Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Accra (Agenzia Fides) - No to “punitive” justice founded on revenge, yes to justice founded on reconciliation and pardon. This appeal was launched by Bishop Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai, the Catholic Bishop of Yendi, in northern Ghana, in an interview with the local The Standard newspaper on the process of peace in the Dagbon crisis.
Dagbon is a northern Ghana region inhabited by the Dagbamba, today about 650,000. It is one of the country's 8 regions still ruled by traditional kingdoms, recognised by the central government as local administrations. In March 2002 the King of the Dagbamba Ya Naa Yakubu Andani II and 40 other people were killed in an attack by a rival clan. The episode sparked violent clashes in the region. However the roots of the crisis are older. They go back to Andani and Abudu, two sons of King Ya Naa Yakubu I who established a rotation system among his descendants. However the system failed and for some time to two clans, named after the two sons of the late King, have fought for decades over traditional power.
Bishop Boi-Nai has urged the people of Dogbon to remove all obstacles to peace, especially hatred and violence. The Bishop, one of the mediators in the crisis, has asked the local young people not to follow the culture of violence and in particular to avoid defiant declarations, offensive language and actions with regard to rivals and instead to find points of contact with their counterparts.
The Bishops also says that it is time for those who assassinated Ya Naa Yakubu Andani II and the other forty persons to brought to justice and for the two clans to work together to overcome the dispute. The Bishop also reminded the media to report the facts of the crisis with honesty, avoiding tones which could inflame souls.
Bishop Boi-Nai said peace is the indispensable condition to guarantee development for the region and he underlined the Church's activity for human promotion in the area. A major local problem is that babies born with a malformation are abandoned by the family and used as victims for ritual killings. The Bishop said the Church tries to persuade the families who reject their babies to give them to the Sisters of Charity who run an orphanage in Kumasi. The Bishop said the high number of babies born in the region with a malformation can be traced to insufficient care and diet for the mothers. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 12/6/2007 righe 35 parole 472)
