Media 'demonize' African religions

Unfortunately, the average religious functionary has been imaged in mainstream media as backward, dirty, dubious, and an agent of the devil to the neglect of other life-enhancing roles in traditional society.

Part of this image is self-inflicted because many of the stories surrounding the production of evil medicines for the destruction of life and the cheating of clients have proven to be real. 

As the Akan of Ghana would say, ‘when a sheep contracts a contagious disease, it spreads among the whole flock’.  In other words the negative image of one religious functionary could lead to the blacklisting of all traditional religious functionaries as cheats and charlatans.

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Professor J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu teaches at Ghana’s Trinity Theological Seminary.