Decolonising African Divine Episteme

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to decolonise Akan divine episteme from undue Euro-Christian influence. Since the 1920s, cultural anthropologists have argued that the Akan concept of Twereduampon Kwame is because God either revealed himself to the Akan on a Saturday or the Akan worshipped God on that day. Employing in-depth interviews and a secondary data research approach that incorporates analysis of extant literature, I challenge this assumption by arguing that the name of God as Twereduampon Kwame is based on the significance of day names. This is because the name intermeshes with the enigma of death and God’s positionality as the source of the answer to the disruption caused by death. Contrary to the assumption of revelation or Sabbath observance in the Akan religion, the name Twereduampon Kwame points to God’s appellation as the greatest herbalist.