Sunday, March 03, 2013
Hypocritical
Oaths
Closed minds are like houses shut up for
the winter only to find that their owners are never returning. They become
dusty, dark, places of foreboding and creepy crawlies. You have to break in
from the outside to lever off hinges on doors or windows to let some light in. Well, it may
be an overplayed analogy but it represents my feelings of utter dismay when it
comes to discussing serious issues of life with Ghanaians brought up in
villages in an educational system that sometimes makes creationism look like a
liberal intellectual’s dream philosophy.
Coming out of DVLA in Accra the other day,
refusing to pay a bribe to go to the front of the queue, a young Muslim
accosted me.
“Is
that your wife?”
“Yes.”
“English?”
“No.
Fanti.” (A coastal tribe in Ghana.)
“She
is white.”
“Yes,
but her twin is black.”
“God
is wise and works miracles.”
“No.
It is called biology.”
“You
are a Christian?”
“No.
I do not believe in God.”
“You
have a long way to go.”
“I
have been further than you will ever travel. There is no God.”
“God
makes everything, sees everything, even the smallest thing.”
“You
pay bribes?”
“It
is how things are done.”
It comes to my mind that in this Ghanaian
world, where corruption is endemic, praying to God and giving your weekly
tithe, is just another form of bribery.
A young man, who has progressed from
illiteracy to being a photographer and user of Photoshop in five years tells me
that in Ghana you must be whipped if you are late or absent from school. He
was. (And left it, illiterate, as I said.) There is no other way. There is no
tie up to the Christian principles of love thy neighbour or parables about lost
sheep. Nor can their be any open discussion with the teacher or the priest
about the foundations of thought and belief.
Earlier blogs give accounts of mandatory prayers at medical conferences
introducing drug company reps with their latest spiel on the efficacy of
innovative compounds, at new bank launches or before politicians’ speeches at
the hustings. To deny God in Ghana is to invite anything from rib-tickled
disbelief to aggression. The notion of having a critical consciousness about
ALL things is not on the table. Churches rule daily social lives. The only
learning they vouchsafe comes from within the tight parameters of the bible.
The same young man, mentioned above, talks about “When the white man brought
the book ...” as the point of change for the better in Ghanaians lives, though
he has no idea what life was like before the missionaries. Looking at Ghana’s
remarkable, world-beating GNP, little of it is percolating down to the poor
from its religion-embracing Ministers of State. Meanwhile, the poor pray for
miracles to change their living conditions because it is in God’s hands. The
illusion of Heaven drives all religions alike. Everything will one day be
wonderful, you will find yourself at God’s feet, serving His will. Meanwhile, just
suffer with good grace.
The adherents of the world’s religions here
steal as much as they bribe. It is occupational. Gangs come and disconnect your
electricity at night and come to put it on again in the morning, at a price.
Kilometres of cabling are stolen regularly leading to blackouts. All the
country’s essential services are regularly ‘chopped’ by staff wanting backhanders to do normal
work, selling equipment taken illegally from central stores, demanding bribes
for releasing imported materials and so on. The same folks invariably go to
church on Sundays for their various forms of absolution, their prayers for
consumer items, their hopes for the future. They see little inconsistency in
week long criminality and Sunday holiness.
Before you think this is a rant from some
racist outsider, please take stock of other blogs I have written. I (as a long
time educationalist) see the blame
for Ghana’s troubles at least partially at the door of religions. They breed
closed minds with absurd certainties and they (as they have done through time
immemorial) keep the poor in its place. While religious institutions exhorted
their followers to enjoy a peaceful presidential election recently, one can’t
help thinking that their real concern was the status quo, their hold on the
purse strings of the poor.
For other writing:
Three FREE novellas at www.chronomterpublications.me
The Azimuth Trilogy www.azimuthtrilogy.com First TEN
chapters FREE.
Labels: #Ghana. Religion. Closed minds.
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