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| | Inaugural Lecture By Professor Brigid M. Sackey (Former Acting Director, Institute Of African Studies) |    | | |
As part of the scholarly lectures scheduled for the 2010/2011 academic year, Professor Brigid Maa Sackey, former Acting Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, will deliver an Inaugural Lecture as follows:
Topic: Urbanity, Religion and Health in Contemporary Ghana:
A Paradox of Mission
Date: Thursday, February 3, 2011
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Venue: Great Hall
Chairman: Professor Ernest Aryeetey
Vice-Chancellor, University of Ghana
Please find the abstract to the lecture below.
You are cordially invited to the lecture.
Topic: Urbanity, Religion and Health in Contemporary Ghana: A Paradox of Mission
ABSTRACT
Urbanity, religion and health are indispensable, interdependent variables that are essential in a country’s development because they have a common goal of seeking the wellbeing of her people. The quest for urbanity may be generally associated with the movement of people from rural to urban areas in search of refinement, elegance and improvement in their quality of life, including health delivery in which religion plays a significant role as it assists them to adjust to their new environment.
In this lecture I look at the impact of religion, specifically African Pentecostalism, on health in the cities. This new religious phenomenon, which began to emerge on the continent of Africa in the 1880s and has continued to flourish in various shades, has healing as its main mission: “we are here to heal,” (Baeta 1962: 15).
However, the churches’ modus operandi in furthering their healing mission is contentious because it brings about certain paradoxes. On the one hand, Pentecostal and Charismatic churches bring relief to the sick and the poor who participate in their church services. On the other hand, they bring much discomfort and sometimes sickness to residents in the vicinity of the churches who complain about the excessive noise generated on a daily basis by the churches.
My research found that the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in Ghana are aware of the noise they make but contend that constitutionally, they have a right to worship, and biblically they are exhorted to worship by making a joyful loud noise to the Lord (Psalm 98:4).
I argue that by making excessive noise, the churches have compromised their original mission as health providers and have become polluters of health. In other words, they have become the same forces that alleviate as well as contribute to the very health problems they seek to solve. Paradoxically, the churches are oblivious to the fact that by holding loud all-night services and robbing residents of sleep, the worshippers also deprive themselves of sleep as they keep awake to make noise. In the short run, people may be cured of the initial sicknesses they bring to the church, but in the long run, they may acquire other ailments through the unconscious absorption of the noise they create. | | | | Event Date: 03/02/2011 | | | |   |
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