The government has constituted a technical committee to identify and document shrines and other religious sites across Ghana as part of efforts to establish a national database and develop a standard definition of what constitutes a shrine.
The announcement was made by Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Ahmed Ibrahim, during his appearance before Parliament’s Committee on Assurances.
He said the assignment has been entrusted to a multi-disciplinary team drawn from the Ministry’s Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Directorate, Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Research, Statistics and Information Management units, with additional support from the Regional Coordinating Councils.
Mr. Ibrahim explained that the exercise goes beyond simply counting shrines because there is currently no universally accepted standard for identifying them.
He noted that shrines may take different forms, making the classification process more complex than it appears.
“A shrine can be a pen. It can be a photo, a picture. It can be anything. And these are spiritual issues. The lawyers may disagree with you. So we need to have a very firm foundation as to what a shrine is.”
The Minister said the committee will develop the criteria needed to distinguish shrines from other forms of religious practice, noting that some people may claim to operate shrines without any clear basis. According to him, the work of the committee is expected to provide the framework needed for a credible national database and future policy decisions relating to religious sites.
