Author: Sokoto Krakye (spider-wl062.proxy.aol.com)
Date: 06-22-2000 19:55

The Loyal Orangemen of Ghana

They wear Orange sashes, they go on Orange marches -- and they're based in Ghana. CHRIS MCGREAL meets the Protestants who don't have a problem with Catholics IVINE Fred Gregorio-de Souza -- Most Worshipful Brother and former Grand Master -- popped the question almost immediately after telling me to call him Fred. "Do you lean toward the Orange side of things or the Republican? It doesn't matter to us. We're not like the Orangemen in Northern Ireland, but we understand their point of view. You're very welcome anyway but it's interesting to know," he explained. This was about religion. Was it also about politics? Did it matter in Ghana? I said I was English.

"But the name is Irish?" Yes.

"And your father? Is he a Catholic?" I confessed that I didn't think there were many churches would have him. Fred graciously left it at that and began his tale of how the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland came to West Africa.

The Ghanaian order is one of only two fully-fledged Orange lodges outside the English-speaking world. The other is in Togo. Between them they have several hundred members, all Africans, all pledging loyalty to the cause espoused on the streets of Belfast.
http://www.newsrunner.com/ghanaweb/GhanaHomePage/sil2/r.php?thread=47543

The Grand Master, Cephas Yao Tay, a retired building contractor, is hosting the monthly gathering of the leaders of the Accra lodge. Fred bemoans the fact that they have to meet in a living room. "We used to have our own temple but it was destroyed after the revolution. So now we meet in our homes." Bottles of locally brewed Guinness -- "twice the strength of the Irish version" -- are handed around.

When he can, Tay goes to Belfast for the July 12 parades. He brandishes a photo of himself striding purposefully with the orange sash over his suit, his bowler towering over the men around him. "People in Belfast marvelled at us black men going along with the white men in our orange dress.

"I don't think they understood we were Orangemen just like the others. But they were welcoming."

The first Orange lodge in West Africa was founded in Nigeria at the turn of the century. The first Grand Master was a TA King; by 1919 a Nigerian, EA Ojo, was in charge of the lodge. From then on the lodge was a Nigerian affair. A photo from the Twenties shows 28 members, in full regalia, all of them African.

The order spread to neighbouring Togo at the start of World War I, and from there, soon after, to Ghana. In 1917, RE Sharlley, a Ghanaian post office worker, picked up a copy of the Orange Standard. Excited by what he read, he wrote to the grand secretary of England asking to join. He was directed to the Togo lodge. When the war ended, Sharlley returned to Ghana and formed his own lodge, Pride of Keta.

While the Orange Order in Nigeria died in the early 1960s, those in Ghana and Togo thrived, with two dozen new branches and hundreds of recruits. Fred joined in 1965. "All my family were members. Joining the lodge was as natural as going to school," he says.

Tay wields another photo -- that of his swearing-in at a table adorned with the Orange exhortation: "Truth, Unity and Concord. No Surrender."

"We are aware of the political aspect," says Tay, "but that is not for us." He adds: "We have no problem with Catholics. But we stand with the Orangemen in Northern Ireland in their religious beliefs."

Most years, the Ghana lodge marks the Battle of the Boyne with a church service and a march through the streets of Accra. November 5 is another annual celebration, commemorating king William's landing at Brixham.

But for the protests, the security cordon and a few bowler hats, the parades in Ghana are identical to those in Belfast. The bowlers are optional because they are too expensive for most members. Otherwise, the full regalia is on display: chains, sashes, medals and dark suits. Two decades ago, the marches were a more imposing sight. The Ghana Orange Lodge had more than 1 000 members over 25 branches. But then disaster struck.

On the last day of 1981, flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings seized power in a coup. His regime denounced all lodges as secretive and seditious. Membership was proscribed for civil servants. Parades were banned. Hundreds of lodge temples -- Orange, Freemasons, Oddfellows -- were torched or looted.

Tay is still sore. "The Orange Lodge is not a secret society, but a society with secrets. We parade openly in our regalia. People can see who we are," he says. By 1988, however, things were looking up for the Ghana lodge. Members returned. The temples were gone, but the branches met in church and school halls.

The Orangemen resumed their parades through Accra. But the persecution was not over. After the government relented, the church took up the crusade.

Fred recalls: "The charismatics, the Catholics, even Protestant churches -- all said we were bad. But what was worse was even the Presbyterian reverends condemned us. I think they were worried that people were more interested in the lodge than the church."

In the 1990s, the Ghana Orange Lodge emerged from its turbulent time with its membership pared back to about 300 -- a third of what it was at its peak.

International relations haven't always been smooth, either. The grand chaplain of the Scottish lodge, the Reverend Ian Meredith, visited in 1992. Everything went well until he got on to the subject of other lodges.

Lodges of all kinds are big in Ghana; the men of the Orange Order in Accra are, between them, also Freemasons, Oddfellows, Buffalos and Rotarians.

Meredith concluded that the Ghanaians were not up to the standard expected of loyal Orangemen, and wrote a pamphlet directed at them. "Lodges create a religious unity among men of different faiths. Jews are brothers to Moslems and Mormons are brothers to Methodists. This blurs the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and the Christian church," he observed.

Fred says, "I don't want to criticise Meredith, but there are some things in the pamphlet I don't agree with."

Even so, Tay is planning his next trip, to Liverpool for the latest conference of the Imperial Order. The Ghana lodge is among those campaigning for a name change to "international", arguing that "imperial" has too many connotations for an African country.

But the imperial connection has its advantages. The Scottish lodge has sent money to build a new temple. "We're trying to acquire land to build own temple. If we are able to put it up, it'll change our image in Accra," says Fred. "The Freemasons still have their own temple but there are not many lodges who do."

-- The Mail & Guardian, November 12 1999.