There are many issues raised by Castro’s recent disappearance, mostly concerning Ghanaian society and how we are not well equipped to effectively dealing with catastrophe of any kind. A week after Castro and Miss Bandu disappeared and we are no closer to finding either of them due to the unavailability of state of the art rescue equipment.

Another issue that has come up recently, perhaps assumed even more prominence than the fact that two people are missing, are the glut of prophets, mallams, and other supernatural agents claiming knowledge of what transpired when the mysterious disappearances occurred. Each one after the other claims exclusive knowledge, and that only they or their deity can save the situation.

I often listen to such people with little seriousness, as often their ‘prophecies’ contain contradictions and double truths that unravels under the smallest application of logical thinking.

More worrying is the fondness of the general public at large for the spewing of these people, take a walk down any street in Ghana and you would find people in serious discussion of the Castro issue honestly considering all the angles, and trying to discern whether it was really the ‘maame water’ who carried him away or it was some other spirit.

And this ‘affliction’ of my fellow countrymen is easily fuelled by the media, leading to more and more discussion of such issues. It did not take long after Castro’s disappearance for these spiritual people to come out of the woodwork to make their claims, and the truth is the radio and TV stations are happy to accommodate them because Ghanaians buy into that kind of theories, thus that is what sells.

That leads to my question at the top of this piece, which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Is it the fondness of the Ghanaian public for the supernatural that has led to the media always concentrating on those elements in the event of a tragedy, or is it by always harping on those elements that the media keep the Ghanaian people super invested in that element of the supernatural world.

Obviously Ghanaians are big on religion; therefore we tend to lean more towards explanations of events from the realms beyond those of us mere mortals. Yet by the media continuing to give prominence to such issues, it creates a self-perpetuating cycle which is unlikely to be broken thus leading Ghana further and further away from the positivist and towards the mystical.

This reminds me of the agenda setting theory I studied back in school, which stated the media sets the agenda for the public. I did not buy that explanation, but I believed in a later adaptation of the theory. That particular adaptation said ultimately the media brings out what the public wants, thus it is not the media setting the agenda, but the public themselves due to what they like most being what the media churns out.

Thus when all is said and done, it is the public that drives what the media would broadcast. Yet the media are supposed to be the agents for change, so how do we reconcile that with the need to give the public what they want?

Ultimately, these fake prophets and spiritualists would be given airtime by the Ghanaian media; because that is what the Ghanaian people want, meaning we would continue to be mired in this 19th century mindset, applying supernatural instead of logical explanation to issues. And that fault, ultimately, lies with the people of Ghana.