The last few decades have seen a considerable growth in the number of sects of Oriental origin active in Ghana. One such sect is the Nichiren Shoshu, introduced to Ghana in the mid-1960s by Joseph Asomani. At its inception, it was wholly a branch of the Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist lay movement founded in Japan in 1937. The author describes the beginnings of the Nichiren Shoshu in Ghana, its proselytizing methods and its organization, the religious background of converts and their motives for conversion, and the relationship between Buddhist teachings and traditional Ghanaian culture. He notes that the Soka Gakkai movement has tended to build a lot of power and influence around its leaders, especially its international president, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda. In Ghana internal dissension involving the leadership led to a schism in the movement in 1990, and to the formation of the Nichiren Shoshu Soka Gakkai of Ghana under a new leadership, headed by Mr. Sirippi, as distinct from the Nichiren Shoshu of Ghana which remained under the former leader and original founder, Joseph Asomani. Notes, ref.
