|
|
|
Previous
Next
|
| Religous Beliefs and Environmental Protection: The Malshegu Sacred Grove in Northern Ghana. |
|
Reference |
| Dorm-Adzobu, Clement & Veit, Peter G.: " Religous Beliefs and Environmental Protection: The Malshegu Sacred Grove in Northern Ghana.", Ground Up case study series no. 4, ACTS Press, African Centre for Technology Studies, Nairobi, 1991. |
|
Introduction to the Institution |
| The people of Malshegu are deeply influenced by traditional religous leaders, institutions, beliefs and practices. They have managed to protect and maintain a sacred grove of 0.8 ha close to their village for nearly three centuries. The sacred grove has become a refuge for a large variety of fauna and flora - numerous native species are found in higher concentrations than anywhere else in the region. It provides seeds and seed dispersers which are vital to traditional shifting cultivation practices and herbs for local medicinal, social and religous purposes. Also, it protects the village from bushfires, wind and rainstorms and other climatic hazards from the south.
ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT: The Malshegu community is located six kilometers north of Tamale, the capitol of the Northern region in Ghana. The area is not densely populated with human settlements, but cattle are numerous. Malshegu is surrounded by open lands, primarily used for grazing and, to some extent, agriculture. The land is classified as Guinea Savannah. The predominant natural vegetation consists of short perennial grasses interspersed with fire-resistant, deciduous broad leaved trees. Many natural and planted trees are maintained for social, economic or religous value. Mean annual temperature is 27.9 degrees C. and the recorded rainfall range is between 900 - 1650 mm, with an annual average of 1070 mm. Rainfall occurs in one season, from May to October, and is followed by a long hot season. The area is prone to periodic droughts, most recently in '72-73, '76-77 and '82-83. There are no surface rivers or streams nearby Malshegu, but some untapped shallow groundwater resources. Only permanent water source is a standpipe in the village from the Tamale Water Station. Few houses have rainwater collection systems. The soils are classified as Savannah ochrosols. They have low agricultural potential, and are highly susceptible to water and wind erosion.
HISTORY AND SOCIAL CONTEXT: The people in Malshegu belong to the Dagbani ethnic group. They arrived to the area in the 12th century. In the early 18th century, the Malshegu settlement as such came into existence. Several families moved nearer each other to defend themselves from Arab invaders. The main Trans-Sahara route was less than two kilometers from the current settlement and farm compounds - typically four to five nuclear families will share a compound with walls around it - were frequent targets for both slave and livestock raiding. Other families joined the community as they saw the advantages of living together. At the time of the study, the population of Malshegu was estimated at 2000 people and growing due to an influx of immigrants from Tamale. Most young men and women, though, migrate to urban centers to find manual wage labour. The dominant economic activity in Malshegu is agriculture mixed with animal husbandry. Main crops are guinea corn and vegetables (pepper and okra), additional crops are maize, yams, groundnuts, cowpeas and beans. Soil fertility is maintained by using animal manure and night soil by practising traditional intercropping and crop rotation techniques and by allowing a six-month fallow period during the dry season. |
|
Coverage of the Institution |
| Sacred groves are scattered around Ghana (and in other parts of the world also). In a Ghanian context the succes of maintaining the grove in Malshegu is unique. It is the largest sacred grove in the Northern Region and it is one of the countrys most important groves from a socio-cultural perspective. The institution is concurrent. |
|
Rules for Management
of the Institution |
|
(a) Boundary Rules |
| SOCIAL BOUNDARIES: It is not clear, but it seems that evrybody, even people who are not residents of the village, are allowed to make use of the grove in accordance with the rules set up by the worshippers of Kpalevorgu, the god residing in the grove.
SPATIAL BOUNDARIES: The grove occupies an area of 0.8 ha outside Malshegu. Surrounding the grove there is a buffer fetish land, a band varying from from one-quarter to half-a kilometer width. |
|
(b) Governance
rules |
| RELIGOUS: When the community was first established it was under the leadership of a fetish priest. The story goes, that the founding families routed the Arab slave raiders in their first battles and it is believed that a fetish god - Kpalevorgu, in the form of a boulder under a Baobab tree - helped and protected the families from the invaders. The early victories encouraged other families to move to Malshegu, and the power and importance of Kpalevorgu increased. Kpalevorgu is the community level god in a complex traditional hierarchy of gods and religous practices found in this region of Ghana. A supreme god, considered male, is creator of all things and is worshipped by all people. The land, considered female, is the second most powerful god.
The Tindana, a woman custodian of the land, responsible for distributing common land, is the community's most powerful religous leader.
Second most powerful in the local community is the Kpalna, but his authority supersedes the Tindana on matters concerning the sacred grove and its protection. He leads the community in honoring Kpalevorgu and advises the village leaders and residents on religous issues concerning the community.
Malshegu people will also establish and worship compound and individual level gods. These practices are reported to strengthen the local belief in the traditional religion and add to the reverence afforded to the Kpalevorgu god and its grove.
Twice a year, the Kpalna, aided by the village chief and other local leaders, organise a grand Durbar - a village wide meeting - and leads the community in prayer and various rituals in honor of Kpalevorgu. These festivals mark the beginning (May) and end (October) of the agricultural season. They are designed to give thanks to Kpalevorgu for the community's prosperity and to solicit continued blessings. Residents from Malshegu and neighbouring communities will participate in the festival. During these festivals villagers are permitted to enter the grove to do some hunting and collection of forest resources (see ResA). At the end of the ceremony marking the end of the farming season, a three meter wide firebelt is cleared around the sacred grove and fetish lands by the young men supervised by the Kpalna, in order to protect the sacred grove from the annual dry season bush fires.
The remaining part of the year, only the Kpalna is allowed to enter the grove.
When the grove was first demarcated, unwritten regulations were put in place by the Kpalna and other village leaders regarding land use in and around the grove. Some of these rules have been amended to ensure their continued relevance and effectiveness. Today they protect the fetish lands and the original grove by regulating the behavior of the people of Malshegu and, to some extent, the residents of neighbouring communities. All kinds of farming and grazing in the grove and the fetish lands are prohoboted. Entrance into the grove and fetish lands is only permitted during the biannual Durbar's or on other occasions with advance consent of the Kpalna and other village leaders. Only the Kpalna and his aides have regular access to the grove and fetish lands and regularly visit the grove to pray to Kpalevorgu on behalf of the community.
Sanctions or offending the grove are both sacred and secular of nature. As for sanctions of sacred nature, failure to comply with the rules protecting the grove, or to participate in the biannual Durbar's, is believed to offend Kpalevorgu and bring misfortune to the offender, his family or perhaps the whole community. This belief is supported by stories of people (including one American) who violated the sanctity of the god and established residency in the grazing zone, fetish lands or the grove. These people soon fell ill, went insane or died. As for sanctions which are more of secular nature, community vigilance, under the Kpalna's direction, is well entrenched and effective. It is nearly impossible for anybody to enter the grove without being detected, approached and reported to local authorities. The support of the village chief and other leaders from Malshegu and neighbouring communities ensures that the Kplana has the power needed to enforce rules. In the past offender were lynched, today they are fined several cows or goats, which are sacrificed by the Kpalna to appease Kpalevorgu. Fines on nonbelievers arre paid by family members who still believe in the traditional religous system.
Today Malshegu is subdivided into two sections. Kumbuyili is the cluster of houses around the compound of the Kpalna. In Malshegu, which is separated from Kumbuyili by several compound farms, the village chief resides. |
|
(c) Resource Allocation |
| The Kpalna, who is also the traditional healer of the community, provide traditional medicines including herbs and medicinal plants from the grove. Apart from the medicinal plants and herbs, most of the extraction of the grove is symbolic. During the Durbar festivals, villagers are permitted to hunt and collect some forest resources. Hunting is restricted to various species of rodents and birds, and the catch is closely supervised and controlled by the Kpalna and the village elders. Branches of certain hardwood trees can also be cut at this occasion, to use as handles for hoes and axes. Handles made of hardwood from the grove have a high symbolic value. Young adults embarking on independent lives are encouraged to acquire a handle for their main farming tool from the grove, to ensure agricultural prosperity. |
|
Conflict Resolution Mechanism |
| Not reported. |
|
Problems Faced by Institution |
| Concurrently, many of the remaining pockets of savannah forest on the Malshegu land were cut for fuelwood and building materials. Concerned about the potential threats to the grove, the Kpalna, with assistance of the local leaders and the approval of the villagers, demarcated two hectares of additional area around the sacred grove as fetish buffer lands.
In response to the growing shortage of fuelwood and building poles, the Malshegu Town Development Committee under the leadership of the local district assembly member, began working with a local grassroot organisation and the Forestry Department in 1988 to develop a village woodlot. A one-hectare woodlot was initiated in 1988, but the villagers expressed dissatisfaction with the communal effort and a preference for private woodlots. This indicates the low involvement of the residents of Malshegu in community development initiatives. The traditioanl Dagbani institutions, government-sponsored "revolutionary" organs and other externally initiated organizations are involved in few community development initiatives in Malshegu as the traditional Dagbani social and settlement patterns - extended families living on seperate compound farms - encourage and reward self-sufficiency at the compound level. Without viable local institutions, cooperation among compounds for community development is difficult to organize and limited in its ability to address such village-wide problems as the overgrazing and population increases that have lead to land degradation and desertification in Malshegu. |
|
Changes in the Institution over time |
| Since the Sacred Grove and fetish lands were demarcated, most trees in the surrounding area has been cut, much top soil has been lost to wind and water erosion, the water table has dropped and other aspects of the resource base have deteriorated. Desertification of the region followed from droughts in the '70es and '80es and has significantly changed the environment. Thus, resource shortages do exist in Malshegu. Still, the community has managed to protect and maintain the grove, in spite of the fact that women sometimes have to walk 10 kilometers to collect fuelwood; one full day of searching is commonly required to gather enough fuelwood for three days.
The degradation of other sacred groves in the area has helped increase the regional importance of the Kpalevorgu fetish. This has reinforced the traditional religous belief in Malshegu, thus further encouraging the local people to protect the grove. |
|
Other Features of Institution |
| In the early 1950'es, the British Colonialists brought electrical power top the water supply station in Tamale. Out of respect for local religous beliefs, they detoured the transmission lines around the sacred grove. |
|
Purpose |
| Maintaining and protecting a Sacred Grove |
|
Country |
| Ghana |
|
Region |
| Malshegu village, Northern Region. |
|
Date Of Publication |
| TroB 230496 |
|
| |
