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.