pics

Religion in Northern Ghana

Here in Tamale (pronounce Tamalay)religion permeates life. Islam, Christianity, and Traditional religions overlap, syncretize, merge, and reformat themselves in Northern Ghana.We are staying at the Catholic guest house, and I am using the internet kiosk in the Protestant regional Centre across the street. A one to two kilometre walk in any direction will pass any number of churches and mosques in this primarily Muslim town, but this is Islam with variation. Three large Muslim sects and numerous small ones compete for adherents, with one connected to the orthodox Sunni community in Saudi Arabia, which considers most others as blasphemous. Islam arrived here in the 1400s with Muslim traders crossing the Sahara to bring gold to the Mediterranean. People were impressed with the dress, prayer styles, and literacy tools. Many local festivals have merged into Islamic calendar events with singing and dancing commonly used to venerate the prophet, which is blasphemy to orthodox Muslims. The Tijani sect is strong here and is based on a Sheik from Senegal's direct and waking revelation from Allah which is also a problem. In this town of colourfully dressed people, many people where head covering but blend it, such as the buxom young lady in head scarf and blue t-shirt with "Lipstick Baby" mounted across the front in gold sequins.
Christianity is evident in many forms such as Baptists, any number of charismatic religions- prosperity gospel approaches are common here- we went to a service a few weeks ago where everyone danced up the aisle to drop their offering in a large basket and after 3 hours we danced out the doors to a rousing gospel tune entitled "You are a winner." Every street corner has signs for a church, promoting 5 or 6 services per week with all night Fridays in some cases.
The stores and vehicles of Christians have names like The Blood of Jesus Fabrics,Transformation Beauty Salon, In His Name - for a shoemaker, and hundreds of others.
Polygamy is common here and rural villages are made up of 3-6 small round huts with thatch roofs- one for each wife- most religions have accepted the reality of this social relation, although women are quite disenfranchised here in the Dagbon culture (one of Ghana's 8 official languages - 16 % of the pop), being sold to the groom's family by the bride's family with no refunds or exchanges. Christianity moved north from the Atlantic/ Gulf of Guinea Coast, so it is stronger in the south.
But traditional religions stil have traction and often are sought first to remedy problems with small shrines, fetishes etc. From what I understand many people blend their spiritually, appropriating what they need when they need it in this place where religion seems to permeate much of everyday life, such as the fellow that blessed us today after selling us cell phone vouchers.
An alien arriving in Ghana might also mistake the cell phone companies MTN and Vodaphone as religions, with houses, stores, buildings, bridges and other items painted Canary yellow with MTN logos often next door to a bright red building or wood shack carrying the Vodaphone logo- other companies provide accent colours of purple or lime green houses. Cell phone voucher sellers are everywhere and MTN signs line boulevards telling us to "Chat without Mercy."
The people in Tamale are very friendly and receiving little tourism, pay little attention to us on the street, unlike southern Ghana tourist areas where people often call out obruni (white person), or Poppa for me (a term of respect for an older male here), as they try to sell something or ingratiate. Obruni is a statement of fact, not an insult and the best response is obibini (black person, which often gets a laugh.
I hope this post was interesting for you and I hope to add photos soon

July 20

We head north tomorrow to Tamale after a couple of weeks of lectures and musical education at the University of Ghana, Legon in Accra. Lectures have covered the gamut of politics, religion, African popular music history, linguistics, literature, theater, ethnomusicology, African rhythms, independence movements, the African and Atlantic slave trades, anthropology and more, delivered by the top local experts in each field. Since Ghana led African states in establishing independence in 1957 and encouraged other African states to shake off their colonial masters, the history of Ghana is pivotal to African history. The region now known as Ghana,includes the ex British/Dutch/Portuguese (in reverse chronological order) colony most recently known as Gold Coast, which until the 1830s was a major embarkation point for millions of African slaves shipped to the Americas, in particular Brazil, Jamaica, and other Caribbean Islands as well as the USA. Last weekend we visited "slave dungeon forts" in Cape Coast and Elmina, where the dungeons and doors of no return have been preserved for viewing. Obama visited them last year and many Afro-Americans visit to trace their roots. Conditions were so bad where slaves were stored awaiting ships,that it is hard to even begin to comprehend how anyone survived.
On a more upbeat note, the music here is incredible. Music permeates everything and everybody here. Drums and other percussion instruments combine in polyrhythmic patterns that challenge Western music notation systems. Today we had xylophone lessons and we will be traveling into an area where wooden xylophones are the primary musical instrument used for dance, song, and music which are integrated in most Ghanaian cultures of which there are many. They make the xylophones here. Some languages do not have a word for music on its own, as music is viewed as part of a larger concept. Languages are tonal and what we call music resonates through everyday speech.
That is all for now- pictures soon.
Hope all is well
Rosco