Is Over-Spiritualising a problem in Ghana?
A common trait when communicating with people in Ghana, is their strong belief in the effects of the spiritual realm in virtually every facet of our society. Assessing a cross section of the population of Ghana, suggests 71.2% are Christians, 19.9% Muslims and 3% representing Traditional Religious beliefs, with the remainder of 6% not belonging to any religious grouping. Looking at the respective religious groups, it is no wonder there is always a spiritual dimension to anything that occurs within the country. This prompts the uncomfortable question of does our reliance on spiritual explanations, make us neglect practical solutions?
Delving into the history of pre-colonial Ghana, when our society was divided along tribal lines, spirituality still played a significant role in people’s lives, although traditional religious beliefs was more prominent, with fetish priests and their deity being what the masses worshipped.
With the advent of Christianity, many people have moved on from traditional religious beliefs to Christianity, but we haven’t seen a divergence in the level of spirituality amongst the people. What has become more evident is a major shift from a traditional spiritual belief to a Christian spiritual belief system, whilst maintaining spirituality.
Spirituality is largely deemed as emanating from religion and thus cannot be seen as a bad thing. Religion is the catalyst to an overwhelming belief in a supreme being, determining whatever happens in society. Ghana is regarded as one of the most religious countries in Africa, where Churches, Mosques and traditional beliefs shape everyday life. It is imperative to know that, religion has promoted charity, morality and hope, therefore spirituality cannot be easily dismissed. However, over-spiritualising societal problems may be diminishing our ability to build and improve our society, due to a lack of identifying measureable reasons for our problems.
It is essential to note, that this article doesn’t aim to attack faith or religion, but it aims to provide an opportunity to assess how the over-spiritualisation of everyday challenges has weakened critical thinking, accountability, innovation and has definitely driven a wedge in Ghana’s development.
A frightening aspect of spirituality in Ghana, is where situations that are deemed as a setback seems to have a spiritual explanation. For instance, where a business fails, instead of asking the question of what caused the failure, people will be asking who is behind it or possibly, who has cursed them or what spirit is behind this failure. Such thoughts doesn’t help one explore an honest evaluation of the situation.
In cases where individuals have become successful in their sphere of endeavour, the success they have chalked is attributed to the fact that God has favoured them. Indeed, there may be a spiritual aspect to their success, but one cannot measure it and it is important that for others to emulate such accomplishments, they ought to look at how they planned and executed the process that led to such success. Assessing the discipline that came with the process to reach those heights cannot be discounted. Also, the role education and investment plays in circumventing the challenges of the environment they find their businesses operating. Networking is critical for new businesses to reach out to the persons that will ultimately be customers of their product and notwithstanding the persistence of the business owners in successfully getting the product known in the market.
Leslie Brobbey
Social Activist
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