Ghana

In northern Ghana, sand mixed with beer is marked as a cross on the forehead.

Among the Nawuri people, a guinea corn festival is held at a shrine. Once the sacrifice is made and the meat shared out, pito, a local beer, is mixed with sand.

The mixture is used to draw a cross on the foreheads of those who came to the shrine. According to tradition, spirits living in the head cause bad luck and illness, and the cross of sand is meant to break their power.

Some of the sand is carried home, wrapped in fresh leaves, so the cross can be drawn there too.