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Diasporia News of Sunday, 22 June 2003

Source: GHP

Ghanaian Traditional Priest Makes It Big In US

Nana Ahor Kakabaah Annan I:
Behind a facade of manicured lawns in the tranquil docility of New Jersey suburbia can be found a powerful Ghanaian traditional healing center, the Annan Memorial Herbal and Culture Healing Center at Freehold, NJ. The man at the helm of affairs is a young looking immigrant from Ghana by name, Nana Ahor Kakabaah Annan I. He is the President, Chief Executive Officer of the center, and Herbalist and Divine Priest for the shrines. Nana Ahor is also the International coordinator for the Ghana Psychic and Traditional Healers Association.

Those familiar with traditional African religion will admit that it is rare to have highly educated fetish priests. Nana Ahor Kakabaah Annan I is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) by profession and worked for several years as financial comptroller in the City of New York. He had to heed the call of the gods to serve as a priest of the shrines and thus renounce his position. He admits that he was an unwilling candidate having resisted the call for a long time. “I must say that it took a long time for me to submit to my calling," he says.

He also revealed that even though his father and mother were both custodians of similar shrines, his mother particularly, wanted her son to be educated and not join in the family business as it were in his family. “Several of my brothers are priests," he adds.

Some of the diseases succesfully treated by Nana includes Piles /Hemorrhoids,Hypertension,Stress & Depression,Menstrual disorder,Arthritis,Skin disorders,Allergies & Asthma,Mental disorders & Alcoholic counseling, impotence, various forms of cancer, barrenness in both males and females. Several other diseases are also treated at the Center.

Talking to Nana about competing with modern medical treatment in the United States, he confidently stated that his performance has led to people being refered to him after being unseceesfully treated in hospitals and clinics.

As a healer, Nana Ahor has had positive responses since he started work at the center in 2001. He is being patronized by people of African ancestry and Europeans as well at the New Jersey center; he travels to other states. Nana Ahor has had the privilege through invitations to visit many European countries and Japan to offer his services. He attributes his success to his observance of ethical principles as demanded by the gods. As a priest of the shrines, he finds himself also as a servant of God.

"The gods in the African traditional religion can be compared to the saints in the Christian religion” Nana philosophied.

Nana Ahor believes that divine priests must be held to the same standards as any person of divine persuasion and calling to enable the quacks to be rooted out