Tete wↄ bi ka, tete wↄ bi kyerɛ: Pius Agyemang’s Sacred Music and Ghana’s Catholic Liturgical Inculturation

Abstract

Abstract This article provides an ethnographic reading into Catholic liturgical music rooted in African indigenous concepts. It analyzes some selected lyrics of the compositions of Pius Agyemang, SVD, who was a versatile Ghanaian Catholic composer and historian with vast knowledge in Ghanaian culture, to explore the nexus between Christian religiosity and being an African. These songs are not just literary texts but indigenous theology in action that expresses the religious understanding and reflections of a people within the context of Ghanaian indigenous knowledge system’s philosophy. The article shows how Pius Agyemang’s works provide a paradigm of indigenous theology that combines the Asante thought-form and culture with indigenous expressions of the Christian faith. It argues that there is complementarity between Christianity and the indigenous knowledge system’s philosophy that situates Christian belief in a stronger way in the Ghanaian traditional setting and serves as a relevant source of African Christian epistemology.