9. Religion On The Road: The Spiritual Experience Of Road Travel In Ghana

Abstract

This chapter addresses the three road situations and their respective fields of spiritual experience in turn. It focuses on how religious and spiritual practices shape the everyday experience and performance of travel by road. The chapter considers a suitable anthropological approach to roads. The focus on spiritual practices and experiences on the road puts the limelight on everyday travellers on Ghana's roads, namely commercial drivers and passengers, and their preoccupations with the paradoxes and ambiguities of the roads. Ghana's lorry parks show that vehicles and roads constitute public places for spirituality, religious discussions and even proselytism. Spiritual means are to be seen as instrumental rituals which drivers and passengers employ in a matter-of-fact fashion without paying them as such any attention in daily practice. Keywords: anthropological approach; Ghana's roads; religious practices; spiritual experience