'Sakawa' Hysteria Ghana's 419

At various times in the history of our dear country, Ghana, people have used several tricks to get rich quick. Between 1970 and 1990, a phenomenon came to Ghana which was known as “KALABULE”. This was the period when goods were not readily available in the market due to hoarding. Traders deliberately created artificial shortages in order to put high prices on their goods. The exorbitant prices these traders were charging became known as ‘kalabule prices’ Just around the ‘80s another trick to get rich quick appeared. This created hysteria throughout Ghana. Handshake was their mode of operation. They always met innocent and unsuspecting people with a smile and a handshake.. As soon as he shook your hand, you would realize immediately that something has gone out from you. Your sexual organ had disappeared. Any amount you had on you disappeared too. You would realize the money loss later because all your attention would be focused on the loss of your sexual organ. A Daily Graphic cartoonist made interesting caricatures of the situation with the caption: “Don’t shake my hands oo. I can’t afford to lose my thing” What has now come to be known as “SAKAWA” is more complex and terrifying than those described above. What makes it serious is that, different groups of people have joined this to get rich quick. Students, the unemployed, businessmen, pastors, and even gainfully employed people have tried it. These groups approach SAKAWA in different ways. I will begin with the students. The students go to the internet cafes. They create Skype and search for contacts and begin a chat with them. As they get more familiar, email addresses are exchanged. The student will then write an email to the person who he now knows as a successful businessman. He will tell him that his father was the majority share holder in Stanbic bank (or other banks), and that after his death the shares were transferred to him. Since he doesn’t know anything about banking, he would like to sell his shares to him. In many cases they have succeeded in swindling unsuspecting British and Americans of huge sums of money. These students specialize in Power-point and use it to design certificates, agreement and contract forms with the bank’s logo. They create other email addresses and send these attachments using different names and the title of ‘lawyer’ or ‘barrister.’ Who will not believe such beautiful and genuine-looking certificates coming from a lawyer? These students spend several hours on the computer searching for their victims. It is now very risky to show so many people’s email addresses in a mass mail.

The second group are those who consult fetish priests like Kwaku Bonsam.The kind of financial assistance you will need from him is known as “blood money" (mogya sika duro). The type of blood he will demand from you depends on how fast and how big an amount you want to have per week or month. They sometimes demand the blood of a baby, a child, a boy, a girl, a woman or a man. These people are often killed to get their blood. Even the blood from a woman’s menstrual period is sometimes demanded. The most serious one is the pastor who wants to be rich and at the same time wants his church to be full. Blood from albinos and the sexual organs of women are believed to be particularly potent. For those people who cannot afford human blood, this is how they also get their riches: The fetish priest will instruct them to go out naked at dawn for three days. They should only return home when somebody else has seen them. The person who sees their nakedness will go home to die but the fetish priest will not tell them this. The fetish priest gives them a secret code which they say anytime they want a snake to appear. The snake does not bite but anyone who beholds it will lose money unless the snake is killed. These snakes are made to appear mostly at market places and lorry stations where the owner is sure to get so much money from so many people.

All those who consult the fetish priest are instructed by the fetish priest to have more white cars in their fleet of cars.

It is a common sight in Ghana to see the newly-rich, thanks to SAKAWA, driving in Porsche, Hummer and Mercedes benz cars all white in colour. These things normally crop up when students cannot pay their fees, high rate of unemployment, commodities becoming very expensive, people turning more to pastors for a miracle and many more. It behoves on the government to sit up and tackle this problem. SAKAWA will die when the economy improves the same way KALABULE disappeared.

Stephen Atts Owusu

Author:Dark Faces at Crossroads.

Email:shootingstar1994@hotmail.com