Table Of ContentTHE LION’S TALE OF THE HUNT: ONYAMESOM
By
DANIEL NYANTE
A DEMONSTRATION PROJECT
Submitted to
New York Theological Seminary
In partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the degree of
DOCTOR OF MINISTRY
Brooklyn, New York, USA
2010
ABSTRACT
THE LION’S TALE OF THE HUNT: ONYAMESOM
By
DANIEL NYANTE
Orality alone cannot disqualify a religious system from qualitative greatness
because Judaism, Christianity and Islam were all orally-based for long periods of time
before their teachings were codified in writing.1
Onyamesom is the heritage into which the traditionalists were born. It is
maintained by Onyame and influenced by the ancestors. It emerged from the sustaining
faith held by the forebears of the present generation and is being practiced today in
various forms and intensities in African homelands and settlements.2
God at the beginning gave the Bible to one group, the Qu’ran to another, and
Amanmere to us. Our Amanmere is Onyame’s laws to us and Onyame tell us too where
the gold is with which we trade. We know Onyame already ourselves….As to the
commandments of Onyame, we know that we keep them all.3
The bearers of the new spirituality spoke with the authority of God and their
interpretation of the Bible was used as proof of the veracity of their utterances.
Traditional spirituality had to give way to new forms of religion and knowledge of self
1 Prince Conteh, “Can the African Christian Problem Ever be solved?” World Council of
Churches, Inter-religious Dialogue & Cooperation 49 (July, 2007): Current Dialogue, Magazine,
EBSCOhost (accessed November 24, 2009).
2 Ibid.
3 Kofi Asare Opoku, “Cooking on the two legs of the Hearth: African Spirituality and the Socio-
Cultural Transformation of Africa,” Asante-Opoku-Reindorf Memorial Lectures, Kwame Bediako Lecture
Series, Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Mission, Theology and Culture, Akropong-Akuapem, Ghana,
November 4, 2009.
began to dwindle, for the old identities has little or no place in the new dispensation.4
This led to the emergence of a new and shallow identity imposed from outside; and the
result has been the entrenchment of a negative attitude of Africans towards their own
spiritual and cultural heritage, a mortifying imitation and a lamentable lack of originality
and reliance on borrowings, and ignoring the ancestral wisdom which warns that:
“Begged water does not quench thirst”5 This is the tale of the hunting told from the
lions’ point of view; this is Onyamesom.
4 Joseph Lule, The Hidden Wisdom of the Baganda (Arlington, Va: Humbolt and Hartmann,
2006), 162.
5 Kofi Asare Opoku, “Cooking on the two legs.”
Copyright by
DANIEL NYANTE
2010
DEDICATION
I would like to dedicate this project first to my parents, my family especially my son,
Kofi. To those who had faith, trusted in me, inspired me and pushed me even beyond my
limits to complete this…..this is to you!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
During my search to select a topic for my research project, I met many African
theologians and historians and I marvel at the wealth and depth of knowledge that I did
not know existed. Professor Kofi Asare Opoku, Catechist Abboah Offei, Rev. George O.
Kwapong, Rev. Dr. Kwame Bediako (who passed away recently) Professor Dr. Mercy
Oduyoye and Professor Addo-Fening are a few of the scholars I discovered during my
search for knowledge. To the custodians of the tradition, Krontihene of Akuapem, Nana
Offei Agyeman, Mamfehene Osahene Nana Ansah Sasraku III, I say a big Thank you.
With these scholars I feel like I am truly at the beginning of my journey and it is quite
empowering. I am honored to be working on something so dear to my heart.
I couldn’t have done this work if it wasn’t for those who were more than my
teachers; those who insisted that I do my work and do it well even when I had no wish to
do it. But with the promptings of the heart, I just gathered courage to continue even
when I thought I could no longer go on. With their patience, their humility and their
expressive desire of what they thought was necessary because of what they had heard me
talk about even though I was not really sure of where I was going, they pushed me. They
made me see that their experience and advice energized me and made me realize that at
this time of need; that it can be accomplished so we all have to come together in
fulfillment of the dreams of TIDAC which is something so dear to us as a group.
You know who you are, this is the beginning of the actual work, so be alert and
let’s get it on……….
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1
The Ghanaian Presbyterian Reformed Church and Bethel Presbyterian Reformed
Church of Brooklyn ...................................................................................................... 17
Akropong Christ Church ............................................................................................... 25
Onyamesom .................................................................................................................. 28
Kristosom ...................................................................................................................... 55
European Missionaries: ................................................................................................. 65
The Basel Mission - The Man: Andreas Riis ................................................................ 67
The West Indian Factor in the Establishment of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana: The
Conviction of Things Not Seen..................................................................................... 71
Ghanaian Missionaries .................................................................................................. 78
The Tenets of Presbyterianism...................................................................................... 89
The Presbyterian Church and the Ghanaian Culture: Conflicts and Accommodations 98
CHAPTER 2: THE CHALLENGE ............................................................................. 104
Challenge Statement ................................................................................................... 104
Preliminary Analysis of Challenge Statement ............................................................ 105
CHAPTER 3: GOAL ONE – THE TEAM ................................................................. 108
CHAPTER 4: GOAL TWO – THE JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY ......................... 117
CHAPTER 5: GOAL THREE – WE FOUND GOLD .............................................. 146
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION..................................................................................... 162
EVALUATION ......................................................................................................... 184
CHAPTER 7: RESEARCH ......................................................................................... 187
Historical ..................................................................................................................... 189
Theological ................................................................................................................. 192
Educational ................................................................................................................. 196
CHAPTER 8: MINISTERIAL COMPETENCIES ................................................... 198
Prophetic Agent: ......................................................................................................... 198
Ecumenist:................................................................................................................... 200
Administrator/Leader: ................................................................................................. 202
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 205
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 377
vii
CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION
Bre dodow a gyata bεnya nea ode can abakכ sem, a hayכ mu nsem nyinaa bε yie כbomofo
ayε
Until the lions have their own historians, tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter –
Ghanaian proverb:
As children, our responsibilities were our own. If we chose to play after school
rather than do our house chores, no one would stop us, but it meant that it would probably
take us till midnight to complete the work. No one would be allowed to do chores for us.
My father taught me to be honest and not to dwell too much on my ailments. I remember
an incident one day when I told him that I was not feeling well and did not want to go to
school; he said I could stay at home, and I did. It so happened that there was a movie
being shown later that day at the public square that I wanted to see6.
5F
By noon, I started saying that I felt much better, hoping to convince him that I had
recovered. When everyone was ready to go, he announced to all that I couldn’t go to the
movie because I was not feeling well. That taught me a lesson. From that point on, even
when I was not feeling up to it, I did not let a headache stop me from going to school. He
would also check on my progress in school. Right in front of the whole class, he would
ask the teacher questions that embarrassed me, to the point that I was always on my best
behavior in school after that.
6 Movies came to the public square of the town once in a while, it was a great occasion for the
whole town which was a big social gathering and if one missed it, you had missed a big event which no one
wanted to miss.
1
Where did my father and the other elders7 in my community get their wisdom? As
a child, I saw my mother go to church every Sunday, but I do not remember my father
going to church. The other elders were not readers of the Bible, neither did they go to
church, but they had a strong belief system. I am not sure where they got it from, other
than from their community; this wisdom known as Onyamesom8, and its values were
firmly transmitted by the elders within the community. Our fathers and their fathers
before them believed in a Supreme Being, who was shown reverence by the way they
referred to this Supreme Being. Onyamesom is a form of worship, which our great
ancestors relied upon to show their reverence to God. This way of life is not restrictive;
you can worship in your kitchen, market, or farm.
In Ghana, when you meet someone and exchange greetings with them, you ask
how they are doing; their automatic answer is Onyame adom, meaning “By the Grace of
God.” You may hear this everywhere; at the riverside, by the graveyard, when burying
the dead, at social gatherings; anywhere and everywhere, since Onyamesom permeates
every aspect of African culture. “A close observation of Africa and its societies will
reveal that religion is at the root of African culture and is the determining principle of
African Life. It is no exaggeration, therefore, to say that in traditional Africa, religion is
life and life, religion.9”
7 An elder is someone who is given a high status in society because they are a living model for the
other groups in the society to emulate. In every clan, elders become the ruling class, in charge of
leadership.
8 Onyamesom was the way of life passed on from the ancestors; from generation to generation. It
is the African culture which is a religious culture and whatever one is engaged in, one is fully involved in a
religious experience.
9 Opoku Kofi Asare, West African Traditional Religion (Accra, London: FEP International Private
Ltd., 1978), 54.
2
Our home was the seat of our Clan-the Asona10 in the community, and during the
Festival of Odwira11, the elders and every member of the clan would travel back home
from wherever they were, to the clan seat for the celebrations and weeklong festivities.
All the elders would bring drinks12 for everyone to partake, and all these drinks would be
kept by my father, as the head Abusuapayin. He would keep the drinks in his room.
I remember a particular incident which taught me the merits of honesty, patience
and the rule of law. A group of the clan elders came to our house. My father was in his
room, and we all assumed that he was sleeping. When we informed the elders, they did
not take very kindly to this, and they insisted that I (being the youngest boy at that time)
go into my father’s room and get some drinks to start the day’s celebration. Even though
I was hesitant, I could not refuse to do what an elder had asked me to do.
Fortunately for me, my father was awake when I went into his room. He did not
appear to be sleeping, but rather meditating and practicing solitude and silence. He asked
me why I had come, and I explained it to him. He instructed me to get the drinks and
take them to the elders who had asked for them, which I did. When my father came out
from his rest, he called a meeting of the elders, and I was asked to point out the one who
had insisted on me going into the room, disturbing my father, to get drinks. I pointed the
10 The Clan is a social group with a common ancestry. The Asona is a clan in the Akan society,
whose totem is the crow, symbolizing humility and peace.
11 The Odwira Festival is celebrated by all Akans to honor their dead kings and ancestors, and to
cleanse the nation from all past evils. It also marks the beginning of a New Year in African Tradition in
specific areas.
12 It is customary for drinks to be presented to the head of the clan, and libation to be poured
before any of the elders may partake of the drinks. The rest is kept by the head of the family, and used to
serve house guests.
3
