Spiritual Matters

I smell Onions in this trotro. I am sniffing the air like a German Shepherd to find out where the smell emanates. It’s like one of these passengers bathed himself or herself in onions or garlic before leaving home this morning. Some spiritual battle may be at stake.

I don’t cook. In fact, I don’t know how to cook. But, my mum, when she was alive - she was such a great cook - told me onions are an essential part of the cooking process. They make food tasty. The irony! I wonder how a vegetable with such a strong and acrid smell could sweeten a recipe.

Anyway, that’s the food matter. Let me come back to this unidentifiable neighbour of mine in this trotro who seems to be on a mission to sweeten his or her life.

In traditional African society, the use of onions is essential in everyday life. It is believed that onions ward off bad spirits. It is basic to find onions in the money bags of many women who sell in market centres in Ghana, big or small. The women who hawk items in traffic are not left out of this practice, neither are those who own big stores.

I can only think of one reason for this practice: they want to prevent their monies from being snatched or they want to ward off misfortune in whatever form or colour.

The whole venture of selling items, especially in these markets, is a spiritual matter. I have heard stories of how women sell items during the day and are not able to reconcile the monies at hand in their purses when the day ends. As it were, the items have been sold, but the money in hand cannot be reconciled with the items sold.

Bombshell!
The money has been snatched spiritually. So, to avert this, these women put a piece of onion or garlic in their money bags.

But can we, for a moment, leave the spiritual world? Is it possible these monies are taken from these bags by people who work with these sellers?

It is even possible the monies are taken by these conmen who just need a second to bump into a trader.
Abracadabra!
Your money goes missing!

Well, I guess onions or garlic work like magic.

Apart from the market women, it is also standard practice for people to put onions in their rooms. Again, the belief is that onions ward off bad spirits, especially the kind of spiritual attacks that happen when one sleeps. I mean, if one has a dream and the person is being chased by chickens, then it surely must be some spiritual attack.

I am spiritual, so don’t get me wrong!

But, there is also the principle of GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out! Our minds, through our eyes and ears, easily pick up information around us. Unfortunately, because we cannot decide on how our minds process these (because we are exposed to these things), our minds store them and programme them into our sub-consciousness. From here onwards, anything is possible!

So, perhaps, if you are being chased by some demonic image in your dream, it is because of the horror movie you watched last night. Maybe you should stop listening to too many sensual songs if you keep dreaming of having sex with someone of the opposite sex in your dreams. I don’t even want to think of the case in which a person has a dream of having sex with someone of the same sex. That one needs more prayer!

But, even before I finish telling this tale of fragrant onions in this trotro, pne thing is clear. People don’t just start putting onions in their money bags or in their rooms. This belief in the Ghanaian society is valorized by all kinds of spiritualists, fetish priests, priestesses, even pastors.

Yes!
You read right!
Pastors!

So, if you see someone employing these onions in any way or form, probably “they have been somewhere” and have been told to use the vegetable to improve their fortunes. It’s sad that often, these misfortunes may be as a result of certain careless attitudes we have either in our relationships or in our business dealings. The question is, when the onions do not work, how far would a person go to ensure that his or her fortunes improve just like this neighbour of mine in this trotro?

Anyway, my trotro ride just ended. I am about to board another to my destination. I have two simple prayers: that this neighbour of mine who just gave all of us in this trotro such a welcoming and refreshing fragrant smell of onions will have his or her fortunes sweetened unlike the actual smell of the onions and that I don’t meet the same circumstance in the next trotro I am about to board. Ghana is hot and humid in what is supposed to be a wet season.

I need to smell something refreshing to cool off my mind. My mind needs it.