Snakes and Other Miracles
on Anthony Lovat in Bolgatanga (Ghana), 24/Nov/2010 06:53, 34 days ago
I was sat with a group of science teachers this evening and I described how, on our recent seven hour drive along the horrendous road connecting the Upper East Region to the Upper West Region, we saw a total of three snakes on the road– two black cobras in the day time and one puff adder after dark.“Did you kill them?” I was asked. “Did you run them down?”“No,” I replied. “I snapped them with a camera and waited for them to move.”“You must be very careful. They are very dangerous animals.” Nods of agreement came from all assembled. “They can get underneath you and into your car. I saw it happen on a film.”“But the car is closed,” another teacher interjected. “The snake cannot enter the vehicle.”“It can enter,” the science teacher retorted. “It is well known that snakes can pass through walls.” Once again, nods of agreement came from all assembled... apart from me.“What? A snake can pass through a wall?”“Oh yes. Snakes are magical creatures. Don’t you believe that creatures can pass through walls?”I told them I did not believe a snake can pass through a solid wall and they all burst out laughing.“Of course they can,” one of the science teachers said, wiping away a tear of mirth. “Don’t you believe that a wizard can walk through a wall?”I told them I didn’t believe a wizard could walk through a wall. Come to think of it, I don’t believe in wizards. Again, peals of laughter.“When you see a man walk through a wall you will be so amazed,” a science teacher said. “You will just not believe your eyes.”“Have you seen a man walk through a wall?” I asked. None of them had but that didn’t seem to dent their belief.It transpired that there was one other sceptic in the room, the elderly French teacher. The conversation became a litany of miracles followed by doubtful shakes of the head from the French teacher and myself.“When you go to Bea, past Tongo, you can hear drumming coming from witches in the valley on rainy nights but, if you follow the sound to find the witches, you will never find them. The drumming stops as soon as you enter the valley.”“There was a man I knew in Zokko, he died some years ago. One evening we were sat and he asked for a note... this was in the days of 5000 cedi notes. Someone took the note and he told us to write the serial number of the note in the sand. He then sent for some kerosene and matches. He told us to put the note in the kerosene and set fire to the note but we were too afraid. We called a passer-by to set fire to the note. When the note finished burning he instructed my friend, Philip, to pick up the ash in his hand and squeeze it like this. After some small time, Philip opened his hand and therewas the note, the same note, as it was before it was burned.”“There was an old man who lived in the Tumu area. He was born in 1901. I knew him when I was very young. This man was able to use his walking stick to tell where to sink a well for water. That is why that area has so many boreholes even today.”“But witches cannot fly,” my French teacher ally said, looking at me for support.“They do not fly while in the form of a human being.” The science teacher frowned, held out his hands and gave a wry chuckle, as if we were students who had failed to complete the necessary reading. “They sometimes take the form of a bird, or a bat, or a ball of fire.” Nods of agreement camefrom his fellow science teachers.“The trouble is, we think that science can explain all these things,” a science teacher said. “But some people have the gift of the supernatural. They are given this talent by nature and science cannot explain their abilities. There are people who can look at this cup...” he pointed to a purple plastic mug sat innocently on a bench, “and can make it move up into the air, can suspend it like that. Science cannot explain this. It is a spiritual thing.”“When I was small I had an uncle who stayed in our house but he would always be stealing small small monies from people. One day, my auntie had some big money stolen and we didn’t know who the thief was so we went to this spiritual man who had three broomsticks. He placed two of the broomsticksbetween the nipples of two men so they were supported between them. He then placed the third broomstick between them. Auntie had a list of suspects and so began to read them. When she read the name of my uncle, the broomsticks came together so the third broomstick could not even be moved. Me and mybrothers didn’t believe so the old man gave the sticks to us and did the same thing. The same result was there. We did it four times with four different pairs of people. Eventually my uncle had to confess but by that time he’d already spent the money. These things are just unbelievable and yet Isaw it with my own eyes.”“There is a rock in Upper West, is it in Wa or Lawra or somewhere? This rock is not a big size, something like this.” The science teacher made a shape with his hands about the size of a watermelon. “This rock,” he continued, “cannot be moved even with big machines, bulldozers and what whatwhat. Contractors had to divert a whole road right around this rock. No one can explain how the small small rock cannot be moved even with a great force. Such things cannot be explained by science.”“There are people with strong magic who can be shot by a gun and not be harmed. They will brush the bullets off their bodies and not a scratch will be there.”“I was once in a village near Paga when I heard shouting from outside. I rushed to see what was going on. A group of men, Muslim men, were beating a man terribly with sticks and kicking him. I asked why they were beating this man. The men had been praying when they saw this man drop from the sky.The man was a wizard and must have been flying over the praying Muslim men. The man himself could not explain why he had fallen like that and later he confessed. They saw him with their own eyes – a big group of them.”The defences of the French teacher and me withered under the supreme confidence that the science teachers had in the impossible. In the end we agreed that, assuming these stories are true, they may illustrate phenomena that science cannot explain yet. After all, who could explain lightning before knowledge of electricity? Who could explain the solar system without a telescope? Who could explain the origins of the earth without geology? Nods of agreement came from all assembled but I was left unconvinced by their belief in the science they teach to explain the wild stories they faithfully recited.It is difficult to generalise about a continent, especially one as vast and diverse as Africa. There are, after all, nearly three times as many languages spoken in Ghana as there are in the entire EU. Nonetheless, from what I have read and seen, native sub-Saharan African belief systems have certain aspects in common. Ancestor worship is a recurring theme, something evident in the shrines, the libations and the language in and around Bolga. As well as this, many Africans believe in the real and everyday presence of spirits, some of whom are the dead, some who are good and some bad, and their physical interaction with the world around us– often mediated through a spiritualist, herbalist, wizard or witch. It is a belief deeply rooted in the minds of people living here, even amongst practicing Muslims and Christians and well educated middle class science teachers. But for a British person to dismiss these magical stories told by the science teachers and yet maintain unquestionably a faith in equally unlikely events such as the immaculate conception, walking on water, resurrection from the dead and changing of water into wine is patently hypocritical. Either all irrational faiths should be respected or none of them.The local language, Guruni, adopted the Latin alphabet some sixty to seventy years ago. Before that time, nothing was written. Even now, there is very little literature translated into Guruni– one of the few being the bible. All stories, both secular and spiritual, are communicated through speaking, much as the early Christians did for the first few hundred years. Early Christianity spread through the illiterate underclass of the Roman Empire, persecuted by the elite. The stories of Jesus and his miraculous works were communicated verbally, much as the science teachers testified their miracles to me. Perhaps some Chinese whispers took place, just as I suspect of the science teachers, but it didn’t matter. The underlying message of peace, love and salvation for all was still understood. It was only when these stories were written down three hundred years after the death of Jesus that the squabbling began over doctrinal details. The church has been splitting ever since and shows little sign of stopping.With such high levels of illiteracy, most people in this region of Ghana still receive their learning through listening and discussion. Religious belief, so fundamental to life here, is therefore fluid, adaptable and sympathetic to other ideas. The religions brought to Ghana by the invaders, Christianity from the south and Islam from the north, are incorporated into the old beliefs. Jesus, I have been told, was a very powerful and good wizard. Witches, I was told recently by a Christian chief from the Gambaga area, are in the bible. As we were sitting in a guest house at the time, I was able to retrieve a Gideon’s bible and check. We couldn’t find any reference to witches although bad and good spirits, prophets, devils and angels pop up all the time.I wonder if it is this bookless heritage that has led to the religious tolerance I see in Bolga. Whereas in Europe we have a history of fundamentalism and squabbling over interpretations and translations of the written gospels, people from Bolga have been able to rise above such details and understand one another– recognise our common spirituality. We in the rest of the world may read too much and discuss too little. Spoken words are cheap – they can be used, tested, and then taken back. General ideas and messages may be remembered even if the precise words spoken are forgotten. Written words endure, however. Written words are inflexible. Details are misinterpreted in the translation of written words. Only written words can result in the eternal doctrinal and liturgical conflicts between the religions ‘of the book’.I’m not saying that writing is a bad thing – but it does have a flipside.