Honestly, I have been so busy that I have been too tired to update my blog much. However, one of the volunteers here with me now writes regularly and I really enjoyed her last post. She lives with a host family as well, which means that she is experiencing Ghana as I really did not get a chance to. I am going to paste her entry below to provide some insight into some of the cultural oddities of Ghana.
"The Wizard and I"
I spend a lot of time reading here in Cape Coast. Christopher said he'd noticed my enormous pile of books when I moved in and secretly wondered how many of them I'd get through during my summer here. Quite a few, actually. I usually eat breakfast alone, so I bring a book and read at the table while I have my coffee. And I often read during dinner - since Mama Matilda and the kids seem to prefer to wait until I'm done eating before they start (Sarah said she thought this was a cultural thing - it's polite to let the guest eat first). After my first few weeks here, Elizabeth started calling me a 'shark.' When I said I didn't know what that meant, she explained that Ghanaians call 'smart people' sharks - because they always have their noses in books. She said everyone else 'is just tilapia.' All I can say is I get enough of tilapia at meal time - I am happy to be the family shark.
Last week, I was reading The Witches of Eastwick, and Elizabeth saw the title and asked if I believed in witches - was that why I was reading the book? I laughed and said no, of course I don't believe in witches. Her eyes just widened and she said, "Oh why not? They are here you know." This sparked a conversation that lasted almost 2 days - and I now know more about witches and wizards than I ever thought possible.
I told Elizabeth that I knew Ghana had many witch camps, but that I'd just assumed that was just an excuse to get rid of unwanted women. Witch camps exist primarily in the Northern Region. I've heard that unmarried women are often sent there so as not to burden the rest of the family who would otherwise be responsible for their care. I've also heard that when Ghanaian men decide to take a second wife, and the second wife cannot get pregnant, the family assumes the jealous first wife is practicing witchcraft - and they send her away. The witch camps are run by priests and pastors - they perform exorcisms, and give the women various concoctions to drink (to cleanse their souls). The witch camps are legal and, according to Mr. Aggrey, they are often the safest place these unwanted women can be. It's really very sad - life in a witch camp is no life.
Elizabeth said that witches are everywhere, that most never go to witch camps. She cited many examples of witches she's known in her past - girls who attended school with her, girls who were once friends (but not anymore), girls who live on her hall at the University of Cape Coast. And she told me about all the things that witches can do. Here are the most interesting:
-Pregnant women are told to sleep on their sides, in a fetal position. NEVER are they to sleep on their backs. If they do, witches will come and take the babies out of their stomachs and use it to play soccer with at night. They usually return the baby when they're done - but the child is then "spoiled" (tainted).
-Witches do fly, but not on brooms (that's a silly American fairytale, according to Elizabeth). Witches mostly use cobwebs to get around. Those stray cobwebs we've all walked into at one time or another? Witches. When not using cobwebs, witches use plaintain bushes.
-Witches can't take their powers with them into the next life, so they will try to leave them with a child before they die.
-Witches can't stand the sound of prayers. The more people you have praying all at once, and the louder the praying is, the more painful it is for the witch. Typically, the witches that have the misfortune of hearing the prayers will begin convulsing. They often strip naked and begin uncontrollably confessing to their sins - e.g. "I am a witch! Yes, it was me that killed my mother!"
-There are "Madames" that create spells / potions /etc. for people to use in accomplishing dark deeds. For instance, if you want to kill someone - you bring the madame (think Miss Cleo only scarier) pictures of that person and items that person likes to use. Apparently, the madame sometimes asks for 'the blood of a virgin.' Now to me...this seems like nothing more than a thinly-veiled justification for pre-marital sex...but what do I know?
-There are wizards, though far fewer (this just seems sexist...). The power of one wizard is equal to that of 10 witches. So watch out.
Ghanaians all believe in witches and wizards. And they take it very seriously. I've asked a lot of people about witchcraft over the last few days, and most usually ask me if I believe in witches. I respond honestly, and they all look at me with pity in their eyes - as though I obviously do not comprehend the gravity of my error.
I have to say, I didn't have an issue with the belief in witchcraft (it's really no sillier than the value a lot of Americans place on astrology), until I heard some of Elizabeth and Adriana's stories about their encounters with witches. They told me that they once knew a witch who would start convulsing on the floor a lot. Once, they met a witch who liked to steal things from other people's dorm rooms. In high school, they knew a girl who was definitely a witch because of her strange behavior. When it was her turn to cook dinner for the students, no one ate - for fear of being hexed or poisoned by the food. In high school, one of the twins' friends took an exam and, confident she had gotten all the right answers, turned it in. The only girl left in the exam room was a reputed witch. When the twins' friend got her test back, all the answers were wrong - obviously because the witch had changed them all after the friend left the room.
I asked the girls if they'd ever attributed the 'strange behaviors' of the witches to physical, mental, or social shortcomings. They said they were sure that these witches did not have anything wrong with them - other than the obvious (a little bit of the devil in them). I can't help but think that this overwhelming faith in witchcraft serves no other purpose than to exclude or isolate those that are different, or those that we don't like.
Overall, I don't really know what to make of the whole 'witch thing.' On the one hand, it's very amusing. But on the other, it's a part of their culture that's taken very seriously and, quite honestly, I find it fascinating.
Last week, I was reading The Witches of Eastwick, and Elizabeth saw the title and asked if I believed in witches - was that why I was reading the book? I laughed and said no, of course I don't believe in witches. Her eyes just widened and she said, "Oh why not? They are here you know." This sparked a conversation that lasted almost 2 days - and I now know more about witches and wizards than I ever thought possible.
I told Elizabeth that I knew Ghana had many witch camps, but that I'd just assumed that was just an excuse to get rid of unwanted women. Witch camps exist primarily in the Northern Region. I've heard that unmarried women are often sent there so as not to burden the rest of the family who would otherwise be responsible for their care. I've also heard that when Ghanaian men decide to take a second wife, and the second wife cannot get pregnant, the family assumes the jealous first wife is practicing witchcraft - and they send her away. The witch camps are run by priests and pastors - they perform exorcisms, and give the women various concoctions to drink (to cleanse their souls). The witch camps are legal and, according to Mr. Aggrey, they are often the safest place these unwanted women can be. It's really very sad - life in a witch camp is no life.
Elizabeth said that witches are everywhere, that most never go to witch camps. She cited many examples of witches she's known in her past - girls who attended school with her, girls who were once friends (but not anymore), girls who live on her hall at the University of Cape Coast. And she told me about all the things that witches can do. Here are the most interesting:
-Pregnant women are told to sleep on their sides, in a fetal position. NEVER are they to sleep on their backs. If they do, witches will come and take the babies out of their stomachs and use it to play soccer with at night. They usually return the baby when they're done - but the child is then "spoiled" (tainted).
-Witches do fly, but not on brooms (that's a silly American fairytale, according to Elizabeth). Witches mostly use cobwebs to get around. Those stray cobwebs we've all walked into at one time or another? Witches. When not using cobwebs, witches use plaintain bushes.
-Witches can't take their powers with them into the next life, so they will try to leave them with a child before they die.
-Witches can't stand the sound of prayers. The more people you have praying all at once, and the louder the praying is, the more painful it is for the witch. Typically, the witches that have the misfortune of hearing the prayers will begin convulsing. They often strip naked and begin uncontrollably confessing to their sins - e.g. "I am a witch! Yes, it was me that killed my mother!"
-There are "Madames" that create spells / potions /etc. for people to use in accomplishing dark deeds. For instance, if you want to kill someone - you bring the madame (think Miss Cleo only scarier) pictures of that person and items that person likes to use. Apparently, the madame sometimes asks for 'the blood of a virgin.' Now to me...this seems like nothing more than a thinly-veiled justification for pre-marital sex...but what do I know?
-There are wizards, though far fewer (this just seems sexist...). The power of one wizard is equal to that of 10 witches. So watch out.
Ghanaians all believe in witches and wizards. And they take it very seriously. I've asked a lot of people about witchcraft over the last few days, and most usually ask me if I believe in witches. I respond honestly, and they all look at me with pity in their eyes - as though I obviously do not comprehend the gravity of my error.
I have to say, I didn't have an issue with the belief in witchcraft (it's really no sillier than the value a lot of Americans place on astrology), until I heard some of Elizabeth and Adriana's stories about their encounters with witches. They told me that they once knew a witch who would start convulsing on the floor a lot. Once, they met a witch who liked to steal things from other people's dorm rooms. In high school, they knew a girl who was definitely a witch because of her strange behavior. When it was her turn to cook dinner for the students, no one ate - for fear of being hexed or poisoned by the food. In high school, one of the twins' friends took an exam and, confident she had gotten all the right answers, turned it in. The only girl left in the exam room was a reputed witch. When the twins' friend got her test back, all the answers were wrong - obviously because the witch had changed them all after the friend left the room.
I asked the girls if they'd ever attributed the 'strange behaviors' of the witches to physical, mental, or social shortcomings. They said they were sure that these witches did not have anything wrong with them - other than the obvious (a little bit of the devil in them). I can't help but think that this overwhelming faith in witchcraft serves no other purpose than to exclude or isolate those that are different, or those that we don't like.
Overall, I don't really know what to make of the whole 'witch thing.' On the one hand, it's very amusing. But on the other, it's a part of their culture that's taken very seriously and, quite honestly, I find it fascinating.
- I hope you all enjoyed it. I really will try updating more regularly.
Love, Briana
1 comment:
Very interesting! Thanks for the guest post.
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