Speech Day Dancing...

Last weekend Accra Girls’ Secondary School had their annual “Speech and Prize Giving Day”. The celebration is a bit of a misnomer because the school prefect was the only student that gave a brief speech. There is a guest speaker, this year it was the Director General for the whole of the Ghanaian Education system. The students do get prizes based on academics, athletics, and various other categories. The week leading up to the event was quite busy in preparation and when Saturday arrived nearly 3000 people were in attendance. The day was nice, long, but nice and I think that the girls had a good time.

On Sunday the girls went to church, as usual, but this week all of the staff was asked to attend as well. After the service the teachers sat around and talked, snacked, drank, and listened to music. At one point someone had the great idea that we should all have a dance competition. As each person got up and danced, the teachers, very jovially, would rank them on a 0-10 scale. I managed to remain out of the competition until the very end when they dragged me up to dance for 10 or 15 seconds in front of my colleagues. They all got a kick out of it and told me “ieko” which means “well done”.

The teachers the went to lunch with all of the students. I sat next to Madame Akapame, the Headmistress, and she told me that she was going to ask the three teachers who tied for second place to dance in front of the students so that they could judge. I asked who won first place and she told me “ I did, of course, I am the headmistress”. After lunch she called the three teachers up and they danced in front of all the students and everyone loved it. The girls were happy and the teachers took it in stride. After it was done the girls started chanting “Mante, Mante, Mante”; the name of the assistant headmistress who is also the disciplinarian. So, Mrs. Mante danced in front of all and, again, the girls all loved it. When all was said and done we prayed and started to leave. I stood up pushed my chair in and I heard some one call my name. I looked but could not find who called it, and then I heard it again, and again, and again. Before I knew it all the girls were now chanting “Coryell, Coryell, Coryell”. I looked over at Madame Akapame and she just smiled and told me that it looked like I was going to have to dance. As embarrassed as I have been in recent times, I went out onto the floor in front of everyone and did the only move from the only Ghanaian dance I know and the girls, faculty, and staff loved it. Roughly 1200 people altogether and I danced in front of them. It was rather nerve-racking, but pretty comical as well.

The next day at school, every class that I had asked me about the dancing, told me it was their favorite part of Speech Day and asked if I would freestyle for them. Also more of the students said “hi” to me than ever before.

Spirit Lions...

Today the local media reported that a man in Ghana’s Volta Region had been attacked by a lion. Please understand that the Volta Region is quite a ways from Accra and although culturally similar in many ways, it is also very different geographically. There are no lions in Accra. I read the article this morning and it said that a local chief was attacked and the encounter lasted 45 minutes. In that time the man shot the lion in the head but the lion continued to come The whole ordeal ended when the man chided the lion for attacking an “old man” and slapped the lion across the face. The man did have to go to the hospital to be treated for injuries to his arm and thigh but it is reported that he will make a full and speedy recovery. Being as we do not have wild lions in the US, I found this article to be fascinating. When I went to class this morning I brought it up to the students because I thought they would find it interesting; they found it to be pretty funny. After I told them about it they proceeded to tell me that the lion was most likely a “spirit lion”. I have read about spirit lions before and the students here reiterated, and greatly elaborated on, what I had only read about. Spirit lions are initially other animals on which a fetish priest places black magic or juju and turns the animal into a lion. The lion then becomes the servant of the priest. It is said that if the fetish priest is upset with you that he can send a spirit lion after you. However, it does not always work that easily. Sometimes a spirit lion will attack the wrong person, get a taste for violence and become a rogue spirit lion, or, it is possible in the worst case scenario, that the fetish priest will pass away before he can remove the spell and the lion will continue to go on reeking havoc.

I remember talking with my geography class last year about this same subject. Here, in Ghana, I half expected the students to tell me that those are just traditional beliefs and people don’t really subscribe to those ideas and practices anymore, especially in Accra. However, that is not what they said. Instead, they told me that most of them believe that this was, in most likelihood, a spirit lion. They continued and went into why a fetish priest would send a spirit lion and even how to best defend oneself against such a beast. Some of the students simply believe that the animal was hungry and that is why it attacked, but the majority of the students (I talked to about 200 students on this topic today) believed, with all sincerity, that this was a spirit lion. We had a great discussion about it in all of my classes today, but I think that I learned more today than most of the students.