Founder: Jacob Benjamin Anaman (di. 1939)
This church was founded in 1907 by Jacob Benjamin Anaman, a former minister of the Methodist church. He broke away from the Methodists partly as a result of disagreements he had with the leadership over the attempt by the church to disband singing bands who used songs in the mother tongue. Their singing was sometimes accompanied by dancing which was offensive to the church hierarchy but which the members found meaningful. Consequently, the first congregation of the Nigritian Episcopal Church was made up of members of the singing band who had been expelled from the Methodist church at Anomabo, an important coastal town in the Central region of Ghana.
The Nigritian Church, together with two other churches—the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church and the National Baptist Church—came to represent the earliest attempt to give religious expression to Gold Coast nationalism and the search for African identity. The name of the Church ‘Nigritian’ is derived from the word ‘Negro’. Its name in Fanti, the mother tongue of the founder is Ebibir Asor (African Church). The nationalist and African orientation of the church is given expression in its constitution:
Christianity has been introduced among the black races…long enough that it is now time and also quite possible for some of them to build up for themselves an independent Christian Church upon the lines of the teaching of the New Testament, governed by themselves independently of supervision from any foreign .country for the practice of the faith and worship of the most High God.
The founder, Rev. J.B.Anaman was associated with movements that played significant pioneering roles in the nationalist movements such as the African Society and the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society. Famous Gold Coast nationalist leaders, such as John Mensah Sarbah, Attoh Ahuma and Casely-Hayford, supported his Church. Atto-Ahuma was a regular preacher at special meetings of the church and Casely-Hayford paid for the first set of choir robes worn by the church’s choir. Rev. Anaman also joined in the protest against the Land Bill and was the first to publish a book suggesting a link between modern Ghana and ancient Ghana.
The Nigritian church, like its two contemporary counterparts mentioned above, was not significantly radical in the sense of expressing African cultural identity or pursuing political self-determination through the use of relevant indigenous religious symbolism.
In doctrine and liturgy, the Nigritian Church does not depart significantly from the Methodist church. Apart from its nationalist orientation and its claim to be an indigenous missionary enterprise, there is little to distinguish it from the Methodist church. Its distinguishing characteristics are, mainly, the freedom of self-expression allowed in worship and the use of the mother tongue in worship. Following the example of the missionaries, the Nigritian Episcopal Church, in its early years, embarked on vigorous evangelistic activities, planting churches and establishing schools in many parts of the country. However, unlike the mission-instituted churches, the Nigritian Church had no foreign financial support and most of the members were not high-income earners. So it was plagued with serious financial difficulties, which led to the closure of all its schools in 1929.
After the death of the Rev. J.B.Anaman in 1939, his son, Amos W.Anaman succeeded him. Amos worked hard to reopen most of the schools that were closed down in 1929 and establish new ones. The Church also grew in membership and the number of congregations increased. In 1965, in keeping with its professed Episcopal polity, the church consecrated the Rev. Amos W.Anaman as its first Presiding Bishop.
Although the Nigritian church in many ways held on to the Methodist church’s tradition, it shed quite early, the gender prejudices which were so common in all the mission-instituted churches. In 1967 three female leaders—prophetess Anna Ainooson-Noonoo, prophetess Leah Ainooson-Noonoo and Rev. Mother Dorcas—were consecrated as assistant bishops. When the Rt. Rev. Amos W.Anaman died in 1974, Assistant bishop Anna Ainooson-Noonoo became the Presiding Bishop.
The Nigritian Church, in the twenty-first century, has branches in many of the major cities and towns in Ghana. It also has a few schools in Cape-Coast and Kumasi; however, it has not overcome its financial difficulties and most of its congregations continue to worship in classrooms.
