African Personality and Spirituality by Ephirim-Donkor Anthony;

Author:Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony; [Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2015-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Awerεkyikyir

Intrinsically there is a more benign, comforting, and uplifting side to the Weeri called Awerεkyikyir (pronounced A-WE-RƐ-CHI-CHIL). And insofar as a person experiencing depression or profound grief is concerned, this innate quality is essential in lifting up a person from a melancholic state to good health. The Awerεkyikyir is affectively triggered in response to depression in order to restore balance to the Weeri and make the soul blissful. Often the Akan would say that to show or display affectivity (Awerεkyikyir) is to be human, because they believe that the Awerεkyikyir emanates from person to person (Awerεkyikyir fir onyimpa hon). When people hug one another there is transference of energies, when usually a higher or superior energy flows to a person with low energy, with the aim of uplifting the Weeri of the one with low Weeri energy due to depression or bereavement. Similarly if an unclean person were to hug a highly developed person, the highly developed person is defiled during the exchange or transference of energies, especially if the hug was not solicited. For this reason, highly developed persons like elders and traditional rulers are usually protected by people whose duty is it to make sure that no one gets too close to such persons. So when the Akan say that Awerεkyikyir emanates from person to person in the proper context, they mean so therapeutically.

Everyone is thought to have a gentle, counseling, consoling, comforting and uplifting spirit needed to alleviate the state of melancholia, especially when shown toward the bereaved. This capacity in human beings and animals should be extended to include others in need of spiritual, emotional, and psychological help. The reason is that the Awerεkyikyir in living beings is meant to help lift up the spirit or Weeri of anyone facing psychological help, when one literally transfers one’s balanced spiritual energy (Weeri) to another person’s low Weeri level. For the Akan, whenever there is a bereavement it is customary that women, especially elderly women, spend days and weeks with the bereaved family until a culturally defined time of three months, sometimes not saying anything to the bereaved. In the ancient times, it took a whole year; nowadays, the period of visitations where elderly women sit with the bereaved has been reduced significantly due to the difficult economic times, as it is the responsibility of the bereaved family to feed the mourners during the duration of their stay. However, the larger point is that those experiencing profound grief and depression must not be left alone in their depressed or bereaved moments. It is expected that after the duration of the Awerεkyikyir period where people reside with the bereaved, that he or she recovers, or else the goodwill turns into frustration, anger, and even insults, as to why the bereaved does not respond to treatment. This meant to get the bereaved or the depressed to snap from such a dangerous state. In Job 2:11–13 (RSV), we read the following:

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place.

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