On March 21, 2021 the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission celebrated its centenary in Ghana. It marked 100 years of the declaration establishing the mission at Ekumfi Ekrawfo, in the presence of its first Missionary in charge, Maulvi Abdul Rahim Nayyar, who had just arrived by boat from present day Pakistan.
Since then, the mission has done well for itself. Apart from religion and moral uprightness on its congregation, the mission has established schools, hospitals and various trading posts.
The mission owes its genesis in Ghana to the activities of two great friends – Ekumfi Tufuhen Kojo Adoagyir Appah – born at Ekumfi Atakwaa in 1825 and his friend, Mr. Benjamin Sam, originally from Egyaa No.2, near Anomabo in the Central Region.
According to oral accounts, the two met when Mr. Sam went to Adoagyir Appah’s house at Atakwaa one morning, when he was preparing to go to the farm and introduced himself to the Ekumfi Tufuhen. The two friends became inseparable.
Mr. Benjamin Sam was a devout Christian of the Methodist faith. It is said that he managed to convince Tufuhen Appah to convert to Methodism.
However, Mr. Benjamin Sam is said to have met a Hausa man, called Siddique, who succeeded in converting him to Islam (Non-Ahmadis) in 1900. Following his conversion, Mr. Benjamin Sam took on a new name – Benyameen Sam.
The conversion of Mr. Benjamin Sam to Islam had a profound impact on his friend, who bought into the Muslim ideology without much hesitation. The Tufuhen became Chief Mahdi Appah and the focal point of a large following.
At that point in time, oral tradition stipulated that the town Ekrawfo did not exist. Rather, there were a cluster of eight villages. The people clamoured for more education on their new religion and decided to move to form one township for easy walking to and from Islamic teachings.
Aided by the construction of the main road, from Otuam to Ajumako, the new converts moved to establish the township of Ekrawfo.
As news of the new religion spread like wild fire, according to various accounts, one Yusif Nyarko, a native of Ekrawfon, had a dream that the new religious group were at prayer with a group of white-skinned people. Checks at Saltpond, then provincial capital of the area, revealed that white-skinned Muslims existed in Saudi Arabia and India. At that point in time, Pakistan was part of India.
Following series of correspondences between the new sect at Ekrawfo and Pakistan, Maulvi Nayar arrived by boat at Saltpond, as the first Missionary in charge of the Ahmadiyya Mission in Ghana. His fare was two hundred pounds sterling.
Chief Mahdi Appah paid one hundred cedis and later raised funds from the Ekrawfo Jama (congregation) to meet the other hundred pounds. On the arrival at Saltpond, of the new missionary, six young men from Ekrawfo were dispatched to bring the new missionary.
Those who volunteered to carry the missionary from Saltpong to Ekrawfo were Kwesi Bukar Quansah, Kwesi Bukar Adobah Quansah and his junior brother, Usman Kwame Yedu Quansah. Others were Adam Kofi Saah, Bukar Biney and Ekow Sam. All six are now deceased. It will interest you to know that Bukar Kwesi Adoba Quansah was my biological father.
Without potable water and electricity at the time, the new missionary was stationed at Saltpond. Since the establishment of the Ahmadiyya Mislim Mission at Ekrawfo, the mission has expanded to all corners of the country. It now commands a large following. I am told that apart from Pakistan, the Ghana mission has the largest congregation in the whole wide world.
I have narrated all this to let readers know that the founding and nurturing of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission owes its genesis to our grandparents at Ekumfi Ekrawfo, and that no citizen of the town should be held to ridicule at Ahmadiyya conferences, in the name of a political party.
Ahmadiyya, by nature, has always operated a circular system. It does not lean itself to any political party in Ghana. Unfortunately, of late, news has been doing the round that the man occupying the top spot in the Ahmadiyya mission hierarchy has been doing everything in his power to promote Mr. John Dramani Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) within the movement.
I am told from very reliable sources that Ameer Muhammed Bin Salih is a friend of Mr. John Dramani Mahama. That should not raise any concern from me.
I am worried that because of the NDC and Mahama, Ameer Salih subjected Mr. Kobina Tahir Hammond, Minister of Trade and a very respected senior member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission to public ridicule at the opening of the Ahmadiyya Conference, at Pomadze in the Central Region on Thursday, February 25, 2024.
I was not at Pomadze. But I have video evidence sent to me by a disgruntled member of the mission, who witnessed the spectacle.
The mission invited Alhaji Mahamadu Bawumia, in his capacity as Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana, to the opening ceremony.
The Ameer introduced Dr. Bawumia as Vice-President, which was fine. But Mr. Hammond, a very senior member of the mission, who I am told, sent 200 bags of rice and trucks load of chicken so that the congregation could be fed, rose to his feet and added that the Vice-President is also the in-coming President of Ghana, come January 2025. The fury with which the Ameer, a member of the National Peace Council, rose from his seat in anger, was astonishing.
He stormed the podium, ceased the microphone and spoke like the campaign manager of John Mahama and his NDC. Thanks to technology, his trembling voice was clear as he spoke.
Read the lips of the Ameer as it twisted in anger: “We members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community completely and completely, disown the statement that the Hon. K.T. Hammond has made. He has expressed his own desires…politics desires.”
Read his lips further: ”Our own desire is… that leader who will lead Ghana once more…who will lead Ghana once more into his position in the comity of nations. That is the leader we pray to Allah for.”
I don’t think even Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, Sammy Gyamfi and co, would do a better job on Mr. Mahama, than what the Ameer did on Mahama at Pomadze.
Dear reader, that is not all. I am ashamed at the treatment handed over to the Minister of Trade and Industry at Pomadze. If anybody at all would be so humiliated by the Ameer, it should definitely not be Mr. Kobina Tahir Hayford.
As you read this piece, the very first Ahmadiyya mosque in Ghana is undergoing renovation works, together with what used to be the national cemetery, both cited at Ekrawfo. Mr. Hammond is picking up all the bills.
Two years ago, the mission celebrated its centenary in Ghana and the Guest of Honour was penciled to be the head of the world-wide mission, based in London.
In order to facilitate his stay, Mr. Hammond single-handedly built a luxurious accommodation for him at Pomadze. At every Ahymadiyya Conference, Mr. Hammond contributes handsomely towards making members comfortable.
As stated earlier, Mr. K.T. Hammond is a well-respected member of the Ahmadiyya movement, recognised from the supreme headquarters of the mission in London.
According to information at my disposal, a few years back, when there were attacks on members of the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan, Mr. Hammond was chosen by the Supreme Leader, to accompany the late Maulvi Abdul Wahab Adam, of blessed memory, to commiserate with the Pakistani members in Lahore and Rabwa.
Many good things he has done for the mission. This is the man that the current Ameer so humiliated, because of the Ameer’s personal friendship with Mr Mahama and his apparent love for the NDC.
If Thursday’s declaration was unbecoming of a man supposed to mediate, the next day, Friday, February 26, 2024 was even more embarrassing.
The head of the mission invited Mr. Mahama to mount the podium at Pomadze, in a language that belied his neutrality as a religious leader and member of the Ghana Peace Council.
“His Excellency, John Dramani Mahama,” Ameer began on a civil note, before going bananas, “He is a sword with two edges. Both edges are sharp…. His Excellency John Dramani Mahama is culturally, a Muslim.”
He then went on to tell his congregation that though Mr. Mahama is a Christian, he is a Muslim who could call the Azan, the Muslim call to prayer.
Praising Mr. Mahama to the congregation, and to the high heavens, Ameer Muhammed bin Salih said: “There is no iota of arrogance in him….On behalf of all of us, let me thank him.”
To crown it all, the Ameer invited his congregation to remember members of the mission contesting for Membership of Parliament on the ticket of the NDC.
He called out Alhaji Alhassan Ghanasa, Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odoben Brakwa, who has been an Egyptian mummy in the House of Parliament for the last four years, and Mr. Yawson, contesting as an NDC candidate for Gomoa Central, for consideration by the Ahmadiyya constituent.
At the time he made that pronouncement, he knew that at least, Mr. Kobina Tahir Hammond, a key member of the movement, was also standing for elections. Was he silent because Mr. Hammond is on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party?
A word to the wise is in the Koran!
Ebo Quansah in Accra
