‘Christianity Better the AfricanWay’:

Fitting the LDS Church into aGhanaian Context

By Garrett Nagaishi

Nana Bentsil I, on a visit to Salt Lake City in 1979, Courtesy of Steven Blodgett.

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Twelve years after his baptism, Nana Bentsil I made his first

trip to the United States in order to attend General Conference.

This journey was a veritable pilgrimage for Bentsil who

endeavored not only to hear and see the leaders of the LDS Church

in person, but also to experience the only place where Mormonism

seems to be the norm rather than the exception. A hereditary

chief among the Fante of southern Ghana, Bentsil had remained a

faithful member of the Church and was one of the pioneers of

missionary work in Ghana. He also believed that African dress,

particularly the piece he wore to Conference (as shown in the

photo above), was as reverential of God as a shirt and tie. The

patterns on chiefly robes speak a message, in his case saying

‘God is My Leader’.1 While there is no comment on the popular

reception Bentsil received from members of the LDS Church in

Utah, he was admitted to the General Conference session, which

normally rejects anyone not wearing appropriate attire.

Bentsil’s story is one that became more commonplace in the

years following the LDS Church’s 1978 promulgation of Official

Declaration-II, which extended the priesthood to all worthy male1 From a draft of an article for the Ensign, read by E. Dale LeBaron to Nana Bentsil I, LOHC 2/14, 13 May 1988.

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members. Many Ghanaians have joined the Church since 1978, and

Ghana currently reports the third highest Mormon population in

Africa.2 One early Mormon missionary to sub-Saharan Africa was

told by a Church leader, ‘I think you are on the frontier of one

of the greatest historical events in Church history as far as

growth is concerned.’3 In a much more recent article on the

growth of Christianity in Africa in the twentieth century,

however, Philip Jenkins argued that compared to other Christian

denominations, the LDS Church has seen relatively little growth

in the past fifty years. He explained that since the 1960s, many

other churches have grown because they have attempted to

accommodate as much ‘Africanness’ into their local congregations

as possible, while the ‘Mormon experience has been quite

different and has involved strikingly few concessions to local

tastes or customs’.4 Thus, while the history of the LDS Church in

West Africa has been celebrated, there are tensions there, as in

2 Ghana’s Church membership is currently 57,748; Nigeria has the largest Mormon population with 118,139, and South Africa with the second largest at 59,385, www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics <accessed 17 December 2014>

3 Rendell N. Mabey and Gordon T. Allred, Brother to Brother (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1984), p. 140.

4 Philip Jenkins, ‘Letting Go: Understanding Mormon Growth in Africa’, The Journal of Mormon History, 35.2 (Spring 2009), 1-25 (pp. 21-2).

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other places. If we take the perspective of West Africa—an Afro-

Centric approach—and draw on the complexities and nuances of

African history, we see how important local specificities are in

the history of the LDS Church. This paper draws upon interviews

by E. Dale LeBaron (1988) to analyze the dynamics of the post-

Official Declaration-II period in Ghana. It argues that while the

growth of the Church has accelerated in the decade after 1978,

many struggled to reconcile the culture and policies of the

Church with Ghanaian life. Because Ghanaians’ perceptions and

opinions of the LDS Church and its doctrine are so nuanced and

variable, local attitudes are best analyzed and discussed on the

individual level. In particular, this paper will focus on the

incompatibility of LDS Church teachings and customs with Ghanaian

traditions, including marriages, funerals, and language; gender

roles within the congregation, both perceived and actual; and

economic hardship that accompanied the duties and

responsibilities of active membership in the Church.

While the number of LDS missionaries being sent to Africa

and the number of baptisms there reflect a concerted effort on

the part of the Church to disseminate its teachings to the

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African continent, they are hardly impressive when compared to

membership populations in many South American and Asian countries

(Table 1). And whereas it can be argued that the Church has

actively proselytized in Africa for a far shorter amount of time

than elsewhere in the world, other Christian denominations have

seen much larger numbers joining their ranks in Africa in

comparable periods of time.5 So what is the LDS Church not doing

that makes other religious groups more attractive? This paper

attempts to draw out some of these areas of tension and address

the Ghanaian perspective of the LDS Church in the immediate post-

Declaration period.

E. Dale LeBaron’s interview of a district president in Accra

elicited a discussion that will provide much of the basis for

this paper, and, hopefully, suggest ways of confronting the above

question. When asked if there was anything he wished the Church

would do differently in regards to Africa, the interviewee

responded:

I saw the Relief Society in Tema having their ReliefSociety, the district Relief Society president organized aculture activity in such a way that all the various branchesand their ethnic groupings came out and displayed their

5 Jenkins, ‘Letting Go’, pp. 18-20.

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cultures. If they know that we allow such culture heritage,or we promote culture heritage, I’m sure the church would befilled by now [in Ghana].6

This offers a suggestion for combatting the common belief that

the LDS Church is predominantly a white, neocolonial church that

refuses to adapt its unbending culture to local social,

political, and economic climates. This paper will include

thoughts, both my own and those of Ghanaians, about how the

Church can more readily adapt to local customs, and will

hopefully illustrate the importance of fitting the Church into a

local context, and not vice versa.

6 Isaac Addy, interview by E. Dale LeBaron, LOHC 1/6, Accra, 14 May 1988 (Allinterviews by LeBaron are hereafter labeled only as LOHC.)

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Source: Lawrence A. Young, ‘Confronting TurbulentEnvironments: Issues in the Organizational Growthand Globalization of Mormonism’, in ContemporaryMormonism: Social Science Perspectives, ed. by MarieCornwall, Tim B. Heaton, and Lawrence A. Young(Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1994),pp. 43-63 (p. 49).

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Research on the growth of Mormonism in Africa has,

unsurprisingly, been monopolized by Mormon scholars, many of whom

were Brigham Young University religion professors or Church

leaders.7 While these publications can be especially useful for

background knowledge of Latter-day Saint ‘foreign affairs’ and

constructing a basic framework for an international history of

the Church, they are an unreliable source for viewing the African

perspective of the Church, especially the way in which the Church

interacts with local customs, cultures, and religions. They are

largely ‘Western’-centric narratives of the effect of the

predominantly white LDS Church on their host communities. While

some have given serious consideration to the experiences of

Africans, these are more often intended to undergird the author’s

presupposition of the Church’s sanctifying role in foreign lands.

7 The most prolific of these has been E. Dale LeBaron, whose interviews will be the foundation of this paper, ‘African Converts Without Baptism: A Uniqueand Inspiring Chapter in Church History’, speech given at a Brigham Young University devotional, Provo, UT (10 November 1998); ‘Revelation on the Priesthood: The Dawning of a New Day in Africa’, speech given at the Sidney B. Sperry Symposium, Provo, UT (February 1989). See also Alexander B. Morrison, The Dawning of a Brighter Day: The Church in Black Africa (Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book Co., 1990); Spencer J. Palmer, Mormons in West Africa: New Terrain for the Sesquicentennial Church (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1979); James B. Allen, ‘Would-be Saints: West Africa before the 1978 Priesthood Revelation’,Journal of Mormon History, 17 (1991); Armand L. Mauss, ‘From Galatia to Ghana: TheRacial Dynamic in Mormon History’, International Journal of Mormon Studies, 6 (2013).

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LeBaron’s extensive collection of oral histories will

provide the foundation for this analysis of Mormonism in Ghana.

While this collection of over 120 interviews was conducted by a

professional historian and funded by the Kennedy Center at

Brigham Young University, there are three points that must be

acknowledged before any in-depth analysis of these sources can be

had. First, LeBaron only interviewed active members of the

Church, most of whom held positions of responsibility at the

branch and district levels. Second, many of these interviews were

with individual members of a single family or close-knit social

group. And lastly, all of the interviews were conducted within

the space of about two weeks. The reason I bring these up is to

suggest to the reader that these interactions were by no means

random, nor a perfect sample of all people who had any

interaction with the Church in Ghana. Many of the individuals had

been members of the Church for at least several years, and few of

them had ever experienced the Church outside of Ghana. In

addition, we do not have access to the perspectives of those who

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had serious misgiving about the Church which led them away from

it.8

Nevertheless, their words act as a window into the African

perspective of a relatively new religion. Indeed, it can be

argued that it is in fact because many of these individuals had

seen the Church grow over the past decade, and specifically did

not have experiences with the Church outside of Ghana, that these

interviews may offer the most authentic account of Mormonism in

Ghana.9 And while this paper utilizes interviews from nearly

three decades ago, they should not be considered ‘out of touch’

or irrelevant today. By understanding past failures and

successes, the Church can more readily approach missionary work

in foreign nations in a way that understands and respects the

host nation.

8 For another analysis of the historical limitations of these interviews, and of doing research on religiosity in general, see Cardell K. Jacobson and others, ‘Black Mormon Converts in the United States and Africa: Social Characteristics and Perceived Acceptance’, in Contemporary Mormonism, ed. by Cornwall, Heaton, and Young, pp. 326-348 (pp. 327-29).

9 Authentic accounts such as these fit within Ghanaian professor Robert Yaw Owusu’s proposed framework, which argued that a ‘human-centered theology’ andtheological interpretation based on African humanist principles are what is needed for the future of Christianity in Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah’s Liberation Thought:A Paradigm for Religious Advocacy in Contemporary Ghana (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2006), pp. 153-54.

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Christianity and Conversion in Africa

A relatively glaring gap in the research on the history of

the LDS Church in Africa is visible in its consideration of

Christian conversion in Africa, and even more so in its attention

to what is often simplistically termed by Africans and non-

Africans alike as ‘African traditional religion’ (ATR).

Undertaking a study of the LDS Church in Africa without

considering these foundational aspects of conversion and belief

will invariably produce contextually inaccurate readings of

African receptivity to Christianity. Furthermore, doing so

neglects the bounteous historical material that can offer the

basis for understanding ways in which the LDS Church can be

better understood in a region that has a relatively long-standing

relationship with a variety of (albeit Christian) religious

groups.10

Several sources will act as a baseline for understanding the

history of world religions (Christianity and Islam) in sub-

10 In addition to the works cited throughout this paper, see C. G. Baëta, Prophetism in Ghana: A Study of Some ‘Spiritual’ Churches (Achimota, Ghana: Africa Christian Press, 2004); Anthony Ephirim-Donkor, African Spirituality: On Becoming Ancestors (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1997); Robert B. Fisher, West AfricanReligions Traditions: Focus on the Akan of Ghana (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998).

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Saharan Africa.11 Approaching the topic of conversion and belief

across such a wide swatch of territory is clearly a poor approach

to understanding Mormonism in Ghana; nevertheless, the

methodology and conclusions of such studies will be of use to us

here.

Some of the earliest yet nonetheless relevant studies of

conversion in modern sub-Saharan Africa can be found in the

writings of Robin Horton and Humphrey J. Fisher. Horton’s study,

which predated Fisher’s somewhat antagonistic response by two

years, postulated that ATR satisfied an entirely different

dimension of African life than Christianity did in the lives of

Westerners. While most ATR proposed a definitive duality of God—

both as a theoretical entity and as a person—Christianity,

especially since the nineteenth century, largely interpreted God

as a person. In addition, African life had been dominated by both

microcosmic and macrocosmic spiritual realities, the former

presiding over the majority of day-to-day life. It was against

this admittedly over-simplistic backdrop that Christianity was

11 North Africa, while almost largely Muslim, is purposefully neglected from this study due to its significantly different relationship with Islam and the Muslim world over the past millennium.

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received. According to Horton, the relative marginality of the

macrocosm in which the Supreme God operated allowed Africans to

articulate the meaning of the Christian God within these

predefined notions of a universal deity. At the same time,

Africans were able to maintain the more frequent and visible

spiritual realities of the microcosm, which usually manifested

themselves at the family or community level (i.e. rules governing

morality).12

The story of Christianity and Islam in sub-Saharan Africa,

then, according to Horton, has been one of ‘highly conditional

and selective acceptance . . . beliefs and practices of the so-

called world religions are only accepted where they happen to

coincide with responses of the traditional cosmology to other,

non-missionary, factors of the modern situation’.13 This

12 Robin Horton, ‘African Conversion’, Africa: Journal of the African International Institute, 41.2 (April 1971), 85-108 (pp. 96-103). Anthony Ephirim-Donkor agrees with Horton that there is a corporeal microcosm (Wiadzie) and a spiritual macrocosm (Samanadzie), but denies that the latter is in any way marginalizedbecause of its intangibility or invisibility, African Religion Defined: A Systematic Study of Ancestor Worship Among the Akan (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2013), pp. 1-4.

13 Horton, ‘African Conversion’, p. 104. See also Robert Yaw Owusu who describes the postcolonial period as one of ‘inculturation,’ a deliberate process by which individuals create, transform, and interpret theological meaning based on both individual and shared experiences, Kwame Nkrumah’s Liberation Though, pp. 15-6.

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syncretic approach to appraising the history of Christianity and

Islam in Africa has continued in various forms to this day,

though arguments for ‘a little bit of this, a little bit of that’

still prove tenuous at best. Horton’s view of world religions as

‘catalysts’, though attempting to articulate the primacy of

African pre-contact religion, still minimized the centrality of

ATR in African life by implicitly suggesting that their religion

was the best they had up until that time. This not only underestimated

the importance of Christianity and Islam in sub-Saharan Africa,

but it also ascribed a degree of pragmatism that unintentionally

reduced the significance of pre-contact African culture.

In his article ‘Conversion Reconsidered: Some Aspects of

Religious Conversion in Africa’, Fisher responded to Horton’s

intellectualist theory. Distancing from the pragmatic approach to

religious mixing, Fisher instead argued that African conversion

to Islam and Christianity occurred over time through a three-step

process including quarantine, mixing, and reform. This long-term

appraisal of conversion did not serve as a platform for Africans

considering the aspects of Islam or Christianity that could

potentially fit within ATR; rather, it was an organic process of

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religious osmosis: begin on the margins of society and, over

time, become quite indistinguishable from any ‘purely African’

religion.14 Fisher’s hypothesis proved much more convincing. In

sheer methodology, Fisher’s essay had the advantage of

considering two specific societies in sub-Saharan Africa. This

not only allowed Fisher to form conclusions for specific

societies with their own cultures and histories, but it also

allowed him to make direct comparisons between the Christian and

Muslim experiences in each of these areas.

The importance of considering the differences between Islam

and Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa cannot be overstated. In

comparing receptivity to Islam and Christianity in these two

regions, Fisher showed how Islam garnered more attention and saw

more converts not because of points of doctrine, but because of

the culture of Islam. How people worshipped seemed to matter more

than what they worshipped. Fisher went on to explain that

Christian emphasis on rules and procedures for ‘correct’ practice

of the faith acted as a deterrent, while Islam’s relatively

14 Humphrey J. Fisher, ‘Conversion Reconsidered: Some Aspects of Religious Conversion in Black Africa’, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 43.1 (January 1973), 27-40 (p. 31).

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simple profession of faith in Islam and Mohammed suggested

Africans could exercise more agency in their particular brand of

Islam.15 This principle is likewise crucial for our understanding

of differences between Christian sects in Ghana, as will be shown

later.

Horton and Fisher both found companionship and criticism in

J. D. Y. Peel’s essay, which wedded the pair’s most convincing

arguments and drew out some additional conclusions. While

accepting Horton’s belief that pragmatism played a key role in

the adoption of foreign religious practices, Peel qualified this

idea by arguing that conversion only took place amidst a web of

communication, including the limitations (or opportunities)

afforded by social control such as the ability to travel and the

religious freedom within various sectors of the region.16 Context

plays an unequaled role in the story of religious conversion;

that so much that has been written about the history of the LDS

Church in Africa has neglected this context is problematic.

15 Fisher, ‘African Conversion Reconsidered,’ pp. 33-36.16 J. D. Y. Peel, ‘Conversion and Tradition in Two African Societies: Ijebu and Buganda’, Past & Present 77 (November 1977), 108-141 (p. 114).

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Perhaps Peel’s greatest contribution to our understanding of

religious conversion in sub-Saharan Africa has been his focus on

conversion over time. Unlike Fisher’s three-step process that

considered religious conversion at the society level, Peel looked

at conversion across generations. Individuals from different

areas and different generations find their needs from and

expectations of, religion drastically dissimilar. The earliest

converts may have adopted a new religion at great personal

sacrifice, possibly even risking their lives. Succeeding

generations, however, will often lack the ‘high costs’ and ‘high

level of commitment’ of their forefathers and may depart from the

faith altogether.17 An apt example of this progression can be

found in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart in which the family

patriarch, Okonkwo, sees the world he once knew transform as his

son, Nwoye, searches desperately for a better one in

Christianity. At the risk of oversimplifying an incredibly

complex dynamic, it should be noted that disaffection and

17 J. D. Y. Peel, Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000), pp. 268-69. See also Pashington Obeng, Asante Catholicism: Religious and Cultural Reproduction Among the Akan of Ghana (New York: E. J. Brill, 1996), p. 7.

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deviance represents but one aspect of religious conversion over

time.

Mormonism as a Threat

Ghana is a predominantly Christian nation, with various

Christian denominations comprising over 60% of the population,

most of them residing in the southern half of the country.18 Even

though there are many Christian faiths with significant

followings in Ghana, including Presbyterianism, Methodism, and

Catholicism, the differences between their religious beliefs

seldom lead to conflict. It is much more common to hear of

tensions between ethnic groups. One Ghanaian I interviewed

explained that growing up Presbyterian, she never felt any

discrimination for her beliefs from those of other faiths, nor

did she ever hear religious groups arguing over differences in

their doctrines. She did, however, mention that it was common to

hear someone of a particular ethnic group make prejudicial

18 Islam accounts for about 15% of the population while 22% of the population subscribes to indigenous African beliefs, Steven J. Salm and Toyin Falola, Culture and Customs of Ghana (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishers, 2002), p. 34. These figures may have changed within the last decade; the Ghana Embassy in the United States adjusts these numbers: 71.2% Christian, 17.6% Muslim, 5.2%indigenous religions, www.ghanaembassy.org.

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remarks of someone from another.19 This section focuses on the

numerous and complex antagonisms that have developed as a result

of conflicting perspectives of the relationship between religion

and culture. In contrast to the Christian denominations listed

above that actively and successfully wedded religion with local

customs, Ghanaians have only ‘appropriate[ed], contextualize[ed],

and communicat[ed]’ LDS elements to an extent.20 One of the

individuals LeBaron interviewed similarly articulated that

Catholics and Methodists have been in Ghana so long that they

have dealt with many of the tensions between local culture and

the church. He urged the LDS Church, however, to not “do away

with the Ghanaian way.”21

It should be noted that while there is little or no conflict

between adherents of most Christian faiths in Ghana, Mormons seem

to be an exception to this unspoken rule. One Ghanaian newspaper

falsely claimed that the Mormon Church was a façade for satanic

rituals, providing descriptive accounts of certain rites one

19 Elsie Kportufe, interview by author, Provo, UT, 1 March 2014.20 Obeng, Asante Catholicism, p. 1.21 Emmanuel Kwasi Bondah, LOHC 2/17, Assin Foso, 5 May 1988.

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individual had witnessed.22 One interviewee told me that the most

common rumor she heard regarding the Church was that its members

drink blood.23 Such popular misconceptions about the Church

escalated so high that in 1989 the government of Ghana ‘froze’

the operations of the Church for an entire year before Church

leaders were able to convince state officials that there was no

reason Mormons should be barred from practicing their religion.24

Indeed, these unequaled misgivings about the LDS Church in Ghana

are further evidence of the unique situation which the Church

faces in Africa.

The particular antipathy that many Ghanaians feel toward

Mormonism may be the result of a long history of a

‘Ghanaianization’ of Christianity, particularly along the coast.

One member of the Church remarked that Ghanaians find more

solidarity and pride in their relationship with Christianity than

22 The Watchman, no. 19/93, quoted in E. Dale Lebaron, ‘Emmanuel Abu Kissi: A Gospel Pioneer in Ghana’, Pioneers in Every Land, ed. by Bruce A. Van Orden, D. Brent Smith, and Everett Smith, Jr. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997), pp. 210-20 (p. 218).

23 Elsie Kportufe, interview by author, Provo, UT, 1 March 2014.24 Marjorie Folsom, Golden Harvest in Ghana: Gospel Beginnings in West Africa (Bountiful, UT: Horizon Publishers, 1989), pp. 116-17; see also LeBaron, ‘Emmanuel Abu Kissi’, Pioneers in Every Land, ed. by Van Orden, Smith, and Smith, pp. 216-19. For an analysis of the political motivations behind the freeze, see Young, ‘Confronting Turbulent Environments’, in Contemporary Mormonism, ed. by Cornwall, Heaton, and Young, pp. 53-4.

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in their relationship with traditional Ghanaian culture.25 Thus,

contrasts between LDS teachings and various aspects of local

culture denied by the Church became all the more visible. Steven

Abu explained that in Ghana, funerals are supposed to be festive

occasions, not sad processions: living for an extended amount of

time on Earth only increases the risk of being ‘a nuisance to the

community’.26 Isaac Addy said that it is customary for the dead

to be buried in African attire which traditionally leaves the

shoulders exposed.27 Both of these customs differ from LDS

traditions and can have divisive consequences: the same man who

commented on funerals said that ‘In my culture we have a festival

called uumon. Normally this uumon is celebrated by the worldly

people and so we, the Church members, don’t associate ourselves

with this kind of culture because we feel it is not Godly’.28 His

use of ‘we, the Church members’ is by no means a self-

categorization unique to Ghana, though its implications of

creating an exceptional Christian group among a relatively

25 Ato Kwamina Dadson, LOHC 3/1, Cape Coast, 20 May 1988; Steven A. Abu, LOHC 1/2, Accra, 12 May 1988.

26 Steven A. Abu, 12 May 1988.27 Isaac Addy, 14 May 1988.28 Steven A. Abu, 12 May 1988.

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monolithic Christian populace could easily be seen as both

heretical and anti-Ghanaian.

The question of appropriate Sunday attire has also been a

problem for some Ghanaians. While many wish to wear African dress

to church in honor of both God and their culture, the Church has

placed strict guidelines on what members should be wearing to

their weekly meetings. Several of the interviewees wondered why

it was so important to wear a shirt and tie when, as one man

called it, ‘native costume’ was just as reverential.29 From

another part of the country, William Fefe Imbrah remarked that

being unable to wear traditional African clothing was one of the

‘difference[s] I have seen in our way of worshipping with the

LDS’.30 As was seen in the beginning of this paper, this does not

seem to be a universal rule for Church members. It is more likely

that outlawing or discouraging such forms of dress stemmed from

an interest in preventing other African practices from slipping

into LDS members’ lives.

29 Emmanuel Dei Anin, LOHC 1/20, Kumasi, 23 May 1988.30 William Fefe Imbrah, LOHC 3/21, Cape Coast, 19 May 1988.

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First Place Winners of Traditional Dance Competition, Tema, Ghana, 2013. ‘ChurchMembers in Tema Celebrate Ghanaian Culture’,http://www.mormonnewsroom.com.gh/multimedia-download/article/church-members-in-tema-celebrate-ghanaian-culture <accessed 30 May 2014>

Members have found many other ways of accommodating local

customs to ‘Western’ Mormon standards. Emmanuel Abu Kissi, one of

Ghana’s first members of the Church and General Authority, said

that ‘you can be a traditional ruler and continue to be a

Christian’.31 For example, several chiefs who have joined the

Church have expressed their deep conviction that being a being a

Mormon does not necessarily preclude them from participating in

local customs and rites.32 Aslo Ado Dankwa III, a paramount

31 Emmanuel Abu Kissi, LOHC 4/5, Accra, 12 May 1988.32 Louise Müller, Religion and Chieftaincy in Ghana: An Explanation of the Persistence of a

Traditional Political Institution in West Africa (Zurich: Lit Verlag, 2013), pp. 216-29.

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chief, explained that members of his ethnic group and other

chiefs did not denounce Bankwa, but described him as a

‘reformist’ because he had given up fetishes and delegated

responsibility for libations (rites involving alcohol) to non-

Mormon counselors.33 Not all interviewees agreed, however. One

man from Cape Coast argued that a chief is required to do too

many things that go against Church teachings, such as drink and

use alcohol in various ceremonies. Nevertheless, he did admit

that he had been a secretary to a Muslim chief and was able to

avoid participating in these rites.34 In addition, some members

appeared to be making assumptions about whether or not those who

practiced these rites would join the Church.35 Thus, the general

consensus among those interviewed was that there was nothing

inherently wrong with Ghanaian culture, but rather, as anywhere

in the world, people chose to do things that went against gospel

teachings. Choosing to avoid injurious practices (such as

drinking) but maintaining innocuous, meaningful ones (such as

33 Aslo Ado Dankwa III, LOHC 3/8, Accra, 17 May 1988.34 Isaac Kobina Ghampson, LOHC 3/17, Takoradi, 21 May 1988.35 Kojo Baffour Awuah, LOHC 2/6, Kumasi, 2 May 1988.

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fulfilling the role of chief) was, as Joseph Ewudzie put it,

‘do[ing] the right culture’.36

Economic and Social Hardship

Being a member of the Church in Ghana has not only been

difficult because of differences in dress and festivities.

Ghanaians found that the poor economic climate of the 1980s made

their membership in the Church all the more challenging. In a

nation where the average weekly income is less than the average

American worker can make in a single day,37 members are often

forced to choose between going to work and going to Church, in

which case they would forfeit a day’s salary. Emmanuel Kissi

described most Ghanaians as ‘financially handicapped’, and

admitted that the opportunity cost of going to Church every week

was simply too high for many members.38 Abraham Kwaku Fokoo

36 Joseph Ewudzie, LOHC 3/15, Cape Coast, 18 May 1988. See also Adusei Ernest,LOHC 3/12, Kumasi, 24 May 1988; and Martha Lily Bassaw-Osei, LOHC 2/11, Takoradi, 21 May 1988.

37 The World Bank puts the 2013 average incomes for Ghana and the US at $3,900and $53,750, respectively http://data.worldbank.org/country/ghana <accessed 30 May 2014>. Emmanuel Opare, once second counselor in the Accra District presidency, said that his family usually only had 80 cedis, the equivalent of about $1 USD, to get them through each weekend, Folsom, Golden Harvest in Ghana, 113.

38 Emmanuel Abu Kissi, 12 May 1988.

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likewise said that ‘inactivity in the Church, low faith and all

those things are based on this financial problem’.39 This burden

rested particularly heavy on the sisters whose work as traders

often necessitated their labor on Sundays. June Kal Addy said

that the need to work on Sundays led to a lack of sisterhood and

diminished the Relief Society’s ability to complete meaningful

service projects.40 In a smaller branch in Assin Foso, however,

Mercy Bennett Ampiah denied that the need to work was a

justifiable argument since the Relief Society began collecting

enough money to pay for both the sisters’ clothing and

transportation costs.41 Thus while many of the interviewees saw

themselves in an unforgiving situation, some members actively

sought ways to provide a third option in which sisters could

attend church and still have their basic needs met. Nevertheless,

the testimonies of this hindrance verify the reality of the

situation.

39 Abraham Kwaku Fokoo, LOHC 3/16, Assin Foso, 16 May 1988. This same sentiment was echoed by Joseph Kwame Dadzie, LOHC 3/7, Takoradi, 20 May 1988.

40 June Kal Addy, LOHC 1/7, Accra, 14 May 1988.41 Mercy Bennett-Ampiah, LOHC 2/13, Assin Foso, 16 May 1988.

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Some members called upon the Church for employment as a way

of both supporting its members and putting individuals in direct

responsibility for church property.42 Nana Bentsil I, who

witnessed firsthand the Church employment and welfare systems in

Utah, asked that the Church set up ‘small industries for those

members who are not working so that they can be working and

paying their contributions instead of waiting for people to

contribute to them’.43 One specific job that was proposed was to

have members raise and sell poultry and eggs to provide much

needed income to the local branch.44 Benedicta Kissi, Emmanuel

Kissi’s wife, agreed that the Church needed to create jobs in

Ghana, but at the same time emphasized the importance of

community assistance and the need for members to support each

other: ‘Teach people self will [sic] and teach them about the

welfare, teach them how important welfare services are.’45 Prior

to 1978, all LDS activity was completely financed and supported

by local individuals. It appears, then, that when the LDS Church

officially began operating in Ghana in 1978, many local members42 Ellis Bright Adjer, LOHC 1/9, Kumasi, 24 May 1988.43 Nana Bentsil I, LOHC 2/14, Accra, 13 May 1988.44 Abraham Kwaku Fokoo, 16 May 1988.45 Benedicta Kissi, LOHC 4/4, Accra, 12 May 1988.

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expected the Church to offer more support to its faithful

supporters. Combined with local social and religious traditions

regarding communality and kinship support, it is not surprising

that the Church’s image as an institution that cares for the

poor, especially among its own, had apparently not yet been fully

embraced by its Ghanaian members in years following Official

Declaration-II.46

Even though Ghana’s national language is English, for many

Ghanaians, particularly those living in rural areas, it is not

their first language, and many of these individuals are

illiterate. The Church’s approach to Ghana as a universally

English-speaking country has inadvertently led to the

marginalization of certain members who do not feel comfortable

participating in an English setting. For example, Dorcas Crommey

explained that if it were not for the language, her parents would

have joined the Church.47 Emmanuel Dei Anin from Kumasi also

explained that investigators who do not speak English feel

alienated when church proceedings are conducted in English and

46 Steven A. Abu, 12 May 1988.47 Dorcas Crommey, LOHC 2/25, Accra, 17 May 1988.

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hoped that in the future meetings could be conducted in African

languages with English translators.48

Education and literacy have also been likened to ‘readiness’

to join the Church and the ability to remain a regular

participant in services. When LeBaron asked if any of his

siblings had joined the Church, John Edwin Bennett-Ampiah

responded that ‘unfortunately, all four of my brothers are

illiterate and I am very, very unhappy about that’.49 He then

went on to contrast his siblings to himself, who is educated and

has accepted the Mormon faith.50 Patrick Adu Gyapong, serving as

a missionary in Kumasi at the time of the interview, explained

that initially he could not accept the Church or the Book of

Mormon because he was illiterate.51 In a religion that places so

48 Emmanuel Dei Anin, LOHC 1/20, Kumasi, 23 May 1988.49 John Edwin Bennett-Ampiah, LOHC 2/12, Assin Foso, 16 May 1988.50 These artificial boundaries based on literacy may have developed partially due to encouragement from Church leaders. One Ensign article extoling the faithfulness of Ghanaian members lamented that many Ghanaians did not know enough English to ‘learn skilled jobs, to interact with people from other areas, or to feast on the scriptures’. But instead of considering the important role of local languages in the social setting, the author praised those who actively sought to attend English classes, and commended those ‘for whom literacy was never a problem’, Don L. Searle, ‘Ghana—A Household of Faith’, Ensign (Mar. 1996).

51 Patrick Adu Gyapong, LOHC 3/19, Kumasi, 24 May 1988. Joseph Amartey believed that missionaries were having a harder time converting people in the rural areas because there were fewer educational opportunities there, LOHC 1/12 Accra 14 May 1988.

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much emphasis on personal study, the ability of illiterate or

uneducated individuals to obtain a personal witness has been a

major stumbling block in Ghana.52

Women and the Family

There also seems to be a correlation between literacy (and

more broadly, education) and gender in Ghana. In response to a

question about the submissiveness of wives to their husbands in

Ghana and the Church, Cecilia Blankson supposed, ‘With the

illiterates, I can say it’s true, but with the much enlightened and

educated people, things are changing [emphasis added].’53 This

woman’s response indicates a social process that has not only

been typical of the spread of Mormonism, but of ‘Western’

civilization in general. She viewed illiterate women (who make up

a substantial portion of the population) as un-enlightened and

hence deserving of being below their husbands. While Blankson’s

comment may be more indicative of social or cultural norms

regarding women, that these beliefs infiltrated the congregations

52 Compare with early Catholic efforts to translate texts into the local vernacular and allow locals to perform specialized functions, such as the catechist, Obeng, Asante Catholicism, p. 117.

53 Blankson, LOHC 2/15, Takoradi, 21 May 1988.

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is itself important as it supports the notion of a secularly

syncretic capacity of the Church.

A woman’s level of education is not the only factor limiting

the number of women attending Church, however. For instance,

Juliana Anno explained that in Ghana, women tend to be more

attracted to ‘spiritual’ churches that espouse clapping, dancing,

and loud instruments such as drums—the absence of these things in

Mormon churches made them feel ‘a bit bored’.54 Before the Church

was formally organized in Ghana in 1978, congregations were often

formed by local members who incorporated cultural elements into

their services, including drums and dancing. When the Church

arrived in Ghana to reorganize these congregations, however, it

was primarily the women who left the Church.55

54 Juliana Anno, LOHC 2/22, Cape Coast, 15 May 1988. See also John Kofi Baako who distinctly recalled the date missionaries arrived and ended the spiritualist practices, LOHC 2/9, Assin Foso 16 May 1988.

55 Emmanuel Kwasi Bondah, LOHC 2/17, Assin Foso, 16 May 1988. Further researchis needed here on Rebecca Mould, a woman who single handedly organized Mormon congregations in Western Ghana in the two decades prior to 1978. While using the Book of Mormon as a doctrinal foothold, Mould conducted church services in a similar fashion to ‘spiritual’ Christian churches. Interestingly enough, when Church authorities arrived in Ghana in 1978, theypreferred a gradual ending to these practices rather than causing them to immediately cease. Many of the interviews in this collection refer to Mould and the pre-Declaration Church; see especially Brother Ansah, LOHC 1/23, Takoradi, 21-22 May 1988; Emmanuel Kwesi Arthur, LOHC 2/2, Takoradi, 20 May 1988; Joseph Kwame Dadzie, 20 May 1988.

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This combination of illiteracy, separation of gender

spheres, and attraction to ‘spiritual’ congregations has served

to create male-dominated church services, both in terms of

numbers as well as participation in classes. Joseph Amartey

explained, ‘Most people who join the Church are male members, the

females find it very difficult to come to church. I would say

that the majority, about 90 percent, are all male.’56 Amartey

gave no reason for this, but it would be irrational to believe

that it had to do with any ‘natural inclination’ of men towards

Mormonism, or the inability of women to dedicate themselves to

the Church. We can see instead that the main factors maintaining

this unbalance were economic and cultural. Juliana Anno said that

the most formidable obstacles women faced in joining the Church

were husbands who would not allow their wives to attend, and the

obligation to work on Sundays, or the inability to travel long

distances to church.57 She went on to explain that the paucity of

women at church meetings made those who did attend feel out of

place and unable to participate.58

56 Joseph Amartey, 14 May 1988.57 Martha Lily Bassaw-Osei, 21 May 1988; Cecilia Blankson, 21 May 1988.58 Juliana Anno, 15 May 1988. LeBaron, as many members in the United States would agree, was shocked to hear that in Ghana men dominated the

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We should not overgeneralize on this topic. The number of

women attending church and their participation fluctuated by

region and did not seem to follow any particular trend in every

region analyzed. While Cecilia Baako explained that there were

only a handful of women attending church when she joined in the

early 1980s, membership had speedily grown with the help of home

and visiting teaching.59 Martha Lily Bassaw-Osei described an

experience she had with visiting teaching in which the women

would sit around for hours until ‘somebody’s husband would come

and say “hey, this is enough, I want my wife.” The love has grown

and it is still growing’.60 And when asked about women’s

participation in meetings, Mercy Bennett-Ampiah denied there was

any dearth of women and argued that women participated just as

much as men did.61

The variability and complexities of gender roles can be

taken further. One extremely important facet of much of southern

Ghanaian society is the role of the Queen Mother, or ohemaa, who

conversation in Sunday school, whereas it was (and arguably still is) quite the opposite in the U.S.

59 Cecilia Baako, LOHC 2/8, Assin Foso 16 May 1988.60 Martha Lily Bassaw-Osei, 21 May 1988.61 Mercy Bennett-Ampiah, LOHC 2/13, Assin Foso, 16 May 1988.

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acts as a co-ruler with the chief, or ohene. Seen as both a

symbolic and literal ‘mother’ to her constituents, the ohemaa

provides the ohene counsel, and holds the power to nominate the

next ohene in the event of a vacancy. In her ethnographic study

of ahemaa (pl.), Beverly Stoeltje suggested another role of the

Queen Mother which holds particular interest for our present

study. The Offinsohemaa, or Queen Mother of Offinso, a village

north of Kumasi, was able to garner the support of local leaders,

including religious officials and professors, for the purpose of

discussing policies to better the lives of women. The Offinsohemaa

was ‘using her authority to bring education and organization to

the women in her town and paramountcy, and has explicitly

established as one of her purposes the advancement of women’.62

Thus in a matrilineal society such as that found in Ghana, women

play a greater role than simply perpetuating a royal lineage or

conceiving the future ohene. Their ability to hold a significant

sociopolitical office allows them to connect with the women in

their regions in a very personal way.

62 Beverly J. Stoeltje, ‘Asante Queen Mothers: A Study in Female Authority’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 810 (June 1997), pp. 41-71 (pp. 66-7).

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We can then see how the role of Queen Mother, and of the

chieftaincy in general, can be an effective means of enacting

meaningful social reforms, particularly affecting women. Michelle

Gilbert’s ethnographic study of Akuapim Queen Mothers found that

Queen Mothers are critically important from a symbolic

standpoint. While Queen Mothers hold no official political power,

their ‘main attribute is the moral quality of wisdom, knowledge,

emotion, [and] compassion.’63 The correlation with this office

and the role of women in the Church has not been lost on female

Mormons. Benedicta Kissi was an ohemaa in her village and

passionately argued that the most important duty for the Church

in Ghana is to provide access to welfare and work

opportunities.64 Indeed the greatest concerns of many of these

women was that there were not enough resources—such as those

garnered by the Offinsohemaa—available to women in Ghana, and that

these were necessary to sustained Church growth. Grace Alexandra

Bart-Plange noted that all women, both educated and illiterate,

felt welcomed in Relief Society and supported each other by

63 Michelle Gilbert, ‘The Cimmerian Darkness of Intrigue: Queen Mothers, Christianity and Truth in Akuapem History’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 23/1 (February 1993), pp.2-43 (pp. 5-10).

64 Benedicta Kissi, 12 May 1988.

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pooling resources and goods that could be sold for welfare

funds.65 Henrietta Dadson was able to dedicate special Relief

Society meetings to instructing others how to make and sell

goods, and even taught basic business practices.66

The concerns of those women who suggested that there was a

serious gender disparity in the Church should not be written off

as anomalous or exceptional, however. Even in twenty-first

century Utah there are LDS members who are increasingly

dissatisfied with the direction of the Church’s views on gender.

While the reasons for this discontent may be different, the mere

perpetuation of these sentiments make evident the urgent need to

openly discuss these issues today.

Religious Reconciliation

Amidst the difficulties the Church faces in Ghana,

practicing contribute to the growing dialogue addressing these

obstacles. One of the most oft-cited consistencies between

Ghanaian culture and Mormonism is the importance of the family.

Mormons are well acquainted with the Church’s emphasis on65 Grace Alexandra Bart-Plange, LOHC 2/10, Takoradi, 22 May 1988.66 Henrietta Dadson, LOHC 3/4, Cape Coast, 18 May 1988.

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marriage and child bearing, but Ghanaians are arguably more

passionate about familial responsibility. After having visited

the United States, Eleanor Empsie Dadson commented on the lack of

brotherhood among those outside the nuclear family. In much of

sub-Saharan Africa, the family extends far beyond the bounds of

‘blood’ and includes everyone within the ethnic group or even

nation. She told a story of when she was in the United Kingdom

and fell getting off of a bus. While none of the whites bothered

to help her, a Nigerian man stopped to help her up.67 This

woman’s experience implied the existence of a ‘universal’ family

that transcends any artificial social kinship network. While

Mormons will not hesitate to say that they see all individuals as

their ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’, many such examples show that the

African approaches this tenant in a more inclusive way.

Christianity’s Western roots struggle to come to terms with

the extended family, or abusua, as it is called in Ghana. Not

only is this social kinship system foreign to most Europeans and

Americans, it has often been connected to customs and rituals

67 Eleanor Empsie Dadson, LOHC 3/3, Cape Coast, 19 May 1988.

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that appear overtly un-Christian.68 Miles Cunningham, the white

president of the Ghana Accra Mission in 1988, believed that the

traditional abusua promoted laziness and too much interpersonal

reliance.69 The role of the extended family, however, can

facilitate proselytizing in a way that isolated, nuclear families

cannot. Martha Lily Bassaw-Osei said, ‘In the church we are

learning [to teach] first family and then the rest will follow,’

suggesting that the natural bonds within these larger kinship

networks are effective conduits for disseminating LDS doctrine

and gaining converts.70 Kenneth Kobena Andam noted that it is

extremely common in Ghana for children to spend part of their

early education away from home so that they can travel and

experience other ways of living.71 This practice encourages the

spread of not only regional and national cultures but also

religious ones.72 Nevertheless, primarily Ghanaians, not68 Sydney George Williamson, Akan Religion and the Christian Faith: A Comparative Study of the

Impact of Two Religions, ed. by Kwesi A. Dickson (Accra: Ghana Universities Press,1965), pp. 124-27.

69 Miles Cunningham, LOHC 2/26, Accra, 13 May 1988.70 Martha Lily Bassaw-Osei, 21 May 1988. See also Abraham Godfred Dadzie who described the process of village counsel and discussion, LOHC 3/5, Accra, 14May 1988.

71 Kenneth Kobena Andam, LOHC 1/16, Takoradi, 20 May 1988.72 In an interview conducted in Kumasi in 2014, one member recounted his conversion to Mormonism while away at school and remarked that it was this experience away from home that led him to inquire about the Church and later

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missionaries from the ‘West’, should lead this diaspora of

religion. Cunningham, despite his opinion regarding family

relations, reasoned that most missionaries in Ghana should be

Ghanaians, not just because they knew the language and were

accustomed to the climate, but because they could relate to the

people and show that Mormonism is not a ‘white man’s’ religion.73

The Church’s image as a family-centered religion that raises

children ‘right’ thrives in Ghana. Dorcas Commey, a youth leader

in Accra, said that non-members from local villages would ask

members to informally adopt their children so they can be raised

in the Church: ‘Her father said “I like the way your church

behaves so take my child as a member.” Somebody also gave me a

boy, he’s not my child but he’s also here, he is a deacon. They

are not my children but other people’s children from the

village.’74 Emmanuel Kissi echoed these sentiments when he said,

‘the family unit should stick together closely and extend beyond

the nuclear family’ because all children, no matter how closely

become a member, Isaac Nii Ayi Kwei Martey, interviewed by author, KIP, 18 May 2014. See also Obeng, Asante Catholicism, pp. 175-77.

73 Miles Cunningham, 13 May 1988. Members as well as non-members were liable to such aversions to Western practices, Abraham Godfred Dadzie, 14 May 1988.

74 Dorcas Commey, 17 May 1988.

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related they are to you, should be treated as your own

children.75

When writing about the history of the Church in Africa,

scholars (nearly all of whom are Mormon) have tended to write

from a Euro-/Mormon-centric viewpoint that places Africans in a

Mormon context, rather than putting the Church in the thoroughly

African context it deserves. While his own publications are not

devoid of these imperfections, LeBaron asked many of his

interviewees a question that could reverse this ‘Western-centric’

approach: what can Mormons living in other parts of the world

learn from Ghana? The responses he received offer the reader not

only an insight into the values and culture of Ghana, but also

how Ghanaians view the Mormon Church and its role in society.

Indeed Reverend Billy Johnson’s explanation that there is both

‘good culture’ and ‘bad culture’ in Ghana could be broadened to

include the dichotomous nature of all societies in which

Mormonism must struggle to be accepted and thrive.76

I had the great pleasure of interviewing members of the

Church in Kumasi in May 2014. While an in-depth discussion of75 Emmanuel Kissi, 12 May 1988.76 Joseph William Billy Johnson, LOHC 4/3, Cape Coast, 23 May 1988.

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these interviews is not suitable here, it is vital to note that

there were distinct differences—as well as some similarities—

between the information and testimonies shared by LeBaron’s

interviewees and my own. Differences are indeed important and

highlight some the ways both Ghanaians and the Church has changed

in the past 26 years. Perhaps most importantly, however, are the

things that were similar between the two collections of

interviews. Continuities that span a quarter century are likely

indicative of an issue that has yet to be sufficiently addressed,

and deserve attention here.

Most strikingly, the issue of language surfaced in my

interviews. The number of English speakers in Ghana has grown

over the past quarter century, and literacy and education rates

have both likewise increased. Nevertheless, language remains a

barrier many are unable or unwilling to confront. Bernard Marfo

remarked, ‘Well, now the greatest challenge we are facing now is,

you see, most of our people, they cannot speak English. They

cannot. That one has set many people aside because when they come

and they see that everybody is speaking English and they can’t

Nagaishi 43

speak English they feel shy to come.’77 The insistence placed

upon using English in Church meetings has deterred many from

investigating the Church: ‘[Non-members] always say, for here, we

speak English, always English. For that one, too, they don’t want

to come to the church.’78 Such disinclination to learn more about

a Church that insists on using a Western language may not have

been based solely on local pride, but also in defense of local

languages. The mission president in Kumasi at the time of these

interviews had decreed that missionaries should only baptize

individuals who could read and write English. It was only a few

months before these interviews that he rescinded this policy.79

As noted earlier, it has been difficult for Westerners to

understand and accept the concept of the abusua. Most Mormons

will assert that members throughout the world are hospitable and

friendly. But what about those who are not ‘of the same fold’?

Here the interviewees noted a marked difference between Ghanaians

and those from the West (especially the U.S.). More of the recent

interviewees had experienced life outside of West Africa than

77 Bernard Marfo, KIP, 18 May 2014.78 Joseph Kennedy Awuah, KIP, 23 May 2014.79 Richard Samche, KIP, 17 May 2014.

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those interviewed by LeBaron. This enhanced international

perspective helped placed Ghanaian culture in a proper global

context and elucidate some of the lingering issues relative to

social structures. Martha Arkoh described her experiences in

Utah:

When I went to America [...] some people, even when theythink you are black, and you make the contribution, theythink you are black, so whatever you say is not good [...]So we have to hear and listen to everybody’s, this thing,contribution, whatever we do […] some people looked downupon others and for that I have to say it. So we have toregard everybody as God’s spirit child so that the unitythat we have will be OK and then all of us will learntogether.80

Martha’s description is quite revealing. No only did she

implicitly verify that issues regarding inclusiveness and

camaraderie seen in LeBaron’s interviews thrive, she also

explicitly lamented the fact that racial exclusion continues to

exist. This dynamic was one that hardly surfaced in 1988,

probably because so few members had experienced life as a Mormon

outside of West Africa.

Lingering issues such as these deserve special attention

simply because they have not been resolved through direct efforts

80 Martha Arkoh, KIP 18 May 2014.

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or with time. Again, it is not accurate to insinuate that these

perspectives are shared, or even accepted, by all. Indeed, many

of the individuals I interviewed were adamant that there was

nothing wrong with the way the Church operated in Ghana, but that

it was Ghanaians and their local practices that needed to change

to Western standards. Despite arguments that can be made for or

against implementing Western practices in Ghana, the general

attitude toward the future of the LDS Church in Ghana is hopeful.

Change is indeed necessary and should be planned and implemented

in Ghana by Ghanaians. Any other approach will surely perpetuate

extant concerns.

Conclusion

As this paper has attempted to illustrate, religion, at

least in the Western sense, permeates throughout Ghanaian life.

One professor and Methodist put it this way: ‘The traditional

Akan world view makes no clear distinction between the sacred and

the secular, and for this reason it has proved impossible to

treat of the religion without some reference to the social and

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political institutions which sustain it.’81 The same author

offered five fundamental differences between Christianity and

Akan religion, suggesting that Christianity and Akan religion

could ‘view each other from afar but [find] no common ground for

fellowship’.82 While such differences (which include stances on

revelation, written texts, and the role of god[s]) are indeed

real, I disagree with Williamson that these world views are

incompatible. The history of Christianity in Ghana is evident of

this. The testimonies included in the interviews cited here

illustrate not only how Mormonism can afford to reassess its

position in Ghana, but that many aspects of Mormonism appeal to

Ghanaians. These individuals are highly representative of

Ghanaian society—ranging from the cash crop farmer to the local

chief and queen mother.

Aslo Ado Dankwa III rightly argued that one must understand

the people of Ghana before ever finding success there:

81 Williamson, Akan Religion and the Christian Faith, p. 112. See also John S. Pobee, Religion and Politics in Ghana (Accra: Ghana Universities Press, 1992); Louise Müller, Religion and Chieftaincy in Ghana, pp. 216-29; Ebenezer Obiri Addo, Kwame Nkrumah: A Case Study of Religion and Politics in Ghana (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1997).

82 Williamson, Akan Religion and the Christian Faith, pp. 137-51.

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We must be able to understand each other’s culture and eachother’s background to be able to have successful religiouseducation and penetration. The earlier missionaries did nothave this advantage of knowing precisely who an African isbefore bringing their brand of religion and they had a lotof problems . . . bring some knowledgeable people here tostudy what is termed African traditional religion, to findhow it can interact with Christianity and to find ways ofavoiding conflict and have cooperation, to be able to winsouls for Christ without much tears.83

The history of the Church in Ghana has been one of unreciprocated

importation; what is needed is a balanced trade of culture and

ideas. Responding to how this should be done, Brigham Johnson

suggested that Ghanaians should travel abroad to have experiences

—both spiritual and secular—among other societies, and then

return back to Ghana ‘to help [our] country’.84 Those who are

rightly skeptical of foreign incursion will surely me more

receptive such a simple method.

In addition to understanding other contemporary

conceptualizations of Christianity, and Mormonism in particular,

the LDS Church must consider the historical (traditional) social,

political, and religious context into which its doctrine is

received. Ghanaian professor Robert Yaw Owusu stated that

83 Aslo Ado Dankwa III, 17 May 1988.84 Brigham Johnson, LOHC 4/1, Cape Coast, 20 May 1988.

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‘Understanding and appreciating the African traditional society

and values means understanding African personhood’.85 Some

interviewees clearly understood the connection between cultural

competence and the value of Ghanaian views on the family. Abraham

Godfred Dadzie described the adaow, a festival which encourages

the abusua to come together to share ideas about family life and

governance, and encourages the spread of ideas and values across

nuclear lines.86 It is not only Mormons or Americans that fail to

understand the extent of kinship ties, either. Another member

related a period in Nigerian history when civil unrest prompted

the United Nations to forcibly return all Ghanaians living in

Nigeria back to Ghana. UN officials, however, failed to

understand the concept of extended families in Ghana and assumed

many of these individuals had no family to return to.87 Though

the situation in Nigeria was complex and one would not expect the

UN to be completely aware of local customs, Ghanaians clearly saw

a lack of cultural understanding as a contributing factor in

their tragic situation.

85 Owusu, Kwame Nkrumah’s Liberation Thought, p. 25.86 Abraham Godfred Dadzie, 15 May 1988.87 Banyan Acquate Dadson, LOHC 3/2, Cape Coast, 18 May 1988.

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Professors emeriti Spencer Palmer and Roger Keller of

Brigham Young University proposed, ‘Members of the Church must

decide from a tactical point whether the evangelical mission of

the Church can be accomplished more effectively by emphasizing

the diabolic nature of the similarities between the gospel and

the native faiths or by emphasizing the common heritage of the

pre-earth life, the influence of the Light of Christ, the

partially accurate deposit of faith and truth from ancient times

and so forth.’88 Despite many a Mormon’s unbending resolve that

the Mormon Church is the only ‘true’ church, Africa—indeed the

whole world—contains, as one Mormon sociologist put it, ‘multiple

truths . . . and all are demonstrably in the right.’89 Accepting

this may come as a hard task for many stalwart members, but it

should be clear that ‘truth’, even as defined by the First

Presidency of the LDS Church, is not found in only one religion:

‘When the opinions of “truths” of others contradict our own,

instead of considering the possibility that there could be

88 Spencer J. Palmer and Roger R. Keller, Religions of the World: A Latter-day Saint View (Provo, Utah: Scholarly Publications, BYU, 1990), p. 225, quoted in JenniferHuss Basquiat, ‘Embodied Mormonism: Vodou and the LDS Faith in Haiti’, Dialogue, 37.4 (Winter 2004): p. 20.

89 M. Neff Smart, ‘The Challenge of Africa’, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 12.2 (Summer 1979): 54-7 (p. 57).

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information that might be helpful and augment or complement what

we know, we often jump to conclusions or make assumptions that

the other person is misinformed, mentally challenged, or even

trying to deceive.’90 These ‘truths’, though they may be

unfamiliar, offer the Church an opportunity to expand not only in

numbers but also in ideology and the eyes of its onlookers.

Lawrence A. Young, professor of sociology at BYU, wrote that

Ghanaians are not predisposed to acquiesce to foreign incursions

and cultural impositions because they have historically been ‘at

the forefront of African leadership’. Not only does this mean

Ghanaians will be skeptical of anything introduced by whites, but

it also means other African nations will follow Ghana’s example:

‘If the Mormon church is unable to accommodate itself to Ghanaian

society, it may well encounter additional difficulties as it

attempts to establish a foothold in West Africa.’91 While Young

stated that there is no single way of successfully integrating

Mormonism into a particular society, he does suggest that local

90 Dieter F. Uchtdorf, ‘What is Truth?’ https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2013/01/what-is-truth?lang=eng <accessed 19 December 2014>.

91 Young, ‘Confronting Turbulent Environments’, in Contemporary Mormonism, ed. by Cornwall, Heaton, and Young, p. 54.

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individuals and groups should develop congregations themselves,

with only ‘loose control from the central administrative staff’.

He admits, however, that this model is ‘clearly incompatible with

the hegemonic, hierarchical, and centralized approach entrenched

in the Mormon church’, and would require significant effort to

ever effectively implement.92

One African-American Mormon in Utah said in an interview:

I think there should be more of an integral sharing ofcultures among all people within the church. Let somebodysing a hymn that is not in the hymnbook, so to speak, thatmay be traditionally called a Baptist hymn or a negrospiritual or let someone sing a Korean song in sacramentmeeting. We are a church of many people and many cultures. Ithink what we do should reflect that.93

While what the early Mormon authors wrote about the rapid growth

of the Church in Africa cannot be denied, neither can we expect a

sustained influx of converts if the Church continues to operate

as it has done in the past thirty years. If there is any

expectation that the Church in Africa ‘will in God’s time grow

steadily into a great torrent’, then there needs to be an

92 Young, ‘Confronting Turbulent Environments’, pp. 60-1.93 Annette Reid, interviewed by Marc Cherry, 20 February 1985, in Jessie L. Embry, ‘Separate but Equal? Black Branches, Genesis Groups, or Integrated Wards?’ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 23.1 (Spring 1990): pp. 11-36 (p. 33).

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emphasis placed on cultural competence and sharing.94 Ghana faces

many challenges, but Mormonism need not be one of them if it can

prove to Ghanaians—and other nations where the Church is still in

its infancy—that it can successfully operate within the local

context. For as Emmanuel Kwasi Bondah explained: ‘We cannot do

away with the Ghanaian way.’95

94 Folsom, ‘Golden Harvest’, p.188.95 Emmanuel Kwasi Bondah, LOHC 2/17, Assin Foso, 16 May 1988.

Nagaishi 53

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