Shortly after I published an article entitled: ‘ASABEE, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE!’ (In it, I sought to bestow greatness upon the Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng, by entreating him to take a serious look at how he can organise our chiefs to lead their people to stop the galamsey that is killing their water-bodies), I read a particularly interesting news item from Berekum.

The item brought into the limelight, the sort of constitutional conundrum that will be landing on Mr. Asamoah-Boateng’s desk with regularity, if I read our confused social situation right.

The traditional authorities in Berekum want to enforce a ‘custom’ whereby the rearing of goats in the town is regarded as a “taboo” and is thus prohibited. Apparently, the ‘custom’ is of ancient origin, but had gone into abeyance in recent times.

However, as it happened, Berekum had lost its chief, and as the funeral rites of the departed chief were being observed, the traditional authorities reminded the townspeople that goats were not allowed in the town and that those who were rearing goats there should get rid of them within two weeks.
For good measure, the “young men” were authorised by the authorities to kill any goats they found wandering in the streets of Berekum!

Now, some people in the town jumped the gun and began going after goats even before the two-week deadline had elapsed.

Not unexpectedly, some goat-owners in the town were opposed to the idea as such, whether it was implemented after the deadline or not. And they have been causing a commotion in the town, claiming that the edict has enabled unemployed and/or poverty-stricken people to take advantage of the announcement of the taboo to expropriate goats from their lawful owners.

As can be expected the edict has divided the townspeople. Some think that since the taboo against goat ownership in Berekum had been disregarded for many decades, its sudden reimposition was unfair and unjust. It would be an expensive exercise for anyone who had spent money to buy and rear goats in the town because even if they were able to sell their goats off, the sudden flooding of the market with goats would necessarily bring down the price of goats.

Others oppose the measure because they think it is unlawful. How is it to be interpreted by the other, (“non-traditional”) authorities in the town, such as the police, the District Chief Executive and members of the Local Assembly? What about the Central Government? Did it, or did it not, recognise the power of the traditional authorities to enforce the ancient customs of their locality?

The dilemma is also being discussed online. The more sober discussants are drawing attention to the contradiction between modern laws (as endorsed by the Constitution and applied by the law courts) and the traditional beliefs and customary laws of towns like Berekum.

The emptiness in the heads of some members of the Ghanaian serial online “commentators'' is, of course, being made quite evident. Many of Ghana’s “customs” and `’traditions`’ (these “educated” people write) are based on “superstition” and should therefore not be tolerated in a modern state. No quarter is given to the argument that the ban on goat-herding was imposed in Berekum for practical reasons.

Had any of the “modernists ever herded goats, I wonder? Goats are the most destructive of domestic animals. They eat everything they can find, especially vegetables and fruit trees. So, even if a “religious” aspect was incorporated into the taboo against them, it could well have been a 'pretence' reason invented to rationalise and thereby enshrine the practical objective.

In my next piece, I shall discuss the implications of the issue of how the traditional authorities can win public support for measures they contemplate that are genuinely in the interest of their communities.

Measures such as ending the killing of their water bodies by galamseyers. For it does seem rather ridiculous that there should be a hullabaloo about goat-herding, while nothing of the sort is heard about the more destructive, and even existential threat, that is – galamsey.