Two organisations condemn Afrikania Mission

Accra (Greater Accra) 18 Jan. '99

The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) today joined International Needs (IN), a non- governmental organisation, in condemning the Afrikania Mission for attempting to breathe life into the outlawed Trokosi system. Mr Emile Short, CHRAJ boss, told a press conference in Accra that the Afrikania Mission 's efforts to perpetuate the Trokosi system is "inhuman". Mr Short described a document being circulated by the Afrikania Mission in Ghana and outside as ''frivolous, unmeritorious and mischievous.'' He accused the Afrikania Mission of ''using religion to confuse issues inherent in inhuman activity''. The Reverend Walter Pimpong, executive director of IN, said in circulating the document, the Afrikania Mission used ''subtle and dangerous attempts to incite religious hatred and conflict between Christianity and traditional religion.'' Reverend Pimpong said the IN, after liberating enslaved girls at the Trokosi shrines, has built a vocational training school to accommodate 140 girls at a cost of 200 million cedis. He said a 30 million cedis nursery is being built by the IN at Kebenu in the North Tongu District to house children of the liberated women.