Readers will recall Bishop Elvina Miller as the American evangelist (Oasis of Love church) who wrote a book about the people of Prampram in 1998 (Re-print) following her alleged four day visit to the town in 1954. In this book, “Captured In Africa: An Incredible True Story”, the Bishop claims to be the first person to introduce Christianity to Prampram following visit in 1954. Every Ghanaian would testify that her claim is not true. The Ebenezer Methodist Church in Upper Town, Prampram was established in 1846 by Rev. Fr. Birch Freeman and the St Joseph Anglican Church in Lower Town, Prampram was established in 1942, long before Bishop Miller set foot on Prampram soil. Bishop Miller made her claim to being the person to introduce Christianity with a quote in her book with the words, “in the USA where I come from, there are churches in every corner but in this village (meaning Prampram), no one had ever heard the name Jesus Christ”. “This is a place where no churches or Christians existed”. “The entire village was fetish”. These, in my view are dishonest statements by a woman who claims to be a Bishop and a Christian.

Bishop Miller described how enraged Prampram fetish people ordered two thousand inhabitants of the town to stone her during her visit. She further described the people of Prampram in her book with words like demons, evil, devils and uncivilised. Even the Bishop’s grandson, Rev Arthur Speck added his comments to his grandmother’s book on page 157 with the words, when I stood in the street of Prampram in 1991, I envisaged what my grandmother must have gone through “in the hands of evil”. The Bishop further described how during her visit to the town she observed how every animal and birds were slaughtered as part of sacrificial ritual. She said every house and every street in Prampram was covered with the blood of animals. This, in my view can only be the figment of Bishop Miller’s racist imagination about Africans.

My question is, “Why would Bishop Miller want to be buried amongst the very people that she referred to in her book, which was re-printed as late as 1991, as some kind of uncivilised murderers, demons, evil and devils?” Why did Bishop Miller take advantage of the hospitality of the people of Prampram and come to live in the town (post 1991), including his grandson Rev Speck for several years and now expressing her wish to be buried in Prampram? Today, Bishop Miller, her grandson Arthur Speck and other members of her congregation from the USA continue to enjoy the hospitality of the people of Prampram despite her unwarranted abuse of the people. Why would these people want to live amongst these “demons and evil people” let alone any of them wanting to be buried amongst them? Only Bishop Miller can answer these questions but I have my own hypothesis on this.

Bishop Miller deliberately lied in her book in order to appeal to her gullible congregation in the USA, and to bring her fame as the redeemer of some uncivilised and murderous tribe in dark Africa. A cult leader like Bishop Miller would want her gullible congregation and readers in the USA to think of her as the woman who brought Christianity to the people of Prampram, escaped death from the hands of these new found savages, courageous enough to go back after 1991 to live amongst them, died amongst them and buried amongst them. This, in my view is a perfect scenario for her to be immortalised, and to turn her final resting place in Prampram into a place of pilgrimage for her cult followers.

I have no illusions about Bishop Miller being buried in Prampram as long as some of the morally corrupt elders of the town and church leaders continue to wheel power in the town and benefit from the Bishop’s activities in the town. People who dared to challenge Bishop Miller have been threatened and silenced. It is amazing how much difference a few US dollars thrown at such corrupt individuals can make when it comes to selling their conscience and birthrights. I have personally received a threat from Mr Samuel Narh Gberbie and hostility from Dr Charles Andoh both of who are members of Bishop Miller’s Oasis of Love church in Ghana. Both of these two unpleasant characters saw nothing wrong with the assertions made by Bishop Miller and I believe this is because they are both beneficiaries of the Bishop’s activities in Prampram. I am not deterred by their threats and intimidations, and would continue to stand up for the truth and righteousness.

Calls for Bishop Miller to render an apology to the people of Prampram have fallen on deaf ears, including my regular and unrelenting calls for an apology since January 2006. In a meeting with the Prampram Paramount Chief on 1 September 2006 at his residence in Prampram, he indicated that he had asked for an apology from Bishop Miller but so far she had failed to render such an apology to the people of Prampram. Additionally, in the 3 October 2007 edition of The Ghanaian Observer newspaper, the MP for Ningo–Prampram, the Rt. Hon. E T Mensah was quoted as saying, “he and the traditional council were setting up a committee to get the Bishop to go beyond apologising to the people”. Again there has been no indication that such an apology has been received. The question that needs to be asked is “who is in charge of Prampram”, the Paramount Chief, our elected representative or Bishop Elvina Miller? On what basis would the Bishop fail to apologise to the people of Prampram when asked for by the traditional ruler, Nene Tetteh Djan III? Why is the Bishop being allowed to continue to operate her religious activities from Prampram soil when she has refused to apologise for the racial and religious abuses of the people of Prampram in her book?

It is my hope that the government of Ghana would take decisive action against people like Bishop Miller who come to our country to abuse the nation’s hospitality and disrespect our culture and way of life. Incidentally, today, Bishop Miller continues to promote the book on the Internet and on her Oasis of Love church websites, showing her utter contempt to the people of Ghana, and in particular the people of Prampram.

Article By: Sam Doku Paa_fio@yahoo.com