Anthony Elmore, on his website www.proudblackbuddhist.org/ has written a lot about Ghana and Joseph Asomani --some of this information has also been copied and is quoted on page 154 of this thread:
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(SGI and Ghana)In Ghana members were told that the Gosho was to difficult to read and members were given the Ikeda book "From Today Onwards" as the teachings in Ghana.
In 1990 the SGI summoned Ghana leaders to Japan and Ikeda changed the leadership. In Ghana the law mandates that religious leaders be hired or fired by Ghanaians. When Ikeda decided to replace Joseph Asomani as Ghana’s General director of the SGI, Ghanaians asked the SGI to respect their country’s constitution and let them decide who was the best leader for Ghana. The members in Ghana having breaking the shackles of colonialism resisted manipulation of the SGI and
The SGI excommunicated 90% of the Ghanaians members who stood by Joseph Asomani The Ghanaian members stood firm in unity against the SGI and today they just built the first Nichiren Shoshu Temple in Africa with 90% of former SGI members joined Nichiren Shoshu.
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The situation in Ghana was part of a larger picture. In the early 1990's, many NSA leaders in many countries were replaced with leaders who were more willing to toe Ikeda's line. Chris Holte writes about this on his website:
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Ghana:
In Ghana, Joseph Asomani had taken the lead for propagation around the area of Accra (the Capitol) and had converted a number of his native Ashanti people to True Buddhism.
In 1989 allegations were made about sexual improprieties and aimed at him. He was married to a Japanese Woman who was also a top local leader. When that relationship went sour, his relationship with the Gakkai also went sour. The central organization didn't seem to care that he was the central figure and not his wife. So when the two began to feud they sided with his wife and a few otehrs who had grudges (legitimate or not) with him.
Whether the allegations were true or not SGI removed him from his position and replaced him with a Japanese Leader without bothering to hold a proper inquiry or involve the general membership in the decision.Where have we seen this before? When SGI wants to get rid of a leader, it's very common to claim that the individual was involved in some kind of sexual impropriety. The leader's reputation is smeared, and he never gets a chance to present his side of the story.Europe:
In Britain, Richard Causton established a good attitude towards the Dharma, so that most members were insulated from leadership problems or efforts to treat Ikeda as if he were sacrosanct. Mr. Causton's relationship with Ikeda was a genuine mentor/disciple one and he was free to run things as he felt was right. Since his death, the organization has been taken over by the same kind of leadership that we see in other countries, and the result is that people have been becoming "independent", joining some of the rival Nichiren Sects, or joining the Hokkeko.
Some members were offended by the erasing of Richard Caustons imprint on the organization following his death, and by first the encouragement of a "Reassessment" of the organization, and then the squashing of efforts to do so.[/b]
Though you have to wonder. If Richard Causton had lived longer, would he too have suddenly become a persona non grata as George Williams did? Causton seems to have been very popular. How long would Ikeda have tolerated that?Italy was spared the kind of internal fighting that occured in Spain, until Mr. Kaneda decided to make a few internal changes. According to reports from Claudio Michelli (A disgruntled Itallian member).
The fight there seems to have little to do with Nichiren Shoshu directly. Instead "fighting" Nichiren Shoshu has been an excuse to ease out older indiginous or non Japanese members and replace them with "loyalists," loyal ostensibly to President Ikeda but actually loyal to themselves as "direct disciples" of Ikeda. Among other things they cracked down on the older members and started replacing them with younger people.Again, were some of these older leaders too inclined to think for themselves? Can't have that!The way this works is that leaders would say totally outrageous things. For instance, a member from Central Europe reports to me that; M. Hasagawa (the leader for all Europe) alleges that:
"The Nikken version of the gohonzon has no power to give benefit at all since our 'excommunication'", and that that "the flow of benefit was stopped" for those who kept their Nikken Gohonzon.
All this as insistance that people trade in their Nikken gohonzon for Nichikan Gohonzon. And all of it patent nonsense since even as late as 1992 the Gakkai was teaching that "A gohonzon is a gohonzon is a gohonzon. Your faith is what makes the difference" {Dick Causton, among others}.This sort of lie seems to be directed towards raising money from people making "donations" to trade in their old Gohonzon or towards enforcing some sort of strange loyalty test on members by using orwellian language. It seems that it "sparked off a wave of ordinary members (spurred on by various leaders) into doing a witch-hunt against those members who did not change and resulted in a deeply twisted idea of what a gohonzon is."
In any case, there seems to be a pattern of "leaders" using their purported ties and loyalty to President Ikeda in order to feather their own beds and positions.
I guess these "leaders" have done a little too well at taking Ikeda as their mentor, using SGI to feather their own beds.Recently I heard from another member (this one from Switzerland) who corrobrates Claudio's story with one of his own about what these so called "leaders" are doing to his country and the members there.
It seems to be a pattern of disenfranchising local leadership and pushing faith in "person" over Dharma and common sense.Again, with the disenfranchising of local leadership. God forbid any leader should fail to toe the line from Tokyo!------------------------------------End of Quote------------------------------------------------------
In short, it seems to be the same everywhere, starting in the 1990's, though it actually started decades earlier. Leaders are replaced, with no explanation, by leaders handpicked by Ikeda. SGI will change its teachings to suit its own ends. Members have no say in anything; they are expected simply to follow along with whatever Ikeda says, without question.Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2012 11:12AM by tsukimoto.