The Akroma File

Chapter One

3 The Akroma File Chapter One (Saturday, April 21st, 1984) T he visitors had chosen the most appropriate hour to visit Reverend Mot Tomlinson. As a habit, two o’clock on Saturday afternoons was thirty minutes after lunch, and an hour to siesta time. That was when he read his weekend magazines and newspapers. He had just finished reading through the DAILY GRAPHIC and was reaching for THE GHANAIAN TIMES when he thought he heard a vehicle drive up to his gate and stop. “Achampong,” he called his house-boy. “Pastor,” the man answered from the kitchen and then hurried to the door into the parlour. “See who is there,” the Pastor said and, placing the newspaper on his laps, sank back in his lounge chair. Achampong did not pass through the parlour. He went back towards the kitchen, passed through the back door and looked at the main gate from the back yard. He then returned through the same route, cleaned his feet on the door carpet into the parlour and announced: “Two people, Pastor. An old man and a young man.” “What do they want?” “I don’t know, Pastor.” “Do you know them?” “I think I have seen the old man here before, Pastor,” the man said. Reverend Mot Tomlinson motioned to him to go away, which he did. He then waited until he heard somebody fidgeting with the veranda gate. He rose and walked 4 Linus T. Asong lackadaisically to the window, pulled the curtain to the right and looked out. The visitors were no strangers to him. The old man was Koto Thompson Akroma, the only Ghanaian who had been kind enough to allow the Lord of Israel Church of Evangelization (LICE) to settle on his land. The younger gentleman was his son Patrickston Essuman who Mot Tomlinson knew very well. Why had they come, he wondered. Worry lines rose and implanted themselves on Mot Tomlinson’s face like clouds foretelling a heavy down pour. Could it be that Akroma had been finally forced by his people to evict him? Where would LICE go to from Ghana? “Achampong,” he called his boy again. “Open the gate and show them where to sit,” he said when the man came again from behind the house. He then sat up in his chair and reflected on the past of the organisation which he now headed. 5 The Akroma File 2 T he Right Reverend Mot Tomlinson had begun his missionary activities as a Southern Baptist in a small church near the University of Chicago campus in the United States of America. His first trip to Africa had been in the company of the famous Reverend Carroll Webster, the first Christian to infiltrate the ranks of President Idi Amin’s army with the teachings of the Gospel. That was in 1972. When Amin seized power, he needed money, and the only people who could readily do him the favour were the Arabs. He made overtures of friendliness to Colonel Ghadafi of Libya and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia. In either case he was informed that the only thing demanded of him was a declaration of Moslem as the state religion of Uganda. That, by implication, meant the immediate elimination of all other religions, especially the Christian religions. To satisfy his benefactor, Amin went to the ridiculous extent of asking Pastors to cross out any mention of Israel from Bible readings over the national radio and other public prayer sessions. In 1974, Amin banned all Christian religions, something he repeated in 1977. That year the Americans caused to be formed Lord of Israel Church of Evangelisation of which Mot Tom was appointed a leading member. The idea behind the creation of the church was to tease Amin into exhibiting his cruelty towards minority religions and so justify an eventual overthrow through the combined efforts of the churches and the Western powers. 6 Linus T. Asong The ploy worked. As had been expected, President Idi Amin found the name so provocative that he put out a special squad to wipe the organisation from the surface of the earth. That year, Mot Tom escaped to Ghana from whence the church began to spread its influence across West and Central Africa. The most conducive atmosphere in which it thrived was under repressive regimes, the main idea behind its existence being to test the tolerance of Governments in which the Western powers...