Accra, December 13, 2017//-At first I had my doubts writing this article, because I know a large part of the (so called) religious Ghana would try to “hang” me on the highest tree.
But you are (mildly) controversial or not, so I decided to write and publish it. After all my most controversial article on Ghana’s work ethics had the highest number of reads ever without any real negative comments.
My reason to write this article is that in Ghana religion became and is still developing into a goal by itself, instead a path of leading somewhere to enter a good life or afterlife.
Ghanaians have been religious people for a long time. Because of the spreading of Islam, our brothers from the north were the first to adapt a foreign religion. Other areas or tribes were adapting Christianity through their contacts with Europeans, who have a long history of spreading their religion all over the world.
Although I don’t consider myself a religious person I think I have a reasonable broad view on religion.
My mother was a Catholic, my father raised on Dutch reformed church based values although my (Indonesian) grandmother, was a Muslim and raised me accordingly.
I visited Catholic and Protestant schools and had two good school friends, who were Jewish and my classmates in a Roman Catholic school.
I often visited the synagogue where their father was a Rabi not because of interest in the Jewish religion but because their father was an educated man always full of interesting (Jewish) stories.
I was living in the Netherlands until I left to Ghana in Elspeet, a strict religious protestant enclave in a very liberal Netherlands.
Elspeet is village with only 4,500 inhabitants but harbored three of the largest Protestant and Dutch reformed churches in the country with as “pearl in the crown: the Reformed Community in Netherlands the most orthodox church in the entire country almost as strict as the Amish in the United States of America.
Man wearing black clothes to church, women every day wearing long skirts, having long braided hair, no TV allowed and strictly living according the bible.
But at the same time: Never disturbing anybody else with the religion they choose. Never making noise, nor shouting or disturbing anybody, never preaching nor condemning people on their believe or non believers.
Never choosing business be before religion, and 100% respecting Sundays rest! As you can understand, it was not my type of lifestyle, but I respected their choice, just like they respected mine and became friends with many of them in my village Elspeet.
How different “belief” is in Ghana but especially what believing has come to in the last 25 years.
I married in 1993 in a catholic church in Tema, and frankly the difference of that catholic was not much with what I was used to in the Netherlands.
But around that time the first churches in Ghana, obviously inspired by “black American” churches started to change their style of having a service.
Over the years I have seen the “evolution” of a “normal” traditional church into a church that started to develop in to the types of churches we see all over Ghana today.
Shouting and screaming “believers”, begging for miracles to happen to their mostly empty and obviously miserable lives. Sometimes I wonder who was first the chicken or the egg?
Or in this case the priest, reverends, most reverends, pastors, bishops, healers and prophets or the people needing them to perform their so much needed “miracles” or the men of god needing their “believers” to maintain is church or lifestyle?
Is it the need for miracles, like getting rich over night, getting a better life, getting cured creating the demand, or are “god’s employees” pushing for money and their own interest the reason we are visiting praying ground, witches camps, all nights, bachelors mass, watch nights etc.?
Instead of respecting night and Sunday’s rests it look/sounds like some churches are invading private life of as many people as possible. At first the banning of noise making by chiefs and chieftaincy was annoying to me as a Westerner, but these days I welcome it as a blessing.
Church leaders asking 500 Ghana Cedis for a “millionaires blessing”, panties and bra’s from the ladies, high financial offers to the church to repent, predicting hell on earth, to people who will be hit by the torn of god, touching people to get healed.
These leaders are using exactly the same techniques of fear en deceit as Voodoo priest have been using for centuries. Threats, blackmail, sex and violence are regularly being used by these charlatans to convince and keep their followers convinced believers and most important donating to their church.
Priest, reverends self proclaimed bishops and others are taking a stand on every issue in the daily lives of Ghanaians pretending to know and have the knowledge on whatever subject.
Stating who will live or die, and knowing the reasons why god called them (or not). Since we all read the newspapers there is no need to give specific examples because there are simply too many.
Some people are flying every month to Nigeria to visit their favourite pastor who is predicting everything that will happen in the future, but who failed to predict the collapse of his own guesthouse.
People offering to their church and asking for blessing to be appointed in high ranks, even people of who you think who are well educated and should know better.
Some Ghanaian “servants of god” are crossing dangerous lines effecting personal lives of sick people. My sister in-law who had a stroke was advised to wash herself with anointed oil, whilst she needed exercise to reactivate affected limbs and parts of her body.
A 23 year old boy had boils all over his body, and died before finding the reason behind this, just because at a prayer camp reverend told him to join the camp and they would all pray to cure him.
Looking at the development of all kind of churches in Ghana over the last 25 years, I think Ghana should be on high alert, because if this so called “Religion” is continuing like this for the next 25 years we as a country could end up in a very dangerous situation in the years to come.
Recently in India with a popular Guru was convicted after raping several girls. His followers protested and tried to get him out of jail which resulted in 28 people dying and 250 were injured during the uprising and protests.
This can perfectly be compared to a certain priest in Kumasi who was released after protest of his followers when he was arrested on assault charges, which luckily (this time) didn’t get out of hand.
To stay in church terminology I also “see a good future” in many religious Ghanaians and their modest, honest church and mosques with moderate leaders and I sincerely hope that the tide will turn in their favour instead of that in the charlatans and mainly money chasing colleagues using the same tactics as practitioners of voodoo and hope that Ghanaian common sense will overcome this dangerous trend.
By Nico van Staalduinen, Executive Director European Business Organistion-Ghana
