Christian Encounters with Indigenous Religions

I now turn my attention to the Christian presence in Akan lands. There are two phases in the history of Christianity in Ghana. The first phase is the era of the Portuguese traders turned missionaries, around the second half of the fifteenth century, and the second is represented by the era of the nineteenth and twentieth century missionary activities."¹⁸² These two phases of the Christian presence, one can assert, introduced inter-religious competition among the Akan, as the Akan religion struggled to survive in the presence of the newly introduced Christianity. Right from the onset of Christianity in Akan lands, the agents sponsored an anti-indigenous religions discourse. The Portuguese, the earliest agents of Christianity to arrive in Akan lands, disregarded the locals as having no religion even before they arrived.

Christians’ preconceived negative view of the traders and missionaries of the people in this part of the world (Africa) were that of a bizarre group of humans with primitive customs. This is evidenced in their narratives and in the very rationale for embarking on their expedition. I note here that this attitude of the disrespectful Portuguese assessment of their hosts was exhibited on

182 Omenyo , Pentecost Outside Pentecostalism,14.

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their first day in the land of the "heathen." Diego d'Azambuja the head of the expedition, landed at Elmina on January 20th 1482.¹⁸³He wrote:

The mass was heard by our men with many tears of devotion, and thanks to God for allowing them to praise and glorify Him in the midst of those idolaters, asking Him that as He was pleased that they were the first to erect an altar at so great a sacrifice, He would give them wisdom and grace to draw those idolatrous people to the faith, so that the Church which they would found there might endure until the end of the world.¹⁸⁴

Words such as idolaters and heathens not only betrayed their preconceived notions, but foreshadowed what was to follow. The Portuguese, without any doubt, found something wrong with the African people that needed to be corrected. Following their arrival D'Azambuja arranged a meeting with the chief of Edina (also known as Elmina) in the Gold Coast and made a long speech outlining their missionizing agenda: to Christianize them, offer them protection and the friendship of the king of Portugal if the chief and his people would convert to the Christian religion. He also made a plea to build a castle on the coastline of Elmina. Diego's speech did not amuse the chief, Kwamina Ansah, whom the Portuguese called Cammaranca. He reacted both the idea of practicing a foreign religion and the occupation of his land by the owners of that religion.

He politely rejected the idea of a new God and a possible occupation of their land by building a castle and registered his protest by an answer dense enough to scare away the guests from Portugal.

He is noted to have responded to D'Azambuja in the following words: “friends who meet occasionally remained better friends than if they were neighbors.”¹⁸⁵

The response from the chief set the stage for a clash of these two faiths, cultures and powers. The Portuguese were indifferent to the chief’s desires; they stayed anyway and used a

183Debrunner , A History of Christianity in Ghana, 17.

184Debrunner, A History of Christianity in Ghana, 17.

185Debrunner, History of Christianity in Ghana, 18.

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strategy Elizabeth Amoah¹⁸⁶ describes as the “package deal”¹⁸⁷ to entice the natives to convert to Christianity. This proselytizing model took the form of an exchange which was to benefit both the Portuguese and the natives of Elmina and other Akan people. The Portuguese promised to protect them from their enemies when they converted. They extended friendship, cementing it with the offering of gifts, especially to the chiefs and elders. The package deal strategy paid off as Akan chiefs and subjects alike submitted to mass baptisms in Efutu and Komenda.¹⁸⁸ One of the most significant points to note in relation to these events is the socio-political milieu of the times. On top of that the nature of indigenous religions aided the Christian missionaries in their cause. First politically, the era was marked by warfare among the various indigenous inhabitants of the Gold Coast. This necessitated the forming of alliances with more powerful groups, such as the Portuguese, on whom Akan chiefs could depend for military support during wars. Chiefs taking part in baptisms was then a calculated political move designed to secure for themselves guns or whatever they could obtain from the "Whiteman” to fight their enemies. In other words, chiefs, with their households and town folks, got baptized not because they wanted to be Christians, but because they knew the “Whiteman” has guns that could protect them from their enemies.¹⁸⁹ The church was perceived not only as a religion but the guarantee of an ally in times of war. Also, other treats such as foreign alcohol and other goodies were gained from the missionaries, so the notion of the church as a social organization or social club where worshippers could meet all people at one place on Sundays enticed Akans to be baptized. Here we see not only the accommodating

186 Prof. Elizabeth Amoah is a professor at the Religious studies department of University of Ghana, Legon and an authority in African Indigenous religions and West African church history.

187 The ‘Package deal’ was a mutually exclusive agreement between the earlier Portuguese missionaries and explorers and the local Gold Coasters. It was an exchange between the two-the Portuguese promised them friendship, gifts and to protect the coasters from their inland enemies in exchange for the locals being converted and baptized by the missionaries.

188 Ekem, Priesthood in Context, 64.

189 S.K Odamtten, The Missionary Factor in Ghana’s Development up to the 1880s. (Accra: Waterville Publishing House, 1978), 163-164.

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nature of the indigenous religions at play in its very early encounter with Christianity, but also the pragmatism that underlay the decisions of its agents and followers.

Secondly, accepting other gods or God into their own collection of gods is a practice in keeping with the openness of indigenous religious believers. As the gods are not jealous, a believer can visit as many shrines or places of worship, and worship as many gods as he or she pleases.

Accommodating the Christian god, saints and religious symbols did not mean totally throwing away their beliefs and accepting completely another religion. Rather it meant adding a new religion to their faith. This is seen even in the attitude of the so called baptized Christians who “succumbed to the temptation and joined the rest in pouring libations and other ritual performances.”¹⁹⁰ Pragmatism features greatly in African indigenous religious belief systems; for example, if a group adds a new god to their gods, that accepted god must speak to practical evidential needs. Failure to do so will result in that god or religion being abandoned.

Unfortunately, and far from what the Akan converts anticipated, the version of Christianity the Portuguese inaugurated was not a practical religion. It could not answer both material and magico-religious needs of the people. In a way, one can argue that the belief system of Aka’s at the time, which also informed what they expected of a new religion, explains the failure of the earliest agents of Christianity to root their religion on Akan lands. Despite the numerous mass baptisms, no vestiges of mass conversions were visible in places the Portuguese had earlier worked when latter missionaries visited. A related factor is that, the first encounter of Christianity with indigenous religions failed to yield results because the missionaries did not take into consideration their host's culture, religion and social set up, which is often so fluid and adaptive that resistance

190 Ekem, Priesthood in Context, 64.

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is ignored. They were convinced that the locals’ acceptance of baptism meant abandoning their native worship forms and acceptance of Christianity, when in actual fact there was more to just outwardly professing a faith. Without touching the socio-cultural foundation or worldview of the people it would be impossible to effect transformation. Even more, in the case of the indigenous natives of the Akan lands both then and now the new religion must both be meaningful and must answer their practical needs. Failure to do so results in natives ignoring the proffered faith.

Christianity in its earliest manifestations faced this challenge.

Not only did Akan indigenous religions demonstrate their ability to stand up to invading religious forces in this early encounter, they also demonstrated an uncanny ability to seize the crucial signs of the invader’s religion and transform them into Akan symbols of supernatural empowerment. The people of Elimina invested local meanings into some symbols of the Christianity that the Portuguese introduced. For example Obeng writes about the Santa Mariafo and Santonafo worshippers of Mary and St Anthony of Padua respectively--Catholic saints’

shrines adapted by indigenous religions after the Portuguese left. The Santa Mariafo exalted the Virgin Mary and performed rites on Friday with the statue of Mary. Santonafo, followers of Nana Ntona [Saint Anthony] performed the annual festival led by indigenous religious priests and attended by chiefs and the people of the town.¹⁹¹ For the natives of Elmina at that time, Christianity did not serve a pragmatic purpose, so, they seized its symbols and invested these with local meanings, rendering them pragmatically useful.

191 Obeng Pashington, Asante Catholicism : Religious and Cultural Reproduction Among the Akan of Ghana ( Leiden:

Brill, 1995), 125.

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