By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong, Ottawa.
The suggestion by Akanayo Konkronko, director of the Black Herbal Clinic, a traditional medicine clinic that among other activities to battle evil
spirits, the establishment of National Spiritual Courts to try traditional spiritual cases in Ghana may sound weird to some, especially those who
may think of it as irrational in an age of advances in science and
reasoning, but it however reflects authentic Ghana and some of its inhibiting cultural challenges.
That certain deplorable behaviours are attributed to evil forces is a fact
within Ghanaian/African culture. Despite 51 years of nationhood even
some educated folks believe that certain awful behaviours are caused by
evil forces.
Konkronko thinks since certain disruptive behaviours defy
modern rationality and are, therefore, influenced by evil forces, spiritual courts should be established to deal with such cases.
For Konkronko,
the modern courts of law are not equipped to deal with spiritual cases,hence his suggestion.
The rationalist will say Konkronko is irrational and “backward,” and that
he is trying to take Ghana back to the “primitive” era where peoples’
troubles were blamed more on demons than on human agency.
But Konkronko doesn’t think so and is convinced that the disturbing increases in crimes are inversely proportional to the growth of activities of evil forces Ghana-wide.
How do you resolve such Konkronko thinking that crimes are
caused by human agency and not by malevolent human forces? What are the differences between spiritual and human cases? What are the mechanisms for dealing with spiritual cases? Who determines what a spiritual case is? How does the physical deals with the metaphysical? A cosmological impasse! A developmental challenge!
I know a woman some of whose children have been involved in crimes and she attributes the children’s behaviours to evil spirits. She said the various shrines, juju-marabouts and spiritualists she visited across Ghana told
her that.
While her interpretation from traditional Ghanaian spiritual
beliefs is accepted by some, others dismiss her claims and argue that it is due to indiscipline.
Circling in most Ghanaians’ minds is this woman’s
dilemma. Is the woman rational or irrational in the context of Ghanaian culture? What would modern science say about her despair? A complication, a national complication!
If we put the woman’s dilemma to Konkronko, how would he resolve it? Would Konkronko attempt to resolve the woman’s dilemma from his traditional beliefs or from modern science, too, so as to come to a balanced
conclusion? Is Konkronko balanced or because of the culture is he biased against modern science?
Konkronko argues, reports the Accra-based The
Sun that the Spiritual Courts “would also help reduce the operations of
witches and wizards who have brought hardships and atrocities upon countless innocent people in society.”
How would the Spiritual Courts
reduce the diabolical activities of evil spirits that cause crimes? Who would be the judge? How would the judge be trusted? How fair would the
spiritual judge be? Are there traditional spiritual laws to arbitrate
spiritual cases? Would the spiritual judge use empirical evidence to
inform decisions?
Konkronko claims that in pre-colonial Ghana “traditional
rulers used to sit on spiritual cases” and this helped “reduce witchery
and wickedness in society.”
And there have been astronomical increases in
spiritual cases today because traditional rulers have discarded spiritual
cases; perhaps such spiritual cases are seen today by modern courts of law
as caused by human agents and not any demons.
Or perhaps there are
increases in evil forces over the last 51 years that are sending Ghanaians
to commit crimes and behave badly.
Konkronko’s mind reflects the schism between traditional values and the
neo-liberal, colonial ones that created Ghana.
For Konkronko there are two
Ghanas - the traditional and the colonially created, the two waiting to
be reconciled by the “sleeping” Ghanaian elites.
Created by the colonialists in their neo-liberal development paradigms,
Ghanaian cultural values have not had a prominent place in Ghana’s
development process unlike places like Asia and Latin America.
More seriously, Ghanaian traditional spiritualism, with all its nuances, like
the rest of Africa, have been battered over the centuries, with names like
“pagan,” “childish,” “primitive,” and “backward” spinning around.
Either due to intellectual servitude or crass idiocy Ghanaians/Africans
bought into such negative demeaning of their very innate spirituality, and
the rest is what you see on the ground, a people spiritually confused and
who have self-destroyed their own traditional spirituality to the extent
that their development process is dominated by foreign development
paradigms.
While Asian traditional spiritual practices such as Buddhism,
Hinduism, Sikhism, Yoga, among other Vedic practices, have been part of
their progress, African traditional spiritualism has not taken prominent
place in Africa’s progress.
The import here is that, like the rest of Africa, Ghanaian traditional
spiritualism was suppressed by the colonialists (who imposed their
religions and other spiritual belief systems), seeing the stifling of the
growth of traditional spiritualism as vehicle for progress.
The contention
isn’t to downplay other worldly religions for traditional Ghanaian/African
religions but match them with Africa’s on an equal basis, respect and
dignity. Afrikana Religion where are you? After all, Christianity and
Islam, over the decades, have become part of Africa’s spiritual heritage
in a global fast-flowing syncretism.
It is in this context that Ghanaian/African spirituality, for long
humiliated, hidden and timid, is coming into the forefront of progress.
Nowhere are attempts to reclaim Ghanaian/African spiritual
self-confidence, disentangle it from its long-running inferiority complex,
and project it for progress like the legendary chief traditional priest
Okomfo Anokye than in Nana Kwaku Bonsam, a prominent Ghanaian traditional
priest, who has been practicing African religion openly with pride and
dignity, encouraged by the mass media and influential personalities such
as the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu 11.
As part of a gradual resurgence of traditional spirituality, Nana Bonsam has
revealed how a lot of Spiritual Church priests have been consulting him
for spiritual assistance not only in prayers and counseling but also
rituals.
As Bonsam reflects, while Ghanaian spirituality is steadily
rediscovering itself, simultaneously its fringe, dark aspects are
receiving intellectual attention. The challenge is how to refine the
negative, dark and fringe aspects of the culture so as to free Ghanaians
from its inhibitions and further drive Ghana’s development process.
It is in such budding openness by Konkronko and Nana Bonsam that
Ghanaian/African spirituality, as a development motor, that certain
inhibiting aspects would be modernized and subjected to adjectives like
logical and realistic and verbs like investigate, analyze, and explore.
It is through such a venture that the two Ghanas - the traditional and the
colonially created - would harmonize and help bring balance to a Konkronko
thinking and enhance Nana Bonsam-like traditional religious practices.
But all the above will demand studies within Ghanaian traditional values,
where Ghanaian roots are deepest, in order to resolve any Konkronko
thinking in the context of empiricism and science.
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