Agyinasare and the gods of Nogopko

Nogokpo (Enↄge kpoo a? Richard Sky Citi Fm) meaning will you just live here quietly, is located in the Ketu South district of the Volta Region of Ghana, just about two kilometers from Agbozume.

The small town became popular because of a renowned shrine located in the in it. Most Ghanaians do not even know that it is a town but considered it like a shrine.

Recently, the Archbishop of the Perez Chapel made a statement that Nogokpo is the headquarters of demons, during a church program. The video went viral and of course, the indigenes of Nogokpo and their chiefs didn’t take kindly to it. They claimed a business establishment that was about to start in the town got canceled because of the comment, and a son of the town who was called to come for his job appointment had his appointment withdrawn due to the same statement uttered by the man of God.

The chiefs requested the archbishop to come to them and explain himself and also withdraw and apologize to them but we are yet to see if that will materialize, however, posters were circulating a few days later declaring a one-week fast over the life of the archbishop.

It must be very disheartening to have a man of God declare your hometown as the headquarters of demons, especially when your ethnic group is the most bastardized by people because you are assumed to have some voodoo powers whether you are a Christian or not.

There are zillions of people who have not stepped a foot in the Volta region but can create fictional stories to tell people just to scare them away from having anything to do with people from the region.

As a native of the region, I get surprised sometimes when people narrate stories that are completely false as gospel truth. I have had people who told me “As for you, you are a fine guy paa just that you are an Ewe” Statements like this make one shudder to question the person’s mental condition.

When I was doing my housemanship in Bolgatanga, I came to Accra on holidays to visit the family and on my way back, I met a NADMO guy who was on transfer to that region. He has never been there before but he assumed there will be someone waiting to meet him when he arrives at 2 am! Nobody was there to meet him when we arrived. He was stranded and didn’t know what to do, so I told him to join me in a taxi cab so he could pass the night at my end and look for alternative accommodation the next day, to which he obliged.

When we got home, he went straight to the washroom after I showed him around. While tidying up, I hear him on his loud “China” phone talking to a family member that he had arrived. The family member asked him if he got a place to stay and he responded in the affirmative.

The next question from the family member was “What is his ethnicity” When my guest opened his mouth to utter the “abominable” name Ewe, I could hear from the other end of the phone chastising him that, of all the ethnicities in this country why did he choose to stay with an Ewe person?

My heart sunk and my mouth was filled with the bitterness of my bile! This man, from a “superior” ethnic group, stayed with me for almost a year before moving out.

You will not know how painful it is if you have not experienced it. I want to tell you the reader that tribalism is not different from racism! Have you felt bad because of how other races treat you? That is exactly how the people you treat badly based on their ethnicity feel.

I was fortunate to have visited and toured every region of Ghana, there is no region that does not indulge in traditional religion. What goes on at Nogokpo, goes on at Antoa, Krachi dente, there’s also Kweku Fri. Some ethnic group right in the cosmopolitan Accra performs naked midnight rituals from time to time.

Archbishop Agyin Asare goofed! He was carried away! A man of God, of his caliber, a man I admire so much should have known better that you don’t stereotype people like that. I know that he did not mean to cast an ethnic slur on the town and the people from that region, to err is human but forgiveness is divine.

He should just apologize to the chiefs and the people of Nogokpo, it is not a sign of bowing to the gods of Nogokpo! Remember, there is the town, and there is the shrine, note the distinction.

Our beauty lies in our diversity, let us hold to the ties that bound us rather than those that divide us.