Long before Ghana's spiritual churches became
a familiar part of the national landscape, a young Ashanti man fleeing a
colonial-era war would go on to found one of the country's first indigenous
Christian movements — and until recently, his own story had barely been told.
A newly published book, Samuel Kwame Brako and the History of The Saviour Church of Ghana and the True Faith Church of Ghana, by researcher Lord A. Adusei, sets out to change that. Released in 2026 and available as an e-book on Amazon, the book pulls together years of family and archival research into the life of the man many members of the church simply remember as Opanin Samuel Brako.
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Saviour Church of Ghana history founder Samuel Brako |
From Juaben to Akyem Abuakwa
Brako's story begins with displacement, not
ministry. Around 1875, as a young child also known as Kwame Panin, he migrated
with his mother Afrah and other family members from Juaben in the Ashanti
Region, fleeing the Second Kumasi-Juaben War of 1874–75. That journey
eventually carried the family into Akyem Abuakwa in the Eastern Region — the
area where, decades later, Brako's calling as a religious leader would take
root.
Little was recorded about his early life for
most of the 20th century. Adusei's book, along with a related 2025 academic
paper on Brako's origins, notes that surviving literature on him remained thin
for generations, with only a handful of scholars — among them Peter White and
Peter Boakye — having previously attempted to document his background in any
depth.
Founding
a Church of His Own
According to the church's own account, Brako
received a series of revelations that led him to establish what would become
known locally by its Twi name, Gyidi Asɔre ("Faith Church"),
also recorded as Nkwagyesom. The Ghana News Agency, reporting on the
church's 90th anniversary in 2014, traced its founding to 1924, describing it
as the "seed" from which the present-day Saviour Church of Ghana
grew.
Brako died in 1945, but the movement he
started didn't end with him. Leadership passed to Opanin Isaac Asirifi Dadeako,
under whom the church expanded significantly from 1946 onward, and it remains
active today under the Executive Council of the Saviour Church of Ghana, based
at Gomoa-Nyanyano in the Central Region.
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| Samuel Kwame Brako book Saviour Church of Ghana history |
A Family
Story as Much as a Church History
What sets Adusei's account apart from
earlier, thinner references to Brako is its focus on family. The book and
Adusei's earlier published research trace Brako's wife, Amonu Gyamfua, and
their eleven children — including Sarah Akua Konadu, Akua Mansah, and Prophet
Kwaku Emmanuel — alongside the wider network of siblings and in-laws who helped
establish the church in its earliest years. Several women in that circle,
largely absent from earlier accounts, are credited with playing an active role
in the congregation's founding period.
That web of family relationships still shapes
the church's leadership today: the current General Superintendent, Opanin
Abraham Kwaku Adusei, is a great-nephew of Samuel Brako through his brother
Kwaku Badu — a lineage the book traces in detail.
Why This
History Matters Now
For a movement now marking over a century of
existence, a documented origin story matters — both for members tracing their
spiritual and family roots, and for scholars of African independent churches, a
field where written records have historically been thin. Adusei's book adds
Brako's own biography to a body of work that, until recently, focused almost
entirely on the institutions his descendants built rather than the man himself.
Where to
Get the Book
Samuel Kwame Brako and the History of The
Saviour Church of Ghana and the True Faith Church of Ghana is available now as a Kindle e-book on Amazon. Get it
here →
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