When the Deities Visit: Translating Religion into the Language of the Secular Open Access
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Published:May 2025
Chapter 4 introduces the sonic tensions that unfolded in 1998 to 2001 and investigates the legal discourses surrounding the resolution of that conflict. In the aftermath of the Drum Wars, the two parties mobilized distinct legal frameworks to defend and translate their positions into the legal language of the secular state. The Ga community defended the ritual ban as a cultural heritage protected under customary law and Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians insisted on their constitutional right to religion. Although in practice the label of culture allowed the Ga community more freedom to impose its ritual regulations on the area under their customary jurisdiction, the adoption of these legal positions reflects the persistent culturalization of traditional religions in missionary, colonial, and nation-building contexts and the religionization of Christianity within secularism as an ideological and political regime.