Ambivalence and Power: Mediums in Ga Traditional Religion1)

Abstract

Among the roles frequently played by women around the world, mediumship has received considerable attention 2). Recently in the anthropological literature, the association between spirit possession and femininity has been variously attributed to structural conflict either between the sexes or among women, especially co-wives 3). Although I think that these sociological explanations need not be mutually exclusive and may have considerable validity, they fail to account fully for the epidemeology of mediumship in at least one West African society. Among the Ga people of south-eastern Ghana, mediumship represents the most powerful and one of the most prestigious occupations open to women. Through mediumship, capable and ambitious Ga women are enabled to resolve certain psycho-social ambivalences arising from their inferior biosocial and socio-economic status and to achieve prestige and influence in contemporary Ga society. My discussion of Ga mediumship is based upon research in Central Accra, the oldest settlement within the modern capital of Ghana. Originating as a Ga fishing village or villages more than three hundred years ago, Central Accra today comprises a predominantly but by