Colloquium/Workshop: Call for Paper Contributions

Colloquium/Workshop: Call for Paper Contributions

Title: Religion (Catholicism) and Leadership in Northern Ghana: A portrait of Cardinal Peter Porekuu Dery (1918 -2008)

Place: Ss Peter and Paul Pastoral and Social Institute, Wa

Date: July 21-22; 2011

Venue: Ss Peter and Paul Pastoral and Social Institute

Conference Registration Fee: GHC 15.00 (This does not include accommodation and meals)

Abstract Submission:

Send a provisional title and a three hundred to five hundred words abstract of your proposed presentation any of the contact persons before February 15^th, 2011

Registration: To allow for better planning, all those wanting to attend the colloquium with or without presentation must register before June 1^st; 2011.

Contact for all information and registrations:

Rev. Dr. Edward B. Tengan, PSI, P.O Box 52, Wa; Tel: 0756-22596; Email: tenganed@live.com

Dr. Alexis B. Tengan, Hoogstraat 13, 1930 Zaventem; Tel. 32-27258752; Email: Alexis.Tengan@yucom.be

Summary:

On Monday, 23 April 1906 the Missionaries of Africa also known as the White Fathers, arrived from Upper Volta, today known as Burkina Faso, to begin their missionary activities in northern Ghana. The small group consisted of Rev. Fathers Jean-Marie Chollet and Brother Eugene Gall from France and Oscar Morin from Canada as missionaries and a contingent of about 20 Africans as helpers. Socially and culturally, the region was still suffering from the consequences of the just outlawed slave raiding and the coming to end of terror regimes by war-lords initiated by such Zabarma generals as Samouri and Babatu. The populations were still to come to terms with the European (French, British and German) use of military forces to try to establish their colonial rule. Many of the ethnic populations and groups residing in what is today called the Northern Region of Ghana and also those in semi-urban trading centres such as Wa and Bawku had, over the past century, for reasons of security, come to adopt aspects of Islamization for their cultures and the centralising chieftaincy structure as their main socio-political systems. The rest of the populations and ethnic groups, mainly rural farming communities who did not subscribe to Islam and or did not adopt chieftaincy structure were forced to migrate into the arid and less fertile regions of the present day Upper-East and Upper-West Regions. A main feature of these populations was constant migration and redistribution of peoples throughout the territory (Ratray 19, Fortes 19) and the use of linguistic and cultural icons as identity markers rather than territorial localities (Goody 19). The words of Cardinal Porekuu Dery whose leadership portrait is partly the focus of this colloquium/workshop regarding his own family/clan history capture the general situation at the time.

I grew up to learn from my elders that my people originally moved from Dagbong to Mossi country (Moo-tenga). How long they stayed there, I do not know. What I gather is that there was fission in the family after some time and a large portion of it moved away from there. They are said to have moved South. None of those of us still living remembers ever having been told the reason for the move from Moo-tenga. Was it due to a quarrel or some family disagreement? I do not know. As the group descended southward from Moo-tenga, it came into contact with some Kasena and some Gurunshi. My family must have stayed among and mingled with these people for a short while before moving further South. Further down, they came into contact with the Sisala. Their stay among the Sisala must have been quite long and their interaction with them intensive. For Isaaleng gradually replaced More as a medium of communication for my people.The final phase of their move brought them through Tumu, Gbal, Wiiro, Fielmuo, Nabing and Zoole. They eventually arrived at Konguol where they settled. I do not know what special event took place in Nabing and Zoole but my family has always felt emotionally attached to these places as the terms nabing-ma and zoole-ma continue to be used as praise-names for the daughters of our patrilineage. These two terms are clearly composites of Sisaala and Dagara words."

Religion and Socio-cultural Context

Given such a historical context, it was normal for these populations to rely on their African Traditional Religion and house-based clan formations as main source features for their social and cultural lives. Hence, leadership for the whole community partly depended on charismatic figures emerging from different descent and clan groups with excellent education in religious and cultural thoughts and practices and partly on custodianship of cultic institutions linked to the family and clan structures and the traditional religion. These included not only the localised institutions linked to the earth, the rain, the river and the sky as cosmic beings but also such abstract global notions as the Dagara bagr. These institutions supported the training of individuals who will ensure the continuity of traditional religion and its practices. These individuals, considered as custodians of the institutions provided a specific form of leadership based on religious authority.

This situation had begun to change, first with the installation of Islam in northern Ghana, and much radically later, with the implementation of the colonial enterprise and the planting of Catholicism in the area. This period is bound to be the most exciting period for the study of cultural history of Northern Ghana. It has to be considered as the formation period when a society and a cultural area now known as northern Ghana was founded. A convenient way of studying the different socio-cultural elements and actors over the period is to focus on the portrait of Cardinal Peter Porekuu Dery (1918-2008), one of the main figures who fully participated in these changes and helped to shape the concept and practice of religious leadership during this period.

Hence, in order to properly understanding the relevance of this period, and to fully document the significance of memories on religion and leadership provided by Cardinal Dery and his contemporaries, the colloquium/workshop is looking for paper contributions that shed light on and analyse any social, cultural, political and religious phenomena that have taken place since the beginning of the last century.

Contributors can focus their papers on any of these or any other theme they might find relevant. Papers should integrate the ideas and leadership role of Cardinal Dery in shaping the issues embedded in these themes.

Major themes for the Conference

1. Gender and Family Leadership since the planting of Christianity in northern Ghana (The evolution of marriage system, family life, and gender relations and the Christian impact thereof)
2. Traditional Society and Religious Leadership: (The changing role of traditional priests and other leaders and the changing significance of their tasks including divination, initiation rituals, sacrifices etc.)
3. Catholicism and the growth of the clerical, religious and lay societies as fractured movements within the church (The changing identity and role of priesthood; religious life and social belonging)
4. Art, Literature (including music, performance, dance, story telling, proverbs etc) and the changes in forms of symbolisation and communication

Catholicism and the increased role of Christian education, youth formation and inspired leadership and development in Northern Ghana.