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Some Observations on Religious Cults in Ashanti

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

Barbara E. Ward
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Extract

Recent happenings in the Gold Coast, and particularly in Ashanti, have tended to focus interest upon the structure of the constitution and the struggle for political power. Ten years ago two other movements were attracting at least as much attention. In a preliminary report on the work of the Ashanti Social Survey, published in 1948, Fortes described these as first, an apparently insatiable demand for schools, and, second, an almost equally if not more powerful development of what he called ‘new witch-finding cults’. That the demand for education of all kinds continues and is gradually being met is well known; it would be interesting, and perhaps, in the light of occurrences in other parts of Africa, significant to learn what has happened to the new cults.

Résumé

QUELQUES REMARQUES SUR DES CULTES RELIGIEUX EN ACHANTI

Au cours des dix dernières années, la naissance et l'influence croissante de cultes religieux nouveaux, parmi les Achantis, ont été constatées. Quelques-uns de ces cultes se concentrent autour d'un esprit ou d'un ‘fétiche’ provenant des Northern Territories. L'auteur estime que l'accroissement de ces cultes peut être attribué à deux causes principales:

1. Les changements économiques et politiques survenus en peu de temps, par suite de l'essor de l'industrie du cacao et de l'influence de l'administration et de l'instruction européennes, ont eu des effets d'une grande portée sur la structure sociale et, notamment, sur celle de la parenté. La solidarité du lignage, l'autorité des chefs du lignage et le principe même de descendance par la ligne maternelle ont été mis en question et considérablement affaiblis. Il en résulte que la plupart des gens sont sujets à des inquiétudes et à un sentiment d'insécurité en face de changements, qu'ils ne comprennent qu'imparfaitement, et qu'ils ne peuvent contrôler.

2. Les cultes traditionnels des ancêtres royaux, des ancêtres du lignage et des dieux ntɔrɔ, qui sont étroitement liés à la structure de la parenté, perdent leur influence et s'avèrent insuffisants pour les besoins du peupledans une situation changeante et manquante de sécurité. La religion chrétienne ne paraît pas être en mesure d'assurer une pleine satisfaction, même pour ses adhérents, d'une part, en raison de ses rapports avec une culture étrangère, et, d'autre part, parce qu'elle n'accepte pas certains éléments dans la pratique religieuse traditionnelle, qui ont un fort attrait.

Une caractéristique prononcée de plusieurs des nouveaux cultes est le fait de s'intéresser à la sorcellerie. Les techniques employées pour obtenir un aveu de sorcellerie ont un attrait émotif puissant; lorsqu'elles réussissent il en résulte une libération appréciable de tension et une issue salutaire pour des sentiments agressifs et de mécontentement dans des rapports de parenté. L'article comprend une description détaillée d'une cérémonie de ce genre. L'auteur n'à trouvé aucune preuve indiquant que la pratique d'un des nouveaux cultes avec les cultes traditionnels, ou le christianisme, produit un sentiment de conflit ou de gêne, mais elle estime que cette question mérite une étude plus approfondie.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , January 1956 , pp. 47 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1956

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References

page 47 note 1 Human Problems in British Central Africa, vi, 1948. The present writer, who was for a time an Assistant Mistress at Achimota College, was fortunate enough to spend some weeks observing the work of the Ashanti Social Survey in the field in 1945–6. She is indebted to Prof. Fortes for permission to use in this paper material gathered at that time. Some of the material was collected by the Rev. S. Ackesson, then at Wesley College, Kumasi, whose kind help is gratefully acknowledged.

page 47 note 2 Rattray, R. S., Ashanti, 1923Google Scholar; Religion and Art in Ashanti, 1927; Ashanti Law and Constitution, 1929. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

page 47 note 3 Godfrey and Monica Wilson postulated a decrease in witchcraft beliefs concomitant with an increase in social scale, &c, though they admitted that in this they were in disagreement with the views of Dr. A. I. Richards. See The Analysis of Social Change based on observations in Central Africa, Cambridge, 1945.

page 48 note 1 An important comparison between the conditions and circumstances of the employment of immigrant labour in Uganda and in the Gold Coast could be made. See Richards, A. I., ed. Economic Development and Tribal Change, Heffer, Cambridge, 1954.Google Scholar

page 48 note 2 It is perhaps worth stressing the fact that although no cocoa was grown in the Gold Coast until the nineties, by the thirties of this century the Gold Coast was producing more than half the world's supply. This production is entirely in the hands of African farmers. African middlemen employed in the Gold Coast as a whole were estimated by the Nowell Commission in 1938 to number about 37,000.

page 50 note 1 Busia, K. A., The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti, London, 1951.Google Scholar

page 51 note 2 Missionaries preach monogamy and the virtues of the Western type of simple family unit. Regarding marriage as a sacrament they frown upon divorce. For the types of dwelling unit normal among the much divorcing Ashanti, among whom marriage is traditionally simply a contract between two lineages, see Fortes, M.: ‘Time and Social Structure: An Ashanti Case Study’, in Social Structure: Studies presented to A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, Oxford, 1949.Google Scholar

page 52 note 1 The dominant Christian Church in Ashanti is the Presbyterian.

page 52 note 2 See note, p. 59 below.

page 53 note 1 For an interesting example of faith in the fetish power over tuberculosis, see ‘An Ashanti Case History’, by Canham, Peter, Africa, xvii, 1947, p. 35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 53 note 2 This is the kind of explanation stressed by Dr. M. J. Field. She lays particular stress upon the significance of the incidence of venereal disease and the effects of increased economic dependence upon a single crop. See note, p. 60 below.

page 53 note 3 ‘Accusation’ is perhaps too strong a word. The local expression was that the fetish ‘caught’ witches and odier offenders. If one asked how this catching took place, one was informed that the guilty party felt ill or perhaps had a ‘bad dream’, and then, knowing from the sickness or the dreams that the fetish had ‘found out’ or ‘caught’ him, he would come to confess. There seems to have been a spontaneous movement to express guilty feelings. A psychological study, including a study of the alleged ‘bad dreams’, would be interesting. On the other hand it appeared that sometimes a priest or priestess was called in who would diagnose a case of illness as the evidence of having ‘caught’ by the fetish.

page 55 note 1 This is one of the reasons given for the usually accepted immunity of Europeans.

page 55 note 2 For an example see the article by Canham already cited (p. 53, n. 1). I use here the distinction between witchcraft and sorcery drawn by Professor Evans-Pritchard, , Witchcraft Oracles, and Magic among the Azande, Oxford, 1937.Google Scholar

page 58 note 1 Certain Gold Coast fetish cults of similar type to those described here were proscribed by the Government during the 1940's.

page 58 note 2 1947.

page 59 note 1 For a description of the Northern Territories religion in its native background see Fortes, M., The Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi, London, 1945Google Scholar, and ‘Ritual Cycles and Social Cohesion in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast’, American Anthropologist, 1936, pp. 590–604.

page 59 note 2 1945–6.

page 60 note 1 Field, M. J., Religion and Medicine among the Ga People, Crown Agents for the Colonies, 1937Google Scholar, and Akim Kotoku, an ‘oman’ of the Gold Coast, Crown Agents for the Colonies, 1948. See also the novel by Freshfield, Mark, Stormy Dawn, Faber and Faber, 1946.Google Scholar For the topic as a whole see Field, M. J., ‘Some Studies of the Gold Coast and their significance’, Africa, xiii, 1940, p. 138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar