If You Imprecate On False Grounds, You Also Suffer The Consequences

It has become virtually my stock-in-trade to quote either my mother or father when commenting about how my views as a child were shaped. My mother, a non-literate, was a sagacious Akan ethno-philosopher. She was also deeply religious, transgressing religious boundaries. As a child, I was quite difficult to crack: it was either I was reporting my older brothers or refusing to participate in household chores. Of course, I did all this as a child. While I was unfortunate to have grown up in the village to have drunk from the prescient well of my maternal grandmother (as an Akan, I lean towards my matri-kin), Efia Manu, my mother filled in the gap by telling me more about Akan folklore. As a non-literate, she would tell me stories, some of which were very scary. But those stories had didactic values that have informed my own worldview as a young man.

One thing my mother told me, as a child, was that 'if you imprecate on false grounds, you also suffer the consequences.' About two decades ago, I went to Circle in Accra with my older sister, Efia Adjeiwaa, to sell loafs of bread (tea bread, sugar bread, butter bread, and buns bread). As we were busy hawking (after we had gone past Paloma), we came across a gathering that had formed around a young man who pontificated knowledge over occult matters. My sister and I were not sure whether to go closer to catch a glimpse of the reason for the gathering, and to understand what had glued people to the man. But our curiosity was hampered by a longstanding warning our mother had given us, which was not to go near any kind of gathering for any reason. I noticed my sister was timid and had a sense of fear, but I succeeded in convincing her to get close to see what the man in the inner circle was doing.

Eventually, we managed to wriggle through the gathering and saw what the man was doing. Apparently, the man had pictures of some deities in Cote d'Ivoire who had been captured in camera. I remember one of the deities was the famous Bobo. According to the man, Bobo had proved incredibly hostile to a group of European contractors who had gone to Cote d'Ivoire to build a stretch of road during the regime of Félix Houphouët-Boigny (1905-1993), the first president of the country. The man fed my curious mind when he said that Bobo was not only notoriously evil, but also powerful that anytime the white contractors dug the earth, they will return the following day to see the earth filled as though they had done no work. But the man also said that the white men, used their powers to capture Bobo in camera, and with that they disempowered Bobo and had the road constructed. Even so, he said two of the white contractors died in a very grotesque way. Perhaps, Bobo had revenged his dislocation.

When we returned home that day, I was not sure whether or not to share with my mother what I had heard. I knew I would be in trouble if I did, since it would mean I had clearly violated her caution. So, I kept the story to myself. But when my mother told me the theme in the caption, I struggled to find a matrix for it. So, like Jesus and His disciples, after my mother had spoken to all of us (her children), I would go to her to seek more information or clarification, or sometimes explanations that were not obvious in what she had told us. But concerning the logic in the caption, my mother told me that the deities have a court where they try cases. So, if one imprecates on fall grounds, one was likely to suffer the negative consequences of the imprecation.

As a young boy, I had hazy understanding of imprecation. I thought one would take a huge stick and hit one's enemy. This was my understanding of imprecation until I once saw a group of Ga priests (wulomei) and two females (a young woman and a lady of about 16 years) moving towards a huge gutter behind my primary school (Kotobabi Presbyterian Primary School (KPPS) near Aladjo. The event happened in 1995 when I was in class six. I remember that we were on break, and so we had gathered around the Asana (local non-alcohol drink) seller to buy from her. Suddenly, we heard the wulomei imprecating, smashing raw eggs on the ground, pouring schnapps, and invoking the curses. They called upon one deity and the other.

I was quite curious, because of the Bobo story, which my mother had confirmed. So, when they went past us, I got close to a young man, who was in the entourage of the wulomei. Since they had strategically kept a distance from the wulomei, it was easy for me to inquire about the reason for the imprecation. Fortunately, I was answered. Accordingly, a young man, let us refer to him as Kyei (an Akan from Abompe in the Eastern Region of Ghana) had taken advantage of the young lady who was with the wulomei. The young lady had unreasonably fallen in love with Kyei, who had promised to marry her.

Unfortunately, she had numbed her conscience and had multiple dangerous abortions whenever she became pregnant for Kyei. She had always gone against her Christian beliefs about the sanctity of life to abort her babies, because she did not want to put Kyei in trouble. She also did not want to tarnish the image of her family (who I was told were noted for being conservative members of the Church of Pentecost). More so, the young lady was in junior secondary school, and needed to continue her education. There was also the issue of societal pressure. The Church of Pentecost was most likely going to excommunicate her if she was found to be pregnant out of wedlock. To stay clear of such shame and social stigma, she thought abortion was the lesser of two evils. In the 1990s, many people frowned on abortion. Abortion was highly valorised and moralised to the extent that it was only reserved for the devil it his devotees. This young lady wanted to keep her conscience clean as a member of the Church of Pentecost. Of course, if it were today, she would have quickened her marriage date to give birth in six months or less after wedding.

But more importantly, she was sure that Kyei would marry her. Sadly, she was fated to be treated differently by Kyei. As I was told, Kyei, who was in secondary school, had finished his education and absconded with another lady to Kumasi. The lady who had had multiple abortions because of Kyei only got wind of it through a benevolent informant (a woman who was popularly referred to as BBC, because she was the leading informant in the community). The lady was unsure of how to inform her parents knowing the multiple abortions she had had. She kept her broken heartedness to herself, until she started developing terrible pains in her abdomen. Initially, she thought it was one of those usual menstrual cramps. She went to the drug store (chemical shop) to get some painkillers. On the first day of taking the painkillers, she appeared okay. But the following day, the pain came back in intensity.

The pain was so severe that she passed out. She regained her consciousness at hospital. When she recovered, her mother broke to her that she had gone through the pain because of multiple abortions. At this level, she was unable to keep her secret. Coupled with the painful treatment Kyei had visited on her, she told her mother the whole story. Her mother was peeved. She quickly called her sister (who was a pseudo-Christian) and together they agreed to consult the wolomei in Teshie (where they originally come from). The wolomei wanted justice, so they accepted to adjudicate to help the lady.

It was this that brought them to the big gutter behind my school. A year later, after I had left KPPS, I met a schoolmate of mine who followed the story. She told me that the gentleman who had abused the girl suffered two consequences. First, he developed neurotic challenge that initially was considered simply a mere psychological problem. He was brought to Accra psychiatric hospital to seek treatment from Dr. Akwasi Osei. But there was no hope. He was taken to one of the spiritual churches (Sunsumsore), which were fading in significance in the 1990s. He did not receive the desired help. Second, the ultimate happened. The insanity went out of hand until Kyei got drown in the big gutter, which had been the site for the imprecation. Apparently, his mental-illness (possibly under the influence of the deities) drove him to the gutter when it was raining torrentially, where he got drown. His remains was found at Cocoa Beach, Accra.

In the Ga and Akan spiritual map, the cosmos is suffused with spirits - malevolent and benevolent. These spirits are able to dispense reward and punishment on people. They could be consulted to adjudicate cases that legal-rational institutions are unable to resolve. To cut a long story short, the young man died and was given a simple burial, because he was the first child of his parent to have died. This was in tandem with Akan practice, since he was Akan.

I have taken the trouble to narrate this true story because of the way some Ghanaians have decided to make mockery of the progress the New Patriotic Party (hereafter NPP) is doing. I have lived under all the political leaders of the Fourth Republic of Ghana. I was born in the year the three judges and the ex-military officer were murdered. I have also had the benefit of reading Ghanaian politics and foregrounded my knowledge with my lived experiences of the regimes of Jerry John Rawlings, John Agyekum Kufuor, John Evans Atta Mills, John Dramni Mahama and now Nana Addo Dankwa Akufu Addo.

I am, therefore, not naive when it comes to the politics of Ghana. Since the coming into office of Nana Akufu Addo on January 7, 2017, some individuals, particularly those in opposition, have taken the pleasure to rubbish anything the president does. They criticised the Free Senior High School policy, they casted ill-informed doubt on government's ability to restore allowances to nurses and teacher trainees, and more recently, they are predicting the un-sustainability of the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO). Ironically, most of the things the NPP government is said not to be capable of doing are happening right in front of our eyes. Why are people so evil-bent that they would want Ghana to collapse because it is not their party that is in power? Why would some people want Ghana to collapse because of their self-fish interest? I simply cannot understand it.

Indeed, there are some honest people in the National Democratic Congress (the NDC), but they have allowed themselves to be overshadowed and submerged by some stomach-oriented politicians. The coming back of Mahama is within the locus of his right. Obviously, if he thinks he has now learned to govern well and should be given a second (or multiple) chances until he retires, that is fine. But he should do decent politics. He should tell his people to behave as patriot. The idea of casting politics in a dichotomous space of 'you win I lose,' 'if you lose, I win,' will simply not help any of us. The prayer of politicians to see their opponent fail is devilish, demonic, and malicious. In our popular parlance, it is witchcraft.

When I finished secondary school in 2001, I started teaching at a private school at Adjiriganor, in East Legon - Accra. My monthly salary was GH12. Initially, I stayed with the proprietor, but for personal and compelling reasons, I decided to commute from Maamobi to East Legon. Usually, I took trotro (mini bus) from 37 to America House, and walked from America House to Adjiriganor. I taught at the private school for a year, but many of the pupils I thought have completed university, with one of them capping his degree with law.

When I left the school, I went to teach at another private school in my community. Fortunately, I was made the headmaster, but my salary was simply nothing to write about. Even so, I used part of my salary to buy books and helped pay the school fees of some of the pupils. Again, some of the pupils I taught have completed university. Some of them are also nurses. When I finished university, and started my MPhil studies at the University of Ghana, I accepted to teach on the long vacation programme of Accra Girls’ Senior High School. I considered the offer as a service to my community, since the school is located in my community. My allowance was so small that it will be a disgrace to put it in public knowledge. But, again, many of the pupils I taught have finished university with one of them completing second masters in Luxembourg.

Just when I was done with my course work in 2010, I enrolled on the National Youth and Employment Programme (NYEP), which the NPP had introduced, with the sole intention of teaching pupils in my community. I was selected, but my allowance/stipend was simply nothing. In fact, in most cases, we were not paid on time. But I loved the job of teaching pupils in my community. By the time I went to Kanda Estate '2' Primary school, where I taught on the NYEP, many of the pupils in upper primary could not read. I spent two years and prepared them for junior high school. By the time I was through with my two year contract, many of the pupils had not only mustered the art of reading, but had become deeply knowledgeable about the history of Ghana. Certainly, if I had an amount close to GH700, which is to be given to members of the NABCO, I would have bought a bicycle to help me commute from Maamobi to Kanda!

Today, we talk about graduate unemployment to the extent that under the watch of some political elites, we had an association of unemployed graduates in Ghana. This was a shame to a country that is blessed with potential resource. As a temporary solution, the NPP has, as usual, rolled out another important social intervention programme, NABCO, with the intention of preparing graduates for future job prospects. Unfortunately, some nation wreckers, majorly NDC sympathisers, have chosen to caste doubt on the sustainability of the policy. Why is the NDC like that? They are simply anti-progress people. I am sorry to say this, but it is sad that we have a party that is not known for any major sustainable social intervention programme, and yet they have the temerity to condemn the NPP for introducing some. I have no reservation to say that the NDC is the Tobiah and Sanballat of our time. They are simply unpatriotic.

Obviously, the NPP is not sacrosanct as a political party. Perhaps, they are also reaping the evils the heaped on the old professor (Evans Atta Mills). They are, therefore, to be critiqued, and critiqued responsibly. I subscribe to multiparty democracy, which features responsible opposition, because it is through critique that ideas are shaped and grounded in common sense. Since Man is existentially evil, we need to be checked all the time. Thus, I praise the check and balance bent of democracy. But, sadly, the NDC keeps making mockery of democracy. They give unnecessary critique and make politics look cheap!

As I said, my mother told me the deities adjudicate, since they don't just kill. If the NDC keeps invoking evil on Ghana because they want power, they should just heed what my mother told me as a child.

Satyagraha
Charles Prempeh ([email protected]), African University College of Communications, Accra