God in Jewish and Fante Religious Thought

Leo Andoh Korsah,Maxwell Kojo Tsibu

doi:10.38159/ehass.2021221

Leo Andoh Korsah, Maxwell Kojo Tsibu

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2021221

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the Jewish concept of God from the Hebrew Bible and also God in the thoughts of the Fante from Oguaa (Cape Coast). The methodological approaches adopted for the study were phenomenology and the narrative method. Instruments used in the collection of data were observation and semi-structured interviews using the purposive sampling technique. The paper deals with the question of the existence of God, names, and the nature of God from both Jewish and Fante thoughts. Questions about the existence of God are taken for granted in the Hebrew Bible: it is a foundational knowledge embedded in their very consciousness and praxis. The same established understanding is found among the Fante from Oguaa, as expressed in the popular maxim: Obi nkyerε abɔfra Nyame, literally meaning, ‘no one shows the child God’. The study contends that the Jewish concept of God in the Hebrew Bible is not much different from God in the life and thought of the people of Oguaa. The paper also brings out some shared similarities and differences between the Jewish and Fante in their conceptions about God. The sharp dichotomy between these two sets of religious groups is that among the Jewish people, there is a consistent emphasis on the oneness of YHWH and exclusive devotion unto him as attested to in the Hebrew Bible whereas in the Fante thought, devotion to the Supreme God is diffused with that of other transcendental beings such as gods and ancestors. Keywords: Deity, Fante, Jewish, thought, Oguaa, Religious

Highlights

A study of the Jewish concept of God as found in the Hebrew Scriptures and God in the life and thought of the Fante of Oguaa (Cape Coast) is very essential to the general Akan experience of God
This paper focuses on the Jewish concept of God from the Hebrew Bible and God in the thoughts of the Fante from Oguaa (Cape Coast)
The same idea is well enshrined in the life and thought of the Fante from Oguaa: Onyame is beyond their shores because he is Ͻbɔadze

Summary

INTRODUCTION

A study of the Jewish concept of God as found in the Hebrew Scriptures and God in the life and thought of the Fante of Oguaa (Cape Coast) is very essential to the general Akan experience of God. Like in all ancient cultures of the time, Jewish people saw in YHWH the supreme powers capable of giving them victories in battles and liberation from the hands of enemies He was thought of as an unquestionable source of religious rituals (i.e., circumcision, Passover, a meditation on the Laws, etc.), social values (i.e., procreation, marriage, the sanctity of life, etc.), and morality (i.e., love for God and neighbours, justice, kindness, and faithfulness, etc.) in the Jewish community. In discussing the origin of the African belief in God, Mbiti has put forward three reasons that could have led to indigenous Africans' belief in God and these were: reflections on the creation of the universe, the realization of human limitations and weaknesses, and thirdly observation of the forces of nature.[31] These may suggest that there was a point in time that the Africans did not believe in God but this cannot be said of the people of Oguaa. Onyame, these gods or deities are believed to be quick in exacting just judgments and consequences for human humans’ conducts

Ɔwɔ bia nyinaa

CONCLUSION