A Christological Reflection on Papa Yaw Johnson’s “Fa wo ntoma bɛbɔ me deɛ ano”

Abstract

Africans express most of their religious beliefs in oral and symbolic forms. Music is one of the major sources of African theology and traditional wisdom. As the church in Africa strives to decolonize the Christian faith, African theologians must explore various means by which oral and symbolic theologies can contribute to the overall theology of the church. The present paper contributes to this theological exploration by examining key socioreligious ideas embedded in Papa Yaw Johnson’s “Fa wo ntoma bɛbɔ me deɛ ano”, a popular Ghanaian dirge. This paper used a literary analysis research approach to analyze the selected dirge. It began with the general concept of death and continued to consider dirges in the context of Ghanaian funerals. After offering a socio-linguistic analysis of the dirge, the paper offered a Christological reflection based on two key thematic areas: Nkwamafoɔ Christology and Nyansaboakwa Christology. The main thesis of the paper is that Jesus, through his life, ministry, death and resurrection, has reversed Adam’s actions that placed humanity under the power of sin and death. Therefore, with Christ at the centre of life, one should not fear (physical) death. Keywords: Africa, Christianity, Dirge, Eschatology, Ghana