Conversion Experience of Akan Christian Royals in Ghana
Issue: Vol.2 No.11 November 2021 Article 2 pp. 179-190
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20212112 | Published online 26th November, 2021.
© 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
The study is an examination of the conversion challenges confronting Akan Christian Royals in Ghana. The Western missionaries and missionary established
churches demand that as part of their conversion requirements, Akan Royals must reject and disassociate themselves from the Black Stool, ancestors and all ancestral related activities. The Royals who claim that their families have become Christian royal families insist that authority symbols like the Black Stools and ancestral ceremonies like the Adae do not take the place of the sovereignty of God and the Lordship of Christ in their belief system. Moreover, participation in Palace services prepares them for traditional leadership and does not take them away from their faith in Christ. The traditional leadership institutions and the Royals that welcomed the Western missionaries, provided them with hospitality, security and resources for the missionary work have come to be considered as unchristian and an anathema to the Christian faith. The position of the church has created tensions within Akan Christian Royal and put the genuineness of their conversion in doubt. The study which is qualitative in nature uses both primary and secondary methods in its information gathering. Its findings provide responses to some contemporary tensions in gospel and culture studies in African Christianity.
Keywords: Akan Royals, Christian Conversion, Cultural Identity, Black Stool, Authority Symbols
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Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong (PhD), Lecturer in African Christianity, Department of Religious Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi – Ghana.
Michael Kwadwo Ntiamoah, (MPhil). (PhD. Cand.). Lecturer at the Department of Religious Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi. Ghana. He has research interests in Religious diversity in Ghana, Chieftaincy and African culture, Akan Indigenous Religion and
Environment, Akan Indigenous Religion and Social Order.
Opuni-Frimpong K. & Ntiamoah M.K. “Conversion Experience of Akan Christian Royals in Ghana,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 2, no.11 (2021): 179-190. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20212112
© 2021 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).