On Wednesday, November 14, Mariam Goshadze, a PhD candidate in the Committee on the Study of Religion, delivered a presentation on the politics of religious sound in Ghana's capital, Accra. Mariam's talk covered her pre-dissertation fieldwork in Ghana throughout the summers of 2014 and 2015.
To contextualize her research interests, Mariam first talked about the religious landscape of Accra. In the contemporary framework, Christianity is the religion of the majority. Among the different denominations available to followers, the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement is the most powerful and the least tolerant towards African traditional religion. Pentecostalism espouses a radical break from the African indigenous beliefs, a disposition that marks the suspension of a period of collaboration between Ghanaian Christianity and African religion made possible by the accommodating nature of African indigenous religion and tolerant approach of earlier Christian denominations in the country. Shortly, the accelerated ascendance of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement to the position of the most-followed religion in Ghana since the 1980’s has upset the prior devotional equilibrium.
In her research, Mariam explores the relationship between the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement and indigenous religious beliefs by focusing on the Homowo harvest festival, which she argues, serves as the microcosm of the encounter between the two parties. Homowo is celebrated by the Ga ethnic group as an acknowledgement of their perseverance in an arid ecological niche of Accra. The festival emphasizes the union of Ga people both as a family unit and as an ethnic group. It is the time when the Ga villagers return to their ancestral houses in coastal towns to share a meal with the living members of the family and the ancestors. Consequently, interruptions in the implementation of the festival not only imperil the annual harvest, but also jeopardize the Ga 'ethnic identity'. Mariam's project investigates the noise ban imposed before the final celebration of the festival, during which the Ga neighborhoods in Accra, including the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches, are obliged to keep silent in order to respect the Ga deities visiting the town to work on the gestation of harvest.
In the first part of her presentation, Mariam analyzed different dimensions of the encounter between the two religions in terms of Pierre Bourdieu's economic, cultural and social capital. In addition, Mariam employed the concept of religious capital, which Troy Rey defines as "sacraments, community membership, moral sanction and the ensurance of salvation, enlightenment, or holiness". She suggested that the present conflict could be framed in terms of all four forms of capital.
We can see the confrontation as a struggle of traditional authorities to retain and reinforce their social capital, and by extension their political influence. The most famous Pentecostal pastors are deeply entrenched in Ghana’s political network and as possessors of considerable social capital, they have become powerful political actors in the country. The high social status of the leaders of the church combined with the stigmatization of traditional religion has considerably damaged people’s trust in traditional authorities.
Furthermore, the ongoing adjustments to the ethnic composition of Accra have rendered the Ga a minority in their own land. As the representatives of other ethnic groups arrive to the metropolis in search of better opportunities, they do not feel obliged to observe the practices of the local community. If we employ the notion of cultural capital to talk about the role of the Homowo festival in the formation of the Ga cultural identity, the strict imposition and enforcement of the noise-ban can be read as an initiative from the "traditionalists" to emphasize and reclaim their social and cultural capital and contest the legitimacy of Christian pastors. Conversely, the refusal of Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches to obey the ban represents a direct assault on the Ga cultural capital and by extension their overall well-being since interruption of the customs associated with the ceremony disrupts the moral and cultural unity of the Ga ethnic group.
Apart from the broader questions of survival, concerns over economic capital are also prominent. As churches are proliferating in Accra, they end up soliciting more and more land to permeate the urban landscape. In the Ga areas, the issue of land ownership or land lease continues to be negotiated with the Ga chiefs who are obliged to ensure rightful and equal distribution of land. With more social footing among the government and urban elites, as well as larger economic capital, Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches have encouraged the practice of bypassing negotiations with the chiefs and acquiring lands without traditional authorization.
Mariam then moved to analyzing the impact of the noise-ban in legitimating or contesting the social and cultural capital of both parties. She suggested that sound and music emerge as key elements of religious capital, providing a highly perceptible sense of legitimacy and a conspicuous faculty of sacredness. Loud worship amounts to a core characteristic of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. Likewise, sacred sound, such as the beating of the talking drums, is critical before major religious celebrations in the Ga indigenous religion. Prior to the imposition of the ban, the drums are beaten to cleanse the town and prepare it for the arrival of deities. When the deities occupy the town they need not be disturbed as they are working on the harvest. The capacity of indigenous religion to curtail Pentecostal/Charismatic sound is a powerful indication of continuous leverage of the traditional system. The vigorous imposition and implementation of the noise-ban before the Homowo festival can be interpreted as a backlash of the Ga chiefs against the incursion of Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches into the social, cultural and economic space of traditional religion; as well as an opposition against the newcomers who numerically and economically preside over the native Gas.
Sound also plays a decisive role in the accumulation of social capital. Music and performance have always been central for community building and social cohesion in Ghana. Part of the significance of the noise-ban is to "starve" the population of music and dance before the most important annual celebration in order to facilitate a sense of climax and release. In Charismatic worship musical idiom serves a similar purpose of community building and emotional release, offering religious alternatives to dance halls and secular music. Attendance of Pentecostal/Charismatic services prior to the lifting of the ban waters down the sense of climax experienced at the end of the Homowo festival.
Lastly, Mariam concluded, control of noise is an obligation of the Ga chiefs and priests, who in the traditional framework are liable for protecting the Ga population from nuisance and hardship. Growing religious noise has been becoming an issue of public concern in Accra. According to several studies, nighttime exposure to religious noise exceeds the permissible level for residential areas. This is partially determined by the powerful sound systems of Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches that extend the sonic boundaries of their services beyond the confines of the churches.