As a scholar, Anthony Ephirim-Donkor’s métier is African religious life. The critically-
acclaimed African Spirituality: On Becoming Ancestors, now in its third edition, is among his
best-known and well-thumped books, for very good reasons. For an accessible window onto the
rigor and depth of Ephirim-Donkor’s scholarship, its deep learning and immersion in the
subject matter, its observer-participant panache and engaging ethnography, one needn’t look
any further than African Spirituality. Grounded in empirical data from the Akan peoples of
Ghana, the book offers a spirited meditation on African indigenous religious life, at the core of
which are two interrelated quests: to attain eldership in this world, including through veneration
of the ancestors, and to attain ancestorhood in the world to come.
It remains the case that discourses on African life, not least African spiritual life, often must include a vindicationist affirmation—that is, a defense of African belief systems and ways of doing and thinking, the integrity and rationality of which continue to be questioned by non-
African observers, and even by African ones. In this regard, African Spirituality doubles as an
exercise in African vindication. For mastery of the topic and moral commitment to the cause, to
say nothing of his insider knowledge as a traditional ruler, there are few scholars, in or out of
Africa, capable of matching Ephirim-Donkor’s authority and credibility on the question of
Akan spiritual and cultural life. By dint of its deep interdisciplinarity—its seamless crossing of
the boundaries that separate the social sciences from the humanities, religion from philosophy,
the sacred from the secular—the book also lends itself to comparative cosmological and
cultural studies, which is yet another example of its vindicationism. Seasoned scholars of
African spirituality no less than those new to the subject, such as undergraduate students, have
much to learn from Ephirim-Donkor’s book. African Spirituality is a work that has already
endured many seasons. It has many more still to go.
— Michael O. West, Penn State University
As a traditional African ruler and Western educated scholar, Dr. Ephirim-Donkor draws on his
personal experience growing up in Africa, key informant interviews, his research, and
scholarship to weave together a tapestry of personality development as practiced and
understood in West Africa. His weaving of personal stories with philosophical and theological
understanding plus scholarly references creates a complex cosmology with ancient roots and
modern interpretations. Often, he examines the roots of key Akan words to offer a deeper
understanding of their true and more spiritual meaning. Although he makes comparisons to
Western concepts of human personality development, he expands them to include the non-
corporeal phases of development—before conception and after death—and interweaves those
phases with a person’s physical existence. He lays to bed any notions of “primitive” about
African notions of spiritual development and theological understandings, pointing out ways that
missionaries have denounced and sought to deny Africans their traditional beliefs and ways of
life in order to impose Western values.
In his role as a traditional African ruler, he is privy to rituals and rites reserved for royalty, which give him greater insights into the full import of theological concepts and implications for living. He also expresses the imperative to document traditional practices and their meanings and purposes before they are lost completely to a “modernizing” influence in Africa. This book provides such documentation and should be a valuable resource for those wanting a better understanding of traditional west African spiritual practices, of the origins of many African American practices, and of the relationship between the physical and spiritual worlds as embodied in the human experience. This entirely revised third edition presents new insights and addresses some criticisms of earlier editions, as well as introduces a new chapter that extends the discussion of human development to an additional phase.
— Susan F. Goekler, RMCHES, Emeritus CEO, American School Health Association