West Africa is famous for its traditional religion and rites. Togo and Benin in particular are famous for being the "heartland" of voodoo (as it is called in the Americas) and in Africa the heartland of "juju." When I informed my farm hands and supervisors that I would be leaving for six months, right as the major plantain harvests are starting to come to fruition, they all immediately instructed me to perform the necessary rites to secure my land and scare away/punish thieves.
So at 6 A.M this morning I drove my motorcycle on a narrow and dusty path to a mud-brick house on the outskirts of Attakrom. One of my farm hands, Francis, met me on the way and told me how to get there. He had a black polythene bag with him and sat on the back of my bike pointing at diversions in the path here and there. When we pulled up in front of the house, a middle-aged man emerged from behind a curtain and asked his daughter to bring us a bench. His son and some friends explained to me in Ewe that they had heard I needed protection for my farm when I was gone. When I answered "yes," they brought out a jerry can of palm wine and poured a libation invoking the ancestors to mark the beginning of the rite.
I had been told a few days before that I would need a few "things" for the rite. The list was pretty atypical: a dog's head, a small black goat, a baby chicken, a full grown chicken, a machete that has been worked down to its stub, a bottle of gin, black cloth, red cloth, and some black and red yarn. Luckily, all of these things are easy to come across in Ghana.
I was told that the rite they were going to perform would protect my farm from thieves and people who wanted to dispute land sales. When I asked them how this protection worked, I heard various things. One example was a story about someone entering a farm and digging up some cassava. As he hurried away from the farm, his body seized and he became paralyzed - stuck on the farm and unable to move. The next morning, when the farm owner came to do some weeding, they found the man laying on the ground with a bag full of stolen cassava and panic in his eyes. In order to have the spell broken, the thief had to be carried to the jujuman and agree to pay a hefty fine before the curse was removed. Other examples were far less gentle on the thieves: getting serious diarrhea, going insane, being attacked during the night by angry spirits, or being attacked by snakes.
Yeah, think twice.
Even though I am very skeptical about such things, I decided that at least it would send a clear message to anyone who might think about stealing from my farm. But as the rite was being performed, the jujuman told me to pick up the chicken and tell the gods what I wanted to be accomplished through this ritual. So yes, at one point on this 2nd of January 2013 I could have been seen talking to a chicken. The odd thing was that the chicken seemed to be listening - looking me squarely in the eyes and not shrieking as it had been doing moments before. After I finished telling the chicken what I wanted to be done, the jujuman rang a bell and the chicken went limp and lifeless on the floor of the house. How the hell did that happen?
The follow-up was even more spectacular. The small black goat had its throat cut and its blood splattered over the sacrificial items. The dog's head was picked clean and its skull placed at the center of the house.More blood was poured on top of the dog’s skull and the old worn-out machete. The jujuman’s wife threw some cowrie shells and announced that the ritual was successful and that no crop raiders could be expected anytime soon and that tomorrow I should come and ingest the fried and ground remains of all the ritual items.
So if you’re in Ghana, think twice before entering a La Rose
Agroforestry Limited plot and helping yourself to some bananas!
