Unpacking the Paradox: Why Are the Economically Significant Sefwi People Still Marginalized and Stereotyped in Ghana? Asks Dr. Aduhene-Kwarteng

Over the past 40 years, people of Sefwi have been linked to negative connotations as the epicenter of ritual murder in the country. Many citizens who grew up in the 1980s and heard about the murder of Kofi Kyinto formed the impression that the people of Sefwi are ritual murderers. This negative tag has made some Sefwi people uncomfortable about claiming they are indigenous to Sefwi. Meanwhile, ritual murders happen each day in Ghana in almost every part of the country.

Some Ghanaians have forgotten that on the day the people who murdered little Kofi Kyinto, a fetish priest was executed somewhere in the Eastern Region for the same crime. Around the same time, the Krontihene of Abesim, named Nana Twene, and two others were arrested, tried in the local tribunal, found guilty, and executed for the ritual murder of a pregnant woman. The chief’s body was brought to the Abesim town. Soldiers of the then military government tied up the body behind a car and dragged it along the ground. Women and children reportedly followed the vehicle, singing and dancing, but the case of Kofi Kyinto’s murder was overhyped due to media stereotypes and associations with violent crime.

Research and crime statistics show that ritual-related violence and "money rituals" driven by economic hardship, unemployment, and fraudulent spiritualists occur across multiple parts of Ghana. Therefore, because the Kofi Kyinto case was so graphic and shocking, similar cases elsewhere drew less attention, while the Sefwi area received disproportionate media focus.

Ritual murders occur in every part of Ghana, even the national capital. Still, national media outlets have magnified individual criminal cases in the Western North region on several occasions. These isolated criminal acts have been used by some content creators or misinformed members of the public to label the entire ethnic group as dangerous, aggressive, or associated with juju. This leads to offensive "jokes" or remarks about Sefwi individuals, such as people jesting about keeping their heads safe around them.

Examples of Ritual murder cases in Ghana.

According to data from the Ghana Police Service and various media houses, between 2021 and 2024, over 70 reported cases of suspected ritual killings were recorded in different parts of this country, including Kasoa, Wa, Sunyani and Central Tongu. In April 2021, the ritual killing of a 10-year-old boy in Kasoa by two teenagers shocked the nation and sparked public outcry.

The Kasoa Ritual Murder (2021). This remains one of the most terrifying ritual cases in modern Ghanaian history. On April 3, 2021, two teenagers (aged 15 and 18) lured their 10-year-old neighbor, Ishmael Abdullah, into an unfinished building in Kasoa. They attacked him with a wooden stick and cement blocks before burying him alive. The teenagers confessed they committed the murder after watching a television advertisement by a traditional spiritualist who promised to make them rich if they provided a human body and GH¢5,000.

The Wa Mysterious Killings (2022). Between late 2021 and 2022, a wave of killings targeted private security personnel and watchmen in the Wa municipality of the Upper West Region. Several night security guards went missing, and their bodies were later found buried in shallow graves with their vital organs and body parts surgically removed. The gruesome, repetitive nature of the murders created an unofficial curfew, leaving residents of Wa living in absolute terror.

The Central Tongu Strangling (2024). In December 2024, the nation was thrown into fear again when details emerged from Central Tongu regarding the murder of 24-year-old Nelson Anyina. The victim was lured and strangled to death by a group of suspects who then sold his body for GH₵10,000 to three brothers, namely Noah, John, and Johannes Gblor, who were looking to perform wealth rituals.

I am not glorifying ritual murder, but I want Ghanaians to know that the people of Sefwi and its residents are not wicked. Sefwi also has natural resources, including gold, bauxite, and timber. Its fertile land has attracted farmers from other regions, mostly Northern, Krobo, Bono, and Ashanti. With cocoa farming as the main occupation, Sefwi produces about 2/3 of Ghana's cocoa. Therefore, Sefwi land is a great place to invest because it has many of Ghana's resources.

The people of Sefwi value love, care, respect, generosity, and peaceful coexistence. Traders who visit our markets experience our hospitality firsthand. Likewise, businesspeople who have worked in our communities understand the warmth and opportunities our land offers. Some civil servants are reluctant to accept postings to Sefwi. However, when they finally decide to give it a try and the time comes for them to be posted elsewhere in the country, they refuse to accept postings to another part of the country.

Ghanaians who look down on the people of Sefwi because of certain negative stereotypes must remember that the people of Sefwi and its leaders have paid their dues to Ghanaian society by producing many top statesmen and traditional rulers. One such statesman is Justice Edward Amoako Asante. He was a former President of the ECOWAS Court but is now a Supreme Court Judge.

The current Great King of the Ashanti Kingdom, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, was trained in the palace of my grandfather, the Late Nana Kwadwo Aduhene II. The first Deputy Minister of Defense in Ghana was Nana Kwabena Aduhene from Sefwi Aboduam. The Ahowi brothers in Ghana politics have their roots in Sefwi Ahibenso, my ancestral village. Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandor, the current Minister of Health who is changing the face of the ministry, is from Antobia, a town in Sefwi near Sefwi Juaboso.

Nana Ogyeahoho Yaw Gyebi, Paramount Chief of Anwhiaso Traditional Area and current chairman of the Ghana National House of Chiefs, and Nana Ofori Ahenkan II, the current Board Chairman of the Ghana Fire Service, are sons of Sefwiland. In addition, Dr. Jerry Quartsin and others teach at universities in the US and the United Kingdom. Sefwiman can boast of prominent Ghanaians like Col. Francis Kwaku Ennin, a former Band Director of the Ghana Armed Forces; Lt. Col. Anthony Aduhene, former Second in Command of Ghana's 4th Infantry Battalion in Kumasi; and Charles Taylor of Hearts of Oak and Ashanti Kotoko fame.

The mentioned personalities testify that Sefwi is as important as any other tribe in Ghana. Therefore, whether Ghanaians will recognize our contribution to the country's economic, political, and social growth, we, the people of Sefwi, are proud that our land is blessed with human capital and enormous natural resources and economic potential, including gold, bauxite, timber, rubber, cashew, cocoa, and other agricultural resources. In short, Ghanaians must remember that Sefwi is an agricultural powerhouse.