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The African Association for the Study of Religions has honored Kofi Opoku, professor of religious studies, for his outstanding record as a scholar and teacher of African religions.
The AASR gave him an award at a conference held this month in Ghana in conjunction with the regional conference of the International Association of the History of Religions. The award includes the citation “in recognition of your contribution to the study of religions in Africa.”
Opoku also has received awards from Lafayette and the ANKH Society Award for Excellence in Scholarship. He is the author of seven books, including Healing for God’s World: Remedies From Three Continents, West African Traditional Religion, and Speak to the Winds: Proverbs from Africa. He has written chapters included in more than 25 books and published more than 40 academic journal articles. He also has given talks at 45 conferences and other academic meetings, and participated as a scholar in the four-part Priesthood and Ritualin Ghana video documentary series.
Opoku’s work with Lafayette students has included mentoring Molefi Asante ’04 (Philadelphia, Pa.), a double major in Africana studies and English, in an independent study on the origins of hip-hop music. “Dr. Opoku is probably the smartest person I’ve ever met,” says Asante, a published poet.
Last month, he again teamed with Rexford Ahene, associate professor of economics and business, to teach a Lafayette interim session study abroad course, Modern Sub-Saharan Africa: Kenya and Tanzania, which examines the socio-cultural environment and natural resources that shape development and change in those countries.
He served as editor of Research Review, Quarterly Journal of the Institute of African Studies, Legon, Ghana, 1968-1972; co-editor of Odawuru, an Akan Scholarly Magazine, 1968-1975 and 1985-1990, published by the Institute of African Studies, Legon; and editorial board member of World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts, published by Paragon House in 1991.
Opoku has spoken about various aspects of Ghanaian culture on TV and radio programs; given lectures and seminars for foreign students in summer schools in Africa and the United States; and lectured at many colleges, universities and divinity schools, including those of Princeton and Yale. As a Cook Lecturer of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., he went on a 14-day lecture tour of seminaries in San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta, Louisville, Richmond and New York, followed by a six-week lecture tour through India (New Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta), the Philippines (Manila, Dumaguette), China (Shanghai, Nanjing), Hong Kong, Taiwan (Taipei, Tainan), Korea (Seoul, Taegu) and Japan (Kyoto, Tokyo).
He has led study abroad and cultural and education exchange programs, served as African coordinator for Roots of Afro-American Culture and History, a Hays-Fulbright program, and was scholar in residence, Bellagio Study and Conference Centre, Rockfeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy. He also has served as a visiting black studies scholar; directed the Martin Luther King Program in Black Church Studies-Africa, sponsored by Colgate Rochester Divinity School; and organized a four-week course of lectures on African traditional religion and other topics on contemporary Africa at the University of Ghana, taking the class on a 20-day study tour of Western Nigeria as well.
Opoku has taught more than a dozen different courses. His positions before joining Lafayette’s faculty included reader in religious studies, University of Calabar, Nigeria; visiting lecturer and acting director, African Studies and Research Institute, Queens College, City University of New York; and deputy director, acting director, administrative secretary, associate professor, senior research fellow, and research fellow in religion and ethics, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon.
He has served on many boards and committees, including Steering Committee, African Religions Group, American Academy of Religion, 2000; Board of Trustees, Ghana Ethno-Medical Foundation, 1990; vice-moderator, Dialogue Sub-Unit, World Council of Churches, 1985-1990; chairman, Ghana National Planning Committee of the U.N. World Decade for Cultural Development, 1986-1988; Working Group, Dialogue with People of Living Faiths and Ideologies, World Council of Churches, 1976-1983; and Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, 1975-1979.
Opoku is a member of Aggrey Society of West Africa, International Association for the Study of Prehistoric and Ethnological Religions, Martin Luther King Fellows Incorporated, U.S.A.,International Institute for the Study of Death, American Academy of Religion, African Studies Association (USA), and African Association for the Study of Religions.
He earned an S.T.M and B.D. from Yale University Divinity School in 1965 and 1962, respectively, also studying atUniversity of Bonn in West Germany from 1963-1964. He graduated with honors from University of Ghana with a degree in geography in 1959.