Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:49:48.221Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Medicine for Hatred: Civil, Criminal, and Supernatural Justice at the Nae We Shrine Tribunal in Accra, Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2020

Jonathan Roberts Open the ORCID record for Jonathan Roberts [Opens in a new window] ,
Richard Nii Oshiu Codjoe ,
Jenny Davison ,
Flair Martin ,
Janet Mills  and
Zackary Parsons
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ga proverbial wisdom holds that “hate has no medicine,” but there is a sacred court in Accra where people can calm the animosity that emerges from social conflicts. A unique form of vernacular jurisprudence has emerged at the Nae We Shrine Tribunal, which manages the consequences of civil, criminal, and supernatural crimes without raising the ire of human rights activists. Using records from this shrine court, the authors of this article demonstrate how the Tribunal offers social and spiritual wellbeing in a manner that cannot be provided by the chiefly and state judicial systems.

Résumé

Résumé

Un proverbe Ga dit: « La haine n’a pas de remède ». C’est l’expression de l’inquiétude et de l’anxiété au sujet des dangers physiques, psychologiques et spirituels de l'animosité. Mais, dans un vieux quartier au cœur d'Accra, il y a un complexe familial où les sinistrés peuvent venir calmer et guérir leur colère causée par des conflits sociaux. Cette forme unique de jurisprudence traditionnelle qui a émergé du Sanctuaire Nae We, gère les conséquences des crimes civils, criminales et surnaturels, sans susciter la colère des défenseurs des droits de l'homme. En utilisant des documents de cette cour locale, les auteurs de cet article montrerent comment les prêtres et les anciens du Tribunal jouent un rôle de justice, culturellement adaptée en offrant un bien-être social et spirituel qui ne peut être fourni ni par les autorités ni par le système de justice conventionnelle.

Resumo

Resumo

Segundo um ditado popular da língua ga, “não há remédio para o ódio”, mas existe em Acra um templo aonde as pessoas se podem dirigir para acalmar os ânimos decorrentes dos conflitos sociais. No tribunal do templo Nae We, nasceu um singular tipo de jurisprudência vernacular, o qual administra as punições aplicadas a crimes de responsabilidade civil, criminal e sobrenatural sem com isso suscitar a fúria dos ativistas dos direitos humanos. Recorrendo aos registos deste tribunal local, os autores do presente artigo demonstram que se trata de uma instituição capaz de proporcionar um bem-estar social e espiritual que os sistemas judiciais do Estado não conseguem oferecer.

Keywords

justicetraditional lawhuman rightsGhanaAccrawitchcraft
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 63 , Issue 4 , December 2020 , pp. 782 - 804
Copyright
© African Studies Association, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adinkrah, Mensah. 2017. Witchcraft, Witches, and Violence in Ghana. New York: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Allman, Jean, and Parker, John. 2005. Tongnaab: The History of a West African God. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Ashforth, Adam. 2015 “Witchcraft, Justice, and Human Rights in Africa: Cases from Malawi.” African Studies Review 58 (1): 5–38.10.1017/asr.2015.2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ball, Joana. 1994. “The Ritual of the Necklace.” Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. http://www.csvr.org.za.Google Scholar
Bavier, Joe. 2008. “Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital.” April 22. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-democratic-witchcraft/lynchings-in-congo-as-penis-theft-panic-hits-capital-idUSL2290323220080422.Google Scholar
Bryceson, Deborah F., et al. 2010. “Miners’ Magic: Artisanal Mining, the Albino Fetish and Murder in Tanzania.” Journal of Modern African Studies 48 (3): 353–82.10.1017/S0022278X10000303CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burton, Richard F. 1969 [1865]. Wit and Wisdom from West Africa; Or, A Book of Proverbial Philosophy, Idioms, Enigmas, and Laconisms. New York: Negro Universities Press.Google Scholar
Cimpric, Aleksandra. 2010. Children accused of witchcraft: an anthropological study of contemporary practices in Africa. Dakar, UNICEF WCARO. http://www.unicef.org/wcaro/wcaro_children-accused-of-witchcraft-in-Africa.pdf.Google Scholar
CNN. 2002. “Muti medicine: Herbs and murder.” April 9. http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/04/19/mandela.muti/index.html.Google Scholar
Colebourne, Catherine. 2005. “Crime, the Legal Archive, and Post-Colonial Histories.” In Crime and Empire 1840–1940: Criminal Justice in a Local and Global Context, edited by Godfrey, Barry and Dunstall, Graeme, 92–105. Devon: Willan Publishing.Google Scholar
Comaroff, John, and Comaroff, Jean. 2004. “Criminal Justice, Cultural Justice: The Limits of Liberalism and the Pragmatics of Difference in the New South Africa.” American Ethnologist 31 (2): 188–204.10.1525/ae.2004.31.2.188CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, J.A. 1967. Witchcraft and Sorcery in Rhodesia. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Daily Graphic . 1980. “I prefer to be tried by the fetish – Rawlings.” March 3.Google Scholar
De Boeck, Filip. 1996. “Postcolonialism, power and identity: Local and global perspectives from Zaire.” In Postcolonial Identities in Africa, edited by Werbner, Richard and Ranger, Terrance, 75–107. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
de Witte, Marleen. 2008. Spirit Media: charismatics, traditionalists, and mediation practices in Ghana. Ph.D. diss., University of Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Drewal, Henry J., and Houlberg, Marilyn, eds. 2008. Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and its Diasporas. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum at UCLA.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, Edward Evan. 1937. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Fenrich, Jeanmarie, Galizzi, Paolo, and Higgins, Tracy E.. 2011. The Future of African Customary Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511844294CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, Margaret J. 1937. Religion and Medicine of the Gã People. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fink, G., Weeks, J. R., and Hill, A.G.. 2012. “Income and health in Accra, Ghana: results from a time use and health study.” American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 87 (4): 608–15.10.4269/ajtmh.2012.12-0062CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisiy, Cyprian. 1998. “Containing Occult Practices: Witchcraft Trials in Cameroon.” African Studies Review 41 (3): 143–63.10.2307/525357CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geschiere, Peter. 2000. Modernity of Witchcraft: Politics and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Geschiere, Peter. 2013. Witchcraft, Intimacy and Trust: Africa in Comparison. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226047751.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geschiere, Peter, and Fisiy, Cyprian. 1994. “Domesticating Personal Violence: Witchcraft, Courts and Confessions in Cameroon.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 64 (3): 323–41.10.2307/1160784CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghana Web. 2017. “‘You can’t force Christians to observe ban on drumming, noisemaking’—Pastor.” May 11. https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/You-can-t-force-Christians-to-observe-ban-on-drumming-noisemaking-Pastor-536907.Google Scholar
Gluckman, Max. 1968. “The Utility of the Equilibrium Model in the Study of Social Change.” American Anthropologist 70 (2): 219–37.10.1525/aa.1968.70.2.02a00010CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gluckman, Max. 1963 [2004]. Order and Rebellion in Tribal Africa. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gocking, Roger. 2000 “The Tribunal System in Ghana's Fourth Republic: An Experiment in Judicial Reintegration.” African Affairs 99 (394): 47–71.10.1093/afraf/99.394.47CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gold Coast Journal . 2015. “Accra ‘Witch’ is stranded Canadian mother of four.” Gold Coast Journal. www.goldcoastjournal.com.Google Scholar
Government of Ghana. 1992. Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. Accra.Google Scholar
Government of Ghana. 2018. http://www.ghana.gov.gh/index.php/about-ghana/regions/greater-accra.Google Scholar
Gray, Natasha. 2005. “Independent Spirits: The Politics of Policing Anti-Witchcraft Movements in Colonial Ghana, 1908–1927.” Journal of Religion in Africa 35 (2): 139–58.10.1163/1570066054024668CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffith, William B. 1887. Ordinances of the Settlements on the Gold Coast and of the Gold Coast Colony . London: Stevens.Google Scholar
Hari, Johann. 2009. “Witch hunt: Africa's hidden war on women.” Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk.
Harnischfeger, Johannes. 2000. “Witchcraft and the State in South Africa.” Anthropos 95 (1): 99–112.Google Scholar
Hogg, Trina L. 2018 “From Bandits to Political Prisoners: Detention and Deportation on the Sierra Leone Frontier.” In Africans in Exile: Mobility, Law, and Identity, edited by Carpenter, Nathan R. and Lawrance, Benjamin N., 54–68. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.10.2307/j.ctv5cg87w.7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hynd, Stacey. 2012. “Murder and Mercy: Capital Punishment in Colonial Kenya, ca. 1909–1956.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 45 (1): 81–101.Google Scholar
Ibhawoh, Bonny. 2014. Imperial Justice: Africans in Empire's Court. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kimble, David. 1963. A Political History of Ghana: The Rise of Gold Coast Nationalism. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Kwatra, Anjali. 2012. “Condemned without Trial.” Actionaid. https://www.actionaid.org.uk.Google Scholar
Lewis, Ioan M. 1970. “A Structural Approach to Witchcraft and Spirit-Possession.” In Witchcraft Confessions and Accusations, edited by Douglas, Mary, 293–309. London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar
Luongo, Katherine. 2008. "Motive Rather than Means. Legal Genealogies of Witch Killing Cases in Kenya." Cahiers d'Études Africaines 189 (1-2): 35-57.10.4000/etudesafricaines.9622CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacGaffey, Wyatt. 2000. Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular. Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Mann, Kristin, and Roberts, Richard. 1991. Law in Colonial Africa. Portsmouth: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Marwick, Max. 1972. “Anthropologists’ Declining Productivity in the Sociology of Witchcraft.” American Anthropologist 74 (3): 378–85.10.1525/aa.1972.74.3.02a00090CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaskie, Thomas C. 2006. “Akwantemfi—‘In Mid-Journey:’ An Asante Shrine Today and Its Clients.” Journal of Religion in Africa 38: 57–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mullins, Ryan. 2015. “Chameleon.” Montreal: Eye Steel Film.Google Scholar
Ngarambe, Télesphore. 2015. Practical Challenges in Customary Law Translation: The Case of Rwanda’s Gacaca Law. Addis Ababa: Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern Africa.Google Scholar
Nukpe, Lyfl. 2007. “The Indigenous Ewe Shrine as a Spiritual Storehouse for Healing, in Ghana.” Journal of Science and Technology 27 (1): 131–41.Google Scholar
Ofori-Atta, A., Attafuah, J., Jack, H., Baning, F., and Rosenheck, R.. 2018. “Joining psychiatric care and faith healing in a prayer camp in Ghana: Randomised trial.” British Journal of Psychiatry 212 (1): 34–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, John. 2000. Making the Town: Ga State and Society in Early Colonial Accra. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Reindorf, Carl Christian. 1895. History of the Gold Coast and Asante. Basel.Google Scholar
Richter, R., Flowers, T., and Bongmba, E. K.. 2017. Witchcraft as a Social Diagnosis: Traditional Ghanaian Beliefs and Global Health. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Sanders, Todd. 2000. “The Modernity of Witchcraft.” Journal of Religion in Africa 30 (1):127–30.10.2307/1581626CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, David. 2010. “Ghanaian woman burned to death for being a ‘witch’.” Guardian. Nov 29, 2010. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/29/ghanaian-woman-burned-death-witch.Google Scholar
Ubink, Janine, and van Rooij, Benjamin. 2011. “Toward Customary Legal Empowerment: An Introduction.” In Customary Justice: Perspectives on Legal Empowerment, edited by Ubink, Janine and McInerney, Thomas, 7–27. Rome: International Development Law Organization.Google Scholar
van Dijk, Rijk. 2001. “Contesting Silence: The Ban on Drumming and the Musical Politics of Pentecostalism in Ghana.” Ghana Studies 4: 31–64.Google Scholar