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Journal of the American Academy of Religion Advance Access originally published online on February 12, 2008
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2008 76(1):54-81; doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfm091
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Akom: The Ultimate Mediumship Experience Among the Akan

Anthony Ephirim-Donkor

Anthony Ephirim-Donkor, Africana Studies, Binghamton University, PO Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA

E-mail: aephirim{at}binghamton.edu


  Abstract

Research on African mediumistic experiences is usually subsumed under "possessions," with no distinction made to differentiate the various degrees and categories of mediumship experiences. This paper makes one such distinction that mediumship experiences among the Akan are aptly described as alighting or alightment. After years of austere training, Akan mediums or Akomfo learn to control, discipline, and refine their initial uncontrolled "insane" experiences. The evidence shows, that the Akomfo are clergy wholly, deriving their vocational authority from a continuum of priests, mediums, doctors, etc., making them essential to Akan religious practices. Entrusted with sacred rites, the Akomfo preserve and protect for posterity the religious and cultural traditions of their ancestors in order to insure ritual continuity and sameness. Focusing on the clergy from three communities in the Central Region of Ghana, the paper follows them from the time that they are "called" to their ordinations as Akomfo, and observes mediumistic practices.


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