A RELIGIOUS RACKET ON THE GOLD COAST

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1938, Page 26

A RELIGIOUS RACKET ON THE GOLD COAST

Scientists-in the-Anthropology Section of the British Association, Cambridge;'rocked with laughter when they were told about, the religion racket fph the Gold Coast of Africa, says 'the' "Daily Telegraph' and Morning b^ost." , '■'"'- --'■ Dri M. Fortes, who has lived for years-among the hill tribes of the Gold Coast, -described the racket, which, he said, was based on the belief of some of the most ""civilise'd" and even Christian tribes that their ancestors could faring them childrSn or wealth or anything else. The advice of the "ancestor" was, in fact,i!the'voice of the racketeer concealed behind a rock, and a necessary part of the'ritual .was that the votaries should drink some "holy" water and be smeared with red mud. People travelled by the lorry load as ihtich as 500 miles to consult their "ancestor"—who, of course, charged a fee for his favours. n The first fee was a levy of 16s for hoard and lodgings which the devotee had to pay to the racketeer. WorshlPpers had .to make a gift of a,t least £1 before they could consult their dead grandfather and also promise a "commission" of at least £5 on favours received. One man had promised as much as £100—"almost a millionaire's sum.

But before the mysterious voice •would condescend to proffer advice, the pilgrim had to promise to tout for backsliders from the cult who, he was Jtearned, would, he visited, with terrible

distress if they slighted their ancestors; their children —so kindly bestowed by the ancestor —would die, and their crops would fail. Dr. Fortes said that there was more than one clan working the racket, in each case members of a primitive tribe living on the credulity of partly Westernised natives.

They divided the territory among themselves and "organised" the scheme by appointing local "agents" and even "commercial travellers" who made periodical $purs to remind pilgrims of the terrible consequences of leaving their ancestors in the lurch.

It was a common thing for pilgrims on their way to a shrine to be waylaid by touts who tried to pursuade them to go to a rival shrine where they could consult the oracle "at halfprice."

"Two of the most enlightened, politically conscious, and highly-educated chiefs in the country, whose names," said Dr. Fortes, are so well known that I cannot mention them, happened to pass through a district where one of these fetishes is practised. They had come hundreds of miles ostensibly on a political visit, but really because they were obviously impressed with the cult."

He told of one racketeer who had 80 wives~.and was making an income of from 300 to 400 cows a year—"obviously a man of very considerable wealth in a country where a cow is worth £2 and a wife is valued at £4 10s,"