By Emmanuel Modey
It is 6 o’clock in the morning on May 8, 2010. The youth of Atimpoku are aggrieved. They are on the street, some wielding sticks and machetes. And why not? The previous farming and fishing seasons have not been favourable to them. They think the gods have been bribed.
“What!”
“Yes, they have bribed the gods.”
“How?”
“Why should there be a funeral for that man?”
“Which man?”
“ Kofi Puni (not real name) of course!”
“And why not? He’s one of us!”
“Don’t you remember he died through an accident?”
That was Jackson Darko, the organiser of the Atimpoku Youth Association, who is also a popular herbalist, linking the recent calamities of deaths, accidents and poor harvests to the disregard of the laid-down traditions and customs for a deceased who died through drowning.
Atimpoku, located in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region, is a predominantly fishing community, said to have been founded by three prominent personalities, including Komfo Adu, a renowned fetish priest who lived in the 1870’s
According to Kofi Asare, also known as Wone-kele, a great grandson of Komfo Adu, the natives are strongly attached to their customs and traditions, particularly those related to funerals. Like many other ethnic groups in the country and elsewhere, the people of Atimpoku consider as a taboo, accidental or unnatural deaths, which they call in their local parlance Atofowuo, and therefore, no proper funerals are not organised for such victims.
But same cannot be said about such funerals in recent times, because of a vacuum created in the traditional leadership of the town by the death of the paramount chief about four years ago. As a result, some of the traditions regarding funerals are said to have been ignored.
Some youth in the town who believe that some elders are exploiting the situation to their advantage, are accusing them (the elders) of “bribing the gods.”
“These unscrupulous elders collect huge amounts of money from the families of deceased persons on the pretext of soliciting the permission of the gods to organize such funerals” said Jackson
“But these turn out to be hoax, as the messages of the gods are misinterpreted to suit their whims and caprices. The demands by these elders which are purported to have been that of the gods, are usually a clever way of extorting money from the innocent.”
As in the case of most Akan communities, the people of Atimpoku organise their funerals on Thursdays and Saturdays. On the death of a person, his/her family informs the chief and elders of the town with a bottle of schnapps, two bottles of ‘akpetshie” and five bottles of soft drinks. A date is thus set by the family members for the organisation of the funeral.
During the funeral which usually starts at noon after the burial had taken place in the morning, the leaders and members of the deceased’s family sit at the funeral grounds known as the bedwam for sympathisers and well-wishers to mourn with them.
Traditional forms of music, dance and drumming, such as Adowa and Kete, are used to entertain the mourners. In this funeral, mourners usually put on black and red clothes to signify their state of grief. However, in the event of the death of an elder person of 70 years and above, black and white clothes are usually preferred, as a form of celebrating his or her longevity.
In all of these cases, mourners are served with all kinds of drinks and food, whilst they also show their appreciation by making donations (normally monetary) to defray part of the cost that may have been incurred in the organisation of the funerals.
In the situation of accidental deaths or atofowuo which is deemed as a taboo, the above-mentioned rites are not permissible. In this scenario, the family members, after taking the body from the morgue are not allowed to bring it home, but rather to the burial ground or the cemetery where the coffin is opened briefly for people to look at the body.
Family members, after the burial, go back to the chief’s palace for the necessary rituals to be performed to appease the gods, whom they deem to be angry at the death.
Jackson’s view about this is that; “Culture at Atimpoku is being adulterated by “bribing” the gods who are supposed to be the spiritual custodians of customs and traditions.” The big question is, Can the gods be bribed?
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