Dery was a shepherd boy and was very close to his uncle, Ngmankurinaa, a renowned traditional priest in the area. On account of his good upbringing his uncle took him along with him whenever he was going to establish his many and varied fetishes for prominent people of the Nandom Traditional area, and beyond into Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). The young boy’s main duty was to help his uncle slay the animals that were required for the establishment of these fetishes.
Dery was later to abandon this traditional duty as assistant priest to his uncle Ngmankurinaa and follow his father, Porekuu, who was a very successful business man and who travelled widely for his business transactions. One such business trip took him to Jirapa where he went to retrieve money that someone owed him. In Jirapa, he was introduced to the Missionaries (the White Fathers). The Missionaries had by then begun missionary work in Jirapa in 1929. Porekuu was immediately attracted to follow the way of the White Fathers. This was vehemently opposed by his uncle Ngmankurinaa but eventually allowed young Dery to follow the way of the Missionaries.
After this breakthrough, many people followed Porekuu to Jirapa, and many embraced the Christian religion. This was the beginning of change and development for the Upper West region of Ghana especially in the area of education and healthcare and religious formation. It was at Jirapa that Dery was baptized and he took the name Peter; he was one of the first eleven persons to be baptized in the whole of the Upper West Region of Ghana. This happened on Christmas Eve, 1932.
Today, we celebrate him as an eminent Statesman, a Prince of the Roman Catholic Church, and now Servant of God, Peter Cardinal Porekuu Dery on his way to becoming a first Saint of the Catholic Church in Ghana.
Education and Vocation:
Peter Dery was already quite grown when he was introduced to Western Education, The Missionaries had opened a catechists’ school in Jirapa in 192 to train lay leaders to aid them in their evangelization work. The Missionaries decided to enroll Dery among the adult trainee catechists. His exceptional brilliance was soon noticed as he gained a remarkable mastery of the English Language. This prompted the Missionaries to send him to the St. Paul’s Junior School in Navrongo in 1934. There he was placed straightaway in the class of Standard Two (Primary Five). A year later, in May 1935, he was promoted to the Immaculate Conception Junior Seminary, also in Navrongo, and four years later, in 1939, Peter Dery completed the Junior Seminary (“O”- Level) and was admitted to the Higher School (Sixth Form). Alongside his Sixth Form Studies, he enrolled in St. John Bosco’s Training College. In 1941, Peter Dery completed the “A”- Level studies and at the same time, graduated as a trained teacher with Teachers’ Certificate B. This was the highest level of education attainable in the North at the time.
Priesthood.
Peter Porekuu Dery was attracted to the priesthood when he was still an illiterate boy working at the Jirapa mission and so when he completed his teachers’ training course in Navrongo, Peter Dery began his priestly formation in St. Theresa’s Major Seminary, Amisano, in the Archdiocese of Cape Coast. After three years of philosophy and two years of theology, he was transferred with other students of northern extraction to start the St. Victor’s Major Seminary then located in Wiagha in 1946. In 1951 , he successfully completed his priestly formation and was ordained to the priesthood on February 11 , 1951 , in the St. Theresa’s Church, Nandom, by Rt. Rev. Gerard Bertrand, M. Afr., Bishop of Tamale. He was the first Catholic Priest from the Upper West Region of Ghana.
Fr. Peter Dery after his ordination, was appointed to Nandom Parish, and besides pastoral work he was local manager of schools. He worked in Ko, Nandom and Kaleo all of the Wa Diocese. Several lay persons who occupy prominent positions in Ghana today and who hail from the region, were greatly influenced and or sponsored by him.
Studies Abroad:
Between 1957 and 1958, Fr. Peter Dery studied at the St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada, where he obtained a Diploma in Social Studies. He also pursued a course in Religious Education in Brussels where he obtained his “Diplome”, the equivalent of the B.A in the British system.
Episcopate:
When Fr. Peter Porekuu Dery returned from studies, he was appointed Vicar General of the Tamale Diocese, as well as General Manager of Schools, in addition to being in charge of the Socio-economic development of Tamale Diocese (which included the present Wa Diocese as part of the Tamale Diocese).
In November 1959, Rome carved out of the Tamale Diocese a new Diocese called, Wa Diocese and Fr. Peter P. Dery was elected its first bishop on March 16, 1960. He was consecrated Bishop of Wa on May 8, 1960, in the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, by Pope John XXIII. He served as Bishop of Wa for fifteen years until 1975. When the Seat of the Tamale Diocese was vacant with the retirement of Bishop Gabriel Champagne, Bishop Dery was appointed the Apostolic Administrator of Tamale. He was subsequently transferred to Tamale on November 18, 1974, and installed Bishop of Tamale on March 23, 1975. He was promoted to the rank of Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale, when Tamale Diocese was elevated to the rank of an Archdiocese on May 30, 1977. He retired as Archbishop of Tamale on March 26, 1994.
Cardinalate:
Archbishop Peter P. Dery was created a Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in March 24, 2006 at the age of eighty-eight (88).
Death:
Peter Cardinal Porekuu Dery died peacefully in his residence in Tamale, on March 6, 2008, on the occasion of Ghana’s 51st Independence Day at the ripe age of 90, He was given a State funeral held at the newly constructed Tamale Sports Stadium. He was buried on April l, 2008, in the Our Lady of the Annunciation Cathedral, Tamale where his mortal remains are to date.
Recognition:
Peter Cardinal Porekuu Dery is fondly remembered for what he stood for, and what he accomplished during his lifetime as a person, a Priest, a Bishop and a Cardinal. Here are but just a few of his accomplishments.
A joyful person:
Cardinal Dery was an extremely pleasant and a very joyful person; he radiated joy and human warmth all about him. One can never forget his cheerful and infectious smiles.
Man of the people and for people:
Cardinal Dery had great faith in people, he loved and trusted people. People marvel at his extraordinary gift of remembering names. He called each person he had encountered before by their names. The Cardinal’s love for people was general and non-discriminatory: he loved Christians and non-Christians alike; people within his diocese and people outside of his diocese, he loved the young and the old, rich and poor; he loved everybody. He had a soft spot particularly for the youth, tho aged and the vulnerable. He loved especially disadvantaged and he vehemently denounced customary practices that tended to discriminate against the dignity of women and their worth as persons.
His love for people saw him devote all of his energies as a Priest and a Bishop to the promotion of the human person i.e. Integral development of the human person. This drove him to work relentlessly for the development and promotion of people in every respect: the numerous educational institutions he founded have provided quality education for countless people, particularly in the Upper West Region and in the Northern Region; the health institutions he built provided people with good health care; the socio-economic ventures like the Credit Unions, Farmers’ Cooperatives, agric and animal traction projects, etc., which today continue to improve the standard of living of many in Northern Ghana; particularly the rural poor Peter Cardinal Porekuu Dery had the special gift of dousing water and he personally supervised the digging of countless wells and the drilling of boreholes to provide good drinking water for many rural communities; this helped to eradicate guinea worm in the diocese of Wa in the Upper West Region. He was indeed a pastor worthy of the name; he can easily be called the Father of Credit Unions in Ghana. He lived to the full the truth of his motto: “Apotolus Jesu Christi” (Apostle of Jesus Christ).
Man of culture:
Cardinal Dery had a deep appreciation of culture. He sought to promote the cultural values of his people and Africans in general. If today we celebrate Mass in the local languages and sing local melodies to the accompaniment of local musical instruments and even dance, it is largely thanks to Cardinai Dery. He himself composed the first Dagaare Mass and this •initiative, even in pre-Vatican Il times, was a milestone in the Africanization of the Church in Ghana and in Africa in general.
Man of faith and deep trust in God’s providence:
Cardinal Dery had great faith in God, a faith that was so transparent and which he eagerly sought to share through his pastoral ministry. In a characteristically personal way, he promoted numerous vocations to the priestly and religious lives, and also marriages. He not only challenged but supported the laity to take up and play their unique roles in the Church’s evangelization mission. In all these pastoral endeavors and initiatives he had a special devotion to Mother Mary and the Rosary. The rosary was his constant companion on his frequent and often long pastoral journeys. He also had a great devotion to St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, and to his death he had the image of St. Theresa imprinted on his dress.