Akyode in Ghana

Introduction / History

They are farmers-mainly yam and cassava farmers. The people of the mountain areas of Shiare and Chillinga also raise plantain, bananas and pineapples.

They are warm people once they know they are respected but they have a reputation for being bellicose--especially those of the community of Nyambong. (The Akyode people are the considered the indigeneous people of the Nkwanta-South district. They must have probably been the first settlers in that region)

Community life is centered around social gatherings such as funerals. Like most other ethnic groups in Ghana, they believe in giving the dead a proper farewell.

They play sports such as football (soccer) on a community level. They embark on communal labour.

They celebrate one big festival every year around the ending of August or the beginning of September which is the new yam festival. This is a big event for the Akyode community and every community has a differen date to celebrate the festival. There is a period between when the new yams can harvested and when they are actually brought home from the farms. Until certain "purification" rites have been performed it is a taboo to bring new yams home to the community to eat (though some do so in secret-especially those who profess to be Christians) Once the purification rights have been performed, the festival begins.

Where Are they Located?

They live in the Nkwanta-South District of the Volta Region of Ghana (the Vola Region is in the Eastern most part of the country and runs almost the length of the country. The Nkwanta-South district is at the northern most part of the Volta region). Shiare is their paramountcy and Nyambong the most populous community.

What Are Their Beliefs?

The Akyode people believe in the One Supreme God-Wurubuare. However, indigeniously they are adherents to traditional beliefs of idol worship and pacification of the smaller gods.

In communities such as Nyambong, Keri and Abrewankor Christianity is the nominally prevalent religion. A majority of these Christians however profess to be Catholics-few are evangelicals.

The communities of Shiare and Chilinga are considered the strongholds of the traditional religion, even by the local people themselves

Akyodes believe that if a woman's son makes a young girl whom he is not married to pregnant and the young girl is allowed to bring the child to term then the mother of the young man can no longer have any more children. This has given rise to a culture of aborting pregnancies of young unmarried girls.

What Are Their Needs?

The gospel-they need a true understanding of it. What it means to be saved and what it means to live life in the victorious power of the Holy Spirit.

Many of the Akyode communities have received some form of sustained Christian witness, however the communities of Shiare and Chilinga are the most unreached (Chilinga being the worst).

They also need mentors and role models in all spheres of life-education, health, sanitation, church life. They also need to learn how to grow indigeneously and locally; for they seem to flourish under foreign influence (like many other Ghanaians) yet slip back into their old ways and habits once the supervision is gone.

Most of these communities live without electricity.

Prayer Points

Pray the communities of Chilinga and Shiare will abandon idolatry.
Pray for a strong witness among the communities of Nyambong, Abrewankor.
Pray that believers will not fall away under the influence of Christian cults which are now seeping their way into the Akyode community.

Text Source:   Anonymous