History and Evolution of the Occult in Ghana

Religion has always been a part of Ghanaian traditional life, but the category, occult, is a new one and has evolved through different eras of Ghana’s history. The colonial and Christian missionary enterprises in Ghana, then the Gold Coast, and their negative characterization of certain Ghanaian indigenous religious elements they regarded as irreligious and anti-social eventually brought about the usage of the negative term, occult. This notion is now perpetuated in Ghana by Pentecostal Christianity through its discourse that informs the way many Ghanaians see the world, including their negative views about the occult. This chapter sketches the history of the category, occult, in Ghana—from precolonial times to the present. It shows how, over the years, the term has evolved and taken on newer meanings and elements. The chapter also demonstrates the key influences on contemporary Ghanaian popular understandings of the occult and how these affect the nation’s politics presently.