Often our superstition drives us to engage in nonsensical behaviour, but for the first time it’s driving some real, positive behaviour. A pity it won’t last…

Apparently a tree god in Cape Coast who was not happy with the behaviour of some fishmongers, who polluted its sacred grounds, sent a messenger to drive the fishmongers out of its lands.

In a scene right out of the New Testament, this possessed messenger went into the market, and chased them out, scattering tables and scaring people off.

Apparently, the Cape Coast Assembly had tried moving them out on so many occasions. What man could not do, the gods did…

According to the GNA:

“A group of fishmongers who usually sell their wares behind the Anaafo Market in the Cape Coast Metropolis, are stranded, after being chased away by a tree deity nearby, for not keeping the sacred area clean.

The deity called “Nana Paprata,” believed to be one of the 77 gods of Cape Coast, allegedly possessed a young man whose name was only given as Kobina, two weeks ago, who drove away the fishmongers.

The young man, according to eye witnesses, scattered the wares of the fishmongers, threw some into a nearby storm drain, and overturned their trays and seats in the process.

Some of the fishmongers were able to run away with their wares, while the unfortunate ones watched on helplessly while Kobina destroyed their wares running into hundreds of cedis.

According to eyewitnesses, Nana Paprata, speaking through Kobina, expressed dissatisfaction with the fishmongers who dried salted fish, dumped the intestines and scales of fish, and even decomposing sea food into the storm drain, making the place to stink.

The Anaafo Market Queen, Maame Akosua Serwaa, who corroborated the incident in an interview said the extent of pollution of the area was a source of worry to both traders and patrons of the market.

She said several attempts by the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly (CCMA) and some divisional chiefs from the Oguaa Traditional Council, to compel the fishmongers to move into the main market, over the years, has proved futile .

Meanwhile some residents of Cape Coast have predicted that the fishmongers would return to their former location sooner or later as it happened in the past .”

If we want to keep believing in our superstitious nonsense, at least we need more of these kinds of deities.