians, is that "the king 'took on for humanity the task of dealing both with the gods and with the negative forces that surrounded the ordered world. "'27 There is, indeed, complete order at the Samanadzie and so a king is expected to replicate the same in the corporeal world, which may be very difficult to do in light of nkrabea, .:Jbra b::J, and lingering effects of old age and death. In this connection, religion is not necessarily the worship of the souls of all the dead, but rather specific departed souls. African religion then is the symbolic worship of the ancestors, that is, specific ancestors whose names are recalled periodi-

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cally during festivities honoring them. These ancestors are those who first distinguished themselves as elders and upon death bequeathed to their posterity legacies worthy of emulation. Led by the representatives of the ancestors on earth to ensure orthodoxy as custodians of tradition, ancestor worship follows certain routine ritual processes first taught to the living by the ancestors about honoring the ancestors, and the deities perpetually. Literally and symbolically, the worship of ancestors pervades Africa, because it is primal and centered around death and how the deaths of certain archetypal individuals are recalled periodically. For this reason, Africans have not traditionally fought religious wars or attempted to proselytize other African groups religiously, because ancestor worship is the same everywhere, meaning it entails the same ritual elements and ancestral personalities. However, in order for the ancestors to be worshipped the ancestors must have bequeathed to their descendants three indispensable legacies that are essential to all religions. The first is a name or names. Since African religion is the worship of the souls (names) of the dead and since the whereabouts of the corpses of most archetypal ancestors are unknown, descendants and followers of African religions are left only with names of founding ancestors and gods and goddesses. In some cases, even the names of ancestors are forgotten although not those of the gods, but where the ancestors are still remembered the names are the only "legacy" bequeathed to succeeding generations. For many religions, followers only worship names of the founders and nothing more, and as believers continue to use the names of their ancestors and gods and goddesses, the names acquire power and claims of superhuman capabilities. Therefore, the mere pronouncements of such names take on cosmic significance capable of healing and protecting adherents from all sorts of perils. Inputted thus with power, ancestral names are invoked during disputation, crises, and in the case of royal succession, who descended from whom. Also during high religious rites like divinations or installations of kings, ancestral names are invoked by a select few who have access to other secret names of archetypal ancestors for orthodoxy and affirmation. In the final analysis, human beings exist in name only, because long after a person dies the only thing that an ancestor is remembered by is his or her name. This is exactly why an Akan is expected to live a good life and bequeath an ideal name, dzinpa, to one's descendants. A person's name is one's power and seal of life, meaning to name anything is to have influence over that which is named. As such, parents named their children in order that they may have psychological control over them, because all names are spiritual in that they are originally the names of the ancestors and gods and goddesses. As evidence, people only respond to their names uniquely as non-physical sounds. The second indispensable religious attribute that an ancestor must bequeath to succeeding generations is an actual physical remains of an archetypal ancestor preserved in a tomb or at protected sites. Such sites, if they exist at all, may served as a point of reference for descendants and believers who pilgrim there in a bid to get closer to the ancestor by offering them prayers and libations, flowers, money, etc. in the hopes of entreating the ancestor or ancestors to grant requests. Some descendants may even died and be buried there. Sometimes, sadly, skeletal remains of

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some ancestors are stolen for their alleged magico-medicinal purposes, destroyed, or completely lost when burial sites are forgotten. Recently, the sacred burial site of the Buganda Kingdom was destroyed by fire causing the current king, Mutebi, to cry in public. The report read: Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi broke down in tears as he surveyed the ruins of Kasubi Tombs where his father and grandfather were buried. The Kabaka on Wednesday visited the shell that once housed his forefather's regalia among other cultural items at around 1.40pm amid ululations and cheers, as hundreds of his subjects swamped it screaming his name and singing the Buganda anthem. He arrived minutes after President Museveni had visited the site. After braving the emotional moment for about five minutes, Kabaka Mutebi later pulled out a white handkerchief and wiped away tears that were rolling down his face. This sent the mammoth crowd in a frenzy with some chanting anti-government slogans. Together with Nabagereka Sylvia Nagginda, the Kabaka walked around the royal tombs for at least 10 minutes before joining other royal family members in a distant shrine about 100 metres from the royal cemetery. The historic tombs went up in flames on Tuesday night, engulfing the main building which housed the mausoleum of four former kabakas-Ssekabaka Muteesa I, Ssekabaka Basamul'ekkere Mwanga II, Ssekabaka Daudi Chwa II and Ssekabaka Edward Muteesa II. The grass-thatched hut was completely destroyed, leaving the skeletal brick wall and a few concrete pillars. The burial grounds, revered by the Baganda, are 128 years old. 28

A few years ago upon my return to Mprumem from the United States I was informed that one of the royal graves caved in and when a party went to repair it they realized that some of the bones of the dead king were missing. Moreover, a piece of gold that was buried with the king and found to be in the king's coffin when they party began work mysteriously disappeared just before the party resealed the coffin. The thievery of the gold and bones for medicinal and other purposes are common place, but the importance of physical remains religiously are that they offer descendants and believer historical evidence of ancestors having actually lived as human beings and therefore the need to preserve such sacred sites. It seems that the ritual of preserving skeletal remains of loved ones are very ancient in Africa as the discovery of Homo Sapiens Idaltu, the 160,000 year old skeletal remains of modern humans consisting of two adults and a child found in Ethiopia in 1997 but unveiled in 2003, appears to confirm evidence of ancestor worship? 9 It showed that the "skulls had cuts indicating they had been de-flesh in some kind of mortuary practice" among other things. If 160,000 years ago, African were preserving their dead, then embalming in ancient Egypt seemed a vast improvement from their more ancient African ancestors in Herto, Ethiopia where Homo Sapiens Idaltu was found. And thirdly, indispensable to religion, especially in the absence of a physical body or bones are symbols, objects, and relics of ancestors. Human beings are obsessed with relics of the dead and so they are collected as artifacts and stored in libraries and museums for posterity. As human beings, we hold on to things that

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remind us of our ancestors no matter how insignificant those items might have been to the ancestors themselves. I recently complained to an elder brother of mine about a special item that I bought for our father when I lived in Liberia but which ended up with another brother when our father's belongings were shared in my absence after his demise. Even though I really do not need it, I still feel it should have been reserved for me because, first, I bought for him and second, our father loved and used it on special occasions. Albeit a physical item, I wanted to own something of our father because I thought I would have inherited sometime valuable of him spiritually. The reason why I wished I had owned something of our father is that the Akan firmly believe that any physical item used by a person always contained a residual spirit or Sunsum (or DNA) of its user, 30 and which served as a direct link to the dead. Human curiosity always deepens when discovered that perhaps certain ancestors used or made certain objects. Suddenly believers turn into pilgrims in hopes of touching or laying eyes on the items thought to have been used by a remote ancestor. Indeed founding ancestors of the Akan made and used stoo Is that they passed on to their descendants for the expressed aim of seating people on them. The idea that a symbol made and use by a visionary ancestor many centuries earlier to serve as a link between the present and past generations is indeed more than an act of faith, because an ancestor foresaw hundreds and even thousands of years into the future, on the promises of his deity. Cherishing and relishing the object, contemporary descendants fanatically fight over the ancestors stool for the right to occupy this piece of object, believing that to be seated on it mysteriously transformed a person into a king and making that individual old and ancient, as well as very modern simultaneously. From this perspective then an ancestors stool is a catalyst in the sense that while human beings are born, grow old, and die, an ancestors stool remains the same. In this vein, the past (ancestors stool), is as modern as any contemporary generation, meaning the past is still informing the present, which is constantly changing and evolving as it stays the course for an indefinite future. The unchanging nature of the ancestors stool has to do with preservation and orthodoxy of ritual process, as they pertain to propitiation of ancestors and deities, and the fact that the ancestors stool is an :>bosom (deity). Thus ancestor worship in Africa would continue to utilize rituals and tangible symbols that continue to impart existential and metaphysical meanings for adherents in ways that instilled faith and hope in humanity. And although many Akan follow non-African religions, they still seek psychological and spiritual meanings, understanding, and assurance from their ancestors via their kings, elders and clergy. Ancestor worship not only provides the foundation that society itself is built on, it insured divine-human homeostasis. In this vein, the ancestors are perceived as real relatives who understand exactly what their descendants face in an increasingly complex and sometimes chaotically precarious world. Therefore, per the announcement of a ruler, citizens returned home in order to renew their faith and hope in the ultimate symbol of their ancestors, the ancestors stool, and pledge allegiance to the representative of their ancestors and deities, the living ancestor and king.

Notes Chapter 1 1. Ray, Benjamin C. African Religions: Symbols, Ritual, and Community, Second Edition. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000), p. 13. 2. Drewal, Henry John et al. Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. ed. Wardwell, Allen (New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., Publishers, 1989). p. 15. 3. Ibid, p. 16. 4. Ibid. 5. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. African Spirituality: on becoming ancestors, second edition. (Pittsburgh, PA: Red Lead Press, 2008), pp. 44-45. 6. Ibid., p. 48. 7. See Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. The Making of an African King: Patrilineal & Matrilineal Struggle Among the Effutu of Ghana, Second Edition. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2009), pp. 55-58. 8. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. "Akom: the Ultimate Mediumship Experience Among the Akan." Journal of the American Academy of Religion (2008) 76/1, pp. 73-74. 9. Drewal, Henry John et al. Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. ed. Wardwell, Allen (New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., Publishers, 1989). pp. 14-15. 10. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. African Spirituality: on becoming ancestors, second edition. (Pittsburgh, PA: Red Lead Press, 2008), pp. 50, 151. 11. Herodotus, The History: Herodotus. Trans. by David Grene. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1987), p. 144. 12. See the Budge, E. A Wallis. The Egyptian Book of the Dead (The Papyrus of Ani), Egyptian Text Transliteration and Translation. (New York: Dover, 1967), pp. xxv-xxvi. 13. Davidson, Basil. African Civilization Revisited: From Antiquity to Modern Times. (Trenton, NJ.: Africa World Press, Inc., 1991), p. 55. 14. Rattray, R. S. 1927. Religion & Art in Ashanti. (Oxford: At The Clarendon

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Press), p. 26. 15. For the full story, see Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. The Making of an African King: Patrilineal & Matrilineal Struggle Among the Effutu of Ghana, Second Edition. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2009), p. 184. 16. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. "Akom: the Ultimate Mediumship Experience Among the Akan." Journal of the American Academy of Religion (2008) 76/1, pp. 72-73. 17. Ibid., p. 77. 18. Rattray, R. S. 1927. Religion & Art in Ashanti. (Oxford: At The Clarendon Press), p. 41. 19. Ibid., p. 28. 20. Budge, E. A. Wallis. From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt. (New York: Benjamin Blom, Inc. 1972). P. 55. 21. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. African Spirituality: on becoming ancestors, second edition. (Pittsburgh, PA: Red Lead Press, 2008), pp. 4-5. 22. Ibid., pp. 28-33. 23. Budge, Wallis E. A. From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt. (New York: Benjamin Blom, Inc. 1972). p. 16. 24. Erikson, Erik H. A Way of Looking at Things. ed., Stephen Schlein. (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1987), pp. 327-330ff. 25. For further discussion of the relationship between death and God see, Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. African Spirituality: on becoming ancestors, second edition. (Pittsburgh, PA: Red Lead Press, 2008), pp. 81-82. 26. Davidson, Basil. African Civilization Revisited: From Antiquity to Modern Times. (Trenton, NJ.: Africa World Press, Inc., 1991), p. 61. 27. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. African Spirituality: on becoming ancestors, (Trenton, NJ.: Africa World Press, Inc., 1991), pp 69-71.

Chapter 2 1. See Oluwole, Sophie. "On the Existence of Witches," In African Philosophy: Selected Readings. ed. Albert G. Moseley. (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. 1995), pp. 357-370. 2. Davidson, Basil. African Civilization Revisited: From Antiquity to Modern Times (Trenton, NJ.: Africa World Press, 1991), P. 61. 3. See ldowu, E. Bolaji. African Traditional Religion: A Definition. (New York: Orbis Books, 1973), Pp. 108-136. l. See Rattray, R. S. 1927. Religion & Art in Ashanti. (Oxford: At The Clarendon Press), pp. 28-35. 4. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33356826/ns/world_news-Africai/%20What% 20RELIGION/ (Last accessed Oct. 21, 2009). 5. www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID= 180126 (last accessed on April12, 2010).

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6. Engelke, Matthew. "Witchcraft in Africa." In Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture. Edited by Mariko Namba Walter and Eva Jane Neumann Fridman. (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2004), p. 949. 7. Rattray, R. S. 1927. Religion & Art in Ashanti. (Oxford: At The Clarendon Press), pp. 29-30. 8. Ibid, p.3l. 9. Owen, D. E. "Witchcraft." Abingdon Dictionary of Living Religions. eds. Keith Crim, Roger A Bullard, and Larry D. Shinn. (Abingdon, TN, 1981), p. 805. 10. Rattray, op. cit. p. 26. 11. Owen, op. cit. 12. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. African Spirituality: on becoming ancestors, second edition. (Pittsburgh, PA: Red Lead Press, 2008), p. 5.

Chapter 3 1. Knipe, D. M. "Sacrifice." In Abingdon Dictionary of Living Religions. Crim, Keith; Bullard, Roger A; and Shinn, Larry D., eds. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1981), pp. 637-640. 2. For further readings see Ephirim-Donkor, A "Akom: The Ultimate Mediumship Experience Among the Akan," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 76, 1, 2008: pp. 54-81 3. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. The Making of an African King: Patrilineal & Matrilineal Struggle Among the Effutu of Ghana, Second Edition. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2009), pp. 134-136. 4. Davidson, Basil. African Civilization Revisited: From Antiquity to Modern Times. (Trenton, NJ: African World Press, 1991), p. 61. 5. Ibid., pp. 61-62. 6. Maynard, Mack et al. Eds. 1974. The Continental Edition of World Masterpieces: Third edition in one volume, (New York, W. W. Norton & Company), p. 110. 7. Davidson, op. cit. 8. Rattray, R. S. Religion & Art in Ashanti. (Oxford: At The Clarendon Press, 1927), pp. 103-121. 9. Wilford, John Noble. "With Escorts to the Afterlife, Pharaohs Proved Their Power." The New York Times, March16, 2004. 10. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony, African Spirituality: on becoming ancestors, second edition. (Pittsburgh, P A: Red Lead Press, 2008), pp. 189-190. 11. Ibid, pp. 210-211. 12. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. The Making of an African King: Patrilineal & Matrilineal Struggle Among the Effutu of Ghana, Second Edition. (Lanham,

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MD: University Press of America, 2009), pp. 35-36. 13. Ibid., p. 142. 14. Britt, Samuel I. "Sacrifice Honors God": Ritual Struggle m a Liberian Church. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 76/l: l-26. 15. Ibid, pp. 6-7. 16. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. "Akom: The Ultimate Mediumship Experience Among the Akan." Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 76/l: p. 72. 17. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. African Spirituality: on becoming ancestors, second edition. (Pittsburgh, PA: Red Lead Press, 2008), p. 87. 18. Ibid, pp. 140-141. 19. My sincere thanks to King Ghartey VII of Simpa (Winneba) and his elders for providing me with detail information about the deer sacrifices. 20. For more about the Effutu and the Nyantor Festival, see Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. The Making of an African King: Patrilineal & Matrilineal Struggle Among the Ef!utu of Ghana, Second Edition. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2009). 21. Ibid, p.37. 22. Ibid, pp. 33-34. 23. Crowther, F. "Note on the Winnebah Custom." (1914), pp. l-2. 24. Crowther, F. "Memorandum: Winnebah Stool," (Jan. 9, 1914), p. 8.

Chapter 4 l. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. The Making of an African King: Patrilineal & Matrilineal Struggle Among the Ef!utu of Ghana, Second Edition. (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2009), pp. 155-156. 2. Meyerowitz, The Akan Traditions of Origin. (London: Faber & Faber, Ltd.), p. 82 3. In another version Nana Jwom was reported to have said: Oyeah! Oyeah!! (This! This!!) in pointing to Bentum as a refugee. 4. The Gold Coast Civil Service List, (1898), (London: Waterlow And Sons Ltd.), pp. 74, 88. 5. Ibid, P. 290. 6. Crowther, F. "Memorandum: Winnebah Stool," (Jan. 9, 1914), p. 13. 7. Memorandum, The District Commissioner, Winneba (12th Nov. 1913), P. l. 8. The Gold Coast Civil Service List (1898), P. 302 9. The Supreme Court of the Gold Coast Colony, Central Province, Police Magistrate's Court, Winneba, 1927, P.7. 10. District Commissioner's Office, Winneba, 1927, No. 20/27/W.D. l3l/27 11. Provincial Commissioner's Office, Cape Coast, 1944 (Ref. No. 2682/c.p. 8ll/28) 12. "In the Judicial Committee of the Central Region House of Chiefs Held at

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Cape Coast on Thursday, the 30th Day of June, 1977." P. 21 13. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. The Making of an African King: Patrilineal and Matrilineal Struggle Among the Effutu of Ghana. (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2000), pp. 16-17. 14. http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201003/43884.asp (last accessed March 30, 2010) 15. Easterly, William. The White Man's Burden. (New York: The Penguin Press, 2006), p. 32. 16. Davidson, Basil. African Civilization Revisited: From Antiquity to Modern Times (Trenton, NJ.: Africa World Press, Inc., 1991), P. 61. 17. Baines, John. "Society, Morality, and Religious Practice." In Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice. (Ed. by Byron E. Shafer. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), Pp. 148-149. 18. Rattray, R. S. Religion & Art in Ashanti. (Oxford: At The Clarendon Press, 1927),p.l28. 19. Turner, Edith. "African Shamanism." In Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture. Ed. by Mariko Walter and Eva Neumann. (Santa Barbara, CA.:ABC-CLIO, 2004), p. 887.

Chapter 5 l. Rattray, R. S. Religion & Art in Ashanti. (Oxford: At The Clarendon Press, 1927), p. 271. 2. Ibid, p.269. 3. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. "Akom: The Ultimate Mediumship Experience Among the Akan." Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 7611: p. 69. 4. Crowther, F. "Note on the Winnebah Custom." (1914), P. 1 5. Crowther, F. "Memorandum: Winnebah Stool." (Jan. 9, 1914), pp. 7-8. 6. Crowther, F. "Memorandum: Winnebah Stool." (Jan. 9, 1914), p. 6. 7. Ibid. 8. Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays by Clifford Geertz. (New York: Basic Books, 1973), P. 90. 9. Ibid. 10. See footnotes, Rattray, R. S. Religion & Art in Ashanti. (Oxford: At The Clarendon Press, 1927), p. 129 11. Discussions with ::>katakyi Nyamfo Krampah X, ::>manhen of Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Area, on January 6, 2008. 12. Rattray, R. S. Religion & Art in Ashanti. (Oxford: At The Clarendon Press, 1927), p 271. 13. See Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. The Making of an African King: Patrilineal and Matrilineal Struggle Among the Effutu of Ghana, Second Edition. (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2009).

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14. Ibid, pp 28-29. 15. Rattray, R. S. Religion & Art in Ashanti. (Oxford: At The Clarendon Press, 1927), p 130. 16. Ibid. p. 129. 17. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. The Making of an African King: Patrilineal and Matrilineal Struggle Among the Ejfutu of Ghana, Second Edition. (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2009). p. 192. 18. Ibid. p. 120. 19. Baines, John "Society, Morality, and Religious Practice." In Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice. ed. Byron E. Shafer. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), pp. 128. 20. Ibid. 21. Ibid, p.l29. 22. "In the Judicial Committee of the Central Region House of Chiefs," (Cape Coast, 30th June, 1977), p. 18 23. "In the Judicial Committee of the Central Region House of Chiefs," (Cape Coast, 30th June, 1977), p. 18. 24. Ibid. p. 21. 25. Sekyere, Boama Owusu, "The Enstoolment Ceremony." In Daily Graphic Souvenir. (Monday, April26, 1999). p. 11. 26. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. Ancestor Worship in Africa. In Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture. Ed. by Mariko Walter and Eva Neumann. (Santa Barbara, CA.:ABC-CLIO, 2004), p. 905. 27. Baines, John "Society, Morality, and Religious Practice." In Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice. ed. Byron E. Shafer. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), pp. 124. 28. http://allafrica.com/stories/20 1003180035 .html, (last accessed March 25, 2010). 29. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hilscience/nature/2978800.stm (Last accessed April 10, 2010). 30. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. African Spirituality: on becoming ancestors, second edition. (Pittsburgh, PA: Red Lead Press, 2008), pp. 101-102.

Glossary A, ii: Pronounced like "a" in space. :::>: Pronounced like "o" in organ. E: Pronounced like "e" in early. Abosom (:Jbosom, singular): Immoveable primeval gods worship directly in place of God. Abusua: Kin members who descend from a single woman (womb). Mmortsia: Dwarfish abosom (gods) also thought to have their own dwarfish human race and residing in the corporeal world. Nananom Mpiinyinfo: Elected elders Nananom Nsamanfo: Ancestors. NaSaman: The ruler ofthe Samanadzie, the abode of all posthumous abstract personalities. Nkrabea: A distinct existential career or occupational blueprint accompanying the soul (:Jkra). Nsamanfo: The posthumous citizens of the Samanadzie. :Jbosomfo: A medical practitioner for witches and those afflicted by witchcraft, notoriously referred to in the west as a witch-doctor. :Jbra: The ethic of actuating an nkrabea (a uniquely decreed career blueprint or plan of life) in adulthood. :Jdikro: A sovereign king of a town or village. Samanadzie: The heavenly abode of the Akan dead or posthumous abstract personalities. Sunsum: Spirit, image, and shadow originating with the deities as genetic characteristic attributes and transmitted by a father via semen to his offspring and the basis for ethics. Wiadzie: The corporeal world.

Selected Bibliography Baines, John. "Society, Morality, and Religious Practice." In Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice. ed. Byron E. Shafer. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991. Britt, Samuel I. "Sacrifice Honors God": Ritual Struggle in a Liberian Church. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 7611: 1-26 (2008). Budge, E. A. Wallis. From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt. New York: Benjamin BJorn, Inc. 1972. - - - . The Egyptian Book of the Dead (The Papyrus of Ani), Egyptian Text Transliteration and Translation. New York: Dover, 1967. Crowther, F. "Note on the Winnebah Custom." 1914. ---."Memorandum: Winnebah Stool." Jan. 9, 1914. Davidson, Basil. African Civilization Revisited: From Antiquity to Modern Times. Trenton, NJ.: Africa World Press, Inc., 1991. Drewal, Henry John et al. Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. ed. Wardwell, Allen. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., Publishers, 1989. Easterly, William. The White Man's Burden. New York: The Penguin Press, 2006. Engelke, Matthew. "Witchcraft in Africa." In Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture. Edited by Mariko Namba Walter and Eva Jane Neumann Fridman. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony. The Making ofan African King: Patrilineal & Matrilineal Struggle Among the Effutu of Ghana, Second Edition. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2009. - - - . The Making of an African King: Patrilineal and Matrilineal Struggle Among the Effutu of Ghana. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2000. - - - . African Spirituality: on becoming ancestors, second edition. Pittsburgh, PA: Red Lead Press, 2008). - - - . "Akom: the Ultimate Mediumship Experience Among the Akan." Journal of the American Academy of Religion (2008) 76/1, pp. 73-74. Erikson, Erik H. A Way of Looking at Things. ed., Stephen Schlein. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1987. Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays by Clifford Geertz. New York: Basic Books, 1973. Herodotus, The History: Herodotus. Trans. by David Greene. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1987. Idowu, E. Bolaji. African Traditional Religion: A Definition. New York: Orbis Books, 1973. Knipe, D. M. "Sacrifice." In Abingdon Dictionary ofLiving Religions. Crim, Keith; Bullard, Roger A.; and Shinn, Larry D., eds. Nashville: Abingdon, 1981. Maynard, Mack et al. Eds. The Continental Edition of World Masterpieces: Third edition in one volume. New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1974.

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Bibliography

Meyerowitz, The Akan Traditions of Origin. London: Faber & Faber, Ltd., 1958. Oluwole, Sophie. "On the Existence of Witches," In African Philosophy: Selected Readings. ed. Albert G. Moseley. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. 1995. Owen, D. E. "Witchcraft." Abingdon Dictionary of Living Religions. eds. Keith Crim, Roger A Bullard, and Larry D. Shinn. Abingdon, TN, 1981. Rattray, R. S. 1927. Religion & Art in Ashanti. Oxford: At The Clarendon Press. Ray, Benjamin C. African Religions: Symbols, Ritual, and Community, Second Edition Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. Sekyere, Boama Owusu, "The Enstoolment Ceremony." In Daily Graphic Souvenir. Monday, April26, 1999. Turner, Edith. "African Shamanism." In Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture. Ed. by Mariko Walter and Eva Neumann. Santa Barbara, CA.:ABC-CLIO, 2004. Wilford, John Noble. "With Escorts to the Afterlife, Pharaohs Proved Their Power." The New York Times, Marchl6, 2004.

Index Abina Mansa, 4-5, 7, Abosom, 2-5,7-8, 12, 16-17, 19-20, 22-23, 25-26, 28, 34-37, 46, 73, 75, 102, 113, 123. Abrewa (Old woman), 6, 20, 22 Abusua, 6, 15, 22, 36, 39,43-44, 55, 67, 77, 82, 84, 98, 114, 119. Abusua panyin Bruce, 88, 95-97, 100101 Abusua baatan Kwa'bo, 80, 83, 85-87 Abusuapanyin Takyi, 63, 79, 97, 100 African religion, 13, 26,29-30,49-51, 54,117,128-129. Non-African religions, 24, 50 Diaspora, 29-30, 54 Agya Kw~:ku (Eku Eku), 6, 9, 36, 7880, 105

Akwanmb:>r festival, 63, 102-104, 106, 108 Ancestors, see Nananom Nsamanfo Ancestors stool, 16-17,46,63,67, 71, 73,77-78,81-82,84-87,89-91,9396,99-100, 103, 106, 108, Ill, 113124, 126-128, 131. Ancestor worship, 8, 13, 46, 49-50, 7576, 102-103, 107, 115, 117, 119, 124, 129-131. Ancient Egypt/ians/, 10, 26, 51-52, 54, 102, 119, 123, 128, 130. Apam, 79-80, 82, 86, 89, 103 Asasi Afua!Y aa, 5-6 Asona Abusua, 77, 79-80, 86-87, 94, 103, 121 At:>fo, 3, 19 Bayee/Obayeefo, 31, 33-35, 42 Bwtum, 80-87, 92-93, 95, 99. Bwyank:>r,80,86,95 Blood,6, 14-15,21,36,39,43-44,5455-57,63,65-71,77,116-117,119. Human blood, 6, 55 Sacrifices, 28, 58, 118 Blood meat, 56-7 Relative, 61, 82, 85 Bodies of waters, 3-6, 57 Bullis, 57-60,

:>baa Yaa (:>bo Yaa), 8, 53, 104 :>bra, 2, 22 :>bra b:>, 13, 18, 20, 22-25, 45 :>brafo, 79-81, 82-83, 85-88, 90, 93, 103, 109 :>bosom, 3, 7, 19, 28,131. :>bosomfo,33-34,37 :>kra, 13-14, 17, 28,55-56,61,6465-66,76, 112, 114-115, 119, 128. :>b, 65-66 meal, 65, 104 :>saman, 8-9, 15-16,20,22,25 :>worn Kwaabam, 81-82, 85, 88, 106 Central Region House of Chiefs, 91, 123-125. Christianity, 30,48-49, 51, 103 Christian, 26, 49, 62 Church, 32, 34, 62, 101 Clerical profession/vocation, 12, 49, 62. Colonization/colonialism, 18, 24,4849,51 Colonial rule, 48 Cosmos, 1, 3-4, 18, 25, 28 Corpporeal world 1-4, 6, 9, 12-13, 1521, 23, 36, 53, I 07, 112. Cresentmoon,27, 107,114-115,128. Dark/ness, 18,21-22, 33, 55, 126 Davidson, 10, 30, 52, 54 Deified ancestors/ elders/beings, 7, 1317, 19-20, Diodorus, 30, 50-51, 76, 102 District Commissioner ofWinneba, 8384-85 Divination, 11-12,17,69,113,129. Earthly representatives, 25, 28, 118. Egg/s, 12, 21, 43,62-66,75, 104. Eldership, 7-8, 13-14, 16, 19

144 Ferryman, 19-20 Fire, 33-34, 36, 38, 55, 69-70, 78, 8182, 89, 104, 108, 130. God Chukwu, 27 God 01odumare, 27 Gods and Goddesses, see abosom. Gold, 4, 23-24, 130. Golden Stool, 120-121 Gomoa Ajumako Traditional Area, 8384,90,96,99-100, 117, 125. Gyankoma, 80-82, 85-86, 93 Herodotus, 10, 51 Holistic heath/healing, 25, 39, 64 Homewardjourney, 14-15 Islam, 30, 48, 51, 103 King Ghartey V/IV, 49 Kingship 48-50, 60, 63, 67, 75, 85, 9192,96-97, 108, 123-126. Kofi Ansah, 80-81, 83-90, 92-94, 109. Kojo Muhammad Quansah, 100-101, 124. K:lbina Ayensu, 4-5, 113 Ladder, 20. Libation/s, 53, 71, 75, 103, 128. Liberia, 11,47-49, 98-99, 131. Liquor, 22, 56, 65, 70, 74-75, 103, 105-106. Living ancestor/s, 14, 28, 46, 73, 76, 102-103, 106-108, 118, 127-128, 131. Mmortsia (dwarfish gods and race), 2, 10-13, 20, Medium/s, 11-12, 33, 74-75, 105, 112, 115, 120, 122. Methodist Church, 33, 80 United Methodist, 49 Mprumem, 6, 8-9, 32, 36, 39, 48, 50, 61, 63, 76-89, 91-94, 97-98, 100101, 103-106, 118, 121, 125, 130. Nana Ansah Jssam, 83-84, 86 Nana Adjoa Apaaba/ III, 50, 76, 78, 79, 82, 84, 87' 89-90, 93-94, 96-100, 103, 106, 109.

Index Nana ::>brafo :>worn VIII, 50, 78, 9293-96,98, 101, 109, 118. Nana :::>brafo :>worn X, 98, 109. Nana Kojo :>worn, 76,78-91,93, 103-104, 109, 120. Nana Kojo Nkom, 83-84 Nana Kwame Pentsil, 95 Nananom Mpanyinfo, 2, 16, 18, 25 Nananom Nsamanfo, 2-3, 9, 13-18,23, 25, 46,63-64,73-76, 102-105, 107, 111, 113-115, 120-121, 123, 128129, 131. NaSaman, 16, 19, Nkrabea, 13, 16, 18,20,23-25,45,128 Nsamanfo, 2, 9, 16-20, 105 Number 77, 53, 56, 69, 105. Nyanbr (deer) festival, 55, 67-68, 70, 107. Nyame, 2-3, 20, 22-25, 27-28, 54, 56, 111. Offerings and sacrifices, 26 Old age, 8, 14, 16, 39 Orun, 1-2, 23, Otu, 67-70, 113. Pot/s, 32-33 Earthen pot, 34 Posthumous abstract personality, see :>sarnan Prayers, 27, 56-58, 128 Prayers and libations, 56-57, 69, 71, 74,103-106, 108, 117, 119, 126, 129. Priestly stool/s, 112-114 Purifications/rites, 14, 58, 61, 63, 74, 104, 117-ll8 Rattray, 10, 12, 31,34-35,37-39,42, 52, 104, 112, 120-121. Reincarnation, 16-17, 19, 25 Rite/s, 14,48-49, 52, 54, 60-61, 63, 66, 74, 77, 104-105, 116, 123, 125-127, 129. Naming, 22, 24 Healing rites, 62. Royal family, 63, 97, 99, 101, 104, 120, 124, 126. Otuano, 67, 69, 122-124

145

Index Sacred traditions, 14 Meal, 56,66 Sites, 56 Sacrifice/s, 3, 8, 13-15,38-39,45,47, 51, 53, 55, 57-59, 63-64, 66-68, 71, 74,77,83, 105,116,118-119,126, 128. Human, 14,47-48, 50-52, 54, 57, 67. Sacrificial animal/s, 55-56, 60, 6364, 105, 126 Sacrificial blood, 56, 74 Deer, 67-70, 107 Sheep,60-62,83, 86,105,115 Goat, 60, 62, 64. Chicken/s, 60, 62-64, 66, 115. Samanadzie, 2-3, 8, 14-21, 25, 111112, 120, 128. Secretary for Native Affairs, 69-70. Simpa (Winneba), 5, 31-32, 40, 48-49, 52, 55, 59-60, 67, 70, 79, 81, 87, 89, 91,94-95,97,107,113-115,120, 125. Spiritual world/beings, I, 9, 19, Causalities, 25, 58 Healing, 25, 45 Meat, 36, 38, 69 Disorder, 42

Agent, 44-45, 59, 64-65. Forces, 45, 116 Death, 55 Soul, see :>kra Sunsum, 19-21,28,42-44, 119,

131. Swearing-in-ceremony, 124-126 Traditiona ruler/s, 7, 48, 50, 73-74, 122, 128. ofMprumem, 31, 49, 76,99-100 United States of America, 7, 49, 52, 97-99, 101-102, 112, 125, 130. Western governments, 24 Wiadzie, see corporeal world. Witch/es, 12, 23, 29-30, 32, 34, 36-37, 39-42,44,46,70,112. Witchcraft, 22, 25, 29-36, 39-46, 60. Witchdoctor, 31,47 Witch-pack, 36-37, 39-40, 46. Warlock, 36-38, 44, 46. World of the dead, 8 Yaw Densu, 4-5, 8 Yaw Frempong, 96-101 Yoruba people, 1-2, 8, 23, 27, 53, 75

About the Author Anthony Ephirim-Donkor is Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Director of Africana Studies at Binghamton University. He is also the author of The Making of an African King: Patrilineal and Matrilineal Struggle Among the Effutu and African Spirituality: On Becoming Ancestors.