Nana Akua Oparebea and the Making of Akonnedi: A Portrait

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Living and theorizing endogenous religions

Religions are made by the people who live them. The gods would wither away and fall into oblivion without humans worshipping them while they, in turn, sustain those who put their trust in them. This holds as much for the god of Abraham as it does for African deities like Akonnedi (Barber 1981; Orsi [1985] 2010; Matory 2018; Pontzen 2023). Yet, while academic discussions of Abrahamic religions no longer dispense with the people who make them, Africa’s endogenous religions remained for a long time ill-conceived as ‘systems of belief’ which were ascribed to an undifferentiated mass of ‘Africans who (still) believe that…’ (Parrinder [1954] 1976; Mbiti [1969] 1982). Consequently, theories of ‘African (Traditional) Religion’ were bound to a timeless present and imagined ethnic communities while history and actual people remained strangely absent from them. A rethinking of this lopsided concept of ‘African Traditional Religion’ and its genealogy is long overdue (p’Bitek [1971] 2011; Shaw 1990).

An actor’s perspective on ‘African Traditional Religion’: Nana Akua Oparebea, priestess of the goddess Nana Abena Akonnedi

This text seeks to redress this imbalance and contributes to a growing body of literature on the lives and deeds of traditional religious actors (Armah 1978; McCaskie 2004; 2007; 2008; Banks 2012; Konadu 2019; Pontzen 2024a) and deities (Opoku 1978; Maier 1983; Allman and Parker 2005) in Ghana. It focuses on Nana Akua Oparebea, priestess of the goddess Nana Abena Akonnedi, and discusses her role in the making of this deity and her religion during the 20^th century, mainly from 1957 onwards when Oparebea became one of Akonnedi’s main ↄkↄmfoↄ (possession priestess) in the Ghanaian town Larteh. As an astute and versatile entrepreneur, Oparebea was able to expand a religious cult from this town, which is located about fifty kilometres northeast of Accra, into a transnational religious network, thus turning Akonnedi, a local Guan deity, into a goddess revered widely across the Black Atlantic. Sketching a portrayal of Oparebea, this text shows what can be gained by including actual people in accounts and analyses of Africa’s endogenous religions.

As it holds for other traditional religious actors in Ghana, written sources on Oparebea are scant and largely consist of reproductions of oral accounts that frequently border on myth and hagiography (McCaskie 1986). The most authoritative account of Oparebea’s life is based on an interview that Kojo Vieta conducted with her towards the end of her life (Vieta 1999: 612–16). In the early 2010s, Ama Boakyewa (Boakyewa 2014) conducted interviews with trainees and contemporaries of Oparebea as part of her doctoral research, which allowed her to write a nuanced portrayal of this priestess. Extensive discussions of Oparebea’s relations with the Black American Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu, who she initiated into the arts of akↄm (spirit possession), and the formation of Akonnedi’s religious network in the US are found in the works of Pauline Guedj (Duchesne and Guedj 2005; Guedj 2015) and Kwasi Konadu (Konadu 2010).

Portraying Oparebea

This text draws on these writings and cross-checks and complements them with interviews that I conducted with various people in Larteh during my MIASA fellowship in the summer of 2023. Working on the role of endogenous religions in African cities and seeking to ground the study of endogenous religions in African discourses and lifeworlds, I have conducted ethnographic and archival research on Akonnedi and Oparebea in Larteh and Accra. In this text, I use the collected data to collage a portrayal of Oparebea and her life as priestess of Akonnedi, retracing the overlaps and broad lines of agreement across my different sources and using the snippets that I have gathered during my research. As this text will demonstrate, the priestess Nana Akua Oparebea and the deity Nana Abena Akonnedi blend into one another not only through spirit possession (akↄm) but also as figures who mutually participate in each other’s being and make one another. Suspending judgment on the reality of spirits and the possibility of spirit possession, this portrayal treats akↄm as a social fact and considers both Oparebea and Akonnedi as social and historical actors.

Oparebea and her legacy are subjects of dispute at her shrine and within the transnational religious network that she co-founded with Dinizulu. As a result, people in Larteh were rather reluctant to talk to me about Oparebea’s personal relationships but were quite forthcoming about matters relating to Akonnedi and her shrine. This text is not intended as an intervention in these ongoing debates, nor does it make claims on Oparebea’s legacy. Instead, it rather traces how Oparebea became a priestess of Akonnedi and participated in the making of this deity’s transatlantic religion. It begins with her early years and formation. Oparebea became Akonnedi’s head priestess in Larteh-Kubease in 1957. In the decades to follow, she treated thousands of people and trained hundreds of priestesses and priests at her shrine. Collaborating with W.S. Mensah-Dapaa, Oparebea got in touch with President Kwame Nkrumah, co-founded the Ghana Psychic and Traditional Healers Association, and acted as president of this organisation during the 1960s which helped her to bring Akonnedi to national fame. In the same decade, Oparebea met with the Black American Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu, initiated him into the arts of akↄm, and cooperated with him to expand Akonnedi’s religious network across the Black Atlantic. In many ways, Oparebea has made Akonnedi and her religion, but Akonnedi has also made her. The history of Akonnedi’s religion cannot be written without taking the life of Oparebea into account, and Oparebea cannot be portrayed without writing about Akonnedi.

The early years: Oparebea’s becoming ↄkↄmfoↄ (spirit possession priestess) of Akonnedi

Oparebea was born in the early 20^th century. At the time of her birth, Akonnedi was a well-established deity in Larteh – a town of farmers and traders located on the Akuapem Ridge northeast of Accra (Brokensha 1966; 1972; Grant 2020). Akonnedi’s origins are shrouded in mystery, but people identify her as a Guan deity and trace her roots to Larteh where she has been present at least since the early 19^th century. The missionary and linguist Johann Christaller, who was stationed with the Basel Mission in Larteh during the 1850s, included her name in a list of the town’s deities, adding a note that Akonnedi was the wife of Konkom, another local deity (Christaller [1881] 2013, 662). Konkom was to become the famous oracle Dente in Kete Krachi (Maier 1983) while Akonnedi remained in Larteh. In the early 20^th century, several shrines in Larteh were devoted to Akonnedi, including a major shrine in Larteh-Ahenease, the lower part of town, and a major shrine uphill in Larteh-Kubease. As for other things in the history of this divided town, the two shrines have been struggling over leadership in matters relating to Akonnedi over the years. Back then, Nana Anima was Akonnedi’s ↄkↄmfoↄ in Larteh-Kubease, and she divined that a woman from her family would come to take her place and bring Akonnedi to glory. When Anima passed away in 1927, she was followed by Nana Amma Ansah I while her granddaughter, Oparebea, was still a child.

Oparebea was the daughter of Kwame Akuffo Mensah, an Asante farmer and trader from Aburi, and Ohemaa Aba Oyedi, a woman of royal origins from Larteh. According to her personal recollections (Vieta 1999), Oparebea was baptised and schooled as a Presbyterian, but she repeatedly went missing and experienced episodes of paralysis caused by spirit possession during her childhood years. Eventually, her relatives consulted with the traditional priest Ogbao. Through divination and spirit possession, Ogbao established that Akonnedi had taken hold of Oparebea, confirming Nana Anima’s prophecy. As a bosomeba (child of the deities), Oparebea was one with Akonnedi and set on the path of this deity from the moment of her conception. Initially, she resisted Akonnedi’s hold on her, but eventually, she submitted to the deity and went into training as her priestess in Larteh-Kubease.

During her years of training, she learned the arts of akↄm (spirit possession) and divination, herbal and therapeutic lore, the deities’ songs and dances, and esoteric knowledge from Nana Amma Ansah I. Like other trainees, she graduated with a festivity that established her possession by Akonnedi and her priesthood of this deity in the eyes of the public. Thereafter, she set up a shrine in her father’s compound in Doboro (about forty kilometres west of Larteh) and then moved the shrine to her brother’s place in Nkumkrom (close to Doboro) to attract more clients. Like other priestesses, Oparebea was highly mobile during her early years. She visited other shrines in the region and interacted with numerous akↄmfoↄ. Meanwhile, she continuously pledged her allegiance to Akonnedi and her shrine in Larteh-Kubease at the site’s yearly New Yam Festival. As a prolific and charismatic figure, Oparebea was able to make a name for herself as an up-and-coming ↄkↄmfoↄ. Meanwhile, Nana Amma Ansah I sought to avoid open conflict about her succession and designated Oparebea to follow her as head of the Akonnedi Shrine in Larteh-Kubease before she passed away. In 1957, Oparebea thus became one of Akonnedi’s main akↄmfoↄ.

 

Oparebea’s becoming Akonnedi’s ↄkↄmfoↄhemaa (leader of priestesses)

When Oparebea was installed as head priestess in Larteh-Kubease, she became the spiritual custodian of the shrine and its deities. The Guan goddess Nana Abena Akonnedi is the leading deity of this shrine whose pantheon includes two other named deities with designated functions as well as countless unnamed gods and spirits who dwell in the presence of Akonnedi. The Fante deity Nana Esi Ketewa is Akonnedi’s linguist (ↄkyeame) and midwife. The Asante god Asuo Gyebi acts as her herbalist (odunsini) and executioner (ↄbrafoↄ). Upon her instalment as ↄkↄmfoↄ, Oparebea added the deities Tigare from northern Ghana and Adade Kofi from Asante to the shrine’s pantheon to further diversify the sources of divine and spiritual power that she could tap into in her work. Throughout her life, she remained a medium of Akonnedi who manifested herself regularly by possessing Oparebea.

As Akonnedi’s prime medium and head priestess, Oparebea became the ↄkↄmfoↄhemaa (leader of priestesses) of a growing network of priestesses of Akonnedi. She presided over the yearly reunifications of this network at the New Yam Festival at her shrine and had those joining in the festivities pledge their allegiance to Akonnedi and her. As ↄkↄmfoↄhemaa, she had to be consulted in all important matters relating to Akonnedi, received gifts in cash and tokens of gratitude from her network, and arbitrated conflicts arising between the priestesses. Over the decades, Oparebea trained hundreds of priestesses and treated thousands of clients at her shrine. Doing the work of Akonnedi, she divined the spiritual causes of people’s problems, manufactured charms and remedies for them, cured them of illness, barrenness, witchcraft, or other ailments and exerted justice in the name of her deity. Oparebea and Akonnedi were known widely beyond the confines of Larteh. Their shrine attracted clients from near and far, from all walks of life, who came to consult with Oparebea and request Akonnedi’s intervention in their lives.

Healing the nation: The Ghana Psychic and Traditional Healers Association

In 1959, Mensah-Dapaa found his way to Larteh. He was a lecturer in biology at the university in Kumase and suffered from chronic headaches and sneezing. He had consulted with medical doctors in Ghana and abroad, but they were unable to cure him. So, he came to Akonnedi’s shrine in search of therapy, and Oparebea’s remedies (aduro) worked where those from the hospitals had failed, curing him of his ailment. This made Mensah-Dapaa an ardent follower of Oparebea and Akonnedi. He was a member of the Convention People’s Party and well-connected with its leadership, including President Kwame Nkrumah, and he had a keen interest in forging close ties between them and Oparebea.

Ghana had just gained independence in 1957 and was still finding its feet. Nkrumah and his government aspired to build Ghana as an African nation and therefore endorsed African culture and values in their speeches and politics (Ahlman 2017). Seeking to provide the people of Ghana with African forms of therapy, Nkrumah and his entourage were not only interested in traditional cures and therapies but were also ready to promote them as a resource for the healing of the nation. When Mensah-Dapaa connected Nkrumah with Oparebea, they worked out a plan to form a national association of traditional healers to promote African forms of therapy and bring their practitioners in line with Nkrumah’s nation-building politics. Their initiative resulted in the formation of the Ghana Psychic and Traditional Healers Association (GPTHA) which was officially inaugurated with a state event in Larteh on April 7, 1962 (Osseo-Assare 2016). Oparebea was elected president of the association, and Mensah-Dapaa became its secretary. Both toured the country and appeared in the media to promote the GPTHA. Traditional healers and religious actors were rather reluctant to join this state organisation, but their tours and media appearances helped Oparebea and Mensah-Dapaa to make a name for themselves and Akonnedi. They reached nationwide renown which, in turn, brought more clients and trainees to their shrine.

From its inception, the GPTHA was a top-down initiative and an instrument of state power. Despite its name, the GPTHA never became a grassroots organisation for Ghana’s traditional healers and religious actors. In 1966, when Nkrumah and the ruling Convention People’s Party (CPP) were ousted from power by a coup d’état, Mensah-Dapaa fled to the UK and took the association’s treasury with him. Without state support and finances, the GPTHA dwindled and became one body among others seeking to represent a diverse and fragmented body of traditional healers and religious practitioners towards the state (Pontzen 2024b). Oparebea lamented the prevailing disunity of traditional healers and religious practitioners in Ghana. Nevertheless, she and Akonnedi remained widely known figures in the country, and their fame soon reached beyond the confines of Ghana thanks to their encounter with the Black American Dinizulu.

Across the Black Atlantic: Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu

Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu was born as Gus Edwards in Augusta, Georgia, in 1930. In his childhood years, his family moved to Harlem where he founded the cultural group Ghanas in 1947. Dinizulu was involved as an artist and activist in African American religious networks and the Akan diaspora. During the 1960s, he travelled repeatedly to West Africa in search of inspiration for his work.

In 1965, Gus Edwards alias Dinizulu met with Oparebea for the first time. An official from the University of Ghana had directed him to Larteh where he consulted with the Akonnedi Shrine in search of his spiritual roots. Oparebea divined that she and Dinizulu shared common ancestry and hence renamed him Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu. She initiated Dinizulu and trained him in the arts of akↄm during repeated visits over the years. When she deemed him ready, she bestowed the title ↄkↄmfoↄhene (chief of the priests) of the Akan diaspora on him and gave him the deities Asuo Gyebi, Esi Ketewa, and Adade Kofi to take with him and establish their shrines in America. So, when Dinizulu returned to the US in 1969, he took these deities with him, founded shrines for them in New York and Washington, and included these in the Bosum Dzemawodzi religious network which comprised Yoruba deities as well as other African American religious actors.

As it seems, he was unable to take Akonnedi with him as the goddess does not travel over water, but he certainly promoted the names of the deity and Oparebea in his community. So, when Oparebea visited him for the first time in 1971, she was eagerly expected by members of the Bosum Dzemawodzi network. She was consulted by numerous people and founded several shrines during her first trip to the US. Over the next decades, Oparebea travelled across the Black Atlantic and brought her deities to new places. She founded shrines for them and consulted with countless people to cure their ailments. In turn, people from across the Black Atlantic travelled to Larteh to consult with Akonnedi, receive training from Oparebea, or pledge their allegiance to them. Thus, Oparebea became the head priestess and Akonnedi the main deity of a transatlantic religious network.

Nana Yao Opare Dinizulu passed away in 1991, but the transatlantic religious network that he had co-established with Oparebea and her deities survived him. In 2023, during my fieldwork in Larteh, I received phone calls from individuals in the US who were interested in learning about my research and asserted authority over the Akonnedi Shrine in Kubease and its community. Conversely, some residents of Larteh informed me that Akonnedi no longer resided in the town. They said she had taken advantage of the opportunity and relocated to the US. However, other people in Larteh denied these statements outright. They either claimed leadership in matters relating to Akonnedi themselves or insisted that the goddess not only originated from Larteh but was also still present there. Over the decades, Akonnedi and her religious network spread across the Black Atlantic, reaching new places and gaining new followers. As a result, individuals from various locations now have vested interests and lay claims to her and Oparebea’s legacy.

Nana Akua Oparebea and the making of Akonnedi

From the moment of her conception, Nana Akua Oparebea was one with Nana Abena Akonnedi, and she has served this deity all her life. On November 18, 1995, Oparebea left this world behind and moved on into the realm of the spirits. Her funeral was held in January 1996 in Larteh-Kubease. Video recordings of the event are stored in the Nketia Archives of the University of Ghana (signature R9/1). The video shows thousands of people and dozens of akↄmfoↄ attending the funeral to mourn Oparebea’s passing, honour her life, and bid her farewell. Throughout those days, the mourners were joined by the deities who possessed their akↄmfoↄ to participate in Oparebea’s funeral and pay their respects to her. The deities with whom she had lived came to bid Oparebea farewell from this world and welcome her to theirs.

Throughout her life, Oparebea and Akonnedi were mutually involved with one another and key figures in the making of Akonnedi’s religion. Oparebea was an astute and versatile entrepreneur and a prudent strategist. She saw an opportunity when it came her way and took it. Thanks to her actions, Akonnedi became a deity of national and transatlantic renown in the 20^th century. In turn, Oparebea would not have achieved this without Akonnedi taking hold of her and having her serve as her priestess throughout her life. In this sense, both have shaped each other’s destinies and made one another. As this biographic sketch of Oparebea shows, African endogenous religions are anything but ahistoric, static or ‘indigenous’ systems of belief that people would just believe in or simply adhere to. As with other religions, Africa’s religious traditions are lived by their people and are part of wider dynamics. Hence, accounts and analyses of African religious traditions must include the people who make them and locate them in their contexts to make sense of their actions, an ‘Africans (still) believe that…’ will not do.

Thirty years after her passing, Oparebea is remembered by various actors who have vested interests in her legacy. At present, her seat as ↄkↄmfoↄ at the Akonnedi Shrine in Larteh-Kubease is vacant with several people vying for it. Various individuals in Ghana and across the Black Atlantic are competing for recognition as leaders in matters relating to Akonnedi and her transatlantic network. Their relationships with Oparebea and Akonnedi and the public commemoration of these relationships are crucial for these actors to assert their claims over Oparebea’s legacy, making her remembrance a subject of contention. At the same time, Oparebea is gradually being forgotten in Ghana’s collective memory, while mentioning Akonnedi’s name still draws people to her shrine.

The politics of remembering Oparebea and the making of Akonnedi

How are academic works involved in the making of Akonnedi and affected by the politics of remembering Oparebea? After all, academics like Mensah-Dapaa, and the nameless official from the University of Ghana, brought Oparebea in contact with Nkrumah and Dinizulu and enabled her to make a name for Akonnedi and herself. People in Larteh not only showed me their copies of Kofi Opoku’s (Opoku 1970; 1978) and David Brokensha’s (Brokensha 1966) works on Akonnedi, but also used this literature to buttress their claims about this deity and Oparebea’s legacy. It is important to consider the impact of academic writings on African endogenous religions and to contextualise their findings. Reflecting on how academics contribute to the making of these religions is crucial to rethinking African religious traditions in collaboration with the people who live them (Pontzen 2022; 2024a).

My portrayal of Oparebea and Akonnedi is inevitably sketchy. I have merely begun compiling an archive on them and have conducted some exploratory research in Larteh. I have not yet found important archival collections or carried out extensive fieldwork on Akonnedi and her shrines in Ghana or across the Black Atlantic. While W.S. Mensah-Dapaa and the GPTHA must have left some records behind, I have not been able to locate them. Kofi Opoku conducted research at Oparebea’s shrine in the 1960s, and it is possible that his notes and interviews could still be found. There may also be materials on Oparebea stored in the collections of African American religious practitioners in the US; after all, I sourced her picture from an American website. To write a more nuanced and accurate biography of Oparebea, it would be crucial to include these collections in the archive and cross-check the sources with each other, in addition to conducting interviews with her successors and descendants across the Black Atlantic. Doing so would provide more depth to Oparebea’s portrayal and enrich the picture of her legacy. Furthermore, it would be fascinating to locate Oparebea in the web of traditional religious practitioners in Ghana and across the Black Atlantic that she was both co-weaving and enmeshed in during her life.

Humans and their deities: Living (with) one another

A final comment on method is in order. As stated above, this text leaves the possibility of spirits and people’s possession by them open, treating akↄm as a social fact and considering Akonnedi as a social actor. However, if they have made each other and mutually participated in each other’s being, are the relations between Oparebea and Akonnedi not more complex than this bracketing seems to suggest? To rethink African religious traditions from the grounds on which they are lived and based on the forms of life that their discourses articulate and find themselves embedded in, it would be important to reflect on whether and how to incorporate the deities and their presence into academic writings. According to the interlocutors I have met in Ghana over years of doing research on endogenous religions, religions are made by the people who live them, but people also find themselves constantly made and affected by the deities who live around and through them. Humans and deities are entwined in their being, not only creating each other but also living through each other, as was the case for Oparebea and Akonnedi.

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