Hunua Yao Dunyo

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Hunua Yao Dunyo(August 2009)

Name: Hunua Yao Dunyo
Gender: Male
Place of Residence: Dagbamete
Occupation: Chief Priest of Apetorku Shrine; President of Ghana Psychic and traditional Healers association LTD; Member of international Herbal Association, USA

An interview with the Chief Priest of the Apetorku Shrine is one that is hard to come by. Visitors are supposed to pay him respect at an interview with a bottle of Schnapps and some contribution.

The duty of the shrine is to cure people when they get sick and when no medication can cure them. Also, the shrine is a place that helps people to achieve what their hearts desire, for example if one wants his/her business to prosper or if one wants to marry a good husband or wife. The music that is played at the shrine is traditional African music. Music is used to bring out the spirits in the shrine, and every spirit has a specific piece of music. For example, Abegehu is a drum pattern to call for the spirit. Also, songs are sung during animal sacrifice. One cannot sing such song if one is not at the shrine evoking the gods. Thus, they are not songs for personal entertainment. There are lots of different songs sang at the shrine, and particular music belongs to each music head of the religion.
• Abababa 1. Belongs to the woman
• Abajiru 2 & 3. Belongs to the special positions in the field

When the shrine started with the ancestors of the village, no education was present to teach people how to read and write, so there were no written records of the beginning of the shrine. However, the music at the shrine has not changed much, and it has maintained its originality, because the music is inheritance from ancestors. Then I asked about the popular rattle pattern that was played during the animal sacrifices. He informed me that the rattle pattern did not originate with the shrine. The rattle pattern that was played on Sunday Aug 2 in the shrine is an Ewe beat, which is in lots of entertainment music, warrior music, religious, social and revolutionary movement.

Interviewed by Linda Sun on August 3, 2009