Demonic Voices

Charles is a young man living in Accra who hears voice that he interprets as those of witches and demons. This is not bizarre or unusual in the context of the local cosmology in which spiritual attack by malevolent others is not uncommon; Charles’ social world consider it plausible that he may be under spiritual attack. However, when he confronts his father’s tenant—who is bewitching him in order to seduce him—his father thinks that there is something more. This results in Charles’ first hospitalization. Supported by Ga religious beliefs and Pentecostal Christianity, Charles’ direct experiences of gods and demons transform his everyday existence into a constant battle between forces of good and evil, where his protection is Christian prayer and the strength of his spirituality.