Bonsam’s New Indigenous Religious Community

In his attempt to modernize IRT Bonsam tries to build it around a community. This sense of community is, however, a loose one, because he insists his religion is simply the Akan religion of his ancestors, which is an all-inclusive religion that can be patronized by anybody from any faith.

It would seem right to suggest that Bonsam and cohorts are re-launching the past by borrowing/appropriating local and globally circulating religious symbols from the diverse and often competing beliefs and practices of the various religious groups on the Ghanaian religious landscape. Their gestures can also be interpreted as a reverse discourse in the indigenous construction of religion which de-emphasizes institutionalization. Bonsam shows that a modern religion must show tendencies towards institutionalization if it is to survive. Bonsam’s community is a clientele-based one. Based on my observation and interviews there are three categories of members. These are members of his shrine, permanent clients, and casual clients.

The members of the shrine belong to the shrine and affiliate with the shrine just as Christians affiliate with a particular church. Some of them live in the shrine and perform important roles that contribute to its smooth day to day running. The second category of membership, which I call permanent clients, is adherents who come to Bonsam consistently at any point they are in need of his services. Many of them, however, still maintain their affiliation(s) with other religious

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bodies, or even establish new affiliations. The third category consists of individuals or families who come to the shrine once, or maybe once in a while to consult with Bonsam. These are people seeking services, who receive their services and do not reappear unless and until some form of misfortune comes their way again.

The members of the community I observed in the field, apart from Bonsam’s own family, were clients who first came to seek help. Many kept coming for consultation on one issue after the other, becoming permanent clients, and joining as full members when they became fully convinced of the potency of Bonsam’s powers. Permanent membership must be attained through a ritual ceremony, which binds the devotee to the shrine. The priest and his elders have established rigorous regimens that individuals must go through to become permanent members. Probably the rigor is intended to scare away intruders or would-be spies and ensure genuine belonging and devotion. Kojo Poku, the Bosomfo, told me on one occasion what it would take for a person to become a member:

We will slaughter a fowl to the deities. Only when the deities accept the fowl would we also accept incoming devotees. Once accepted, all members have obligation to be loyal to the deities and lead holy lives by avoiding all sorts of immoral behavior as well as to observe the religious activities in the shrine. Failure to do so can amount to a member experiencing a misfortune or sickness as a warning from the gods but if the member continues on the wrong path the gods will finally end his life.²⁷⁰

In addition to keeping the religious rules of the shrine, members are obliged to respect themselves and authority as well as keep the shrine clean.

270 I observed one of such warning on the 22 of January 2012 at the Akwasidae festival in Afrancho. When Kwaku Bonsam got possessed, he reprimanded a male member called Norman that he has seen his immoral behavior of sexual offence and warned that if he does not change a very strange thing will happen to him.

137 4.3.3 The Shrine Community

Each shrine is made up of adherents and ritual persons who function in different roles in the administration of the shrine. A devotee, Mamepayin, who is an elderly member of the community and the cook for the priests, told me of the different chores assigned to members and how orderliness is expected in a group.

All members are referred as Asomfoↄ which literally means two things: worshippers and servants. A subcategory of the Asomfoↄ is the Akyeamefoↄ ²⁷¹(plural) and ↄkyeame (singular). The Akyeramadefoↄ is made up of Agorofoↄ--drummers/clappers-- and nwomtofoↄ--singers. I noted how the names assigned to these categories among other things spell out their duties as well, except the Akyeamefoↄ, who are special assistants to the priests/priestesses. As Mamepayin described the categories in the shrine, I noted that there was a form of hierarchy. This initial assumption was confirmed by the bosomfo and Bonsam when I asked about the structure of the group.

In the hierarchy of members in the shrine, Bonsam is the head. He is the high priest who presides over all the major religious activities in the shrine. However, he delegates powers to his subordinate priests or the bosomfo, who are next to him in the hierarchy. Following the bosomfo are the akyeame (elders/linguist), the asodofoↄ (caterers), asomafoↄ (messengers/servants), agorofoↄ (drummers and singers) and members (clients, permanent clients). I noted that priests/priestesses in all Bonsam’s shrines are family, that is-his blood brothers and sisters. Other members are individuals who have earned their positions in the group as a result of their faithfulness. While seeking to construct a modern form of indigenous religion in Ghana, Bonsam

271 Akyeamefoↄ are servants of various deities. Before one becomes an ↄkyeame, one must have been a member and faithful to the shrine for a long time. The deities appoint the ↄkyeame; however the sacrifice offered to that deity must be accepted first before the person commences. The person then becomes the servant of that deity and must learn the things the deity likes so that when the priest get possessed by that deity they can make the deity comfortable by supplying the things he likes.

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still seems to build on structures of similar movements that were influential in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as aberewa. Parker described a similar structure when he noted the retinue of the high priest of aberewa as consisting of "a body-guard of slaves, a company of drum-beaters, a number of speakers... akyeame [sic], a band of singers and dancing men (Ogurufo), coupled with exotic assemblage of a variety of generically 'northern' accoutrements.”²⁷² Bonsam’s organization is nonetheless innovative in that it differs somewhat from earlier ones: neither Parker nor Goody mentions that the earlier anti-witchcraft shrines all over Ashanti and other parts of Ghana were under one central priest as is the case for Kwaku Bonsam-who is the head of his community worldwide.

He is the spiritual head/overseer of a number of shrines headed by priests who are his family members. In terms of their functions however, we could say Kwaku Bonsam’s new indigenous religious shrines represent a comeback of the earlier traditions described by Parker and Goody. These scholars show how these earlier shrines emerged to combat bayie or witchcraft, which is seen by the Akans and other ethnic groups of Ghana as an evil force capable of destroying a person’s “health and wealth.” In the 21st century Ghana in which Bonsam operates, witchcraft is no longer perceived as an evil spiritual force that is operational only at night, but has been given a modern slant as a force inherent in some humans and active even during the day. A victim can be affected by this force at the work place, in the market, at home and in the classroom, among other places, in ways that thwart his or her progress.²⁷³ The ubiquity of the existence of evil spiritual forces is a feature of modern life in Ghana and is the context in which Bonsam’s ability to offer spiritual antidotes in times of crisis is considered by many to be very crucial.

272 Parker, Witchcraft, Anti-Witchcraft, 411.

273 Kwaku Bonsam, interview by Genevieve Nrenzah, February 20, 2012.

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One novelty of Kwaku Bonsam’s community and his shrines is the performance of matrimonial rites. Not only is this practice not discussed by scholars such as Parker, McCaskie or Goody in their accounts of the earlier shrines in Ghana, it is also not a common practice of many of the contemporary shrines in Ghana. This practice seems to form part of Bonsam’s modernizing agenda as it represents a borrowing of the Christian practice of performing weddings in the church.

In the marriage ceremonies of Bonsam’s tradition the marrying couple kneels down facing each other and holding an egg. After the incantation and libations designed to consecrate the union and the invocation of blessings such as children and prosperity, the priest gives them two rings to exchange. Afterwards the eggs are crashed on the altar of the shrine.²⁷⁴ The shrine ceremony does not require a visible legal contract between the two contracting parties as man and wife, but it is believed that the deities are the witnesses to the ceremony and so neither of the two can end the relationship in any way except in the shrine. Akua, a devotee who alleged that her husband had been seeing other women, shared her frustrations with me. She told me how she wished she could divorce her husband because of his infidelity but could not because she married in the shrine. When I inquired why she could not divorce him, she gave an explanation that revealed one way in which the shrine’ rituals affected marriages.

Ei no, how can I. Those of us who have been married in this shrine cannot leave our husbands or the shrine altogether unless we perform a sacrifice of a huge cow, and offer drinks and two sheep to the gods. Even then things don’t end there. You may still not be free to go. The deities must accept to release you. If they say no, then you will keep staying here in the marriage.

Being a member and having your husband as a member in addition to having no money to pay for all these makes it almost impossible to leave your marriage.²⁷⁵

274 Kojo Poku explained that the crashing of the eggs means that the union cannot be broken, as a crushed egg cannot become a whole egg so is the marriage irreversible, except under serious conditions and even then, the gods must agree to end it.

275 Akua, interview by Genevieve Nrenzah, April 4, 2012.

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How to interpret this policy? As a new group which relies on constant members to keep its good standing strong moral codes may seem necessary to keep members. As members abide by the rules, they will stay married and procreate which will increase the number of members. The moral codes could be deity-originated or a part of Bonsam’s survival strategies. He had to find a way of sustaining his following and the creative imposition of such stringent rules can be one of such ways. Sometimes groups will also want to adhere to social values to make themselves appealing to society. At another level, the divorce rate has reached its highest rate in Ghana presently. In 2011, the statistics from the Greater Accra area, the capital, according to Mr. Ernest Mawuli Adzekey, Head Office of Legal Aid Ghana, reveal that at least 40% of marriages registered annually in the region break up within a period of 14 months.²⁷⁶ The divorce rate is certainly higher, for indigenous marriages dissolved out of court are not captured in national statistics. Given this social problem, imposing rules on members that make it difficult for them to divorce their partners, would likely be viewed as emanating from someone concerned about the survival of marriages. This would reflect positively on his tradition.