Ahmadiyya in Ghana

The early rise of the Community in Ghana can be traced through a sequence of events beginning roughly at the same time as the birth of the Ahmadiyya movement in 1889 in British India.

It was during the early period of the Second Caliphate that the first missionary, Abdul Rahim Nayyar was sent to what was then the Gold Coast in 1921 upon invitation from Sunni Muslims in Saltpond.

[1] Having established the movement in the country, Nayyar left and was replaced by the first permanent missionary, Al Hajj Fadl-ul-Rahman Hakim in 1922.

Although, there were reports of small number of Muslims in southern Ghana in the early 19th century,[3] Islam is said to have properly commenced in the region in 1885, among the Fante people.

[3] Starting from Ekrofol, Sam self-designated himself as its Imam, and quickly built a community of 500 Fante Muslims across southern Ghana.

[4][5] The first contact with Ahmadiyya in Ghana can perhaps be attributed to a consequence of Sam's cousin who dreamt of white men called "Muslims",[5] with whom he was praying.

[6] Soon, through the Review of Religions,[5] the Fante Muslims under the leadership of Appah made contact with the caliph, Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad, in Qadian, India.

[8] Despite resistance from northern clerics, the Fante Muslims converted en masse, giving immediate rise to the Ahmadiyya movement in Ghana.

[5][7] Having established the Ahmadiyya movement in Ghana, Nayyar left within a month for Lagos, in Nigeria, before returning again in fall of 1921.

Many of these discussions revolved around the death of Jesus, a perspective at odds with the non-Ahmadi Muslim and Christian populations of Ghana.

[16] From the very beginning, the Ahmadiyya movement adopted Western-style education system and at the same time advocated for Islamic curriculum.

[11] In 1932, a Suwarian religious scholar, Salih bin Hassan, originally from Wa, was teaching in Amumoso, a village, roughly nine miles from Kumasi.

He inadvertently confronted a crowd of people gathered around a preacher, Nazir Ahmad Ali,[9] who was to later become a pioneering missionary in Sierra Leone.

[21] In a separate development, in the year 1939, through Salih's efforts a mission house was established outside Tamale in Dagbon, within the northern regions.

[27] In the early part of his ministry, Adam shifted the headquarters of the Ghanaian Ahmadiyya Muslim Community from Saltpond to the capital of the country, Accra.

The move came in response to Accra's growing economic and political influence in the country, which strongly contrasts with Saltpond, a small unknown town in coastal Ghana.

[27] Perhaps as a result of this, the Ahmadi Muslim teachings, and particularly its eschatological doctrines have been the most difficult theological challenge the Ghanaian Christians may have encountered since the late twentieth century.

[28] Another notable consequence is that, since 1964, the Christian denominations in Ghana have come to increasingly recognize the presence of Muslims as important and noticeable members of the Ghanaian society.

It has also been argued that besides the Nusrat Jahan Scheme, local missionaries and leaders boosted their efforts in humanitarian activities as well, to "restore the glory of Islam.

"[30] While opening the fourth Ahmadiyya hospital in the country in 1971, at Agona Swedru, Central Region, Basharat Ahmad Basir, a leading Ahmadiyya missionary stated that, "opening hospitals and educational facilities in the country was part of the programme of the Movement to regain the lost heritage and glory of Islam.

However, the Coalition of Muslim Organizations maintain that the final census figures "contained serious flaws and as a result could not be used as reliable data for planning and projecting the country’s development agenda."

[38] Today, the Ahmadiyya movement maintains a large number of schools, colleges and health facilities across Ghana.

There are also a large number of Ahmadi mosques, including one missionary training college in Mankessim, near Saltpond, in the Central Region.

The date for Ramadhan is set upon a joint declaration by the Chief Imam and the Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission.