Fetish Priests Hijack Advertising Industry

Spiritual healers have now taken over the advertising industry by erecting large billboards across the country to promote their businesses. From larger structures to miniature signposts, the traditional priests and priestesses, mallams are competing for space with churches and the business community along highways, advertising their shrines and services which include career success, wealth, good marriages, booming business, as well as problem-free visa acquisition. Highways including Accra-Nsawam, Nkawkaw-Kumasi, Koforidua-Abetifi, Koforidua-Bunso, Kasoa-Cape Coast and dusty-pothole-filled rural areas like Kasoa-Bawjiase are lined with such billboards. Advertisers Association of Ghana says the minimum cost of producing a billboard is between GH�3,000 and GH�80,000. On the Accra-Nsawam road, one such noticeable billboard is that of the enigmatic priest, Nana Kwaku Bonsam. Nana Bonsam�s billboard standing defiantly on the Accra-Nsawam road, describes him as a �powerful spiritual man� and �the great authentic man.� The billboard, which has two pictures � one with the spiritualist in priestly regalia and in a trance and another with him in a black smock and riding a black horse � lists his litany of services to include seeking vengeance and solutions to bareness, stalled promotion, debt, madness, spiritual attack, marriage problems, poverty, and impotence. On the same road, not to be outdone by the intimidating Nana Bonsam�s effigy, there is Nana Ababio, who tags himself the spiritual father and provider of all spiritual problems. Those adverting themselves in the Islamic fold are Mallam Ibrahim, who tags himself as �wonderful man; Mallam Musah, the spiritual and herbal last stop; Kunfayakun Herbal Spiritual Centre operated by Sheikh Dr Black and White; with a rather tall list of remedies for all manner of physical and spiritual ailments. Others on the Accra-Nsawam road include Hare Krishna Temple and Mallam Zacharia Ibrahim. On the Kasoa-Winneba road, there is a long chain of billboards belonging to Alhaji Baba Fear God, Nana Atia Yaw and Nana Oboanipa, Bobivi Kwame among others. While some spiritualists have received applause for their efforts in sometimes exposing people in search of quick money, their stock in trade is faith-based healing and, sometimes, magic which preys upon the gullibility of their wealthier followers and the desperation of the poor. The messages of healing, miracles and prosperity easily find sympathetic echoes among a populace down on the economic ladder. With the vulnerable at their mercy, the emphasis is on good life, an antidote to the despair that thrives in society outside the walls of their shrines. The spiritualists are not advertising their trade only on billboards. They are deploying all forms of technology including radio and social media. Nana Bonsam for instance has close to 3,864 friends on facebook and a website, www.kwakubonsam.com.