There are still many things I don’t understand about Ghanaian culture and customs. I’m not sure I ever will. I can really only ask questions and try and grasp what is being told to me in broken English, and every now and then I can try to search things on the internet… but that is far and few between.

My latest quest to understand is Taboo, Juju and Fetish Priests, and the spirits that are connected with them.

Taboo is things that are forbidden… this changes form tribe to tribe and village to village. Some villages have a day of the week that is taboo to farm on, or having a dog is sometimes considered taboo. In Kute-Buem fetching water with a black bowel was once considered taboo, as well a using any sort of black bowel to carry anything. Fridays washing clothing in the river was also once taboo. It was said that if you wash your clothing on a Friday and fall in the river a snack would come a kill you. I was told that these taboos have been lifted because the Buem tribe no longer solely occupies Kute, but rather it has become a transitional town.

To my understanding in Ghanaian Culture a Fetish Priest is a man who has certain powers to harm people that have committed a crime, or done something wrong. The Fetish Priest has the power to cast bad juju upon someone. This can only happen when someone who has had the wrong done unto him goes to the Fetish Priest and the Fetish Priest calls upon the spirits to cast the bad juju.

The three stories I’ve heard where someone went to a Fetish Priest because of what was done to him all resulted in death for the other party involved, usually resulting in more than one casualty. The three stories are as follows (please remember that I still don’t fully understand, and all this has come to me second hand and through broken english)…

Story No. 1…

Some man (we’ll call him Fred) lost a large some of cash. The cash supposedly fell out of his pocked as he was getting on a tro tro in his village. Once Fred realized that he had lost the money he went back to his village to look for it, but to no avail. Since his village was rather small he was able to make an announcement about the loss of a large some of money asking that whoever found the money give it back because it belonged to Fred. But no one stepped forward claiming that they found the money. Fred waited several days and repeatedly asked if anyone had found then money. He finally said that he would go see the Fetish Priest because “someone” stole his money.

Meanwhile another man (we’ll call him Joe) found the money. He was rather pleased with himself… having had to do nothing but be in the right place at the right time to get the money. He never said anything to his wife, but rather went to purchase a few things with the money.

Fred went to the Fetish Priest and told the story and how no one had stepped forward claiming they found the money. The Priest mad an announcement that if the person who found the money didn’t turn the money back over in a few days time he and his entire family would die. The Fetish Priest rang the gong, cast the bad juju and the days started their count.

Joe didn’t turn the money over. He wanted it for himself, and after buying a few things he didn’t have it anymore. So on the fourth day Joe, his wife and children died.

(Yes this seriously did happen, not in my village but in another volunteer’s… no autopsies were given, but rather it’s said that the spirits killed Joe and his family for stealing the money.)

Story No.2

A chainsaw operator (yes that is a profession in Ghana… even if it is illegal to cut trees down) was sawing down some trees and apparently cut down one on someone’s land. The landowner (let’s call him Kofi) was furious. Kofi, wanted that tree there, it provided shade and if times got rough then he could cut it down himself and sell the wood (there is a lot of money in cutting down trees to make boards.) The chainsaw operator (we’ll call him Edem) probably knew what he was doing, cutting down a tree on someone else’s land and keeping all the money he received for himself. As they saw in Ghana, shame, shame.

Well shame was cast upon Edem and his family. Kofi was mad; he wanted the money from that tree. He demanded that Edem pay the money, but Edem was taking his sweet ol’ time getting the money back. Just as Edem was arranging to send the money back to Kofi, Kofi went to the Fetish Priest, the gong was rung and the bad juju went out. With in a matter of days, the brother from Edem died because he was the one who was suppose to hand the money over to Kofi once Edem sent it, then three days later Edem died. And to top it off the person whom Edem gave the money to, to give to his brother also died (the money was coming from Accra to the village, and because money isn’t really transferred through banks here its sent through people).

(Again another true story… and this is how my landlady became a widower.)

Story No. 3

This time it’s a lady, Afia, who was married to a man, Elom. Afia wanted a divorce, said she was through, and walked out, but left her things behind. Elom, furious went to the Fetish Priest for the bad juju to be cast.

The Priest spread the juju saying that Afia would die in a matter of days after “sleeping” with another man.

I saw her on Tuesday (yes, someone pointed her out to me) walking with a “new guy” looking strong and healthy; and on Friday she died (the same person came to me in shock on Friday to tell me how the spirits killed her because she wanted to divorce her husband).

All three of these cases are mysterious to me. Why not just do an autopsy, test the blood to see if there was poison, or if it was some other illness that caused the death. But as my tailor was telling me about it she just kept saying it’s the power of the African Spirit.