In Ghana, online romance scams and all other forms of computer-based fraud are collectively called “Sakawa”. Some of these crimes now combine modern-day internet-based fraud with African traditional rituals. Sakawa is a Hausa word that means “putting inside.” Hausa is mostly spoken in Ghana’s highly populated Muslim communities (Zongos) dotted across the West African country of 31.8 million people. However, a Muslim cleric in Agona West, one of the towns in Ghana’s Central Region, Chief Imam Sheik Mohammed Khamis, asserts that the word ‘sakawa’ is ungodly and has nothing to do with Islam nor does it have any equivalent word in Arabic. He admitted that the word derives its root from the Hausa language ‘sakachike’, which is translated as “put in it” or “put inside,” or ‘saake’, which means “exchange,” or ‘saakewa’, which means “continuous exchange.” However, exactly what should be “put in it” (sakachike) or exchanged (saake), according to him, remains a mystery because only the practitioners of sakawa themselves can concisely tell “the what” should be “put into” what.
Etymologically, the equivalent English word or phrase that could be used to describe ‘sakawa’ is: “to trick,” “to outsmart,” “to swindle,” and so on. It used to be purely computer-based fraud but now there is a fair amount of occultism involved. The rituals, which are mostly in the form of sacrifice, are intended to spiritually manipulate victims so that the scammer is successful. The perpetrators target mainly foreigners. The fraudsters call themselves Sakawa boys. In Nigeria, they are known as 419 or Yahoo Boys. In Ghana, highly populated dwellings and communities such as Nima and Ashaiman, both located in different parts of the national capital, Accra, are known within the country’s security circles as the hotbeds of the phenomenon. However, this cyber-based crime mixed with occultism, is fast gaining deep roots in other parts of the country such as Agona Swedru, where the perpetrators operate in groups or cliques.
Agona Swedru is a typical commercial town that bustles with a lot of activity virtually every day, particularly on its market days (Mondays and Thursdays). On such market days, the town attracts many people from neighbouring towns and villages to engage in brisk trading activities. Many people who do not hail from Swedru have been attracted to settle there due to its trade prospects. A lot of the modern buildings and businesses in the town belong to people who trace their roots to places beyond Swedru. Agona Swedru also has two government-owned senior high schools and several privately owned ones. There are also some vocational and nurse training schools there. Altogether, it’s a town that offers very good prospects for education, generally, so one would not have expected that this issue would be so endemic there. Unfortunately, it has become the mainstay of unemployed youth in the area.
The genesis
It all started when young people and even adults began enticing foreign nationals with pictures of nude girls who claimed to be searching for other nationals to marry. Unsuspecting victims began to fall prey to this romance scam where males fraudulently disguised themselves as ladies and communicated with them through the internet to establish a relationship, ostensibly leading to marriage. In the process, the victims send money and gifts to their newfound lovers.
As many of the young men realized it was lucrative, they began establishing network pals whose trust they gained and started extorting money through connivance. But as time went on, mostly white victims saw through the scam. The fraudsters then took things a notch higher by resorting to charms and black magic to cast a love spell on their prospective victims so they could still manipulate them to send money as well as give out their credit card details, with which the fraudsters shopped online. So, this became known as ‘sakawa’ or computer fraud.[1]
Closely linked to sakawa is ‘sika aduro’, which can be loosely translated into English as ‘blood money rituals’. It normally involves occultism, such as the use of snakes, coffins, and talismans, among others. Still related to sakawa is another practice known as ‘Mugu’ (Zombie), where people are deceived into thinking they can exponentially multiply their money while other victims are also charmed for their money. The youth have now combined sakawa with blood money for quick fixes because our security agencies, Interpol, and even the FBI, have become vigilant concerning computer fraud and its kind. These young men think it is kind of legal to engage in blood money. Moreover, no police can arrest you for carrying a coffin at odd hours, having snakes around you, or having something that generates money without raising any security alarm (your ATM). Just imagine how many foreign nationals will send over $15,000 to a pal, especially with the credit crunch situation at hand, or how many cards have over $5,000 on them, or how smooth will the procedure be for a fraudster to purchase a Toyota Corolla S model vehicle without any detection. Just think about it. Curiously, whatever money these fraudsters and blood money ritualists make through their activities, quickly gets wasted on cars, expensive fashion, houses and girls. There have been viral videos of some of these Sakawa boys throwing several wads of cash at passersby in the open, on the streets and at malls for fun. Some of them have also been rumoured to die in unexplained motor accidents or go mad on the streets.[2]
Impact of sakawa on education
There is no doubt that the practice of sakawa hurts the education of its practitioners and even those who may not be engaged in it but feel lured by it. In a study conducted at Agona Swedru, although four of the respondents admitted that sakawa practice had negatively affected their performance in school, they confessed that they could not stop the practice because their livelihood and some of their relatives depended on it. The other six confessed that they abandoned their education to fully concentrate on the practice. One of them who was categorical in his statement said, “If you do not spend more time, you do not get money” in that the geographical locations in terms of time of the clients (mostly Americans and Europeans) and Ghana time are not the same. As a result, he stated that most practitioners spent many nights and sometimes early mornings chatting on the internet. According to him, these periods are the convenient times when one can fully get the client’s attention. This always makes them exhausted in the mornings. This explains why they find it difficult to combine it with school. When asked whether they considered sakawa practice more important to education, eight of the respondents answered in the affirmative. But the answer given was that both education and the sakawa practice seek to achieve one goal and that goal is making money. The other two of the respondents also stated that although education was more important than sakawa, they happened to be in the practice because they did not have anyone to assist them financially.[3]
Closely tied to the effects of Sakawa on education is the indiscipline it breeds among the practitioners and their peers who may not necessarily be involved in the practice. These acts of indiscipline include truancy, as they have to skip school to engage in antisocial acts. This naturally affects their peers who sometimes feel attracted to them and would want to identify with them to be accepted into their circles and enjoy some of their ill-gotten wealth.
In addition to this, a lack of regard for parents and authority is demonstrated through hardcore fashion, as well as uncivilised and anti-social behaviour. This leaves one wondering about the homes from which such characters are brought up. There is no doubt that the sakawa menace has compounded indiscipline in schools. In some instances, students under 18 years old drive flashy cars and have abandoned schools. This menace, if left unchecked, will eventually result in very good brains lost to society’s ills, as brilliant children who could have grown to be responsible citizens are seriously engaged in sakawa at the expense of their education.
The situation is entrenched by the poor salaries of teachers who do not have the cars and material possessions these students boast of. These students look at their teachers and do not want to be like them.
A crucial question worth considering is the role of parents of these sakawa practitioners. There is every indication that most parents of these practitioners have lost total control over their children and are therefore in no position to command their respect. It is highly possible to speculate that some parents rejoice over their children’s ill-gotten wealth.
A case in point was one in which a friend to a parent whose son had bought a car and built a house, obviously out of sakawa, questioned how the young man had come by such wealth, wherein the parent in question attributed his friend’s query to envy. Such acts of sudden wealth among the youth naturally breed laziness and prevent the up-and-coming youth from working hard to earn a decent living; no wonder many of the youth today are very reluctant to go into apprenticeship.
CONCLUSION
It is evident that today’s youth are daring and would stop at nothing to acquire illicit money to line their pockets and spend irresponsibly. With so many young people driving about carelessly in flashy cars, spending lavishly, and living fast lives, one wonders what society will be like very shortly if these untoward acts go unchecked.
Gone are the days when decency in society and the observance of high ethical principles were lauded by virtually all people. In the days of late Colonel Bernasko during the Acheampong era, when he was in charge of the Central Region, moral uprightness was strictly adhered to. Back then, girls who wore short dresses – nowhere near the miniskirts of today – were publicly whipped and had their dresses unhemmed to make them longer. It sent strong signals that one could not dress indecently nor behave anyhow and get away with it.
With the display of such attitudes, one wonders whether there can be no governmental intervention to save the day. Is it not possible for these Sakawa boys to be investigated, as it is obvious such characters are not engaged in any vocations that bring in such colossal sums of money to enable them to live the way they do? There is no doubt that discipline is critical in every young person’s life. It is a must if progress can be assured. So, one wonders, with the current indiscipline in Ghana among the youth, where lies the future of our country.
There is a need for obedience to seniority and authority. With honesty and morality being twin virtues in the uprightness of life, all must come on board to consciously create an awareness in society to redirect the energies of the youth toward hard work, transparency, honesty, and to be schooled in the essence of integrity without which the future of our country looms in jeopardy. The situation described above requires strict policy guidelines that would reverse the trend; otherwise, the future of the country and that of the youth, in general, would be dire.
