Christians must embrace tradition, culture

The Paramount Chief of Abutia Traditional Area, Togbega Abutia Kodzo Gidi, has asked Christians to change their attitude towards culture and tradition, upon which society was built and stop regarding chiefs as evil and idol worshipers.

Togbega Gidi said it was unfortunate that some Christians did not appreciate the roles chiefs played, and associated them with evil, and anytime a royal attends church and was about to be made a chief, the church members opposed such a decision.

The Paramount Chief made the call at the outdooring ceremony of a new Mankrado for the Abutia Traditional area, Togbe Keh VIII, and his Queen mother, Mama Kehbeah III, all from the Gbakoe Clan of Abutia-Teti in the Ho West District of the Volta Region.

The 36-year old Mankrado works with the Ho West District Assembly as the District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP) Coordinator, while Mama Kehbeah, aged 23, is a biological scientist.

Togbega Gidi said it was important for Christians to appreciate the traditional and cultural values of the communities they live in and described the chieftaincy institution as the lifeline of society centuries before Christianity came.

He also stated that the role of chiefs, among others included promotion of peace, unity, development, and preservation of culture and tradition of the people, adding that the peace being enjoyed in the country paves the way for churches to propagate the gospel.

Togbega Gidi emphasised that “I advise all Christians to respect our tradition and cultural values, and should understand that our ancestors are there, and there is also a supreme God that we recognise as well, so please change your attitude, chiefs are not evil men as you think; we all recognise a higher God like you do.”

The Paramount chief further urged the new chief and queen mother to work closely with the chiefs and queen mothers of the area to promote development, stressing the need to preserve and promote the tradition and cultural values of the people of Abutia for the benefit of the present and future generations.

The newly outdoored Mankrado of the Abutia Traditional area, Togbe Keh VIII, thanked the kingmakers for the confidence reposed in him and the queen mother, Mama Kehbeah III, and called for collaboration and support to enable them to work effectively.

Togbe Keh said his vision was to work with traditional rulers in the area to promote education, saying education was the engine of growth of every community, stressing on his priority and urged parents to ensure that their children of school going age were in school.

The Queen mother Mama Kehbeah III also assured that she would support the Abutia Traditional Council to bring the needed development to the area, to make the area more attractive to the youth to live and work, stressing the importance of the people to uphold and defend the culture values of the area.

From Samuel Agbewode, Abutia-Teti, Oti Region

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