View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DigitalCommons@Florida International University Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School 3-30-2012 The Sacred Nature of the Akan Chief and its Implications for Tradition, Modernity and Religious Human Rights in Ghana Seth Tweneboah Florida International University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at:http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Tweneboah, Seth, "The Sacred Nature of the Akan Chief and its Implications for Tradition, Modernity and Religious Human Rights in Ghana" (2012).FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations.Paper 590. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/590 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida THE SACRED NATURE OF THE AKAN CHIEF AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR TRADITION, MODERNITY AND RELIGIOUS HUMAN RIGHTS IN GHANA A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in RELIGIOUS STUDIES by Seth Tweneboah 2012 To: Dean Kenneth G. Furton College of Arts and Sciences This thesis, written by Seth Tweneboah, and entitled The Sacred Nature of the Akan Chief and its Implications for Tradition, Modernity and Religious Human Rights in Ghana, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this thesis and recommend that it be approved. __________________________________________ Whitney Bauman __________________________________________ Christine Gudorf __________________________________________ Albert Kafui Wuaku, Major Professor Date of Defense: March 30, 2012 The thesis of Seth Tweneboah is approved. __________________________________________ Dean Kenneth G. Furton College of Arts and Sciences __________________________________________ Dean Lakshmi N. Reddi University Graduate School Florida International University, 2012 ii © Copyright 2012 by Seth Tweneboah All rights reserved. iii DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to the chiefs and peace loving people of “Akan Traditional Area.” iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I was first introduced to religious human rights as an overarching concept especially in contemporary international political discourse when, as part of my national service, I served as a teaching assistant under Rev. Dr. Abamfo Atiemo, at the Department for the study of Religions, University of Ghana, Legon. He was by then doing his PhD in this field. Since then, it has become customary for me to delineate the interface between religio-cultural practices and socio- political issues and how the former is implicated in the latter especially in traditional societies. The present work is part of this interest. This interest could not have been pursued without the special interest shown by my supervisors: Dr. Albert Kafui Wuaku, Prof. Christine Gudorf and Dr. Whitney Bauman. I wish especially to thank Dr. Albert Wuaku who did not only serve as my major professor of this thesis but, before and throughout my studies in FIU, has been a brother, a friend and a mentor. He constantly pushed and pulled me towards the right academic path. His expertise in indigenous Ghanaian traditions made it possible to constantly help reshape some of my theories and supporting evidence. Prof. Christine Gudorf, besides serving as my supervisor, has always made sure my stay here in the Miami becomes a memorable one. Her financial and motherly support cannot be adequately described in this work. She was always conscious of the ethical dimension of the work. Dr. Whitney Bauman has been a friendly supervisor and a great source of encouragement and hope. His insistence on conceptual framework throughout his lectures and supervision of this thesis gave him the opportunity to drill me on my choice of theories and theorists. v I am especially indebted to the staff and member of the Department of Religious Studies in the Florida International University, Miami, especially Professors Erik Larson and Oren Baruch Stier, for granting me the opportunity of studying in their department. Special thanks are especially due to Dr. Harrison Kimberly, Director of Undergraduate Writing Program, and her colleagues at the English Department of the same university who agreed not only to fund my sponsorship but to also give me the needed training necessary to be their graduate assistant. I truly enjoyed the good coaching given to me and the cordial relations that existed between me and Tania Lopez, Andrew Golden, Mike Creeden, Nicholas Vagnoni and Patricia Warman and the entire English Department faculty members at FIU. During those semesters that I served as their graduate assistant, they did not only serve as my supervisors but also motivated and mentored me towards the right path. My debt of gratitude is due to Rev. Prof. Elom Dovlo, Director of Adult Education, University of Ghana, Legon, through whose contact I got to know Dr. Wuaku, who pitched me into the MA program at the Florida International University, Miami. I am particularly grateful to Mrs. Alice Agyemang of Atlanta, Georgia, and her husband, Mr. Samuel Agyemang, who became my parents in the Diaspora. No amount of words will be enough than to say “May God bless their family.” I wish to pay my homage and show reverence to the sacred chiefs and elders of the indigenous Akan societies. This study would have been unthinkable but for their formidable resistance to the decadence of modernity and firm opposition to the fossilization of their sacred office. While the intention of this study was not to indict, implicate or treat their sacred office with disrespect, certain inevitable academic criticism and critique of some aspects (historical or contemporary) of the chief’s office was essentially unavoidable. Similarly, analysis, opinions, vi and seeming defense of some aspects of the chieftaincy institution are purely academic and must not be read or interpreted as an apologetic treatment of the institution. While the thoughts in this study must reflect my belief in the chieftaincy institution, the genre – academic critique of human rights issues – required an unbiased revelation of the “truth.” I was consciously aware that the office of the chief and his elders still receives the necessary reverence and obeisance due the ancestors. In view of this, certain choice of words that would otherwise have traditionally, attracted sanctions, emotive response or disapproval (scorn or looks of dissatisfaction) must be given only academic connotations. Every knowledge and idea borrowed from various experts have been duly acknowledged especially in the footnotes and bibliography. This notwithstanding, I wish to extend my gratitude to all such pacesetters and experts for taking the lead for some of us to follow. vii ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS THE SACRED NATURE OF THE AKAN CHIEF AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR TRADITION, MODERNITY AND RELIGIOUS HUMAN RIGHTS IN GHANA by Seth Tweneboah Florida International University, 2012 Miami, Florida Professor Albert Wuaku, Major Professor This study explored the interface between the abuses inherent in the sacred nature of the Akan (a Ghanaian ethnic group) Chief and international human rights laws. It argued that the sacred basis of Akan Chieftaincy, which empowers and legitimizes Akan Chiefs, also leads to them imposing restrictions on the rights of their subjects. The study examined the implications of these restrictions in the light of a rapidly modernizing, thoroughly globalizing, and a religiously pluralistic Ghana where the influence of western originated belief in individual rights is growing. The study also explored why, in spite of the many existing Constitutional and legal provisions in Ghana, breaches of religious freedom still occur. It shed considerable light on how agents of the modern state and the Chiefs, connive to sometimes suppress the rights of individuals. The study identified the implications of this development for policymaking in Ghanaian communities where modernity and tradition co-exist. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY ............................................................1 Introduction .................................................................................................1 Background to the Study .............................................................................2 The Thesis ....................................................................................................9 Frames of Conceptualization .....................................................................10 Clarification of Terms ...............................................................................14 Chief, King and Queenmother ......................................................14 Tradition ........................................................................................14 Traditional Area ............................................................................15 Traditional Council ........................................................................15 Human Rights ...............................................................................15 Religious Human Rights ...............................................................16 Religious Pluralism .......................................................................17 Design and Instrumentation ......................................................................17 The Setting: Locating the Akan .................................................................17 Structure of the Study ................................................................................22 II EXPLORING THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ........................................25 Introduction ...............................................................................................25 Chieftaincy and the Concept of the Sacred ...............................................25 Chieftaincy as a Cultural Symbol ..............................................................29 Hegemony and Chieftaincy Institution .....................................................33 The Sacred, Hegemony and Human Rights ..............................................39 Conclusion .................................................................................................41 III THE RELIGIOUS FOUNDATION OF THE AKAN CHIEFTAINCY INSTITUTION .....................................................................................................42 Introduction ...............................................................................................42 Indigenous Akan Religion ........................................................................42 Akan and the Worship of God ...................................................................44 The Gods and the Moral Community ........................................................46 The Place of the Ancestors .......................................................................48 Succession/Inheritance ..............................................................................49 Categorizations of Chiefs ...........................................................................52 The Paramount Chief (Omanhene) ................................................52 The Queenmother and her Role .....................................................53 The Divisional Chiefs (Abrempong/Abremponfo) .........................59 Sub-divisional Chiefs .....................................................................59 Council of Elders ..........................................................................60 Conclusion ................................................................................................60 ix