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- Convenors:
-
Genevieve Nrenzah
(University of Ghana)
Ulrike Schroeder (University of Rostock)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Perspectives on current crises
- Location:
- H22 (RW II)
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 1 October, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
This panel explores the conflation of spirituality and criminality, revealing how spiritual power, symbols, objects, people, and institutions can be used to perform or prevent crime. The panel invites papers on spiritual intelligence combating crime and solutions to conflations.
Long Abstract:
All over the globe, spirituality and criminality conflate in exciting ways, yielding intriguing results. Spiritual power, symbols, objects, people, institutions, and others are engaged wittingly or unwittingly in the performance of crime or its prevention. For example, religious ritual forms and related performances can offer guises for forms of physical abuse such as torture or rape of vulnerable categories in ways that violate criminal codes. Likewise, in various parts of the globe, law enforcement agents and governments enlist the services of religious agents, ritual forms, and institutions in addressing crime in its diverse manifestations. This conflation offers us the opportunity not only to explore the dynamics of religion in different worlds but, more importantly, to broaden our horizons in understanding perceptions and performances of criminality. This panel invites papers that address, for example, using spiritual intelligence in the fight against crime. Religious spaces and institutions include shrines that specialize in fighting crime, ritual murders, the use of ritual in human sex traffic, legal issues in dealing with religion-inspired crime, the abuse of women using the guise of deliverance rituals, the use of magical objects placed on the body—to evade police and law enforcement, and others. Papers can be based on research on such phenomena in any part of the globe.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 1 October, 2024, -Paper short abstract:
In Ghana, ritual specialists, primarily males, operate in ways that blur the line between ritual and crime. Acts include having sex with female worshippers, touching them sexually, flogging, incising, and murder. Fieldwork suggests certain acts can pass for crimes under Ghana's criminal codes.
Paper long abstract:
The pressure to seek answers from spiritual sources in Ghana has placed much power in the hands of diverse ritual specialists operating in the religious landscape. Under the guise of ritual actions, crime takes place in these sacred spaces, but the aura of sacrality that typifies religious spaces provides camouflage for such crimes. The ritual specialists, primarily males, perform this power in ways that blur the line between ritual and crime. Rituals prescribed for worshippers or clients as avenues to redemption can involve male priests having sex with female worshippers, touching them sexually in secrecy or openly, flogging, incising, and even murdering. In both the Pentecostal and Indigenous religious traditions circles, ritual specialists are not held accountable for their actions as these acts are classified as rituals, and all worshippers recognize or are conditioned to accept them as such, resulting in victims suffering in silence and being deprived of justice. Building on fieldwork among selected Pentecostal churches and Indigenous religious shrines, I argue that certain acts that can pass for crimes under Ghana’s criminal codes are accepted as rituals, both by looking at worshipping communities as well as the victims.
Paper short abstract:
The study argues that the reason for criminal spirituality lies in a deficient religious pedagogy that presents a reductionist view of religious and spiritual experiences, and also not critical to provide ethical guidance to challenge assumptions that underlie abuse of religious authority.
Paper long abstract:
The recent BBC African Eye investigations which uncovered evidence of alleged widespread abuse and torture by the founder of the Synagogue Church of all Nations, the late Temitope Joshua, has generated interest in the perceived criminal activities perpetrated by some religious persons in the name of deliverance sessions. Deploying the case of two prominent Nigerian pastors, the jailed Chukwuemeka Ezeuko, popularly known as ‘Rev. King’ and Chukwuemeka ‘Odumeje’ Ohanaemere, otherwise known as ‘Indaboski’, this study reflects on the psychology of abuse, dominance and captivity that has aided the use of religion and spirituality as a justification and motivation for harming people. Drawing on data sourced from media monitoring of news reports and social media presentations, the study purposively selects news, feature stories and clips of deliverance sessions, and adopts a qualitative approach to critically analyse these data. The study posits that the captivating ambience of many deliverance sessions give room for gullible and congregation to succumb to abuse, blackmail and violence. It further argues that the reason for this lies in a deficient religious pedagogy that presents a reductionist view of religious and spiritual experiences, and also not critical enough to provide ethical guidance to challenge assumptions and biases that underlie abuse of religious authority. To address these incriminating events paraded as religious activities, this paper looks on to phenomenology by suggesting the adoption of conditioned scepticism as an epistemic attitude in relation to religious events.
Keywords: Deliverance sessions, fear, phenomenology, conditioned scepticism
Paper short abstract:
Religious beliefs have played a significant role in shaping human behavior throughout history, and this is particularly evident in the case of Nigeria, where religious beliefs have been linked to violent conflict and criminal behavior among most of the insurgents in Nigeria. Particularly Boko Haram.
Paper long abstract:
Religious beliefs have played a significant role in shaping human behavior throughout history, and this is particularly evident in the case of Nigeria, where religious beliefs have been linked to violent conflict and criminal behavior. While there are many factors that influence criminal behavior in Nigeria, the role of religious beliefs in shaping the identity of groups like Boko Haram and legitimizing their use of violence is particularly noteworthy. Using a combination of primary and secondary sources, the paper examines how religious beliefs have influenced Boko Haram's ideology and actions, including their use of violence. The paper argues that while religion is not the only factor motivating Boko Haram's behavior, it plays a significant role in shaping the group's identity and legitimizing its use of violence. The paper also discusses the implications of this dynamic for conflict resolution and peace building. In conclusion, the influence of religious beliefs on criminal behavior in Nigeria is complex and multi-faceted, but it is clear that understanding this dynamic is essential for conflict resolution and peace-building efforts in the region.
Paper short abstract:
Before June 2022, southwestern Nigeria had never witnessed a gruesome attack until it happened in a church in Owo on June 5, 2022. This study examined the Owo massacre, the rituality of security, and reactivation of informal mechanisms for vengeance, protection, and peacebuilding in Owo community.
Paper long abstract:
Since 2009, when Bokoharam terrorists began their violence in northern Nigeria, many innocent lives have been massacred in their communities, with no records of such in southwest Nigeria. In a twist of fate, about 50 church members were massacred on Sunday, June 5, 2022, during the feast of a Pentecost in a Catholic church in Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria. In this paper, I interrogate the Owo massacre and community responses through the reactivation of traditional peacebuilding structures in Owo, Ondo State. I show how experiences of attacks reinforce collective beliefs and the activation of traditional social control and peacebuilding structures by the church and community in response to the gruesome attack on Owo community. The study adopted Social Bond theory and deployed explorative research designs. Qualitative methods (IDI, KII, and non-participant observation) were used for data collection. This method allowed for holistic and valuable insights through subjective narratives through qualitative primary and secondary sources. Primary data was extracted through interviews with the Olowo, council chiefs, priests of the violated church, Orisa devotees, informal security personnel, and members of the community. Also, the non-participant observation was done by the researcher to observe the community responses, which involve the invocation of Ogun (the community ancestral deity) to arrest the attackers, take vengeance, and for peacebuilding. Data was thematised and subjected to deductive content and thematic analysis. Findings show that mourning reactivates beliefs in informal social control, stirs up collective conscience, and elevates conversation around issues of security and safety.