The Church Upholds Veneration of Saints but Disdains African Ancestral Worship, Hypocrisy or Sincerity?

Many years ago and prior to the introduction of the Christian and the Islamic Religions in Ghana, our forebears had only the African Traditional Religion which involved the worship of God, gods/deities and ancestral as well as other similar worships. In fact, some of the cultural practices in the African Traditional Religion are either a mimicry of Judaic practices of ancient Israel or should I say the African Traditional Worship is similar to that of Judaism?

Since the inception of the Christian Religion in Ghana, the missionaries had satanized many practices of the African people including their ancient ways of worship. One of the traditional practices satanized by Christian missionaries was ancestral worship which was seen as idolatry and evil. Paradoxically, the same church that satanized and disdained ancestral worship had introduced sainthood and veneration of saints. Is this hypocrisy or sincerity of the church? Even the African cloth worn by men was once disdained by the European but for the intervention of the great Ephraim Amu who opposed Europeanization of Christianity and mounted the pulpit with a Kente cloth and a jumper which European missionaries objected to.

African Ancestral Worship or Veneration
Religion and for that matter religious practices and dogmas are complex issues based on what people believe protects them spiritually to sustain physical life on earth. Beliefs make people do things that appear abnormal to others who do not believe in same thing. This observation might have moved Karl Max to say, "religion is the opium of the people". An opium is an addictive narcotic drug or any similar substance.

According to two renowned Ghanaian anthropologists (Nukunya, 1992; Sarpong, 1974), ancestors are the spirits of dead people inhabiting a special spiritual world after they led good, exemplary, and peaceful lives on earth. From their spiritual abodes, the African ancestors watch over their living descendants.

Perhaps it is worth stating- mindful of the topic being discussed- that Sarpong cited above is not just an anthropologist but for years, he was the Catholic Archbishop of Kumasi until he retired 14 years ago on March 26, 2008. Currently thus, he is called Emeritus Archbishop Peter Akwasi Sarpong.

The general Ghanaian belief is that death is not the end of man hence after death, only the physical body decays but the person’s spirit or soul journeys to the land of spirits. The Bible also teaches that the human body becomes dust but the soul journeys on to heaven or hell, depending on the deeds of the individual here on earth. Whereas the Akan refers to this spirit world as “Asamando”, the Ewe refers to it as “tsieƒe” or “Aʋlime”.

Again, the Akans of Ghana believe that the spirit of a good chief who dies tends to occupy the blackened stools hence the blackened stools are venerated as the sacred abodes of the demised chiefs’ sprits (Nukunya, 1992). The rite through which the Akans blacken the stool of a demised chief is called “werempe” custom ( Nuamah, 1985). For extensive lessons on werempe custom, one may want to read H.A. Nuamah’s 1985 book entitled, “Murder in the Palace at Kibi: An Account of the Kibi Ritual Murder Case”.

Mbiti (1985) also indicated that in Igbo ontology, ancestors are referred to as “Ndiichie or Ndibunze” and they are those people who led good and exemplary lives when they were in the physical world known in Ghana as “wiase” (Akan) and “Kodzogbe” (Eʋe) but after their death they exist in a spiritual world from where they watch over the living and reward or punish the latter, depending on the deeds of the living.

Mbiti further indicated that because of their watchdog duties in protecting the living and because of their immortality in the spirit world, the ancestors are also called the living-dead.

Regarding the Ghanaian ancestral veneration practice, Nukunya (1992) clarified that apart from the prerequisite of a person leading exemplary life on earth, a demised person is considered an ancestor among the Anlo-Ewes if he died a natural death at an advanced age. Aside that, the person should not have died through a cause termed as bad omen or bad death. For example, people who died through leprosy, lunacy, swollen body, suicide, execution, ulcers among others are not considered as ancestors among Anlo-Ewes.

In Ghana, families consult their ancestors through divination just as Saul consulted the spirit of Samuel in the Bible through the assistance of the female medium at Endor (1 Samuel 28:7-19). Apart from veneration, the Ghanaian traditional believer offers food, water, and drinks to the ancestors periodically especially upon the request of the ancestors. Are the ancestors of the African different from the saints declared by the church such that the church disdains ancestral veneration but upholds veneration of saints? Or is this just white supremacy birthed into the church by the European missionaries?

Sainthood and Veneration of Saints
In Christian religious phraseology, saint basically refers to a “holy one”. Someone who is set apart for God’s special purposes, hence in generic terms, every adherent of Jesus Christ is deemed a saint, whether dead or alive.

Accordingly, different Bible verses have referred to both the living (Romans 1:7; Acts 9:13; Psalm 30:4) and the dead (Revelations 8:3; Mathew 27: 52) as saints. Christians believe that saints are living spiritually in heaven with God.

Mostly, the Catholic Church beatifies its demised members and declares them saints. Just as the traditional worshiper in Africa believes in his ancestors, the Catholics believe that the saints were believers in the Catholic faith and they led good and exemplary lives while alive on earth. After death, their spirits live with God in heaven. According to Catholic doctrine, there is also a temporary place in the spiritual realm called purgatory, a place or state of suffering inhabited by the souls of sinners who are expiating their sins before going to heaven.

Canon Law 1187 of the Catholic Church reads, “It is permitted to reverence through public veneration, only those servants of God whom the authority of the Church has recorded in the list of the saints or the blessed.” Clearly, therefore, not all Catholics who die can be beatified as saints.

In the past, both the Catholic Church and the Pentecostal Churches banned ancestral rituals or venerations. In 1939, however, the Catholic Church lifted its ban on ancestral rituals as it formally recognized ancestral rites as civil practices.

In the Catholic Church, ancestors or saints are seen as mediators between God and humankind. As such, the Catholic believes that the Virgin Mary and all the saints (e.g., St. Joseph, St. Paul etc.) intercede in prayers for the living.

Pentecostals believe that the Bible uses the term “saints” to describe all believers, not a select few. Pentecostals thus honour believers who are no longer living on earth, but do not venerate them or pray to or through them.

The fact is that the Gospel of Mathew talks extensively about the genealogy of Jesus Christ within which even Rahab the Prostitute (James 2: 25) and several similar patriarchs and matriarchs have been mentioned. It is thus alarming and hypocritical to me that the Ghanaian Christian rather tends to see his kinship or genealogy as something weird which should not be taken seriously. The European has brainwashed us to refer derogatorily to our genealogy as extended family which should not be cherished.

To me, it is an act of hypocrisy for the Christian to uphold the genealogies recounted in the Bible but abhor his or her own genealogy. It must not be lost on those people that within the Ghanaian land tenure system, inheritance of family lands is largely based on genealogy.

I equally argue that it is sinful for the Ghanaian Christian to think that venerating his ancestor is satanic and sinful but doing so to another ancestor described as saint in the church is holy and more sincere. I can envisage that some readers of this article will disagree strongly with me and offer their opinions. However, I am not perturbed because I am a strong believer in the fact that sometimes knowledge building or acquisition is achieved through conflict of thoughts and ideas.

Nukunya (1992), Nuamah (1985) and Sarpong (1974) made it clear that ancestors within the African traditional religion are the spirits of demised people who led good and exemplary lives on earth. The church equally beatifies as saints, the souls of only Christians who once led good and exemplary lives on earth. If these assertions are anything logical to uphold, then why must the ancestral veneration of the African believer be termed satanic and idolatry but veneration of saints by the church is termed a holy act?

Conclusion
It is trite belief that most of what is African is disparaged and misconstrued as either barbaric or idolatry in religious terms. This can be attributed to white supremacy (the belief that white people are superior to other races and thus should dominate them).

As if the negative effects of white supremacy were not enough, Ghanaians afflict themselves with the cankers of ethnocentrism and tribal supremacy. For example, whereas one tribe thinks that its magical or supernatural displays during ceremonies are a display of rich culture, they ironically think that a similar display of another tribe’s magical powers is juju and therefore derogatory.

Be it from the European or from an African, most of these derogations and stereotypic tags are maliciously destructive and demeaning to the believers of the African traditional Religion. Senghor and Rohio (2007) bemoaned the vilification of the African people by the Europeans on grounds of religion. As if that is not enough, fellow Africans baptized into the Christian and other faiths have been brainwashed to think that their friends or others who profess different faiths are satanic or evil. Time will tell, methinks. Asante Sana!!!

Philip Afeti Korto
Health Service Administrator
[email protected]