BREAK MYTH ABOUT TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS (MIRROR, PAGE 35)

From Tim Dzamboe, Kpeve-Tornu

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Hohoe South, Mr Joseph Amenowode, has called on the Afrikania Mission to intensify public education on their religion in order to remove misconceptions and to break the myth on traditional African religion.
Mr Amenowode was delivering a speech at the zonal convention of Zone 10 of the Afrikania Mission in the Volta Region at Kpeve Tornu in the South Dayi District.
He says it is a contravention of the 1992 Constitution to condemn
any religion for its mode of worship. He asked members of the religion to
rise up to explain to the public that it is a form of worship of God and
not fetish or Satanic.
The head of Afrikania Mission, His Holiness Osofo Okomfo Atsu Kove, said the mission would resist all forms of threats and propaganda against it and urged members to foster stronger bonds to make the religion grow from strength to strength.
“We are not a vulture church, and not a burial church either. We believe in God as the head of all voodoo”, he declared. He claims it is a lie that those who do not believe in
the Bible will not go to heaven. According to him, this is propaganda of agents in the Western world to exploit Africans.
Okomfo Atsu Kove asked Africans to take a second look at their
names by adopting African names, adding that the choice of Christian names such as James, Peter and Samuel was part of an orchestrated plan to impose foreign religion on Africans because they knew the powers inherent in the African religion were enormous.
According to him, Christians were making a lot of money with the support of “white men” and foreign religion and called on the youth to stop copying bad foreign cultures not acceptable in the African context.
Okomfo Atsu Kove advised members of the religion to dress
decently to conventions in order to add prestige to the
religion and that they should live exemplary lives characterised by
goodwill to neighbours.
The host priest and zonal co-ordinator, Osofo Hunua Gatukpe, said the religion had survived trials and attacks but the Afrikania God provided the required protection.
He said all that notwithstanding, the Afrikania Mission had excelled in non-denominational fund raising for education projects and had paid many school debts in the area. The Asafoatse of Kpeve Gboxome, Togbe Sylvester Ansah, said in an environment of increasing freedom of association and expression, it was unnecessary to be antagonistic in the field of religion.