Religion is strong here. The southern part of Ghana where I live is mostly Christian while the northern part is significantly more Muslim. In my town, there is a Muslim district, which I live on the border of. But most of the culture that I'm exposed to here is Christian.

 

Religion manifests itself in so many ways here. In education, there are Methodist schools, Presbyterian schools, Catholic schools, and Muslim schools in my town, to name a few. At my school, which is a government school and not officially associated with any religion, many students take Christian Religious Studies and all students take Religious Moral Education, a class that could be renamed Christian Religious Moral Education because those seem to be the values that are preached in this class. No Muslim classes are offered, but there are Muslim students at the school.

 

Religious-themed music is popular, and a surprising number of students enjoy praying, probably because it involves a lot of singing and dancing. Church attendance is not 100% on Sundays, but it seems fairly high. There are dozens of churches in my town of a few thousand people to fill.

 

Signs of religion are everywhere too. People give their businesses names like, "Hand of God Cleaning Service" and "All Proclaim Jesus is Lord Enterprises." Stickers on taxis and buses give thanks to god for providing these vehicles. "By the grace of God" is a standard everyday phrase. Preachers on tro-tros (mini-buses) are a regular site and most passengers not only pray along with them but often give them money too.

 

I could go on and on about Christianity in Ghana, but my point is that this religion, which is strongly entrenched in so many different parts of life, exists side-by-side with Juju. I don't know the proper translation of Juju, but it's what the local fetish priests practice. This "magic" is not viewed as some anachronistic, obscure cult. It's widely believed.

 

For example, there was recently a case of a fetish priest in a nearby town who murdered his wife and child (don't worry, no one I asked could recall a similar case in the area). I listened as one of the teachers at my school, himself a university graduate, was telling the story to other teachers. After recounting the ritualistic nature of the killing, the teacher said that it was very important to catch this criminal right away because if he touches a wall he can vanish. The other teachers then interrupted that they need to smash an egg on his forehead. The storyteller agreed. Yes, an egg to the forehead would prevent him from vanishing.

 

Over the past few days, I've discussed this Juju with several students and teachers. I have been informed that these priests have powers. They can turn blood into money (but why wouldn't they turn the blood into dollars instead of cedis?). They can move someone's mouth to the back of his head. They can vanish and reappear somewhere else. Also, if a preying mantis goes up your nose you will change sexes, and there are dwarfs with backwards feet who live in the forests (this fact came out several weeks ago while I was teaching science and one of the students asked me about the DNA of dwarfs. I thought she was talking about short humans, so I told her that their DNA is nearly identical and a very small difference makes them shorter. But she pressed further and asked about the backwards feet. Right.).

 

So far nearly everyone I have spoken to believes in this sort of thing. The Juju priests get their power from Satan, which allows it to fit in with Christianity. Not sure how the dwarfs and preying mantises work.

 

I suppose a belief is a belief and people can believe whatever they want to believe. If God can publish books from the top of a mountain and have a kid, why can't Satan grant magical powers? So don't forget to always carry an egg with you and watch out for preying mantises and dwarfs...

 

Addendum #1: The term is over! Woohoo! I'm going on a vacation from my 27 month vacation...