It was noticed that male respondents were more likely to attribute the loss of farm produce/crops to natural causes whereas female respondents commonly assigned a supernatural cause (explored below). The contrasting views could result from the patriarchal nature of the community. A personal communication with Jacob Abudu, a scholar and a native of Mole-Dagbon who also conducted a study on witchcraft in the Mole-Dagbon area of the Northern region of Ghana, on the 2nd of May 2016 at 16:24, revealed:
“men in the Mole-Dagbon community are well informed, they mostly listen to news in English and Dagbani (dialect) versions whiles the women are consigned to house chores and hardly listen to news. You can find wireless sets with high volumes on the back of men’s bikes when they are going to farm and to perform other jobs such as security”.
The quote above indicates that different levels of exposure to other sources of information (i.e. ideas outside the immediate village) may be an explanation for the different interpretations that evolved between the males and females regarding the
53
destruction of crops. From the males’ perspective, any event that has a logical/scientific underpinning is described as a natural cause and in no way related to either supernatural or human activities. An example of such an event is the loss of crops and farm produce resulting from the overflow of the Bagre Dam at the border with Burkina Faso. The quote below is one that exemplifies frequent responses given by male respondents:
“Regarding the spillage of the dam, it only has a scientific explanation. You know we are close to Burkina Faso and our farms are closer to that dam and our soil is very fertile so most of us have our farms there. Usually the dam is full to its capacity at a point in the year which is a natural thing and has to be spilled. This happens when crops mature and are ready for harvest and when the dam is spilled it washes away our crops. This is very traumatic but cannot have a spiritual understanding or a deliberate thing done by a person”
Information gathered from the focus groups indicates that farming is the
predominant occupation in the Mole-Dagbon traditional area. Farmers invest considerable amounts with the intention of yielding farm produce to export and market locally. From their point of view, they become traumatised by the loss of crops as their survival is tied to agriculture. Although the DSM criteria do not include such an exposure (loss of crops and farm produce) as traumatic because it lacks the life threatening element, the Mole-Dagbon considers such an event as traumatic. This position of the Mole-Dagbon is consistent with Wilson and So-Kum (2007) and Herbert and Formans’ (2010) assertion that what is
54
In a theoretical sense agricultural activities may have become tied to schemas of survival that are core to the Mole-Dagbon and threat of loss or the actual loss of crops would generate considerable threat in relation to these core schemas. Such non-physical threat to core schemas has been hypothesised to be sufficient to be considered traumatic in a
diagnostic sense (van Rooyen & Nqweni, 2012). An individual interview with a victim (male) revealed a subjective link between such an event and changes in his thinking processes:
“During my sleep or when I go to bed, I think of the event in so many ways and sometimes I feel I am even damaging my brain or tensing it to the extent that I was going insane. I think about it so much not knowing how to survive and that answer of how to survive was also not coming. As part of the thinking, I ask myself “how am I going to feed my family? Where do I get money to pay the bank this huge sum with interest? I was always reflecting on that and I experience a little or no sleep throughout the night.”
Although some of his fears here are clearly related to the future rather than the past (as with PTSD), his reported symptoms (intrusive distressing thoughts and sleep
disturbance) are reminiscent of the DSM-5 PTSD criteria that were causally linked to this naturally occurring event. This evidence is of course not conclusive, but does point to the fact that the different realities experienced by people from different cultures would lead to different kinds of events being considered traumatic (Marsella, 2010; Okello, 2006; van Rooyen & Nqweni, 2012).
55
Although the discussions above capture the male view of what leads to the overflow of the Bagre dam from Burkina Faso, the female respondents on the other hand,
understood the overflow of the event as having supernatural origins, stimulated by human activities. Thus the female view seems to reflect an African traditional view more
strongly. From the researcher’s perspective, regardless of the differing views, an element of human agency is identified as resulting in the event. There is therefore a measure of control in minimising the effect of the event (loss of farm produce). The mechanisms of the supernatural are explored more fully below.