Thou Shall not Steal...

These words are not taken lightly in Ghana. Although Ghanaians do not constitutionally practice the "eye-for-an-eye" type law, there is a brutal unspoken process that occurs when someone dares steal from his fellow man. I have been able to observe and hear about many examples of such brutality and I think it is the hardest cultural barrier I’ve had to face. Although crime is not exceptionally grave in Ghana compared to some of its Sub-Saharan African neighbours, theft continues to penetrate society out of what I feel is a result of desperation amidst extreme poverty. The most commonly stolen good here is the cell phone from which most of my experiences here have shown. Many of you remember that my friend Jody’s phone (along with her camera) was slit from her bag and taken at a tro tro station back in September. She always said that although she found it very difficult to deal with the loss (especially the pictures on memory cards in her camera case) she said it would have been more difficult to deal with what might have happened if she had realized at the time and yelled thief.

The thing is, if she had realized her belongings were gone before getting on that tro tro and had yelled 'thief!', the man might have died. In Ghana, if you steal something you will be lynched. People will immediately raise alarm, catch the suspect and begin beating them, most often to death. One might ask why someone would not just arrest the suspect and send them to prison, but most Ghanaians would reply that putting them in prison means they will only steal from someone else once they’ve been let free. Ghanaians feel that proper justice is achieved if they take matters into their own hands. Something tells me that even the authorities don’t mind this approach because they are already overwhelmed by a system that lacks capacity.

A month after we arrived there was a brutal killing down the street from our office, because thieves in a stolen taxi drove by a woman and snatched her purse. She immediately called for help and aid came in the form of a car crash. Someone crashed the taxi and then dragged the four men from the vehicle. The one with the purse managed to escape by firing shots from his gun, while the others were beaten brutally, stripped of their clothes and burned to death.

Another incident involved my housemate Caitlin who was on a tro tro and waiting at a stop. She put her phone on her lap to do something and someone came by the window and grabbed her phone from her lap! Someone beside her noticed and yelled “thief” at which time everyone piled out of the tro tro, chased down the man, gave Caitlin her phone and then she began pleading with the witnesses to stop beating him. She was briskly ushered back onto the tro tro, when the crowd started to pick up rocks and the car took off without her ever knowing what the man’s fate or punishment would be.

And just after Christmas, someone came into our office and when the secretary left her desk to go to the store room, her phone was swiped from the desk. Unfortunately the man was not caught, but one can imagine what might have happened outside our office walls had he been discovered.

I’m not sure how to answer to this behaviour. I am aware that many people don’t trust the authorities to see justice through and for that sake feel the need to take matters into their own hands. However, I cannot see how one can follow the commandment “thou shall not steal” so fervently but then disobey the commandment “thou shall not kill”? Who are we to decide the life of another? I think this ultimately the hardest cross-cultural difficulty that I have and I also find it a conflict of faith. My faith teaches me to love my enemies even if they are sinners and to pray that God will grant them mercy and pardon. My faith does not say I can judge another man or take his life in my hands, because that can only be left to God.