Invocations are one of the most ancient forms of worship in the world, appearing in the literature during the Old Kingdom in ancient Egypt. Invocation is the physical act of appealing to a higher power for assistance. There are a number of forms utilized for invocation, including prayer, praise, and conjuration as a style of incantation.

African traditional religion accepts the notion that humans can appeal to authorities higher than humans, and this type of invoking of the divinities or the ancestors is at the heart of invocation in Africa. The great priest Osofo Nana Kwadwo of [Page 345]the Gyemprem Shrine in the Akyem region of Ghana believes that invocations can be traced to the earliest African ancestors who confronted extraordinary situations. In these trying situations, ...