Samuel Kwame Brako

Last week, when I wrote a short piece about my great grandfather Samuel Brako the founder of the Gyidi Church, I was asked about Prophet Kwaku Emmanuel and what relations he had with Samuel Brako. I was also asked about the relationship between Emmanuel and Abraham Kwaku Adusei, the General Superintendent of (the) Saviour Church of Ghana. In this short article I answer both questions. Emmanuel Kwaku Adutwum (popularly called Agyaaku by members of the church and Paaku by his siblings) was the fourth child of Mary Akosua Gyamfuah and Samuel Kwame Brako the founder of the Gyidi Church. Samuel Brako and Gyamfuah had 11 children. The first one was Boatemaa who died when she was still a baby. The couples had another daughter whom they named Sarah Akua Konadu (popularly called Awoyaa). Then they had another daughter whom they called Akua Mansa. Then they gave birth to a fourth child who was a boy and they named him Emmanuel Kwaku Adutwum. Emmanuel was named after Samuel Brako’s maternal uncle...

Opanin Isaac Kwadwo Asirifi known popularly in the Gyidi Church as Dadeako was born to Opanin Kwame Appiah and Madam Mary Yaa Henewaa. In 1958, Emeritus Professor C. G. Baeta went to Osiem to interview Opanin Asirifi. In the interview, Opanin Asirifi told Baeta that he was 40 years old [1]. Prof Kofi Asare Opoku also notes that Dadeako was born in 1918 which is in tandem with Baeta’s assertions [2]. However, according to Kwasi Boateng and Nicholas Adom, both members of the Gyidi Church, the man of God was born in 1912 [3]. When Opanin Asirifi was in his teen years he was sent to Gyakiti near Akwamufie for apprenticeship and specialised as a blacksmith. After three years in Gyakiti, he went to Kumasi to continue to professionalise his skills. In 1933, he joined the Gyidi Church (Faith Church) which was flourishing under the leadership of Opanin Samuel Brako. Dadeako became Brako’s Bible reader or “kenkani” in the Akan parlance. He became very close to Samuel Brako. Brako sent him on man...

In 1914, my paternal great grandfather Samuel Kwame Brako (of blessed memory) founded a church at Osiem in the Eastern Region that today is known in Ghana and the world-over as Gyidi. Gyidi is the first Sabbath-based (Saturday-based) Church to be established in the Gold Coast independently by an African.  Before founding the Church, my great grandfather was a member of the Methodist Church at Osiem and served as its campanologist. In the second decade of the 20th Century, he received series of revelations from the Lord Jesus Christ that culminated in the founding of the Gyidi Church. For more than three decades, Prophet Samuel Kwame Brako and his associates developed the church and spread it all over Colonial Ghana. Samuel Brako fashioned out a particular liturgy based on the belief of Jehovah God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and the Bible (Old and New Testament). Many who know the Gyidi Church know it as a respected, Bible-based, Holy Spirit-filled church. It preaches salvation ...