Abstract
One of the challenging issues facing many African societies in modern times is the continuous disintegration of family values and social ethics. A number of reasons may account for this. In the past, rites of passage were understood as a necessary process which established the identity and the roles people played in society. However, the significance of these traditional rites and customs is often overlooked by the church which tends to simply dismiss many African cultural values and customs as primitive and ungodly. A typical response by most Pentecostals is to “make a complete break with the past”. This study argues that aspects of puberty rites may provide a foundation for social values and cohesion and also serve as pointers for exploring deeper truths about what it means to be fully human in the context of Christian expression and as a framework for understanding our sexuality and the role it could play in society.
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Notes
- 1.
Marijke Steegstra, Resilient Rituals: Krobo initiation and the politics of culture in Ghana (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 2004).
- 2.
Steegstra, Resilient Rituals,113–114.
- 3.
Steegstra, Resilient Rituals, 198.
- 4.
Osadolar Imasogie, African Traditional Religion (Ibadan: University of Ibadan Press, 1985), 58.
- 5.
K. A Busia, “The African World View”, Christianity and African Culture: The Proceedings of a Conference held at Accra, Gold Coast, May 2nd – 6th, 1955, under the auspices of the Christian Council
(Accra: Christian Council of Ghana, 1955), 1.
- 6.
S. G. Williamson, Christianity and African Culture: The Proceedings of a Conference held at Accra, Gold Coast, May 2nd – 6th, 1955, under the auspices of the Christian Council (Accra: Christian Council of Ghana, 1955), v.
- 7.
Byang Kato, Theological Pitfalls in Africa (Kisumu: Evangel Publishing House, 1975).
- 8.
Kwame Bediako, Theology and Identity: the impact of Culture on Christian thought in the second century and modern Africa (Oxford: Regnum Books, 1992); Kwame Bediako, Jesus in African Culture - a Ghanaian Perspective (Accra: Asempa Publishers, 1990).
- 9.
Kwame Bediako, Jesus in Africa: The Christian Gospel in African History and Experience (Akropong-Akuapem: Regnum Africa, 2000), 51–53.
- 10.
Peter Sarpong, Girls’ Nubility Rites in Ashanti (Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1977).
- 11.
See, Mbiti J.S. African Religions and Philosophy (London: Heinemann, 1969).
- 12.
Kwame Gyekye, African Cultural Values: An Introduction (Accra: Sankofa Publishing Company, 1996).
- 13.
G.K. Nukunya, Tradition and Change in Ghana: An Introduction to Sociology (Accra: Ghana Universities Press, 1992).
- 14.
B.Y. Quarshie, “Guest Editorial”, Journal of African Christian Thought, 16/2 (December 2013),1.
- 15.
John Azumah, “Through African Eyes,” Resisting America’s Cultural Imperialism (October 2015), 1.
- 16.
See Daily Graphic, June 2011.
- 17.
J Kwabe Asamoah-Gyadu, “‘Homosexuality and Ritual Filth’: Christianity and Media Discussions on Alternative Sexual Lifestyle in Contemporary Africa,” Journal of African Christian Thought 16/2 (2013): 52–53.
- 18.
Asamoah-Gyadu, “‘Homosexuality and Ritual Filth’,” 52.
- 19.
The Church of Pentecost Head Quarters, Ministerial Handbook (Accra: Pentecost Press, 2018), 14.
- 20.
Cited in Eugene Nida, Message and Mission: The Communication of the Christian Faith (Pasadena: California: William Carey Library, 1990), 15.
- 21.
Imasogie, African Traditional Religion, 58
- 22.
S. Ofori, Christianity and African Culture: The Gospel in Asante Funeral Rites (Accra: Pentecost Press, 2014), 32.
- 23.
Cf. Sylvia Appiah, “Yomuyo: Theological and Philosophical Analyses of Virginity in the Dipo Rites of the Krobo in Modern and Christian Perspectives,” Unpublished MTh Thesis (Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture, September 2015), 27.
- 24.
Robert Sutherland Rattray, Ashanti Law and Constitution (Oxford: the Clarendon Press, 1929), 298, cited in Peter Sarpong, Girls’ Nubility Rites in Ashanti (Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1977).
- 25.
J. H. Nketia, “Birth, Puberty, Death”, in Christianity and African Culture - The Proceedings of a Conference held in Accra, Gold Coast, May 2–6, 1955 (Accra: Christian Council of the Gold Coast, 1955), 28.
- 26.
Nketia, “Birth, Puberty.”
- 27.
K. Sarpong, The Girl’s Nubility Rites in Ashanti (Accra: Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1977), 11.
- 28.
See Amerley Ollennu, “A Comparison of the Krobo Dipo and Confirmation Rites in The Presbyterian Church of Ghana,” Unpublished MTh Thesis (Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture, Akropong Akuapem, October, 2012).
- 29.
Nketia, “Birth.”
- 30.
J.L. Cox, “Ritual, Rites of Passage and the Interaction between Christian and Traditional Religions,” in Rites of Passage in Contemporary Africa, edited by JL Cox (Cardiff: Cardiff Academic Press, 1998), x.
- 31.
Denis M’Passou, “The Continuing Tension between Christianity and the Rites of Passage in Swaziland,” in Rites of Passage in Contemporary Africa edited by JL Cox (Cardiff: Cardiff Academic Press, 1998), 15.
- 32.
The Church of Pentecost is the largest classical Pentecostal church in Ghana with over two million members.
- 33.
Samuel Ofori, Christianity and African Culture: The Gospel in Asante Funeral Rites (Accra: Pentecost Press Ltd., 2014).
- 34.
In her studies among the Ewe-Dome people of Ghana, Rebecca Ganusah observes that the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana has been dealing with the challenge of some members seeking to incorporate certain values and practices of the puberty rites into the church but this has been met with mixed feeling and no official position has been taken yet. However, the EP Church has been able to incorporate certain aspects of the traditional birth rites into the church liturgy, whilst dismissing other practices such as the pouring of libation which is considered unacceptable in the Christian faith. See R. Y. Ganusah, Christ Meets the Ewe-Dome of Ghana: a Theological and Ethical Reflection on the rites of birth and initiation into womanhood (Accra: Legon Theological Studies Series, 2009), 78–88.
- 35.
G.K. Nukunya, Tradition and Change in Ghana: An Introduction to Sociology (Accra: Ghana Universities Press, 1992), 38.
- 36.
Mbiti, African Philosophy, 104.
- 37.
Kwame Gyekye, African Cultural Values: An Introduction (Accra: Sankofa Publishing Company, 1996), 50.
- 38.
See Matthew 19:12.
- 39.
Nketia, “Birth,” 24.
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Anim, E.K. (2020). Initiation Rites and Sex Education: A Ghanaian Pentecostal Perspective. In: Kaunda, C.J. (eds) Genders, Sexualities, and Spiritualities in African Pentecostalism. Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42396-4_11
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