Maryland attorney Lawranda Owens balances legal career with role as Ghanaian fetish priestess

In an interview with Ghanaian blogger Zionfelix, Owens revealed that an African DNA test initiated a five-year spiritual journey, leading her from America to a village in Koforidua, Ghana, and her transformation into an Okomfuor with 18 years of practice. Owens, who was born in America, discovered her mother's heritage is from Nigeria's Yoruba tribe and her father's from Ghana. She explained that she had spiritual gifts from childhood, including seeing spirits, traveling in the spirit realm, and relaying messages from ancestors.

Her training involved learning in America and trips to Ghana, including a week in her original village in Koforidua, where she learned the language, culture, taboos, and how to hone her gifts. Balancing her legal profession with her role as a fetish priestess has presented challenges, such as strict initiation requirements that necessitated changes to her professional image, including cutting her hair and wearing African clothes. Okomfuor Serwaa also disputes the belief that shrines cannot travel across water, noting that many spirit realms were brought to America by Africans during the slave trade.

She educates both Ghanaians who doubt her authenticity and Americans who do not understand her practice, stating that she receives