Naming ceremony in Ghana is one of the essential rites of passage in life.
This is because choosing the name for a newborn is of prime importance to the African society and it is believed that the choice of the name can influence the lives of both the child and the family.
The Ga people call their naming of a newborn child as ‘Kpojiemo’ where the ceremony is an opportunity for the family to welcome the child into the community.
With the introduction of Christianity, most parents now opt for naming their babies in churches rather than the traditional way. In the church, the child’s name is announced to the church, prayed for and anointed by the pastor.
This new development according to the Osu Chief Priest is gradually making the Kpojiemo ceremony go into oblivion; adding that the Charismatic churches are to be blamed for that.
Wor-Lumor Nuumo Noi Sekanku Kpenuku II in the latest episode of People & Places on GhanaWeb said the Charismatic churches are deceiving their vulnerable members especially mothers into making them believe Kpojiemo is fetish.
“It is this our so-called Charismatic churches who want to draw people, congregation, and get the money that they want. So they deceive these our mothers, fathers, and brothers that our rites of Kpojemo is fetish just like the white people came to tell us through their Christian bible that our religion is fetish. Meanwhile, our religion is not a fetish. This is what our people should begin to learn and know. Why do they call our religion fetish?” he quizzed.
Sharing what he thinks is fetish, he queried why churches would eat bread and say it is the body of someone (Jesus Christ) who died years ago.
“If you go into the church and you take bread, and you say it is the body of somebody who is dead, is that not fetish? So why do you condemn mine when I also pray to my ‘Obomawu’ (creator) why? And you people believe them and you look down on your own religion. No, No it’s very sad. No, it shouldn’t happen.”
He explained that the British are trying to capture Ghanaians’ mentality through religion, proudly affirming that the traditional religion is the first-ever religion on earth.
“They are trying to capture our mentality through religion. They are trying to capture our sovereignty through religion. If your religious enclave is captured, you are nobody…So our religion is the first religion on earth.”
He dared any pastor to prove if Christ ever introduced himself as the leader of any church using the bible.
“Christianity just came by introduction. What is Christianity? Even Christ did not introduce himself as the head of any church. No Christ never said that. I want a pastor to come into this room, take the bible, and tell me this is the quotation, Christ said this is my church. It was said after his death.”
Source: Ghanaweb
