Chieftaincy is older than Christianity. Before Christian missionaries came to the shores of Ghana through the Portuguese in 1492, chieftaincy was in existence. Chieftaincy springs from the soils of the nation. It is our own. It is traditional, rich with history and cultural values. Christianity is foreign to us: It is an imported religion. However, Christianity, like the Internet, has given us a wider horizon of knowledge than chieftaincy, which has localised knowledge. Christianity has given us a universal knowledge of humanity's past, present and future. Christianity is an encyclopaedia; chieftaincy a book of a people's history, religion and culture. When we compare the religious elements in Chieftaincy with that of Christianity, we shall see some semblances and differences in the principles and practices of the two religions. In this article, we shall look at some of the key elements of Chieftaincy and Christianity and find out whether Christianity has something useful to add to Chieftaincy. The religious aspect of Chieftaincy springs from the very substance of African religious beliefs and practices, which admit of the existence of a Supreme God (Oludare, Mawu, Onyame) and a host of lesser gods conceived as intermediaries between man and God. The intermediaries include our ancestors as well. Our belief is that it is by the intermediaries that our prayers are heard, and it is through them that responses come. For the ancestral spirits in particular, they were once with us as living beings and knew our headaches and heartaches but who, on becoming spirits, are more energised and empowered to address our material needs, and to offer protection and guidance (Geoffrey Parrinder: West African Religion). In Ghana, as in other African countries like Nigeria and South Africa, the chief is the cynosure of social order, law and authority, and the embodiment of the collective aspirations of the state (oman). Thus, where a chief exhibits exemplary leadership and he dies, he is deemed to be worthy of veneration, perhaps as a "saint" in the western, catholic viewpoint. His stool is therefore consecrated to be the contact point between the living (his people) and the dead (his soul and all other ancestors). The major, pre-eminent duty of the living chief is to perform the religious duties to perpetuate the memory of the ancestors. Says Dr Busia: "The whole legal and political system of Ashanti is bound up with ancestor worship, which provides an organic unity between political and religious authority. Ancestor worship is the basis of the chief's authority, as well as the sanction of morality in the community. The chief is the one who also sits on the stool of the ancestors". (Dr Kofi Busia: The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti). According to Dr Busia, the ancestors are seen as the custodians of the laws and customs of the tribe. They punish those who infringe their commands with sickness and misfortune. With such an intimacy between the ancestors and the community, the chief acts as the intermediary between these two, and the spiritual and political symbol of the power of the chief is the stool. From Dr Peter Sarpong's book, The Sacred Stools of the Akan, we learn that the stools are regarded primarily as the earthly haven of the departed rulers. A stool embodies the spirit of the dead, and so it is the shrine of the dead person. Peter Sarpong confirms what Dr Busia had observed, that every lineage has its blackened stool. Sarpong, however, offers the explanation why the stools are blackened. He says that black colour symbolises death; white symbolises life and happiness. It would therefore be inappropriate to leave the stools white, as that would suggest that the living are happy about the loss of the departed ones. Dr Sarpong adds that as objects of veneration the stools get more offerings of eggs, bulls, fowls and drinks than the shrines, because these are done at very frequent intervals, which is not the case with most shrines. Now that we have seen the centrality of the stool to the authority of the chief, let's consider another important role it plays in the installation of a chief. According to Dr Sarpong, when a chief is enstooled in the stool house he is brought into contact with the spirits of the departed chiefs, and the person whose stool he sits on, impregnates him with his spirit. Thus the stool anchors the spirit of the ancestor, and this is passed on to the new chief. Dr Busia also states this same fact. From his own readings, Prof. Kofi Kumado stated in his article: "Chieftaincy and the Law in Modern Ghana": "The chief's position as ruler was often strengthened by the magico-religious powers invariably attributed to him. In him were believed to rest powers over fertility of the land and over rainfall, and power of life and death over the community. Continuity of government was maintained requiring each new chief upon his installation to participate in certain ritualistic ceremonies through which the powers held by his predecessors were supposed to pass on to him and to communicate with his predecessors by offering them food and drinks from time to time. Thus the chief was generally believed to be a sacred figure" (University of Ghana Law Journal. Vol XVIII, 1990-1992). What the learned authors say in common is that the chief is outwardly whom we know him to be; in essence, however, he has the spirit of the ancestor whose stool he sat on, and whose name he bears. Our next consideration is to look at how the chief as a "sacred figure" maintained the spiritual equilibrium between his ancestors, and the deities at the shrines, on behalf of the state (oman). This is best seen in the numerous festivals celebrated in Ghana. The Nzimas celebrate “Kundum”, the Elminas, "Bakatue", the Gas "Homowo", the Akuapems, “Odwira", the Ashantis, "Akwasidae" and so on. These festivals are held to remember the dead and to honour them, thank the gods for their blessings, and to unite the people for the development of their traditional areas. Common to the festivals of Ghana are blood sacrifices to the ancestors and to the gods at their shrines. Karikari Akyembo states the significance of blood sacrifices in his pamphlet on "The Aboakyer Festival". "It is a belief among Ghanaians who worship fetishes that the spirit revels in the blood of the sacrificial offering as it gushes out of the victim’s slit throat. Consequently, it is this blood that is used in adorning the fetish." The slaughtering of the sacrificial animal is done by the high priest under the supervision of the chief. In Ashanti, during the Akwasidae, mashed yam (eto) is offered to the stools, along with a sheep that is slaughtered, and the blood used to besmear the stools. They pray: “Today is Adae, come and receive this and eat; let this town prosper, let the bearers of children bear children: may all the people get riches, life to me (the chief), long life to the oman" In Wenchi, in the Brong Ahafo Region, where the Odwira is celebrated, a similar pattern, like the Akwasidae takes place, and the prayer is like this: “Drobo (name of the god), today the edges of the year have met. The chief of Wenchi has given you yams, he has given you sheep and now he has given you this drink. Let Wenchi prosper, etc. (other requests). Blessings! Blessings! Blessings!" At Cape Coast, where the Oguaa State has 77 gods, Samuel Blankson narrates in his pamphlet: "Fetu Afahye" that the chief priests of Oguaa perform customary rites at the shrine of Nana Tabir, in the dungeons of Cape Coast Castle, and at the shrines of two other gods, Nana Fosu, and Nana Prapratu. Blankson writes: "During these invocations, supplications are made through the spirits of the ancestors and the 77 gods to the Almighty God for the general wellbeing of the people". Similar practices take place all over Ghana. So, it is unmistakable that in Chieftaincy, communion with God is through the ancestors, and the gods. Given the ageless practice of ancestral worship and sacrifices to gods in our society, it may appear unfair to evaluate our religious practices through the prism of Christianity, a foreign religion. Unfortunately, Christianity has killed our innocence and ignorance. We cannot claim to be ignorant of God's Word in the Bible, in much the same way that we cannot claim to be ignorant of computers and the Internet. In the way that the modern computer and IT has changed the landscape of life in the world, so has the Bible and Christ transformed the human landscape of the universe, so that truths that we would once have denied, for want of knowledge, must now be affirmed and upheld, in light of knowledge. Christianity has also killed our excuses. We have no defences any more. When we summarise the major religious elements in chieftaincy we have first, the belief in the superlative power of the ancestral spirits, along with all the rites associated with venerating them; the second is the belief in the stool as the embodiment and transmitter of the ancestral spirit; third, the belief that it is the gods or deities, to whom we owe our blessings and through whom our prayers reach God. Source: Ahumah Ocansey/Daily Graphic