The Ghost of Ngaingah

The Ghosts of Ngaingah is about a village on the west coast of Africa and a ritual curse that befell it. The Kissi have lived in that village since ancient times. Upon locating in the Kissi-Kama Chiefdom in the northeastern region of the Republic of Sierra Leone, they refused to follow ancient traditional practices. At the local oracle near the Kuyoh Mountain and at a shrine on the bank of Ndopie River, they heard a mysterious dirge one morning before the sun reached its zenith. The villagers saw a crowd of ghosts with bundles on their heads and accompanied by many animals. They were repeatedly chanting a mysterious dirge. The ghosts entered crevices in the Kuyoh Mountain and disappeared. The scratches they left on the hard rocks are still visible. According to my mother, who was a young woman when the incident took place, it probably happened in the mid-1940s. This narrative, which contains humor, mischief, and magic, demonstrates how powerfully tradition and custom influenced the lives of the people of one ethnic group3/4the Kissi. The mystery of the singing ghosts still haunts them. I am telling this story so readers will know about one of the twentieth century’s enduring mysteries. Some names in this work are fictitious, excluding the famous paramount chief, Ansumana Jabba, alias Memah of the Kissi-Kama Chiefdom, who lived at Dia, and that of Chief Sombo, who actually lived in Ngaingah during that time. Nevertheless, what you are about to read is an eyewitness account of what occurred in that Kissi village. Michael F. Kallon New York City, September 20, 1997