Greeting the Chief

One of the things you do when visiting a village in Ghana is you go and greet the “naa” or chief. This is done out of courtesy and respect. When visiting the chief you typically do so at his palace, which is usually a simple round hut with a straw roof. When you get to his palace you usually find the chief sitting on an animal skin inside his palace with the village elders seated around him on the ground. When you meet the chief you are expected to bow to him and you’re not supposed to make direct eye contact with him. You also cannot speak directly to him, but instead must speak through his spokesperson. The conversation is usually fairly stilted, but most of the chiefs I have met have always been polite, and several have had a great sense of humor. As you greet the chief you state your business in the village and then ask permission to preach, or teach, or do a medical clinic; whatever it is you are there for. Chiefs usually expect a gift of some kind; a cedi or two, or perhaps a bench for his village. Chiefs also frequently ask for prayer, whether they are Christian, Muslim, or African Traditional Religion adherents.

The man pictured above is the chief of Gua. When we arrived in his village on Monday to do a medical clinic we didn’t have go to his palace to greet him – he was already at the place we were going to do the medical clinic waiting on us to arrive! We also weren’t required to speak through a spokesperson. He was quite willing to engage us in conversation through a translator. When we do clinics where we anticipate a large number of people like we had at Gua we hand out numbers to keep some semblance of crowd control. Each family gets a number and then we call the families up by number. In this case, the chief received number 1 and was very pleased.

Experiences like this are priceless, but it is all in a day’s work on the mission field. I’m hopeful that some of you who have followed this blog will perhaps join me on a future trip. If you feel God nudging you in the least, please let me know and let’s talk and pray about it. You will never be the same – I guarantee it!