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‘Juju on Akufo-Addo’
By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong, Ghanadot
“…My candid advice to you is to stay away from this kind
of sensationalism. It does not do us any good. God
willing our prayers will be answered. Go Nana…,” writes
Victor A Attah, of Syracuse, New York, USA to the
Accra-based “The Statesman” (14/09/2007) following
reports that a juju paraphernalia containing “horse tail
on which a horse tongue was tied to, in which the paper
with Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's name was buried and
fastened… The voodoo composite had salt, bird feathers,
a corroded needle, two black stones, a white stone, and
a rare wood, which according to some observers, is
usually found up north. Also tied to the dry horsetail
was undigested food, which appeared to have been
wrenched from the stomach of a mammal.”
Cultural/Juju watchers interpret it as an “evil spell
against Nana Akuffo-Addo.” In the Ghanaian scheme of
negative culture, juju is real and not “sensationalism,”
as Mr. Attah said, and it is a “socio-cultural phenomena
of great importance” in Ghana’s development process. To
play the implications of juju down in the larger
progress of Ghana is to have weak grasp of certain
inhibiting cultural values impeding Ghana’s progress.
The juju phenomenon is more or less played among leaders
and elites and their power politics. As Ghanaians
increasingly open their culture for progress, it is
coming under intense scrutiny – the good parts and the
inhibiting aspects being critically discussed openly.
Why would somebody put “juju on Akuffo-Addo”? The reason
could range from power to the material. Press reports
indicate that polls after polls put Nana Akuffo-Addo,
the high-profile former Foreign Minister and
Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, ahead of other
17 presidential candidates attempting to replace the
incumbent President John Kufour to lead the ruling
National Patriotic Party (NPP) to the 2008 general
elections.
A December 22 NPP congress to choose a flagbearer is on
the offering, and this has created in its wake not only
horse-trading but also, in the context of Ghanaian
culture, the activation of juju, marabouts, Malams,
Shamans, prophets, spiritualists and “Men of God,” some
coming from other parts of Africa and as far as the
Middle East. Naturally, leading candidates like Nana
Akuffo-Addo become a target of juju-marabout and other
deadly spiritual mechanizations to either “neutralize”
or “block” his chances of winning the NPP flagbearership
by unleashing, in the context of Ghanaian culture, “evil
spirits against him.” Dirk Kohnert, of the Hamburg,
Germany-based Institute of African Affairs, argues that
the use of juju-marabout mediums in “intra-elites
competition for political power is quite common” in
Africa - the Senegalese marabout Kebe at the “court” of
the late President Mobutu Sese Seko of the then Zaire
(now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) or M. Cisse,
the highly influential Malian marabout and minister of
the then communist President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin
Republic. Sometimes, the use of juju-marabout against
political opponents, according to Kohnert, is done by
wives of the leaders or elites or politicians or “baron
du regime.”
True to the Ghanaian culture, aside from the “Juju on
Akuffo-Addo,” for some time, Nana Akuffo Addo,
63-year-old, has become the subject of all kinds of
Ghana’s booming prophetic talks to the extent that it is
beclouding his image as one of Ghana’s leading
intellectuals – the impression in enlightened circles
being that top intellectuals do not succumb to the
forces of juju-marabout mediums as manipulable objects.
In July, the Accra-based “Crusading Guide” reported that
one Kumasi-based Prophet Sarfo Adu prophesied that Nana
Akuffo Addo has being chosen by God to be President of
Ghana. “The Almighty God told me that He (God) has
chosen Nana Akuffo Addo to be the President of Ghana
from 2009 to 2016,” Prophet Sarfo Adu is quoted as
saying. Such predictions, true or not, could attract
other rival politicians to employ juju and other
spiritual mediums to neutralize the prophet’s prediction
by letting loose “evil spirits against” against the
alleged God-favoured one (s).
While in Ghana a “Juju on Akuffo-Addo” may even elicit a
Mr. Attah calling it “sensationalism,” in Liberia,
Africa’s oldest Republic, it can be deadly, drawing
scary newspaper headlines that speak of deadly juju
rituals involving human sacrifices: “Ritual Killings in
Maryland Defy President Sirleaf,” “Ritual Killings
Increase in Nimba County,” and “Bryant Warns
Presidential Candidates Against Ritual Killings.”
Locally called “Gboyo,” it is a practice of killing
people so that their body parts can be extracted and
offered as sacrifices to bring power, wealth and
success. Pretty much of this involve Liberian “Big Men
and Women” against each other for power and influence.
On 29 June 2005, prior to Liberia’s current democratic
dispensation, its interim leader, Mr. Gyude Bryant,
“warned any aspiring presidential candidates tempted to
boost their chances by carrying out human sacrifices
that they will be executed if caught.…If you think you
can take somebody's life in order to be president, or
the speaker (of parliament) or a senator, without
anything being done to you, then you are fooling
yourself." Various Liberian Presidents, from the late
William Tolbert to Gyude Bryant, “have signed the death
warrant of several government officials, accused of
procuring human body parts for Gboyo rituals.”
This makes “Juju on Akuffo-Addo” not only an all
familiar challenge in Africa’s development process but
the disturbing fact is that it is growing despite
modernity and further civilization. Dirk Kohnert, of the
Hamburg, Germany-based Institute of African Affairs,
argues that in spite of widespread belief, the frequency
of juju and other negative spiritual rituals does not
necessarily decrease in the course of modernization.
“According to many Africans, it has rather increased,
both in terms of frequency and effectiveness over recent
decades.” Still, Florence Bernault, of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, USA tells us “that Public rumors
depict sorcery (juju and other such practices) as the
most common way to achieve personal success, wealth, and
prestige in times of economic shortage and declining
social opportunities. Political leaders are widely
believed to perform ritual murder to ensure electoral
success and power, and many skillfully use these
perceptions to build visibility and deference.”
In the Ghanaian/African cultural setting the use of
juju-marabout isn’t “sensationalism” and, rightly, “it
does not do us any good,” as Mr. Attah says in the “The
Statesman.” Experts such as Kohnert argue that juju-marabout
has implications for democratization and
poverty-alleviation. Development-wise, the use of juju-marabout
is due to social stress in the struggle for power and
control over resources, as Ghana attempts to develop and
the development fields increasingly getting opened and
competitive. Still, the use of juju-marabout, in terms
of Ghana’s emerging democracy, indicates not only shaky
balance of power, whether intra-elite or inter-elite
among the political parties, but also an indication of
hidden social conflicts which is difficult to detect by
other rational methods. That’s why there was “Juju on
Akuffo-Addo” and that’s why it’s not sensational and
that’s why Ghanaian elites should work to refine it in
the larger progress of Ghana.
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