Religion in Ghana

On the first morning of living with my Ghanaian roommate, I woke up around 6 a.m. to her playing praise music (loudly). When she saw I was awake, she came and sat on the edge of my bed and asked if I’d taken my morning’s quiet time yet. Nonplussed, I was unable to respond quickly enough, so she took out her Bible and read me a verse. Afterward, she informed me we would be doing Bible study together every morning and she would take me to church every Sunday.

What was going on? I thought I had prepared myself for this, for the high degree of religious devotion in Ghana, but when actually faced with it on a personal level I had to regroup. The way my roommate approached me in religious conversations made me feel like she had been warned that Americans were heathens or pagans whose souls needed to be saved immediately. (Case in point: she once brought me a book titled "How to Be Born Again and Avoid Hell.") I’ve come to see that religion is enormously communal here and that reaching out to visitors and inviting them to pray, sing or attend church is a form of looking after one another.

Recognizing that concept, though, doesn’t make navigating these conversations any easier. I am an agnostic, which for many Ghanaians is not a concept. I was not raised in Christianity, but I have read the Bible, and I attended a Christian summer camp for several years. The conclusion I reached for myself was that I can’t feel a personal connection to a God; if there is a God, I think it’s impossible to know of his/her existence, and I’m kind of OK with that. Early on in my stay in Ghana, I tried explaining that to people, but the presence of God in Ghanaians’ lives is so pervasive that they tend to seem unable to process the idea of someone not believing. When I tell Ghanaian friends that I don’t go church, they seem to give up on my soul.

Most Ghanaians attend church every Sunday, often for hours or the whole day. Wearing your “Sunday best” is a whole other level in Ghana. Many people also worship in other forms throughout the week, whether through daily personal study, like my roommate, or Bible groups, Wednesday mass, morning prayer, etc. Often, on my way to soccer practice at 6 a.m., I pass groups of students roaming fields and speaking in tongues. (Speaking in tongues is fairly common here -- people who do so are classified as Charismatic Christians.) I’ve even had peers give sermons before classes if the professors were late to arrive. Attendance to righteous living means that some Ghanaians do not drink alcohol; I’m also careful to moderate my speech and avoid cursing or saying “Oh my God” around my roommate. (It was a bit of a shock the first time I heard a Nigerian friend say “Jesus!” in exasperation.) The fervor of Christianity in Ghana is further complicated by its origins in colonialism and its (largely negative) relationship to indigenous religions.

While many Ghanaians are Christian, there is a sizable Muslim population, especially in the northern parts of the country, but scattered throughout as well. There is a mosque across the street from my dorm, and Muslim holidays are recognized as public holidays, with classes cancelled and public celebrations. Tro-tros (the rickety buses that are the main form of mass transit) are as likely to have stickers referencing Allah on their rear window as they are Jesus. From what I can tell, there seems to be little conflict between Ghanaian Muslims and Christians.

The best religious interaction yet? A twelve-year-old told me that the reason that Ebola had reached America but wouldn’t come to Ghana was because there weren’t enough American Christians.