“Our Stool and its Rituals are the basis of Protection for our Chieftaincy and Community”: The Value of Stool Rituals among the Anfoega- Ewe of Ghana.

Abstract

Chieftaincy is the oldest traditional leadership institution in Ghana which combines religion and rituals, and which is charged with the responsibility of performing executive, legislative and judicial functions in order to ensure peace, stability and development among most traditional societies in the country. Despite the impact of colonial rule and post-colonial administrative measures that have weakened the functions of this noble institution, it has survived due to its ability to merge leadership and religious practices. Based on ethnographic data from the ritual experts of the paramount stool (Gablui Kofi Stool) of the Anfoega-Ewe of Ghana, this paper explores the specific rituals of this sacred stool and the spiritual entities attached to it, and argues that the stool is indispensable in the life of the Anfoega people as protector and source of solution to their existential problems; and that this benevolence is reciprocated with ritual events. It is emphasized that despite the influx of Christian religious groups to the area, the stool is still highly revered even by some local Christian converts, and that the people believe that abandoning the stool and its associated rituals is an anathema in the community.