Tales of Sanitations and Spirits

interview with a god

In this pilot episode, we meet a god called Odum who claims he can clean up the filth and pollution in Jamestown if we give him 2 million cedis. We bargain him down to 1 million cedis but after we give him the money he tells us the mess is not his responsibility. Were we cheated? Was the money wasted?

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About
Invisible Governance

Yes, we interact with gods, spirits and ancestors. We're looking into how they try to influence the fortunes of Jamestown Ga Mashie a slum in the center of Ghana’s capital Accra. And how we can interact with them.

No, this is not fiction. We're journalists. We report. We document. We investigate. But we can't always tell what is real and what is fake. We simply don't know how it is possible that we conversed with a voice emanating from a clay pot, or from a hole in the ground, or with a priestess who speaks a language that she herself does not speak.

Real or imaginary, these forces hold sway over the Jamestown community and entangle worldly authorities - local chiefs, politicians, aid workers, business people . They are mostly at each other's throats, unable to coordinate even basic social service, leaving the community grossly underdeveloped.

Yet somehow Jamestown still functions. Sure the overcrowding breeds misery in what is one of the filthiest places on the planet. But few inhabitants would prefer to leave. Government and local authorities hold little sway. Jamestown is a place of endless possibilities. Here people say they are free to live their lives as they want.

Jamestown is an intersection where other worlds meets other times. The former British administrative capital of the Gold Coast boasts two slave forts -- one Danish, one English. It is historically home of the Ga ethnic group, a people who pride themselves on their rebelliousness, who claim to be the lost tribe of Israel.

Hidden amongst Jamestown"s labyrinth of streets and alleyways are memorials and shrines for deities, local and foreign. Churches, old and new, butt up against mosques, spiritual shops, pubs, night clubs, boxing gyms, herbal shops and coffin makers.

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Im Zentrum von Ghanas Hauptstadt Accra liegt das Hafenviertel Jamestown. Obwohl völlig heruntergekommen, interessieren sich Ghanas Investoren für das Gebiet. Und so kämpfen die Hafenbewohner nicht nur gegen Dreck und Krankheiten, sondern vor allem gegen ihre Vertreibung. // Von David Hecht / WDR 2019 /

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Ghana Pallbearers GIF from Ghana GIFs