African traditional religion not evil – Prophet defends practice

The founder and leader of the New Gavriel Enlightenment Traditional Church at Somanya in the Yilo Krobo Municipality of The Eastern Region has defended the practice of African Traditional Religion in the country.

Prophet Torgbui Anaglasi responding to critics during the celebration of the annual Avulegbeza festival said religion and one’s faith lies in the heart and not necessarily in one’s religion.

“If people say traditional religion is bad, [I’m telling them that] religion is in the heart, the good things you do, the bad things you do, that’s what God will use to judge you,” he said.

He was speaking during this year’s celebration of the Avulegbeza 2020 festival, also known as the Burnt Sacrifice which is a two day event celebrated on the 9th and 10th of the month of July respectively as a day of forgiveness and freedom.

The New Gavriel Enlightenment Traditional church was established in the year 2013 with the festival instituted some four years ago. The aim of the burnt sacrifice which is preceded with 21 days fasting, is for the blood of the ram shed to cleanse mankind of all wrong committed while asking for forgiveness for their sins.

As part of the burnt sacrifice, a ram is slaughtered and placed on an alter loaded with firewood after which the prophet, commands fire to light the firewood.

The ram, together with the firewood is left to burn to ashes after which the ashes are collected for purposes of healing.

It is believed that on July 9 and 10 every year, deities all over the world embark on a journey to the spiritual realm to account for their deed to the Supreme Being and as a result, it would be the ideal period for the practitioners to showcase their deities.

Prophet Torgbui Anaglasi also reiterated his call on government to institute a public holiday in honour of the faith, just as has been done to Christians and Muslims.

He argues that traditional religion deserves such consideration since it was recognised by the 1992 Constitution.

Article 21(a) and (c) of the 1992 Constitution provides respectively that “all persons shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and belief, which shall include academic freedom and freedom to practice any religion and to manifest such practice”.

This according to the founder and leader of the Church, required the state to give equal recognition to all faiths including traditional religion.

Traditional religion is recognized in the 1992 constitution of Ghana and is the oldest religion in Ghana among Christian and Islamic religion, hence needed equal fair share of attention as much as the above mentioned religions gained, the Prophet argued.

On his part, chairman for the occasion, Torgbui Ababio IV from Volo in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region Commended Prophet Anaglasi for holding the event.

Torgbui Ababio IV while urging everybody to undertake all activities in truth also condemned criticisms against traditional religion.

He said the practice is in the bible and advised critics to instead focus on their own beliefs and allow believers of the practice also practices their own beliefs.

“Traditional religion is also in the bible and so my advice to everybody is that they shouldn’t condemn people who believe in it. Prophet Anaglasi always quotes his activities from the bible. If you are a Christian and you want to speak against African traditional religion, you are making a big mistake. Follow what you are doing, another person should also follow what they are doing,” he said.