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How
the Spider Became Bald: Folktales and Legends from West Africa
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Talking Drums An Anthology of Poetry
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Football in Ghana & the World Cup
Some Things Never Change:
Looking at Ourselves in Africa
By Rev. P. E Adotey Addo
One of my fondest childhood memories
was the almost fanatic enthusiasm we had for football in
the Gold Coast, as Ghana was called during my childhood.
In addition, as it is today, everyone, young or old has
a good football story to tell. This passion for the game
has been around for over one hundred years and it has
reached its highest today. I was born and grew up at
Osu, the most beautiful part of Accra , the capital
city of Ghana. I grew up hearing outrageous stories from
football pundits and fans about Ghana football. When it
comes to Ghana football, some things never change.
In Ghana, there are those who believe
that when it comes to the game of football there are
other forces at play other than the players, which
influence the result of the games. The pundits refer to
teams consulting witchdoctors who perform special spells
and magic to ensure a specific outcome of the games.
Magic or “Juju” is an age-old belief passed on from
generation to generation and has been central, according
to the pundits, to football in Ghana for a very long
time. I have heard many of these stories whether true
or false from the pundits for years about football and
most of them have been outrageous to say the least. The
place of magic or “Juju” according to some pundits is
central in Ghana football but usually is never discussed
publicly and it includes special ceremonies to ensure
the success of the games.
Football is so deeply entrenched in
the body politic and soul of Ghana that it runs through
our daily lives. In fact, football is perhaps the only
issue one can find universal agreement on among
Ghanaians from all occupations. Until recently, some
pundits laughed about those who played football
barefooted and without uniforms or protective equipment
in the past. In my boarding school, we played
barefooted, but as we played, we dreamed of the time in
the future when we would have the proper equipment and
protective gear as we saw in the movies. It turned out
to be just a dream. The scariest thing about the stories
told by the pundits was subtle suggestions that the
supernatural often affected the destiny of our football
teams and therefore the results of the games were
dependent on how strong was the “Juju” or witchcraft
consulted. In our boarding school, our teachers insisted
that we prayed hard to win the games.
The belief in “Juju” has created its
own cadre of “Juju” men and women as well as
witchdoctors, who are highly regarded in towns and
villages and has brought some real wealth to these
practitioners. To the football pundits the best
goalkeeper was always the one with some good magic or
“Juju” or medicine. The “Juju” men easily and
conveniently explained a loss to bad medicine. Now that
Ghana has qualified for the World Cup, the pundits will
have to eat their words.
After the 1948 protests demanding
Independence from Britain some stores were emptied. In
the villages near the capital, there was an abundance of
what many assumed were bars of chocolate. In one of the
villages, some of these innocent looking bars of
chocolate were fed to the visiting team at the
suggestion of the consulted witchdoctors. The home team
won because those innocent chocolate bars turned out to
be laxatives, which incapacitated a large number of the
visiting team. It has been over fifty years now and the
dispute is still on in those two villages. Then there
was the time a team from another village accused the
people of the village where I was a teacher that they
had been fed with some unknown “Juju” portion that
caused them to lose the game to the home team.
Well it
turned out to be nothing but some good old extra hot
pepper and fish. The chief had to decide that case.
For the first time I must admit a practical joke played
on a senior student at our boarding school who was the
senior class goalkeeper and was about to play the
sophomore class. We sold him a green loofa sponge as a
magic portion for a very small fee to help him as a
goalkeeper, but the senior class lost the game anyway
and we were all severely disciplined by the headmaster
who refused to admit our defense that the goalkeeper
asked for it.
Another interesting incident occurred
when the witchdoctors from the suburbs of one of our
large cities were apparently consulted by the home team
but unfortunately, the visiting team won the game with a
last minute penalty shootout. Well, when the home team
demanded a refund the witchdoctor indicated that the
team never paid all the fees promised: two chickens and
one goat plus some currency. When the team complained,
the story goes, the witchdoctor placed a curse on the
team and for years the team never won a game until they
went back to pay the witchdoctors the part of the fees
that was never paid. By this time, the fees had jumped
to ten live chickens and four live goats and an amount
equaling ten times the money promised at first.
Football may not be the most popular
sport in the world, but in my country, it remains as
popular as it has been for over a hundred years. I love
football but I dare not pretend that any one could
predict the outcome of the World Cup games.
Nevertheless, I am reminded that our pundits and elders
still believe that it takes more than practice and skill
to win. I must say I agree with them. The national
enthusiasm, support, pride, and spirit of contemporary
Ghanaians have destroyed any doubts that Ghana may yet
bring home the World Cup. Unbelievably this dream does
not lose anything in translation.
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Originally From EVERYONE HAS A GOOD
STORY; a Ghanaian contribution to a compilation of
stories from the 32 participating nations in the 2006
World Cup in Germany published by
www.cafediverso.com.
1€ from the sale of each book donated to the UNESCO
endorsed and administered World Literacy Program.
Rev P E Adotey Addo /
http://www.retirementwithapurpose.com/africanchristmas.html
P O Box 13356,Greensboro NC 27415 /
336 375 5761 Fax 336 375 0068 / Web Address: http://www.addo.ws
posted 12 July 2006
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How the Spider Became Bald
By
Peter Eric Adotey Addo
In a world where children are more apt to
watch the pathos of Jerry Springer, Addo's "How the Spider
Became Bald" adds to the treasury of works parents can turn
to for their childrens' need to have positive reading. Spider has the ring of an Alex Haley folktale
as heard on his grandmother's porch...where Haley pieced
together threads of his family's tales: leading to Roots. Addo's decades as a cleric show through as
does his keen sensitivity to linking West African folklore to
the Faulkner and Twain genres of American South folklore. This little book
is indeed a tour de force. Should be in homes & school
libraries, especially for parents and teachers who search for
Afrocentric treasrues. This one's a gem.—William H. Turner, PhD, Winston-Salem, NC
May 23, 1998 |
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Mockingbirds at Jerusalem
(poetry
Manuscript)
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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updated 14 February 2009
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