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He pointed out that because of the prevalence of shrines in almost every family house in the Ga community, people ignorantly assume that they are “fetish” and “idol” worshipers but he said the contrary is rather the truth.
Nii Ashalley corrected such assumptions by saying the shrines and deities common among the Gas are rather messengers and mediums that the ancestors used in communicating with the creator Ataa Naa Nyonmo.
He thus refuted the demeaning European tag of “fetish” priests and priestesses associated with the practitioners of the custom of spiritually sending and receiving messages from the creator through the various deities among the Gas, who are rightly called Wulomei.
Nii Ashalley said the traditional priests and priestesses are the ones mandated to go into the holy room known in Ga as “Gba tsumlin” to receive the message that has been sent down to the people by the creator through the deities.
He said it is inherent in all Ga supplications and prayers to call on the creator first before any other entity because there is a way to pray to the creator traditionally and that is through the mediums.
Nii Ashalley thus categorically stated that the Gas don’t worship the mediums and the deities but rather they send them which resulted in their indigenous name “ Won Dzamo”.
He said this in an interview with TV3 on the New Day show on Friday, August 13, on the back of the Homowo celebration in the month of August every year and the associated stigma the current generation ascribe to the culture.
“We don’t worship gods, we use the medium to talk to the spiritual realm when we are in trouble and they bring us the message. Our Wulomei are not fetish, they are traditional priests, they go into their holy rooms and bring the message back to us”, Nii Ashalley busted the myth on the New Day.
He added “yes we have deities, when we pray we call on God first but there is a way to communicate to God traditionally and it is through these mediums just like Christians do it through Jesus. So we don’t worship them, we send them. That is why we have the two words ‘Won Dzamo’, when you worship, then ‘Wo Ye Wontwu Won’, when you go to bring the message to us”.
Nii Ashalley further clarified that in case there is a plague or famine among the Gas, they send the ancestors to investigate the cause of such plague or famine which they always bring down the answers to amend any anomalies in the Ga community through the deities.
Source||3news.com
