NII OKUTU QUARCOOPOME

INTRODUCING OUR PATRIARCH

John Nii Okutu Quarcoopome

John Nii Okutu Quarcoopome. He was born in Calabar, Nigeria, in 1824 and arrived in Ghana with his two children and a group of drummers, singers, and dancers from Nigeria. He and his family entertained people with drumming, singing, dancing, and magical acts like carrying a pot of burning fire without being hurt, swallowing objects like knives and broken bottles without any problems, and cutting themselves with knives without being hurt. He was given land at Atukpai by the Gbese Stool with the help of his friend, Nii Sackey of Ngleshie Adanse, Accra, where the first Quarcoopome family house was built.
John Nii Okutu Quarcoopome married six wives and had twenty children, five of whom had no descendants. The second house (Coaltar House) at Post Office was willed to his four children, Dzafzama, Lante, Sackeyfio, and Nteshie. His son, Nii Lante Quarcoopome, was interested in beating drums and was made the Leader of the Agbe Drum (Bata Drum), and his name was changed to Nii Agbe Lante Quarcoopome.
The late John Nii Okutu Quarcoopome became a devout Christian, was baptized and confirmed at the Methodist Church near Palladium Cinema, and when he died on 12th October 1916, he was buried in the graveyard of the Methodist church in Palladium. In 1993, all the remains of the dead buried at the graveyard were exhumed and re-interred at the Awudome Cemetery.
The text also briefly mentions the history of Shango at Atukpai, Accra. When Ataa Kyei, John Nii Okutu Quarcoopome’s son, travelled to Calabar, Nigeria, he brought Shango back with him and started treating people with all kinds of illnesses, especially barren women. When Ataa Kyei died, his son Nii Odartey Quarcoopome (Alias Odartey Tsofatse), a professional, took up full control of Shango. Every year during the Shango annual festival celebration day, people came to bathe with herbs and then asked for protection for their descendants, especially the Quarcoopome family and Tabon family.