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Traditional Law and Religion Among the Bulsa of Northern Ghana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Rüdiger Schott
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Extract

In October 1974 I attended a court session in Sandema, capital of the Bulsa District in the Upper Region of Ghana.1 Before the Paramount Chief of the Bulsa, Mr. Azantinlow, had appeared two men from Kanjaga, another Bulsa village. One of them complained that some of his donkeys had gone astray and had been illegally appropriated by his neighbour. The latter denied these charges, stating that the donkeys in his compound were his own and not identical with the lost donkeys of the complainant.

The case had been brought previously before the chief of Kanjaga who had advised them to consult a diviner (baano), who by means of his divining practices should find out to whom the donkeys belonged. The diviner, consulted by the complainant's father, came to a conclusion in his favour, yet the defendant did not believe what the complainant told him about the outcome of the divining, but accused him of telling lies. In addition the defendant asked: “In our land (i.e. according to our customs), if you consult a diviner, don't you also offer sacrifices to a bogluk?”2 This the complainant's father apparently had failed to do.

The case was finally brought before the Paramount Chief in Sandema. He refused to judge the case, but referred it back to the elders of the village: they should “talk the case” (biisi bììka) before it was brought to the Chief again, if necessary.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 31 , Issue 1-2: Essays in Honour of A. N. Allott , Spring 1987 , pp. 58 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1987

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References

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