‘That is not religion, that is the gods’: Ways of conceiving religious practices in rural Ghana

Abstract

The increasing interest within development studies in religion is largely based on notions of ‘faith communities’ and ‘belief systems’: that people – especially ‘religious’ people – operate within discrete and coherent systems of belief. An emphasis on belief, however, is not universal, either across religions or across cultures. This paper draws on ethnographic data from a study of churches in rural Ghana to explore whether such frameworks are appropriate for understanding religious practices. Using insights from medical anthropology, it suggests that in this context the basis of ‘religious’ engagement is not belief as a conscious decision to adhere to a recognisably disputable notion. Rather, theoretical knowledge is preceded by practice, and continuity between the physical and the spiritual means that powers such as spirits are not ‘believed in’ (or disbelieved) but accepted as indisputable facts. Although people may identify with a particular religion such as Christianity, they live in a landscape of different ‘religious’ and ‘non-religious’ powers, with which they engage largely on a pragmatic level, entailing eclecticism, multiplicity and fluidity rather than full adherence to one discrete belief system. Thus, not only are assumed boundaries between religious groups and cosmologies challenged; but categories and oppositions used by development theoreticians and practitioners such as ‘religious/secular’ are also called into question.

Keywords:

• Ghana
• international development
• belief
• religion
• powers

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on doctoral research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. I am grateful to Sarah White and Joe Devine of the University of Bath, to Abby Day and Simon Coleman of the University of Sussex and to an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments.

Notes

1. Conducted between March 2005 and October 2006.

2. Although belief as an intrinsic part of religion is not exclusive to Western society.

3. Wiredu (2003), calling for ‘decolonization of African religions’, argues that the Christian God and the Akan God are not at all one and the same. However, he comes from a philosophical perspective with the agenda of ‘disentangling African frameworks of thought from colonial impositions’ (p. 34), rather than seeking to understand how differing and hybrid frameworks are managed in people's lives.

4. There are several hundred adinkra symbols, each with its own name and meaning, referring to proverbs, aphorisms, human attributes, historical events and natural objects and species.

5. In Ghanaian English, deities are usually referred to as ‘small gods’ or ‘fetishes’.

6. Although malicious acts are not necessarily committed through witchcraft.

7. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, presented himself as the ultimate messianic figure in his ‘Verandah Boys’ Creed'.

8. See the book of Job in the Old Testament, where Job refuses to curse God even after severe trials including loss of his family, wealth and health. He is eventually rewarded for his faithfulness with more than he had previously possessed.

9. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/photo.detail.php?ID = 137916&VOLGNR