Juju means more to us than Bible, Qu’ran – J.J. Rawlings

• Posted on March 29, 2014March 29, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings says Ghanaians and Africans have more reverence and fear for their juju shrines and gods than the Christian Bible and the Islamic Qu’ran.

At a recent lecture outside Ghana, Mr Rawlings told an audience of Africans that the Bible and Qu’ran do not mean anything to the Continent.

“I think yesterday I was citing an example of three people in a room. The following morning one was dead and the other two who were alive were arrested and taken to Court. And as the Court proceedings were going on, the case was beginning to find one of them guilty. And they were gonna make a pronouncement on him. You know what he asked? The one who is alive, he and I come from the same village. We’ve sworn on the Bible, sworn on the Qu’ran, sworn on the sword and yet I am the one being found guilty. Please, I beg the Judge; take us to the village we come from. We have a shrine over there and let us go and swear on that shrine and see whether I am innocent or he is the culprit. Whether I am the Murderer or he is the culprit,” Mr Rawlings narrated to his audience.

“That’s all the question I asked these Catholic Priests. They could not answer me because they know, you are not gonna swallow any poison, but they know that we don’t fear that Bible, we don’t fear that Qu’ran but when it comes to our shrine, that one we dare not joke with it. We’ll go and tell the truth,” Rawlings observed.

Mr Rawlings used the anecdote to demonstrate how much Africans revere and fear their deities despite the prevalence of Christianity and Islam.