Nyame Ne Aberewa: Towards a History of Akan Notions of 'God'

Abstract

The article explores the Akan concept of 'God'. Through the analysis of oral tradition, it suggests that is the Creator of the world and all there is in it is not fundamental to the religious beliefs of the Akan peoples. Belief in Nyame as creator is a late accident of cultural contact in the past few centuries, and it became prominent and central in Akan indigenous religion only after 1900, when a Western Christian abstract frame of mind, spiritualising and transcendentalising Nyame, became common also among the believers of Akan indigenous religion due to the Western modes of thought fostered by schools, Christian churches and other modern institutions in the Gold Coast, now Ghana.