About Samuel Etikpah
Dr Samuel Etikpah is an adjunct lecturer in Introduction to African Studies and Research Methods at the Pentecost University College in Ghana. Etikpah obtained his PhD and MPhil in Intercontextual Theology from the University of Oslo (UiO) after conducting dissertation research on ritual and interfaith relations; explored the Kundum and Mother River festivals as collective activities among adherents of African traditional religions, Christians and Muslims in Ghana. In the autumns 2012 and 2013, he co-taught in Intercontextual Theology: Issues, Models and Theoretical Tools at UiO’s Theology Faculty. Etikpah obtained BA in Philosophy and Study of Religions from the University of Ghana. He has worked as a teaching assistant at the University of Ghana’s Department for the Study of Religions where he taught undergraduate classes in History of Religion in Africa (2005-2006). He is the author of:
- “The Kundum and Mother River Festivals: Exploring Ritual, Interreligious Collaboration, and Community Development in Jomoro, Ghana.” PhD dissertation in Intercontextual Theology. Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo, Norway. 2016.
- “The Kundum Festival in Ghana: Ritual Interaction with the Nonhuman among the Akan.” Journal of Africana Religions (JOAR), Vol. 3, No. 4 (2015): 343-396. USA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Summary of individual project in REDO
Nzema Kundum and Mother River: Exploring Community Festivals as Negotiation for Interreligious Collaboration and Community Development in Southwestern Ghana.
Whereas recent theological studies of interreligious collaboration have not tended to focus on ritual and festival practices as important cultural resources for dialogue and community development (see e.g. Race 1983: 1-70; Coward 2000: 16-60; Knitter 2002: 19-235; Samwuni 2011; Azumah and Sanneh 2013), I propose to approach the interreligious field from a festival perspective.
I will use ethnographic data collected from 15 months of fieldwork among the religiously diverse celebrants of Kundum and Mother River festivals in two Ghanaian villages, Kabenla Suazo and Bonyere, to investigate the following questions: In a multiethnic and interreligious West-African rural community,
- How are community festivals and rituals effective vehicles for generating interreligious collaboration and meaningful coexistence among Christians, Muslims and practitioners of ATR?
- How are festivals cultural resources for village community Development?
- How do the Kundum and Mother River effect personal belief and feelings of belonging?
Do these festivals impede community progress, breed suspicion and reinforce divisions, or do they help renegotiate and reconstitute the social bond?
Prof. Jone Salomonsen at TF and the University of Oslo is the main advisor on this project.