It has become a common spectacle in Ghana to find, year after year, images of the Asantehene kneeling before a priest of the Church of England, the Anglican Church, for prayers. The Asantehene is essentially, as we have learned over the years, the supreme leader of the Asantes of Ghana, and in addition, invariably, the spiritual embodiment of the soul of the Asantes.
Which is why his genuflection before the priests of the Anglican Church remain divisive even in the provinces of the Asante. The Anglican Church is the religious property of the British. In fact, the Anglican Church is the embodiment of the soul of Britain.
Generally, Traditional African leaders in West Africa, over many decades, after their defeat to the various European Hordes that once terrorized the West African coasts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, have become subscribers to either the principalities of the Anglican Church or the Catholic Church. Nonetheless, many of these leaders claim to be spiritual representatives of the souls of their own peoples.
The contradiction is glaring. In an attempt to make some sense of the spiritual confusion, some Asantes for instance, have taken to defending the right of the Asantehene to kneel before the principalities of the Anglican Church of England. To square the imagery and convince the rest of Asante and others in Ghana that the Asantehene has not broken with Asante tradition and spirituality, various doctrines of a certain Asante religion have emerged.
Prominent amongst them is the idea of religious syncretism in which the claim follows that the Asante religion does not preclude anyone, and certainly not their supreme leader, from engaging in the worship of various other gods. The seed for this argument proceeds with the precedence that the Asante had domesticated, for various purposes, certain Savannah Gods. The claim concludes that Asante religion is a multi-religious discipline, and that its strength and appeal lies in its guarantee of undivided religious allegiances.
Which is not the same as religious freedom, which guarantees the right of an individual to pick and practice any religion. Whether the practice of many religions by one person can be deemed a religious practice or not, on its own, is a subject for another debate. However, the internal discrepancy of the doctrine of what is being claimed as an Asante religion is the issue.
Which, naturally, fetches its own internal contradictions in the face of the Asanteheneβs dalliance with Anglicanism. How can a people claim to have a religion of all religions? How can a people claim to have a discipline of all disciplines? How can one accept to be a servant of a god based on the requirements of another god? This illogicality is not only a problem with the claim of this version of an Asante religion, it is a well-documented problem for all syncretic spiritualties, notably of Santeriaβan admixture of Vodun and Catholicismβin the Black Americas.
Even in Santeria, many have awoken to the contradiction of the philosophies of both Vodun and Catholicism. They are incompatibleβthe former rooted in the Cosmogony of Ife and the latter in an Abrahamic Cosmogony. Since the late twentieth century, many practitioners of Santeria have emphasized a “Yorubization” or “Dahomenization” process to remove Roman Catholic influences, and they have created forms of SanterΓa closer to the traditional Vodun religion in West Africa.
Diasporic Africa can be forgiven for such gross conflation of religious principles. After all, they were enslaved peoples for hundreds of years who had no contacts back to West Africa to correct these obvious, unthinkable conflations. What is the Asanteheneβs excuse for the obvious conflation of what is being claimed as an Asante religion with Anglicanism?
None. Except to continue in the practice of a religion that emerged after the Asante were defeated by the British. It is well-documented that the Asantehene Agyiman Prempeh I and Queenmother Yaa Asantewaa were both force-fed Anglicanism in the 1920s by their British captors while exiled on the archipelago of Seychelles, off the East African coasts of Somalia. Kumasi, the seat of the Asantehene, is some 6,500 kilometers across the entire African continent from MahΓ©, Seychelles. A modern flight, some one hundred years hence in technology, will still take more than half a day to complete!
This is the circumstance under which the Anglicanism of the Asantehene was born, i.e. within the British Defeat and Disgrace of the Asante. Everywhere else, this kind of event is called European Colonialism and Imperialism. But what we have today is the stubborn attitude of a few Asante to link Anglicanism among the Asantehene and his cohort as some higher purpose in religious syncretism. Syncretism is illogical enough. This is much worseβit is a philosophizing of disgrace.
Have they lost their pride? Has the royal seat of Asante lost her pride? Perhaps.
Furthermore, the cursory, alternative idea that the Asantehene is engaging in the long tradition of importing the Anglican god into Asante, like the Asantes did for some Savannah Gods into their pantheon of Asante Gods to ward off witchcraft (according to one Meera Venkatachalam) is both disturbing and characteristically childish. Who can support the idea that the Asantehene is seeking protection from Yahweh against the witchcraft of his own masses through Anglicanism? My guess is no one can support such philosophizing disgrace.
It is not that the royal seat of Asante has lost its pride. It is worse. It has lost more than its pride. It is contriving, even spiritually in this instance, to become part and parcel of a certain autochthonous, newly-minted royal class of African colonialism. In a way, it seems as though the royal clans of Asante now see themselves as a part of the royal houses of Britain, and they wish collectivelyβalbeit as subordinates to the Britishβto rule over their masses.
In this British feudal system, it is easy to see why the current Asantehene declared the Commonwealth of Nations, a British Colonial Outfit, as the βfinest creation in modern history.β There is reason to assert the obvious: the Asanteheneβs genuflection before the priests of the Church of England, or the Anglican Church, is a step further, towards his invitation to join in at the table where genocides are planned and committed by Europeans and Euro-Americans, rosaries around their necks, eating with shiny forks and knives made from actual silver and gold, and with not a single word of βgenocideβ or βuncivilized phraseβ ever spoken.
If Asante had a religion with a disciplined conviction, my guess it that it would be based on the strength of its own origin narratives such as the belief in their emergence from a Hole in the ground near present-day Assin-Manso. Such a cosmogony, like Assin-Manso, a Hole in Asase Yaa, a hole in Mother Earth, could become the philosophical template for fashioning a unique, soulful and spirited cosmogony and philosophy to protect Asantelands from galamsey and all the other environmental degradation that threatens the vast terrains and waters of Asante.
It is obvious that the Asantehene needs yet a second coming of Komfo Anokye to revive and cement the Asante soul for the next century. Else, the witchcraft of the Church of England, the Anglican Church, will continue to corrupt the soul of Asante. May the Gods help her!
Suddenly, you care so much about Asante. Engaging you on this issue is increasingly appearing as a waste of time. One wonders why you have not been having same issues with the Asantehene’s dalliance with Islam which precedes the one with Anglicanism in occurrence. Why is that not an issue? For your information, the first Asantehene to consult the Christian God for spiritual support wasn’t Prempeh I. it was Mensah Bonsu. In his time of difficulty, he asked a Fante Christian Priest ( likely of the Methodist Church) to come and offer prayers for him in Kumasi, to which the Priest obliged. And you lie blatantly when you say that Anglicanism was forced-fed to Prempeh I. Look, you need more than such rants to understand the nuances of the Asante Monarchy’s strategic adoption of Anglicanism. It was key ,first , to the decision to allow Prempeh I to return to Kumasi, and later to the decision to allow him to become Kumasihene, and eventually, to the restoration of the monarchy and tge Asante Confederacy in 1935! And all these after tge British had concluded that the Osei-Poku family constituted a ‘,vanished dynasty’ and all but granted the various chiefs and paramluntcies in Asante autonomy and indepence from the overlordship of the Asantehene. Prempeh I ,like all Asantehenes after him, never abandoned their traditions and rituals because of that. The Anglican Church itself recognises tge relationship with the Asante Monarchy as tokenist…no Anglican Church member would survive a day as a member of the church if found to be pouring libation, indulging in ‘ idol worship ‘( as they call it) and marrying many wives at the same time as Prempeh I and Prempeh II. You are wasting your time trying denigrate the Asantehene and the Asante Monarchy by imposing your religious perspective on their use of the Christian Faith.
KK Baffour You have no argument. You want me to subscribe to your beliefs. I am not arguing what it is that you believe. You can have that. I am arguing the internal contradiction of your claim of an Asante religion that accepts Anglicanism, yet refuses to recorgnize the glaring problem of it. This is the paralogism, whatever your motivations and that of the Asante may be. The highfalutin expression of love for Asante regardless of reason is stupefying. You are not helping but perpetrating ferocious stupidity to philosophize the disgrace. I “denigrate Asante”? You see, you don’t read very well.
Kwame Kyei-Baffour Beating about the bush as usual. LOL! Let’s grant you your facts. What has Osei Bonsu’s call for a Methodist priest to pray for him got to do with Asante? Was Osei Bonsu a baptized Methodist? I ask my Muslim friends to pray for me all the time, does that make me Muslim?
And yes, Prempeh and Yaa Asantewaa were force-fed Anglicanism. You yourself claim they did it for geopolitical reasons, “key ,first , to the decision to allow Prempeh I to return to Kumasi, and later to the decision to allow him to become Kumasihene, and eventually, to the restoration of the monarchy and tge Asante Confederacy in 1935!” Well, you call that free-will? LOL.
Dade Afre Akufu struggling to make sense! Do you know who Mensah Bonsu was by the way? I may as well ask you the same question about the Asantehene. Do you know whether he is a baptised member of the Anglican Church? Do you ? And your reasoning! When people adopt a faith for strategic reasons and succeed in the aims behind that strategy, then, they have been force-fed that faith. Daabi. Now ,take a trip to my wall. I have posted some interesting materials there. You people aren’t Asantes. Neither have you read anything about the issues you are waxing expertise on. Quite telling
Kwame Kyei-Baffour Are you suggesting one has to be from Gamashie to write about Aneho? With Asante, the AhΓ΅ho day even shows it is not a homogeneous state and the federation in itself is a Commonwealth of varied linguistic dispensation.
Thus even though United by Twi, non Twi indigines have full authority over their Language and yet may know more of history say of Asante Royalty than Indigenous onlookers, All due to the role they might be occupying and playing as courtiers or even as Divisional Chiefs.
I don’t therefore subscribe to your rebuke that not knowing Mensah Bonsu makes his opus any less meaningful.
I expect you to fill in his gaps because he has raised a worrisome issue and whether one likes it or not I find it frustrating.
How may we, especially Asante, wean itself from mental enslavement with a whole King behaving so depressingly?
In any case, unless you are saying Asanteman is still a colony of Britain so therefore it is right so to behave submissively to the KJB and it’s Anglican Church, may I remind you that 1957 and 1960 Republic brought a closure to colonialism in Ghana, that is if Asanteman is in Ghana and therefore ALL the RELIGIOUS agreements entered into in the 1930s to reinstall and reinstitute Prempeh and Asanteman, as your Evidence in support of your submission cannot wash.
Nana Otu Akoto over the bar!!! and not surprising. Take your time and read my post again. Do you think I am qualified to pass judgment on the religious practices of Gas with my personal or some Asante criteria?
Kwame Kyei-Baffour No one stops you if make effort to observe and read and talk about it. It is your interest that counts. Did we not all read our history written by White people? Did they do justice to most? But we read them. Being subjective, we grow with understanding and questioning and evaluation to make sense of our historical bearing.
Nana Otu Akoto reading about a religious practice and passing expert judgement on it from personal perspective are two different things. Imagine me seeing Muslims filing round the Kaaba or some Catholics kneeling before an image of Mary, and ne concluding that they are worshipping the Kaaba and Mary! How wise would that be?
Kwame Kyei-Baffour Over the barrrr!!! LOL! Shwiaaa…..
Kwame Kyei-Baffour But that is not how I read the post!!! This has clearly thoughtful insight for all to add to the discourse.
Your arrival to the table is good by all accounts and knowing me, I may have flipped to the extreme for it my style to strike harder at the first opportunity, however your combative approach may have derailed your chronological flow even in divergence.
I am enjoying both of you and wish the debate to carry on as I am learning a lot from both sides especially your historical perspective.
I am not sure if you are aware, Kwame Kyei-Baffour, that your approach to debate, which I find amusing, is never to argue the point, but to approach issues raised about Asante in particular with the pretentiousness of educating the rest of us. You presume that by supplying ever more of your “facts” that it changes our own perception of what we have observed to be a continued miscarriage of logical thinking. If your claim was just about Asante Spirituality, whatever that may be, I would have left the matter alone to you and your cohort.
But you induced the notion of an Asante religion, and that the Asantehene is the natural representation of the totality of that religion, about which I suppose that you clearly misunderstand that a religion requires an internally consistent philosophy called a theology often also based on a cosmogony. Religion, as we know it today, requires scientific thinking. It is not to say that it is a hard science. Far from it. Nonetheless, religion is a social institution, which must adhere to basic forms of logic else it ceases to be a viable institution. By your own admission, this claim of an Asante religion, embodied by the Asantehene, fails the first test of what represents its discipline. The very idea that this Asante religion does not discriminate may be appealing to the neoliberals, but it only demonstrates that a religion of all is not a religion after all. A religion of every god is not a religion at all. A theology of every religion is not a theology at all. This is the point.
You may not have noticed, but this persistent notion that Anglican Theology is somehow compatible with any other theological foundations in West African religions is fanciful. Whether I know this Asante religion you make claims about or not is not the point. Anglicanism is incompatible with every other religion, which is what we know! Yet, you keep making the point and it does not pass muster. Just because you believe that a Stone is Water does does not make it so. Anglicanism has a well-documented theology. The exceedingly violent god, called Yahweh, of the Anglican Church, has made uncountable proclamations. Compatibility with other gods is not one of them. None! In fact, he despises compatibility and enacts genocides on whole groups of people for worshiping other gods. Yet, you claim the Asantes and the Asantehene have domesticated this god, Yahweh, by your sheer will, and chained him to a table in a local Asante-Anglican Shrine and forced his compatibility to your dictates? Now, isn’t that ridiculous?
I shall be addressing your vacuous post in the evening. Cheers
Kwame Kyei-Baffour Verbosity! Just make it academic and take cognizance of other intellectual inputs. Nana Kwabena Agyeman makes an useful contribution.
VACUOUS methinks is a combative afterthought.
Kwame Kyei-Baffour
Asantehene Osei Kwame Tutu gave Muslims too much influence at the Asante court (some say he became a muslim) he was destooled. Although the Asantehene Nana Kwaku Dua I. allowed Christian missionaries to establish stations in Kumase and elsewhere, he was keenly aware of the potential conflict between Christian and traditional values and maintained a careful watch over the situation. For instance, in 1848 two royals and their supporters, who had too enthusiastically embraced Christianity, were executed.
What are we seeing today? Christians being enstooled on stools. It is no surprise we have been witnessing a total corruption of traditional values and laws. These people are not capable of representing Nananom. Would a Christian be appointed as Imam or a Muslim be appointed as pastor, Bishop or Pope, definitely not. As their beliefs differ. So why would anyone allow a Christian on a stool (allowing him/her to become the spiritual head and custodian of one’s people culture and heritage) which beliefs conflicts with our traditional values and beliefs?
If you want to be a Christian, Muslim or whatever just abdicate. It’s as simple as that!
By the way male circumcision is also against Akan culture. Frankly speaking a circumcised person isn’t even qualified to enter a stool room.
Nana Kwabena Agyeman When AKANS had to run away from MOSLEM balkanization to their present settlements only to be led by a kotowing knee bending King.
He even assembled a thousand CHARLATAN PRIESTS and not even a dozen indigenous Asofo! Perplexing!
Kwame Kyei-Baffour What am getting from ur rebuttals is questioning the audacity of any non-Asante with a highly informed views on indigenous history, etc., to just shut up, simply bcuz it’s contrary to ur individual taste? I don’t think when I was studying history in Secondary School over sixty yrs ago, my Ashanti teacher’s ethnicity made any difference to me on aspects GΓ£ history. We must learn to embrace the truth, characterized by facts alone, and nothing else. Am quite unconvinced tht yu’ve made a good case.
Kwame Kyei-Baffour We are all victims to intellectual dishonesty.
However the good thing about it is it’s ( intellectual dishonesty” ability to arouse sharp shooters to provide instant pathological analysis to add further enrichment to the discourse and learning.
Without his account we would not have had your discount. Thanks to you both.
Nana Otu Akoto
Are you referring to the migration from ancient Ghana empire caused by the Almoravides ( Berbers)
Nana Kwabena Agyeman And even on reaching the forest AKANS kept moving round like a shifting cultivation!
Narmer Amenuti you know you’re wasting your time, right?
Narmer Amenuti so whose beliefs are under study here? Yours? What is the glaring problem in there? When Asantes and the Asantehenes seek spiritual assistance from Islam and Islamic officials, you don’t seem to have a problem with it. Same when they import and worship gods from the savanna region. Why the obsession with Anglicanism the consultation of which is occasional and opportunistic by the Asante Kings? Whose perspectives on the actions and expressions matter, yours or the people involved? Should Asantehenes modify their approach to religion to suit yours? Lastly, provide evidence or proof to the claim that Anglicanism was force-fed to Prempeh I
Narmer Amenuti look at your own caption of the original post.
Kwame Kyei-Baffour “When Asantes and the Asantehenes seek spiritual assistance from Islam and Islamic officials” it does not make them Muslims. When they “import and worship gods from the savanna region” they are not becoming a part of the cult, but merely allowing those savanna gods to operate freely in the same way they allow Muslims (whether Asante or otherwise) to build mosques freely). From this point the royals can seek both guidance and goodwill from these Gods. They don’t become adherents. Anglicanism is different.
What you describe as religious-multiplicity is not only an Asante phenomenon. I am very much aware of it. Some people in Ntoaboma, whether they are Christian, Muslim or Vodun, may seek guidance and help from other Gods when they find it expedient. But these are not serious people. I regard the Asante Stool as a serious one. Which begs the question of discipline or cosmogony.
How Anglicanism was force-fed? In your own claim that you make, it seems Prempeh I got baptized for the simple reason to gain his freedom from the British, return to Asante, and restore his reign. You may have misread it, but reads like a political quid pro quo and not a spiritual decision. Or does Anglicanism, like the savanna Gods, have any spiritual basis for its persistence in the royal house of Asante? Worse, the central dogma of Anglicanism, undivided allegiance, flies in the face of every other religious practice in Asante. Don’t tell me you get to make your own decisions about how to worship another nation’s God? You don’t, and when you do, it is indiscipline.
Narmer Amenuti I am about to go to bed, and so would make this my last submission on this post. First of all, you keep on repeating the same mistake I have been trying to draw your attention to: perspectives. When judging some religious practice or event you are not part of, who, do you think would make the best person to consult for an understanding of the practice or event? You, the observer, or the people involved? By the teachings and doctrines of the Anglican Church do you think the Asantehenes, with their many wives, allegiance to numerous gods, pouring of libations etc. qualify as ‘adherents of their faith? I want a sincere answer to this question. Do you know any member of the Anglican Church granted the exceptional dispensation to remain a member of the church while doing all the things the Asantehenes have been doing in plain view? And from the Asantehene’s perspective: would consider the simultaneous participation in the rituals of the Church of England and those of the traditional religions and Islamic ones a conversion to Anglicanism? What do people do when they convert from one religion or faith to the other? Massa, you have no case. You tried, but once again , you shot blanks. Be good. Leave the Asantehene alone.
Narmer Amenuti I understand
Narmer Amenuti come to think of it, how and why do the Asantehenes do not also qualify as adherents of the gods adopted from the Savanna regions? Why do they become adherents of the Anglican Church only?
Narmer Amenuti
Wow …
‘Ferocious stupidity’.
Kwame Kyei-Baffour
I have a problem with Islam as well and for that matter any religion. Prempeh 1 (Nana Kwabena Agyeman half-brother) he was a coward. He voluntarily accepted Christianity to save his own skin.
Narmer Amenuti they don’t read, they only attack with sentiments but taking time to read to comprehend is the biggest problem of every Ashanti
Is it that you genuinely hold the Asantehene in such high esteem that you do not want to see him appear subservient to any another principality or authority or this image offers the opportunity to take a swipe at him?
Because the occasional ceremonial attendance of the Anglican church by the Asantehene is a negligible microcosm of the many things he does and yet this is what gets your attention? I don’t think I have seen you write much about his actual cultural worship practices, nor given as much as a word of commendation for the many times he has been in the news recently for very positive things.
Makes one wonder π€
Ofori-Agyekum Samuel Your question can be said to be valid for every single critique of any part/individual of our society. Is it not? It doesn’t matter my motivation, but the critique. Just because you may not like it does not make it go away. I, myself, respect the Stool of the Asante. I see significant cultural heritage in the conceptual framing of the Asante Nation. Nothing conceptually sound is happening here with the Asantehene’s kneeling before an Anglican Priest. This is of particular interest to me. If you read my critiques of anything, not just of the Asantehene or the Ghanaian elite, you will know they are consistent on the subject – total African sovereignty (agency) of the mind and social life. I can’t write about everything else. And I don’t.
Narmer Amenuti yes indeed nothing conceptual at all is happening in this image because it is just an act with little to no significance. The optics may be be unsettling for hardcore African nationalists who denounce anything Western but beyond that sentiment, there is really nothing here.
Ofori-Agyekum Samuel This is how it started, this is what we were made to believe until we we were vanquished, taken forcefully and cunningly for slaves, denigrated and humiliated amongst the peoples of the world.
Continue tickling yourselves, and happily keep falling for the bait. Not surprised, the kernel starts going bad from the inside, the exterior remains intact, always!
Edem Anku you speak their language, dress like them, use their technology for your everyday life and yet you think the issue is what the Asantehene has done? Hahahaha
Ofori-Agyekum Samuel The fact that the Asantehene must be held to higher standards is obvious, I am not Asantehene. I am not the embodiment and custodian of the traditions and cultural heritage of Nananom, the Asantehene is.
Leadership, symbolism, these must not be taken lightly.
Narmer Amenuti, rabid ethnocentricism is incurable. The Asantehene SHOULD NOT KNEEL before any priest.
Watch it the Asante people are negatively emotional they will come at you even if what you are saying is that truth , this is an intellectual discourse but they will throw it all away and go on a senseless defense claiming you hxte Asantes, well I can’t stand their shallowness but good luck with them
On no other continent do I find so many people who are willing if not anxious to be anything other than what they are; Africans. This has been going on for a very long time and it’s deeply ingrained in the psyche.
Sometimes I wonder if it is already just too late for them
Narmer Amenuti Well argued case, but don’t yu think the Genesis of such cultural practice is rooted in the common inherent imperial values these two empires shared? The great war — aka ‘Yaa Asantewa War’ that led to the defeat of the Asante empire was destined to happen, given the shared imperial characteristics of Asanteman, and the new kid on the block — Great Britain, a power onto herself and equally covetous, desirous of encroaching on Asanteman turf with the intent to eliminate the competition?
Nii Ahene-La Asante has destooled a King and executed free thinkers for dancing waltz with foreign religions in their history of past!
Nii Ahene-La You have a great point. Although I would say that Great Britain was the big guy on the block, unbeknown to the West Africans, and who continues to throw trinkets to the streets in order to maintain the streets/field/turf within its circle of unchallenged influence.
That people find nothing wrong with Asantehene kneeling before anyone be it a priest or whatever is really mind boggling. What next kneeling before a dog, just because the dog might be a spiritual being, smh? No wonder the country is in such a mess. All sorts of charlatans drape themselves in ridiculous cloaks claiming to be men of God is enough to find favour and influence in high places. Wake up brothers and sisters. No chief in Ghana should kneel before anyone. Our chieftancy institution should be restored to its rightful symbol of authority before the oppressor arrived at our shores.
I like the Culture, I am Afrocentric. I critique it, still, I am Afrocentric. Ebei!
I think you are either innocently misguided in some of your posts or perhaps underrate the intelligence of some your readers. Your type of afrocentricism is so familiar. If you think you ate doing anything nrw ,kindly go to Ghanaweb’s Say It Loud and study the posts there on your favourite topics. Crucially, Paul attention to the ethnic origins of the various posts and related comments. Those posts date back to the early 2000s. You aren’t more afrocentric than anyone. I make sure to read about the culture and history of all the major ethnic groups in Ghana. I do so respect, educated curiosity and and admiration for what the people believe in and respect. Afrocentricism of a certain kind is a disguise for many sinister sentiments. Not everyone is easily fooled
Kwame Kyei-Baffour This is your claim, that I am not “more afrocentric than anyone.” Plus, my “type of afrocentricism is so familiar.” You don’t read well, and you don’t think very well. You just wrote nonsense, yet again. It doesn’t even end there, you continue with another claim that you, “make sure to read about the culture and history of all the major ethnic groups in Ghana.” That you “do so respect, educated curiosity and and admiration for what the people believe in and respect.” This is your claim to what? The kind of Afroncentrism that is not a “disguise for many sinister sentiments”? You write one paragraph it lacks internal consistency. You need to think more before your write.
The very idea that an African Scholar should be ridiculed for being Afrocentric is itself the very manifestation of Anti-Blackness. What else should a scholar in Africa become – free for all? Eurocentric? Sinocentric? Russocentric? Many students in Ghana, I have observed, have fused Anti-Black, neoliberal narratives with disturbing retelling of African history that first and foremost de-centers Africa.
Narmer Amenuti It is worse! You are only Afrocentric when you critique any aspect of the culture. The practice is so pervasive that they bask in their charge against Afrocentrism as if it is an honor. It is a weird thing to behold.
Narmer Amenuti I can THINK a million times better than you! Don’t kid yourself. What actually did you write in there? The usual hollow nonsense that get your impressionable following scratching their armpits. You are nothing bit a tribal bigot,and I am not the only to figure that out. Check how many times you have written about the culture you claim to admire ,and in what tone, with what language and towards what general aim. Someone asked you recently wh among the many positives associated with your favourite punching bag you seem to dwell only on negatives. I drew your attention to a more thorough case of westernisation of a monarchy in Ghana, one that also preceded the Asantehene’s adoption of Anglicanism. How doesn’t that excite your interest and that of your sedated following? Is that also not relevant to the highlighting of whatever droves your jaundiced posts about the Asantehene? The tone and type of comments your posts draw from your fans itself are quite telling. You went as far as LIKING the insults directed against by one your followers. Shame on you!
Narmer Amenuti and lest you are tempted to see my critique of your posts as an attempt to muzzle criticisms of anything relating to the Asantehene, know that you aren’t the only one to make unfavourable comments about the issues and image at bar. There are many people, including Asantes, who find the image disturbing. The difference between you and the rest is what you clearly seek to achieve with your posts. The language, the tone and their general import. Time someone called you out
Kwame Kyei-Baffour You see, Kwame, l am, for the moment, ignoring, your attacks on my person. They are irrelevant. For instance, when I point to you the contradictions in your written statement, you come back with another irrelevant claim that you, “can THINK a million times better than” me. You have yet to prove that. What you write goes like this: You love the Asante and your claim of an Asante religion more than I do. I grant you that. You claim you pointed me to another article about Dagbon. Fine. I don’t know much about Islam and its prophets. I don’t write about topics that are unfamiliar to me just because you point me to them. I appreciate the articles you referenced.
Let’s get to what I know. This is where your debate lies. What I know is Anglicanism – the theology of the Church of the Violent/Barbaric England and its beloved god, called Yahweh, who has committed more genocides than all the Devils put together! Anglicanism, I repeat, is incompatible with any other belief system or religious institution. Kneeling in Yahweh’s Church is a submission to Yahweh and his violence. Now, does it matter what you and the Asantehene think or believe about kneeling down, sandals off and all, to this Yahweh?
And, thank you. “The language, the tone and their general import,” of my essays is the problem. The whole point of education is to take on the point, and NOT to argue the tone or what you call the “general import”? That Anglicanism is bad and no one, not even the Asantehene, should go near it? All this cantankerous verbosity, you could have saved yourself the trouble and claimed that, ‘Narmer does not like this or that… ‘ The reason you don’t argue about tone is simply that you cannot prove or disprove the character of tone. It means nothing! I am trying, very hard, to impress this upon you, so you can stop the childishness.
Narmer Amenuti I don’t have any problem with a criticism of the Asantehene’s association with Anglicanism. Ama Owusuwaa Boateng and many Asates find it troubling. I myself agreed with her about the bad optics conveyed in the report that triggered your acerbic posts. Nothing wrong with that. But you don’t start a discussion with statements that ignore context and empirical facts. You could agree with the fact that the Asantehene is practicing the beliefs his culture. You don’t about subjecting matters of religion to pure rational tests to create the impression that the Asantehene and Asantes are mentally enslaved. The question I keep ask you is this: to what standards and beliefs must the Asantehene and Asantes conform to to make their religious practices acceptable to you?
Narmer Amenuti Most of us your readers understand or should I say comprehend you rather too clearly. Please ignore the haters and bigots
Kwame Kyei-Baffour Help us understand this first: You claim that you don’t have “any problem with a criticism of the Asantehene’s association with Anglicanism.” Except only when I criticize him. You claim that, “many Asates find it troubling.” Except, when I find it equally troubling! Your reasoning? My tone? Are you counting my frustration with all the contradictions of your written statements? You claim that I started my discussion of the Asantehene’s behaviour with “a discussion with statements that ignore context and empirical facts.” I disagree. That is another debate, however. What is obvious is that you don’t like my unique (I hope) interpretation of the context and the facts. Why? My tone! Is this abundantly clear to you now that you are not debating the point, but my tone? You would like to police my tone. Correct? And how is that working out for you?
One more contradiction you keep making is this: Many Asantes find the Asantehene’s kneeling troubling, but you ask me about “what standards and beliefs must the Asantehene and Asantes conform to to make their religious practices acceptable to” me? Are you speaking of the Asantehene (perhaps of the royal house) or about all Asante? You conflate notions of my detest for the behaviour of the Asantehene with certain imaginations about Narmer’s hatred of Asante? How? You gleaned that from my tone, I am guessing?
To respect the humble reader, I would propose, for a start, for the Asantehene to break with his newfound practice of kneeling down, sandals off and all, before Yahweh. Yahweh is a genocidal, murderours, colonial Devil. What prevents the Asantehene from breaking that tradition to save the Asante from that corruption?
Kosi Zu-Cudjoe and weβre supposed to be surprised that you lot LOVE such posts about Asante?? π. How daft do you think everyone else is? Folk like you use the word bigot without even understanding it otherwise youβd know it describes you! When you get excited about silly besmirching musings about another culture you think it makes you what? You arenβt too bright, are you?
Narmer Amenuti if you comment on a religious practice as essential defeatist within the context of the black man’s efforts at liberation from Eurocentricism, you have criticised the practice in question; if you describe the same practice and its adherents as backward, ignorant and mentally enslaved, you would also have criticised the practice. One of the two , however, would constriedas an insult a d probably stupid ( in that we don’t expect religious practices to be rational or informed by science ). The first type of criticism would be understandable, and tolerant as well; nobody owes Pan-Africanists the obligation to customise theur religious practices and beliefs to the agenda and cause of Pan-Africanism. Life is a complex Web, and people are at liberty to prioritise spirituality ( as they subjectively understand it) over other things. That tolerance and respect is lacking in your posts. Afrocentricism comes in many forms; the same Asantehene and Asantes you seem to take delight in jabbing represent in many ways the finest of authentic African culture and identity, far more than you yourself can accommodate into your life. Horses for courses….ne respectful and tolerant and measured in your pronouncements, especially over histories and cultures you have not immersed yourself in any meaningful manner. It is not because we don’t have negative things to report about some ethnic groups that we generally stay out of the business of those groups. The obsession with Asante of the type you have been demonstrating is jaded. Give it up. I am nit happy with the image myself ,but it is not because of anything you and your followers have been saying. I would not allow such a scene to be photographed and shared in the public domain. The Asantehene is not a Priest-King and is in religious terms nit above the gods and their Priests. He is therefore at liberty to partake in any religious practjce that has a place in Asante religiosity. He doesn’t have to share that with the public which could include people with little to no knowledge and the required nuances to judge the rites and actions involved sensibly. I am done
Narmer Amenuti so now this guy’s ad hominems have extended to the rest of us???
We are catching strays just for being here πππ
He actually said
//The usual hollow nonsense that get your impressionable following scratching their armpits.//
He then said we were “sedated fans”, and I for one would like for him to attend to the intellectual shrapnel of your words that are STILL disturbing his psyche!!
We don’t deserve these insults π
Like damn, that’s so rude π
Ayaba FΙgΙ Sis… Listen! You know? He is all over the place. The biliousness and rancor of his statements are pitiful. I find myself struggling, first to understand his trompe l’Εil comprehension of the facts at hand (and I try), and to find the correct words to draw him out of his mummery without inviting his constant conniption.
Narmer Amenuti he is too far gone π
Ayaba FΙgΙ “We are catching strays just for being here πππ” I swear! πππππ. When I read his charge: “/The usual hollow nonsense that get your impressionable following scratching their armpits.//” I laughed, hard. He’s been had. It hurts. Very bad. And so the ad hominem cannot be enough, he had to extend it to the ad followings! πππ