Friday, October 9, 2009
Elfin Fertility in the Volta
A stony kernel and a hale hen are brought to the festival grounds at 7 a.m. Fetish dances and songs are performed by dreadful spirit-beings in varicoloured clothes, dry grass skirts, naked torsos ‘pastelled’ in chalk and war paint. Around 9 a.m., the kernel is buried in the holy ground, and a cock is intimately introduced to the hen. The yodelling and gambolling continues, but as the fetish demi-gods become possessed, they start displaying some shocking acts; wickedly whipping one another, breaking the sable skin and bleeding badly, but there is no cry of pain. Some are cutting and stabbing their own bulging bellies with knives and daggers, but there are no weeping wounds. By 12 noon, the kiddo kernel has grown into a 20-foot-high palm tree with mature, vermillion fruit. The hen has laid an egg and hurriedly hatched a chick. Now the mystic messengers of the gods are appearing and disappearing with a bellowing ‘poom’ amid wisps of white and yellow smoke. At 2 p.m., the chick has ‘imagoed’ into a big, fat hen, and the mother hen withers and dies. By 3 p.m. the new hen and the palm fruit have been cooked into delicious palm soup. Six short hours it took!
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This, I gotta see!
ReplyDeleteFeeli feeli! Any details on exact area in VR where this happens?
Must be the same tricks David Blaine uses.
Never heard about this one before Nana - also curious to know where in the Volta this occurs.
ReplyDeleteDear Mike,
ReplyDeleteI started (as a writer does) from a position of truth, but I perverted the story (creatively) along the line. Therefore, what my research really brought up were 1) the tree; 2)the bird and 3) the ability of the spirit men to disappear.
I made up the whipping, and imported the cutting and stabbing from Northern Ghana (where they really occur).
These fantastical feats are said to occur in the following areas (and it might even be more widespread): Gbi, Anlo, Kpando.
Yay! Something Denise has not heard. I'm proud (sorry, just had to say it!). Denise, it's claimed by somebody in my office who has witnessed some of these that the relentless march of Christianity (in particular) is reducing the number of adherents to these practices. I have personally seen the disappearing acts (though that was long ago when I was a child). As I said above, it has been known to occur at Gbi, Kpando and Anlo (all traditional areas).
ReplyDeleteOne of my office-mates (a lovely native son of Anlo/Togo) says he has never heard of this but would not be surprised because "things happen". *Sigh* Me of little faith!
ReplyDeleteDear Abena, that is the whole point - (in)credulity! I have heard these accounts from different people in different places who are all credible to me. But your office mate is right too. These acts are fast disappearing. We should move (have moved?) to chronicle them audio-visually.
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised they do. I still think they are "hand is faster than the eye" tricks.
ReplyDeleteLegerdemain for Mike!
ReplyDeleteThese are 'film-tricks' like they say. I'm not sure thay can be captured on video. A palm tree and a bird hatched and grown in half a day? I have seen disappearing but not that.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Myne. I'm now reliably told that people have tried and failed to record such magic on tape.
ReplyDeletehaha...very creative!There is actually an Asian ritual where the men get beaten with sharp knives and cut themselves too! Forgot the exact culture but I have seen in on discover. It is quite an eyesore!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Maxine. I believe I've seen that ritual too, and it was Thailand.
ReplyDeleteThis is INDEED incredible! I'm very impressed, not by the kernel and egg part, but by the fact that they are able to make palm nut soup in ONE FRIGGIN HOUR! Because for anyone who has prepared palm nut soup from scratch (meaning from the time u get that whole huge thing-- to cutting it into smaller pieces to allow you to pick the nuts more easily, to cooking the nuts, pounding the hell out of it.... you catch my drift??) knows it takes a whole day to make!!!!
ReplyDeleteLol, Raine. ;-)
ReplyDelete