I Cannot Treat Stupidity: The Function of Divination in Planning and Managing Life Crisis within the Dagbong Traditional Society in Northern Ghana

Abstract

Diviners play key roles in deciding individuals’ decision-making processes among the indigenous peoples of Africa and in many other parts of the world. One key decision that people make has to do with the pursuance of good health. The purpose of this study was to explore the common types of diviner practices undertaken by the Dagomba, identify disease causative agent among Dagomba, and explore the rationale behind the practice of divination. The goal of this paper was to explore the function of divination in planning and resolving life crises within traditional Dagbon communities in Ghana. The investigation was guided by Rational Choice theory. In all, a total of 73 participants were sampled using snowball and purposive sampling techniques for both the in-depth interviews (33) and focus group discussions (40). The in-depth interviews included 25 diviners chosen from 5 communities in Yendi Municipality and its surrounding communities including 8 health workers, while 40 community members selected from the 5 communities (8 members per community)—both male and female—participated in the focus group discussions. Structured observation was also employed to gather additional information to supplement the data collected through other methods. Responses were captured using tape recorder (field notes were also taken) and afterwards transcribed and coded. Analysis was performed using thematic content analysis. The study discovered various types of diviner practices among Dagomba. It also found that most people use divination as diagnostic tool to determine the cause of ailments and diviners play important role in determining the cause and management of illnesses in the study communities. It was further established that most patients combined both divination and allopathic medicine in seeking answers to their health problems. This is due to their conviction that many ailments have both spiritual and physical elements that must be attended to concurrently. It was further discovered that certain disorders and illnesses necessarily require diviner consultation in order to decide the best course(s) of action to cure or prevent it from getting exacerbated. However, some of the diviners indicated their inability to treat all maladies, stating for example that they could not treat ignorance and stupidity. Soothsaying, Afa/Mallam, Jinwariba, Gbanigba consultations among others, are among the common diviner services regularly patronized by traditional Dagbon communities, according to the study. Going by these world views, the indigenous Dagomba person sees the practice of divination as a vehicle they can use to confront life crises, hence our study recommends that divination be merged with allopathic medical care methods so as to provide holistic health care services to all who may need it.