The Shrine had its ancient roots from a lady called Nedi who was the daughter of a man called Akon from Kubease.
Nedi is said to have become pregnant and to have died (perhaps during childbirth) in the bush on the outskirts of Kubease.
A search for her body revealed only an Anthill.
According to another version, Nedi’s father had tried to force her to marry a certain man, a Presbyter named Mr. Anim and Nedi is said to have announced just before her death that if anyone was forced to do anything against his will and asked for her help, (when she is dead) she would see that the person who did the forcing will suffer the same fate.
Shortly after Nedi’s death her spirit possessed a Kubease woman, Adwo, who for many years was the chief priestess of the new Shrine.
When Adwo died, the spirit passed to Anima, whose husband was also a Presbyter and who had herself been a Presbytress .
She was succeeded by Ama Ansah, a granddaughter of Adwo, the first priestess who was active from 1927 until her death in 1957 when the famous Akua, Oparebea, a daughter of Anima sister succeeded.
We can see that Nedi, the daughter of Ako, came to be called Ako-Nedi after her death by those who sought her assistance as an Ancestral Spirit.
The lineage as recorded is as follows:
Nedi She is a pregnant woman (not a Nana) and dies in or around childbirth (Early 1920s)
Adwo (Ejo) Nedi’s spirit begins to possess Adwo.
Adwo is the first okomfoo of Nedi
Anima Upon Adwo’s death, Nedi passes to Anima.
Ansa Anima is succeded by Ansa (1927 to 1957)
Oparebea becomes the Okomfohemmaa (1957 to January 1996)
The first Basel Mission station (christianity) is recorded to have been founded in Larteh in March of 1835.
In 1918, a year after the Basel missionaries had been deported, the british government arranged for the scottish presbyterian mission to take over.
This gives context to the chronology put forth regarding Nedi.
It is related that one version of the story states that Nedi’s
father had attempted to force Nedi to marry a presbyter.
It is also stated that Anima, the second
okomfo for Nedi, was a presbytress and her husband was a presbyter.
These facts suggest that Nedi lived between 100-150 years ago after christianity had been established and had begun to infect
Larteh.
The biographies suggesting that the first or second okomfo for Nedi died in 1800 thus may have originally meant to say 1900.
However, even if she lived in the late 1700s as some have suggested, the most important fact is that Nedi was a woman of childbearing age who died and
was subsequently appealed to by her descendants as an Ancestral Spirit.
She is not only Guan,
meaning non-Akan, but she is not and never was an Obosom (Deity).
But after her untimely death, her spirit became a god!
