In 1954 an American missionary Bishop Elvina Miller visited Ghana and she allegedly spent four days in Prampram preaching the words of God to the people who she alleges have never heard of the name Jesus in her book “Captured In Africa: A True Incredible Story”. The real title of her book should have been “Captured in Africa: How to Lie About Africa and Make Money and Fame From It”.
I would like to start this message with the saying “All reality hinges on moral foundation”. If Bishop Miller truly believes that what she wrote about the people of Prampram is true as the title of the book suggests then that calls into question her moral foundation. Her book is a classic example of the kind of literature that continues to be propagated by white supremacist racists who are free to say what they like about the Black race under the protection of the “Freedom of Speech” laws in the USA. That, in my humble opinion is her moral basis for writing this book.
This message is for the attention of the people Ghana especially the people of Prampram and Kumasi where she has established two churches. It is also to the people of Pennsylvania and the Unites States in general, who continue to support Bishop Miller’s appeal on her church’s website asking for the donations to help the people of Prampram. You need to know that the book is in most parts as they relate to Prampram a fabricated story. The book, in my view, sets out to make money for herself, her family and the Oasis of Love church that she had founded. I maintain that the book is a fraud and I say so for the following reasons.
Mrs Miller claims that in 1954 when she visited Prampram, the people of Prampram have never heard of the name Jesus. She said “there are no Christians or churches there at all” in 1954. (p.79).
If Bishop Miller was that sincere about wanting to know the history of Christianity in Prampram when she visited in 1954, she could have visited the two churches in the town and would have realised that the Ebenezer Methodist Church in Upper Prampram was established in 1826, 126 years before she first set foot on Prampram soil. The St Joseph Anglican Church in Lower Prampram was established in 1924, again 30 years before she set foot in Prampram. These two prominent buildings in the town were only about 5 feet from the only street in the town. She claims to have stayed in the town for four days preaching the Gospel to the people and yet she conveniently failed to see these two prominent church buildings and went on to claim in her book that no Christians or churches exited in the town, and that the people have never heard of the name Jesus. What an incredible statement to be made by a so-called person of God, a Bishop, in a book that was first published as late as 1991 and re-printed in 1998.
Bishop Miller tries to give the impression that she was the first European to bring Christianity to Prampram. Bishop Miller described her subsequent visit to Ghana in January 1976. She said she met with the man (Local Pastor) who first invited her to visit Prampram in 1954. As soon as he saw her he said “Sister Miller, you would never recognise Prampram. Many of the Fetishes have become Christians, and there are two churches in the village now.” (p.131).
Bishop Miller described the people of Prampram as “Back in bush country people have no concept of civilised behaviour and further described them as people enslaved by demonic powers (p.91). Mrs Miller stated that she spent four days in Prampram and again she failed to see the colonial administration block that housed the local magistrates court, the local post office and the telephone exchange. She also failed to see the magnificent Police Station, which was built by the British Colonial administration in 1824 and fully operational. These, like the two churches were only a few feet from the only road in the town. It is obvious that the sentiments she expressed in her book demonstrate her attempt to portray the black person as some kind of an uncivilised race of people, a view which continues to be openly expressed by white supremacist racists.
Bishop Miller gave a sensational account of what she first saw when she arrived in Prampram on her first day with the following quote from the book, “When we got there I saw something I had never witnessed before: the streets and houses were splattered with blood. The fetish people had slaughtered every goat, chicken and bird available and splattered the blood everywhere”. The four days they were there “the interpreter wore herself out looking for chicken or some kind of bird to cook for diner, but she could not find any because they have all been bought for the sacrifices”. (p.84).
Never in the history of Prampram had such ritual ceremony of mass slaughter taken place in Prampram. No such recording had been made by earlier genuine missionaries to Prampram dating back to time when Europeans first set foot on Prampram soil, and in later time when the British made their presence in the town with the building of Fort Vernon in 1740 and the first purpose-built Police station in the country in 1814.
The Bishop described how she was captured by enraged Fetishes, and 2000 people were ordered by the priests to stone her, presumably to death. (p.111). I ask you all citizens of Ghana, have any of you ever heard of any such incident in Ghana whereby an order is made to stone a European to death? Why didn’t she report this alleged incident to the Police. After all the station was fully operational in 1954 when she was in the town and still remains so. Ghanaians simply don’t act like that. That is not a Ghanaian thing. Again this is an attempt to present Ghanaians and in particular the people of Prampram to the outside world as some kind of uncivilised murderous people. I use the word murderous because in page 84 of her book she said, ”Missionaries later told me that it is impossible to come so close and come away alive”.
Bishop Miller referred to the people of Prampram as worse than lepers with the following quotation in her book “ when he (a local vicar) knew that I wasn’t afraid touch lepers, he challenged me to touch something worse than that, to visit a place called Prampram”. She went on to use words like Evil, Heathen, Satan and Demons to further described the people of Prampram.
Why would Bishop Miller want to viciously attack, humiliate, demean and abuse the people of Prampram who in 1954 welcomed her into their midst with open arms only for her to exploit their good nature and subject them to an unnecessary assault in the name of Christianity. What kind of a Christian would do that, let alone a Bishop? What kind of a god does Bishop Miller worship?
Bishop Miller said, “Many of the priests and other important people in the Fetish were healed and delivered. Then they threw away their Fetish gods. We saw abandoned Fetish objects all over the town. Satan’s stronghold was crumbling.” “That night they brought their objects, the things they had trusted to give them protection. Some had blankets, some had books. Their gods were different things”. (p.100).
Amazingly, Bishop Miller failed to provide corroborative evidence of such an important event. Not a single photographic evidence, yet she showed a picture of the most sacred shrine in Prampram in her book and pictures of the stones that she was allegedly going to be stoned with by the 2000 people who were ordered to stone her.
Bishop Miller cleverly tried to justify her actions by going to Prampram and establishing an International Bible Centre. Again, true to the nature of the unsuspecting people of Prampram they welcomed her into their midst, gave her the most prime land in Prampram overlooking the Atlantic Ocean to promote her so-called missionary work. She and some of her family members then chose to live amongst the very people she and her grandson, Art Speck, described as evil and lord over them for years until recently when I challenged her on the content of her book. She has since returned to the USA in the last three or four months on the premise of her advanced age and ill health. She left behind another American who is now in charge of the centre, and like Bishop Miller, continues to promote the activities of the Oasis of Love Church from Prampram. She has established two churches in Kumasi, Bethel Church of Christ Jesus and Oasis of Love Worship Centre International.
Bishop Miller has so far failed to apologise to the Ghanaian people and the people of Prampram in particular. Instead of staying on in Ghana to face the challenge from Ghanaians and the people of Prampram, she has taken the easier option to run away to the safety of the USA where she continues to promote the book and even make public appeals to the American people to make donations to her church to help the people of Prampram. The church website continues to promote the book as true and incredible story and direct people where to purchase a copy. This is how Bishop Miller continues to exploit the name of Africa, Kumasi and Prampram to promote her perverted version of Christian Evangelism. She said in her appeal for funds on her church website: “We believe the Centre will bring more prosperity to the people of Prampram, greater prosperity to the country of Ghana, and a brighter future for all of Africa”. She goes on to say “God has blessed us with plenty so let us share from our abundance to help reach many hungry souls in Africa”. “Your tax deductible gift will be used to meet the needs of the Oasis International Training Centre and help raise the standard of living of many Africans as they learn skills to lift them up spiritually and economically. (www.oasisoflove.net/international.php)
Are we going to accept that we need to be humiliated, demeaned and abused in order to be helped by this so-called Bishop? Do we really need help from someone who sets out to demean, humiliate, degrade and abuse us in a book that is clearly meant to bring her fame, fortune and recognition amongst the unsuspecting people of America? My personal view is that this is opportunism and money making exercise, preying on the vulnerability of the African and the unsuspecting people of Ghana and in particular the people of Kumasi and Prampram.
Since challenging this book I have been threatened by the Bishop Miller herself in her email on the 15 May 2006 to hand over all my correspondence to her to the US State Department for action against me. Consequently, I provided Bishop Miller with all the necessary details about me that she may need for a successful case to be brought against me by the US State Department. I am still waiting, 14 months on.
I have also received threat from a Prampram citizen, who claims to be a Presbyterian minister, defending the actions of Bishop Miller. He said on the phone on 18 May 2007, “if you continue with your actions to go public on this issue and this woman dies you will be held responsible by the Prampram people”. More seriously he said “if any thing happens to you while you are in Ghana you should be responsible for your own actions”.
I fail to understand how I can be held responsible for someone’s death when I have never set eyes on the person and do not even know who she is except from her writings. This is how low some Ghanaians are prepared to stoop to defend such senseless assaults on their own people.
What kind of God do these people worship? I leave it to you, the Ghanaian people, the people of Prampram and the unsuspecting people of Kumasi and American to judge for yourselves. However, it is my firm believe that the government of Ghana should be taking appropriate action against such unsavoury characters who come to our country under the pretence of Christianity only to abuse our hospitality and exploit us for their selfish ends. The other people that Bishop Miller brought with her to Ghana and lording over our people must be expelled from our country for their false pretences, abusive and racist statements about the citizens of our country. Only in Ghana can someone abuse the citizens to this extent and go on to come and live amongst us and lord over us. The Ghanaian hospitality is blatantly being abused and those people who are in a position to stop it must do so without any hesitation.
I ask for all Ghanaians to do all they can to expose this so-called Bishop and her collaborators who are carrying out such vile practices in our country in the name of Christianity. I call on those of you in the US to use the magic of today’s technology to bring this to the attention of the Oasis of Love congregation in Pennsylvania, (Saxton, Edinboro, Shippensburg, West Aliquippa and Huntingdon) so they can be aware of what is being done in their name. It is my view that the Oasis of Love congregation are equally innocent victims in all of this, and this woman and her collaborators must be exposed for the whole world to see them for what they really are.
Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.
