AASR Bulletin 35 - The African Association for the Study of Religions

AASR BULLETIN 35 (NOVEMBER 2011)
www.a-asr.org
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Brigid Maa Sackey
URBANITY, RELIGION AND HEALTH
IN CONTEMPORARY GHANA:
A PARADOX OF MISSION
Inaugural lecture
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Brigid M. Sackey, Acting Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of
Ghana, in 2008 and 2009, was promoted to Full Professor in 2009, with retrospective
effect to 2008. She delivered her inaugural lecture on Thursday, February 3, 2011. Its
abstract runs as follows. 41
‘Urbanity, religion and health are indispensable, interdependent variables that are
essential in a country’s development because they have a common goal of seeking the
well-being of her people. The quest for urbanity may be generally associated with the
movement of people from rural to urban areas in search of refinement, elegance and
improvement in their quality of life, including health delivery in which religion plays a
significant role as it assists them to adjust to their new environment.
In this lecture I look at the impact of religion, specifically African Pentecostalism,
on health in the cities. This new religious phenomenon, which began to emerge on the
continent of Africa in the 1880s and has continued to flourish in various shades, has
healing as its main mission: ‘we are here to heal’ (Baeta 1962: 15).
However, the churches’ modus operandi in furthering their healing mission is contentious
because it brings about certain paradoxes. On the one hand, Pentecostal and
Charismatic churches bring relief to the sick and the poor who participate in their
church services. On the other hand, they bring much discomfort and sometimes sickness
to residents in the vicinity of the churches who complain about the excessive noise
generated on a daily basis by the churches.
My research found that the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in Ghana are
aware of the noise they make but contend that constitutionally, they have a right to worship,
and biblically they are exhorted to worship by making a joyful loud noise to the
Lord (Psalm 98:4). I argue that by making excessive noise, the churches have compromised
their original mission as health providers and have become polluters of health. In
other words, they have become the same forces that alleviate as well as contribute to the
very health problems they seek to solve. Paradoxically, the churches are oblivious to
the fact that by holding loud all-night services and robbing residents of sleep, the worshippers
also deprive themselves of sleep as they keep awake to make noise. In the
short run, people may be cured of the initial sicknesses they bring to the church, but in
the long run, they may acquire other ailments through the unconscious absorption of the
noise they create.’
41 http://www.ug.edu.gh/index1.phplinkid=213&archiveid=675&page=1&adate=03%2F02%2F20
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