sourceFor most of us, death has been the hardest part of life. I don’t mean dying but I mean experiencing death from another perspective. I can’t talk about the feeling of death cause I’ve not died yet and even if I have died and reincarnated as some people claim I don’t feel like I am living in someone else’s body or someone else’s soul is in my body.
I was brought up in an area that hardly ever saw a dead body. To be sincere before we moved out of our original place of birth I had never seen a dead body or seen how a burial went. Everything changed when my dad got transferred to the Volta region. Things are different there from what you’ll normally feel or know in the northern part of Ghana. Well, I mostly differentiate them by saying in the north we mourn the dead while in the Volta region and southern parts of Ghana, they celebrate life.
This can be seen on the posters of their deceased. This can be attributed to the fact that they keep the dead body in the fridge for a long time that even on the day of the funeral it feels like a celebration of life. This can be due to the difference in religion as a result.
There is this one experience I’ve never forgotten and I doubt I’ll ever forget it. This is a story of how I witnessed an accident and from there, my perception of life changed. Obviously, this happened when I was little. I think I was a little over 10 years old. We were travelling from Tamale to the Volta region.
sourceYou know, we didn’t take a straight bus then as we had to go to Accra from Tamale and then wait for my dad to come pick us up in the Volta region. So from the transport yard, we stopped to buy some fruits and just like that I saw something which has stuck in my memory for a long time. Now, at that time, I didn’t think it was a big deal but it did haunt me for a long time. Imagine seeing two cars involved in an accident and then dead bodies being carried out of the cars right in front of you. My dad didn’t stop for us to see what happened but as curious as I am it happened that I wasn’t sleeping and as usual was looking out the window.
I witnessed this and as I turned away I was terrified. I’d never seen a dead body and the first time I saw one, it wasn’t just one to be seen. When we reached home I couldn’t sleep that day as I thought the ghosts of the dead bodies that I saw were gonna hunt me. Obviously, it did wear off after a while but it took time. The ghosts part was made possible by the movies we watch day in and day out where they portray ghosts so flamboyantly to us, so as a kid, the idea was the same.
Now I don’t believe in ghosts due to religious reasons but that goes without saying that I do believe in spirits. Just that I don’t believe in the idea of someone dying and then turning into a ghost.
If ghosts are real I hope I don’t get to see one before I die as I don’t know if the ghost will kill me or if I’ll die just by seeing it lol.
This is an entry to the #mayinleo initiative. You can read more about it here to also join