Um, Yea... Religion in Ghana.

OK, so I know I promised a lecture on “Religion in West Africa” today. It’s not going to happen, because I have something much more interesting than that to share. Ironically, I think it provides a much better picture of Ghanaian religiosity that any lecture could…

So yesterday I was at my internship. No teaching L because it is revision week, so all I did was teach the whole school and the teachers “I’ve Got Peace like a River” during their morning worship session (thanks again, Grandma and Grandpa!). I hope one day to post the pictures another teacher took of this occurrence, because it’s pretty funny to watch me attempt to keep 200 kid’s attentions. Anyway, I finish teaching to an embarrassing standing ovation, and take my seat at the back of the courtyard. Worship continues, but all of a sudden, I hear a whole lot of yelling going on in a classroom above my head. I thought it was a fight between two kids skipping worship. My supervising teacher left to investigate, but she never returned. To my astonishment, as I listened to what exactly was being shouted I realized that I was listening to an exorcism. Exorcism like, trying to shout the devil out of someone, like “I’m the name of Jesus, come out!” exorcism. Other kids noticed, but just kept going right on with their prayers… and a lot of the teachers disappeared.

The shouting continued for at least 10 minutes, before dying down, only to start up again briefly. I was shocked, all I could think over and over was “Jesus Christ, an exorcism!? In a school!?” Remember when I said going to the Pentecostal church was like “Jesus Camp” with college kids? Apparently it happens in Jr. High as well… I was beginning to wonder what would happen when worship ended and the kids in form 1 didn’t have a classroom to go into, but I was more concerned with weather the shouters were shouting at a student or a teacher. So I crept upstairs to try and see what was going on, but was too scared to walk to close to the door- I thought they might pull me in! All I could see was my supervisor, her back turned to me, shouting and waving her arms. When worship ended, the kids whose classroom was being occupied just milled around the courtyard. I went to sit in the teacher’s room so I could ask what had happened.

I didn’t immediately get a chance to ask. There was already a conference going on in the room between 4 teachers and a crying girl. I tried to understand what they were saying- the girl had apparently seen something bad, I thought it involved a boy, and the teachers kept murmuring about how the girl’s mother worked at another school, and never took the girl to church. Very concerned that she didn’t go to church. They asked her if she had been having sex, or thinking about having sex, or dreaming about sex. Then it sounded like she was “overpowered” by someone. I thought maybe she had been raped. They finally decided to send her to the library for the day.

I left the room for a moment, and two girls from form 2 approached me. They looked very nervous. To my delight, they asked me if I could find them penpals in the US! “Of course!” I said. I took down their names and addresses, and then gave them mine so they could write me as well. I was so happy, not only that the girls felt like they could ask me that, but also that they wanted me to correct their letters- they just want to practice their writing and learn about the US.

What happened next just threw me for a loop. After the girls walked away, the worship leader walked up behind me, grabbed my arm, and started leading to the room that the exorcism had occurred in. He asked me “Do you believe in spirits?” to which I flatly answered “no.” I was terrified, I honestly thought they were about to try and exorcise me or something. To my relief, the room was full of children by this point. He pulls me aside and says, “Do you know what spirits are?” “Yes, I’ve heard of them.” “Well, in Africa we believe in spirits, that some just want to harm and frustrate you. Do you know that the spirits can use people as a vessel, especially children?” He saw my confused look and kept trying to explain. “We just want you to come here, do your job, and leave with the joy you sung about in your song- I found your song very inspiring…” Bottom line, he was telling me that the children were carrying evil spirits, and the devil was using the children to get to me. He kept saying “don’t get close to the children” warning me that the last Obruni teacher did, and they stole a camera from her.

At this point I’m thinking “what the hell is going on.” I of course, do not believe in a devil, but more resolutely believe that the idea of evil spirits getting to me though children is ludicrous. Of course, I did not say that, and just kept nodding “ok” to everything he told me.

I went back into the teacher room, and there was Dorcus, my supervisor. She started going off about evil in the school. I asked what was happening with the little girl who was crying. This is a crazy story folks: Dorcus tells me that the girl was given a diamond ring that possessed her. She took off the ring, and put it into a boy’s backpack. She heard footsteps of someone entering the classroom, even though there was no one there. The backpack then proceeded to move itself across 3 desks and back. She came to the teachers because she was scared. (Ok, I don’t even know where to go with this one. Believe what you like, but I think the kid just wanted to go home for the day and knew the teachers would believe some spiritual issue…)

At this point, the worship teacher came back in the room and asked me if I’d given the form 2 girls my contact information. At first I lied, but he kept pressing, so I said that I had. They made me go into the room and take my address back from the two girls. They kept insisting that I give them back the address having changed it so the spirits couldn’t get to me. They said over and over “children are dangerous.” I asked if there is a point when they believe that children are no longer dangerous, like if they grow out of it or the devil’s grasp, and they of course said “never.” Dorcus said that the form 1 and 2 children are especially dangerous (I almost laughed at this point. Form 1 and 2 are 6th and 7th graders- weren’t we all little brats in middle school?) I tried to explain that the girls just wanted to have pen pals and learn, but they wouldn’t have it. The worship leader kept saying “this is all apart of you studies while you are here.” Dear God. I did change my address before I gave it back to the girls- changed it from my mom’s house, to my dad’s house.

I did get to ask about the exorcism. It was of a student, a Jr. High boy, who had apparently been experiencing demon possession on and off for over a year. He even had to drop out of school, before he took his exams last term, so that he could go to a special religious center where priests prayed on him for a month… and now the demons were back. They had noticed him shouting and acting odd at worship and pulled him upstairs. Dorcus said Nadat is an especially dangerous school, that several of the children are possessed. She asked how I was assigned there- as if to imply that every day I go there I am under imminent danger…

That was my morning yesterday. I hope you found this interesting. To me, it shows the blending between Ghana’s extreme Christianity, and their traditional beliefs in spirits that inhabit all living things. It also just qualifies as an interesting story- and so man of you said I should come back with some of those!

Until next week- take care!
Skylar