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>Next week: Blogs on Kwame Nkrumah
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All of next week, a group of Ghanaian bloggers including myself has decided to dedicate to Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah.
The week leads up to Nkrumah’s 100th Birthday, celebrated on the 21st of September.
As Kwame Nkrumah had enormous impact on Ghana and all of Africa, I hope you will read some of the other Ghanaian blogs this upcoming week. They can be found on or Ghanablogging aggregator here.
Pic: One of the most used photos of Nkrumah, tinted purple by me. Who was the photographer?
>Book of the Month: Reading the Ceiling
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I came across an interesting-looking book in the Silverbird Bookstore in the Accra mall last week and now that I have finished it, I can wholeheartedly recommend it.
The book “Reading the Celiling” is written by the Gambian author Dayo Foster. It is Foster’s first novel, and it is an excellent first attempt, producing a lovely main character in reasoning young woman Ayodele and other believable characters like her strict mother, warm Auntie K, annoying Moira, desirable Yuan and kind priest Foday Sillah.
Her description of everyday life in West Africa is also spot on with descriptions of beach outings complete with ice-chests and bbq, a daunty rented two-room house, an altruistic choice of career in Mali and the profitable Mercedes business in the Gambia.
But it is not an “African novel” per se, it is a successful literary examination of choices we ahvein life which made me revisit some of the choices I have made thinking about their possible alternatives.
I enjoy books which take you to another world in which you look around and find the familiar faces and locations as described in the book. Crafting that kind of “real” world in a novel is likely very difficult since just a choice of a few words, saying too much or too little can distort the picture in my head.
The first few pages about Ayodele’s choice that will come to determine her life can be read here, in a website constructed for the book. The site also has more information about the young author and some extras for us who have read her book already. I say, join the club!
>Blogs in Ghana THE FULL LIST
>Since some time back I have had a mission to draw together bloggers in Ghana. Reasons for this being a mix of sheer curiosity of the people behind the words and a vague feel of that we could maybe work together in some way.
So far my accomplice and myself have found 13 bloggers blogging out of Ghana. We have set up two fruitful meetings and the next one is planned for beginning of October. At the first bloggers meet-up, we decided to make it easier for you readers to find us, hence we now present the feeds collection Ghanablogging.com. Here you can find the most recent posts from all our blogs thanks to David.
Are you a Ghana blogger not included? Please send me an email!
>Getting to Know My Readers
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Away from home, I have found that having Swedish friends is crucial for my well-being. To be able to fully express myself, to have fika with everybody involved understanding the concept, for a while coming down on Ghana instead of always siding with things that go on here. Those moments feel like breathing in the chilly air of Swedish autumn, Ahhhh.
Then imagine my sadness when my two Swedish companions A and J left for Sweden last week. A whole year, these two have been my confidents, my close friends and obvious plannning mates for midsummer and xmas (ok, thats not quite true, for xmas they eloped to Mali and I had herring and potato all by myself, but you get what I’m saying?)
And now it is just me and the scolding sun, thousand pairs of curious eyes and noone to share a good cup of coffee with. Until…
…I got a comment on my blog from Maya. A Swede living less than 10 minutes from me here in Tema. Hurray! We are to meet up for the first time this weekend.
And then S called. S is a Swede living in London with her Ghanaian husband and we have been in touch since a couple of months. S found my blog when researching their idea to relocate to Ghana. I invited the Ghanaian-Swedish couple over for dinner on Thursday!
So thanks to this very blog I am getting to know my (Swedish) readers, and I don’t have to feel so terribly lonely.
In the pic: Like Gulder and Star, J and I. Will miss you!
My Blogging Year 2012
In September, my blog was hacked into and all my pics disappeared. Still today, all photos before September 8th, 2012 are missing. That is painful! But there were good times as well. Here is my Blogging Year 2012:
January
We had the first meeting of the year with BloggingGhana, I tried to launch the hashtag #GHhousing (and failed terribly) and BBC inaugurated their new debate program in Accra.
February
I found myself in the middle of a breastfeeding debate, and prepared for a presentation of my research so wrote about it and on using Google forms for research.
March
In this month, I went back to work at Ashesi University after my parental leave. Also the GhanaDecides initiative was launched together with our first campaign, iRegistered!
April
I started a series, Blogs I Read. First out was Holli’s new blog. I took my family to the Chale Wote festival organized by the AccraDotAlt crew and reported about our family addition: poultry!
May
In May, BloggingGhana held our first major event: BlogCamp. I wrote about it before it happened, then a report and then a post with pictures. And then I couldn’t help but compare it to a Swedish blog event! I also discussed the galloping inflation Ghana was experiencing.
June
A plane crash in Ghana was reported in social media before in traditional media channels – this was a tipping point for social media in Ghana! I had my first guest post and met with other people who were covering the elections online. Thanks to Google Ghana for hosting us!
July and August
I needed passport photos to travel and then I was off for vacations!
September
I came back from my vacation, revamped my blog, only to see it hacked as discussed above. I also launched a new career as a TV host!
October
With my new career, my blog readership increased big-time from around 50 on a good day to 1500! I was also chosen as the Blogger of the Week (BOW) by BloggingGhana and posted photos from my first TV interviews with Abu Sakara, Papa Kwesi Ndoum and others. This was a splendid month for my career, but luckily I also had time for some family fufu and for Sister Deborah’s hit video “Uncle Obama“.
November
The Melcom Disaster happened, killing 14, again a news that was carried by social media in Ghana. I also went to a social media and a humanist conference, both in Accra. At work, I was interviewing politicans and doing research…or rather watching the Azonto.
December
The last month of the year was dominated by the Ghanaian elections. I am proud to say that both online and on the TV-screen, I had taken part of informing the citizens of Ghana about their choices. Then the results were declared on Facebook (my post on it was read by 3000 in the first 24 hours) and soon after the opposition vowed to challenge them! On Friday, the opposition filed their complaint against the EC and the president-elect.
In conclusion, it has been a very eventful year, both for me personally and for Ghana. Specifically, I think this is a year where social media in Ghana has really taken off and more and more people turn to the Internet for their news and communication needs. Next year, BloggingGhana will meet on how to sustain the debate we created with GhanaDecides, I will meet with TV3 to see how I can be involved in future political programming. I will of course teach, have some other projects on my mind and hope to collect data for my thesis. Recently, I met someone who presented herself as an “Academic Entrepreneur” and I humbly aspire to be just that in the next year!
Thanks for reading my blog and happy new year!
For more of this, here is My Blogging Year 2011.
>Blogosphere Air
>My friend Nadja has challenged me to list the blogs I read.
Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on.
I guess I read blogs in mainly three categories:
1. Friends’ Blogs – to see what they are up to/thinking about, because they write well and because I miss them. Nadja, Anna, Marta, Katrine (who’s blog now consists mainly of links to things published elsewhere), Emilie. Petra, Matthew and Joel are on a break, but I would read them if they posted.
2. Interesting Life-bloggers, I like these blogs because they write well about their lives in a way that lets me follow them. Petite Anglaise and Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt fall into this category.
3.Diary Blogs – I like to read blogs by people who write like they are writing only for themselves. The best thing is if you know who they are, just a little bit. This category of blogs can be found at aquaintances’ facebook pages or by googeling. I can’t tell you who they are, since that would be admitting to have opened someone’s diary…
So there are 10 (namegiven) blogs I read and get inspired by.
My Last Graduation at Ashesi University
Saturday, June 1st, 2019 will be my last graduation as a lecturer at Ashesi University in Berekuso. After the summer, I will explore a new path in my career journey.
I have been an employee at Ashesi University since August 2009, I even experienced the ground-breaking ceremony for the Berekuso campus! I can look back on 10 years of joy, incremental learning and meaningful meetings on two different campuses. I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve been provided and I have been proud working for the important mission of Ashesi University – to educate a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders in Africa – if even in a small way in the classroom and in off-campus interactions. See some photos in the gallery below.
Photo session for Ashesi website. 
Education Collaborative 2017 
Education Collaborative 2017 
Teaching Social Theory 
Commenting on politics on GhOneTV 
Ashesi employees at the Labone campus 
Ground-breaking ceremony in Berekuso 2009 
Grading papers 
Team 
Whiteboard for Written and Oral Communication 
Meeting Prof Appiah, a board member of Ashesi University, after the Reith lecture with other Ashesians 
My article about Ashesi’s approach to teaching ethics in Swiss newspaper NZZ 
My student Dorcas came to support me on my PhD Viva at University of Ghana 
In the classroom-selfie 
In a conference with Dr Oduro-Frimpong and colleagues 
Featured on Ashesi Website 2013 “Small class sizes, amazing teachers” 
Stonebwoy at Ashesi and other Instagram highlights 
Graduation 2018 (Phisheyegh) 
Crying at graduation! Lilian and I at Graduation 2018 (Phisheyegh)
Over this past decade, I have written many blog posts about my time with Ashesi University, here are some of them: Teaching a summer course humbly called Thinking Like a Genius! Fall semester 2012 teaching Written and Oral Communication and Text & Meaning, Teaching Social Theory 2012. Career Fair 2013 (with photos). Reading Mahama’s biography for Social Theory class 2013. Doing a “Grown Woman Internship” with Citi FM. About Ashesi students being cool! Passing on the baton of teaching from my mother to my daughter(?). Getting extremely excited about Virtual Reality in the Classroom in 2016 (now Ashesi alumni led company Nubian VR are doing research on how science instruction in Ghanaian high schools can use VR technology). Having a writing team kickoff and welcoming new talents. On my fav assignment personal artefact speeches in 2018. On my sabbatical – time to think, read and write in 2019.
I also wrote an article for Swiss newspaper NZZ about Ashesi’s approach to ethics which was published in English for University World News as well.
Recently to my joy, two of my students started blogs of their own. Do also read: Theresa on getting a Visa for her study-abroad when the time was running out, and Masateru on helping his family’s cake business in Malawi with the skills he picked up at Ashesi University. Alumni Karyn went to Sweden for a Master’s and won the Global Swede award!
So on Saturday, it will not just be Class of 2019 leaving the Ashesi community – I will be clasping my handkerchief and remembering the good times as well! Thank you to all fantastic individuals: students, colleagues, alumni, parents, support staff, foundation folks, board members, friends, all who have crossed my path at Ashesi since 2009!
Blogging Advise to Keep Going
I got an email about blogging and thought all of you might enjoy my input.Hello Kajsa,
I hope you are doing well this mid-semester break. I am a student of class of xxxx. I came for the branding session and I was quite intrigued and re-inspired to begin blogging again. However, due to a heavy study load and lack of motivation, I have not been able to continue. I also feel my blog is not bringing out the voice I want to be heard by the world as much. I hope you don’t mind if I request you guide me through the blogging process. Thank you very much.
My response:
Hi,
good to have a fellow blogger at Ashesi!
Your blog is all set up, looks cute, and you touch on some interesting topics under teen life, being an African woman etc.
However, to write more regularly, I think you need a little bit of structure. What has worked for me and many other bloggers is to first make a content plan and then follow up – see some tips here:
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problogger.com
This is a guest contribution from ProBlogger Expert Nicole Avery. Creating a blog content plan is one of the best things you can do to ensure your blog has quality content that is created efficiently with the time you have available.
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For instance, I have created Sunday Reads (which I usually write on Fridays and schedule them) as well as one post every semester about classes I teach – the most recent one was about my favorite assignment.
You can do similar – think up a structure for very low key posts…perhaps planning your week (super interesting for people outside Ashesi to see what a regular week can be like for an Ashesi student) or write a monthly update about a topic you care for and people will be coming to you as an authority.
You can also think of topics or categories: for instance: Life observations, beauty, Ghanaian politics, Career Women, Technology news, yes what ever! and I can help set them up for you and those categories can also help to guide and inspire your writing.
I read a lot of blogs and like Ghanaian blogs Circumspecte and by Naa Oyoo – maybe their writing can bring you more inspiration?
Thanks for reaching out, let me know how it goes, and enjoy the break!
/Kajsa
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This privacy policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated on August, 31, 2017. If you have any questions feel free to contact me directly here: kajsahallberg [at] gmail.com
Three Weeks without Social Media: Was I Happier in the End?
To be able to have a completely restful vacation, I took three weeks off social media this summer. What I intended was to not read or post anything on my three favorite social media platforms: Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. As a total social media freak (I am someone who often hails social media as the revolution of our time), I was interested in this hiatus also from an experimental point of view: would it be difficult to keep off? Would I miss my social media timelines? My ubiquitous scrolling? What would be the effects?
The first few days
The first few days I kept a diary, this is what I noted:
Day 1 – I have set up my blog post on my social media break to post automatically in the morning, later in the day I went into Instagram in the evening to post the same info on my break. By mistake, I clicked the Twitter app. Closed it quickly. I have already deleted the Facebook app from my phone, now I put the remaining apps in a “social” folder on my phone and put it on the last screen, not the first. Regretted when I thought of the art exhibit I’ll attend tomorrow and the conference next week. Else felt happy. Baked, finished a book. Had a glass of wine. Watched a tv-program.
Day 2 – I have had a packed day and at the art exhibits and food fair I went to I wanted to post, that’s how I usually take in an event. Instead talked to a friend. It was good, but very different from how I usually experience such a happening.
Facebook sent me an email saying I had memories with my family. It felt a little bad to not see the memory, but also what a cheap trick that is to bring you in!
Day 3 – Methodically canceled all remaining social media app notifications. Went to a book club meeting and was present throughout. Watched in amazement when others drift away from the conversation with real people to check their screens all the time. In the evening, I had a question I wanted to post to my social media network. Later googled the question instead and found an answer.
Day 4 – I got messages from Odekro from parliament straight to my locked screen. Scrolled thru. That’s not strictly checking one’s timeline, right? I think this is because I “follow posts” on Twitter and I do not want to turn that off. (But really why not?)
Day 5 – I am spending more time on WhatsApp actually having conversations with people. At an outing, I took very few pics, because now that I can’t share them…I feel calm and cut off from reality.
Day 6 – I realize I have read no news since I stopped social media. I went to my blog to see if anyone had commented on my blog post about the social media break. But people rarely comment on blogs anymore. I was inspired to read my favorite Instagrammers’ blogs.
What I Learned
- Notifications are Mean
It is no surprise that notifications of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are engineered to draw us in, have us watch just a few more photos on our timeline and just see one more video, but how difficult it was to get signed off from everywhere surprised me. If you want to dig deeper, I enjoyed this medium article: This is How or Fear and Outrage is Being Sold for Profit.
- I read most my news from links on Social Media
We sometimes talk about echo-chambers; this seems to certainly be true for me. Totally unconsciously, I have read or watched no news at all in the last weeks, but solely relied on my husband to tell me crucial headline stories. For a political scientist, this is major.
- I get most event information on Social Media
Few people called, I heard of few events, I saw few people these weeks. I realize I get most of my information about events and parties, art openings, and meetings thru social media. Perhaps not surprising, but also completely excluding, as one then have to be on social media to meet people offline.
- I take photos to share them.
When I was doing research on photo storage last year, I came across an article that said storage will be superfluous in the near future as what people want to do with pictures in to share them. This was true for me these weeks. When I saw something nice, I’d remember I would not get to share it for the next weeks, then I thought to myself, what is the point?
- I should have considered going off the Internet completely for a fuller rest.
I thought I still need to be on WhatsApp (but really why? I could have set an away message) and have access to the Internet (you know, to…Google stuff). But those opportunities were exploited by my synapses (a.k.a. me) and I read many, many blogs, even had one or two late night surf-binges, and that was not what I had intended for my social media break. I think that is how I filled the “scroll-void” or the habitual social media checks.
New Habits
I will now more consciously decide when and how much I will be using social media. To be honest, as I am easing my way back into social media, I am feeling a little bit disgusted by the whole speed of all timelines, beautiful photos, and heated opinions. It seems they all flash by only to be replaced by another. When I started work this week, I have the following habits in mind:
- I will give myself some time during my commute to specifically follow what news is discussed and what events are on and then again during the evening commute.
- I will give myself some time during my commute to specifically follow what news is discussed and what events are on and then again during the evening commute.
- I will turn my phone off in the evening, after 9 pm and turn it on in the morning. I will continue to keep the gadgets outside the bedroom – they should be charged elsewhere! Listen to Arianna Huffington on this!
- I need to do something about my news intake as well, but do not have a solution yet.
- I will continue to have all push notifications turned off.
- I will spend less time on Instagram and more on reading my fav blogs/listening to fav podcasts. This as I feel Instagram particularly makes me feel someway bi, and the blogs have many times the same photos, but with more context.
- I did miss Twitter and the flashing by of all kinds of information. I will engage less in political debate…hm, no, that is not realistic, but I will compliment major conversation with some further action: petitions, small donations, offline engagement, and so on.
- I will continuously take a yearly break from social media and the Internet.
Did Being Off Social Media Make Me Happier?
I did spend more time reading, sleeping, playing with my children, talking to my husband, but being off Social Media did maybe make me relax more, but not make me feel happier. I would have to say no, I actually felt sad!
Sad as I “couldn’t” share interesting things I experienced with the world, but at the same time the time off gave me some perspective on the way social media builds on human psychology and how, once the notifications come off, we can start using it for what we want again.
Have you ever taken a social media break? Do you limit your social media intake in some way? Let’s learn from each-other!
KajsaHA.com is Best Expat Blog in Ghana (and my problems with being called “expat”)
I was informed, my blog has received the honor of “The Best Expat Blog in Ghana 2017”. However, I have a very dual feeling about this – am I even an expat?
First of all, the awards are produced by a company which do comparisons of online money transfer sites. They, of course, run this blog competition to gain exposure in social media to make more money.
However that is not really my main issue with this award, my main problem is the word “expat”, short for “Ex-patriate”, which seems to suggest a patriate or a patriot who has been taken out (ex- in Latin) from his or her habitat or country. Is that really my situation? Am I after 10 years in Ghana not more like a newish, slightly odd, Ghanaian? Even more important, an article by Mawuna Remarque Koutonin that went around on social media a few years back convincingly argued there is a racial aspect to the term – a white foreigner is “an expat” and a non-white is “an immigrant”. The author concludes that the only thing to do to change this is to call white foreigners in Africa “immigrants” too. Although I have called myself an expat before, for instance in this 2008 blog post, this debate really enlightened me.
I completely agree with the analysis on the oft racially biased use of “expat”. Hence, I do not feel comfortable to be identified as an expat – if anything, I am an immigrant!
The description of my (immigrant) blog reads:
Kajsa Hallberg Adu owns and operates the blog, Kajsa HA. Born and raised in Sweden, her international life began when she volunteered at the World Expo 2000 in Germany. She went to the U.S. to study, before returning to Sweden for her Bachelor’s in Political Science. During the course of her Master’s degree, she interned in Paris. She moved to Ghana in 2007. Her blog essentially delves into lifestyle, politics, and social media. However, she shares her musings about other aspects as well.
However, I did enjoy the complete list of winning blogs, importantly not all written by white foreigners, and might very well start reading some blogs from Argentina, Botswana, and Egypt by some fellow immigrants to widen my horizons and I hope you do too.
The world is after all made better by immigrants – the jury is still out on expats!
Ghana, Rape Culture, and Sexual Consent: From Otiko Djaba to #LetsTalkConsent and #HowShortWasYourSkirt
Two weeks ago, many Ghanaians were in shock after hearing the reported statement from the Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Protection at a senior high school she visited. This text is only partly about what the Minister said, and mainly about the useful conversation that ensued about who bears the responsibility for rape and how talking about sex and consent can be transformative.
The Speech
In her speech, Honourable Minister Otiko Djaba advised the high school girls in front of her, she said:
“If you wear a short dress, it’s fashionable but, know that it can attract somebody who would want to rape or defile you. You must be responsible for the choices you make”
In an excellent historical contextualization of the statement (and the ministry in the limelight) by Prof Akosua Adomako Ampofo, the professor suggested:
“The problem that everyone who has criticized her remarks refers to, is the link she made between short dresses and rape. There are many reasons not to wear a very short dress—so as not to draw unwanted attention to oneself, to dress to suit the occasion, to provide a professional appearance, to not expose one’s underwear if you want to climb a bus or cross your legs—but risking rape is not one of them and the connection is tenuous at best and dangerous at worst since it makes the victims responsible.”
Blogger Nnyamewaa fumed:
“Often victims are subjected to awful queries like “what were you doing in his room” and “what were you wearing,” suggesting that they’re somehow to blame for the actions of the rapist. Minister, your comment did exactly what rapists want, ignore their actions and place the burden of preventing rape on women. It serves no one than just perpetuates the rape culture, allowing rapists to get away with their crimes.”
That is, connecting appearance and rape is shifting blame from a perpetrator to a victim. How is that OK?
The Rapes
We see reports of rape and “defilement” (rape of child) often in the news. Brutal gang rapes and people in power such as police, teachers, and guardians attacking rather than helping. This recent article about how many families cannot afford to report a rape I think summarize the way many Ghanaians see the issue (settlement fees of GHS 500 or $125 are apparently common).
The Reaction
Ghana has been all but quiet on the issue in the last couple of weeks. First, there was a Twitter conversation #letstalkconsent, I believe coming out of journalist and public speaker Nana Akosua Hanson‘s event series on sex and consent. Online the #letstalkconsent hashtag trended and hundreds of Ghanaians discussed the issue. See a summary of the conversation on Storify.
The whole #letstalkconsent conversation reminded me quite a lot of the Swedish conversation on sexual consent from 2010 that was called #prataomdet (“let’s talk about it”) happening in the aftermath of the very public Julian Assange rape case. The beauty of that conversation was to talk about the gray areas of sex – the times when sex goes from being exciting to scary and that we all have the right to say STOP.
In addition, Podcast Unfiltered hosted by journalist Nana Ama Agyemang Asante has covered the issue from many angles: in an episode on rape with Efua Prah, gender expert and my colleague at Ashesi University, in an episode on casual sex and consent with Eyram Seshie and Jessica Boifio.
Podcast The Other Room hosted by Cel, Kess, Aj and Vee also discussed this issue from the angle of safe spaces (Ep. 06). The name of the podcast, of course, is an ironic take on Nigerian President Buhari’s idea on where his wife belongs.
Last week, journalist and lecturer Esther Armah organized a forum for media people that sought to discuss how issues of rape and consent are covered in the news media (the conversation also came to be about the role of blogs, in a way I have never heard blogs be discussed in Ghana before, is this a sign of that blogs are finally seen as a force to reckon with in Ghana? Perhaps this is another post!) The #Reimagine2017 event covered both ethical aspects of journalism and public rape cases and media’s role in covering them.
Importantly @estherarmah breaks down “sex”, to not just the act, but the treatment of women & discourse on sexual assault #reImagineGH2017
— Kajsa Hallberg Adu (@kajsaha) April 4, 2017
“I’m the only woman on #CitiCBS, so I wanted to create a program with several female voices, perspectives” –@JustNanaAma #reImagineGH2017 pic.twitter.com/MhSBsmNuLS
— Kajsa Hallberg Adu (@kajsaha) April 4, 2017
I can’t believe I had to tweet this in 2017. ? #reImagineGH2017 https://t.co/oewsAKfUSe
— Kajsa Hallberg Adu (@kajsaha) April 4, 2017
At Ashesi University where I teach, the Vagina Monologues were staged. Guided by Faculty Intern and director Caira Lee, students also wrote their own texts about sexual transgressions and shared them with the audience. From the article on the Ashesi website:
“Restaging the Monologues within our context was important because it helps spread awareness about sexuality,” said Lilian Awuor ’18. “It creates a platform for young women to share their struggles, thoughts and feelings on how it is like being a young woman in Africa today.”
This week, activists and film-folk in Accra like AWDF‘s Jessica Horn, Maternal Health Channel’s Ivy Prosper and An African City‘s Maame Adjei and Nicole Amartefio together with LetsTalkConsent have started another campaign on the same topic: #HowShortWasYourSkirt. Short films that comment on the skirt length (are you listening Honourable Otiko Djaba?), on issues of intoxication, on what we should tell young people about rape.
There are likely many more initiatives out there that have skipped my end-of-semester-two-kids-at-home-busy radar, but these are events, programs, articles I have read, listened to or participated in and support fully.
What is Rape Culture?
Rape culture or a culture that condones rape is built on a patriarchal societal structure. In such a structure, women are responsible if there is a sexual transgression, women have to limit their lives to be safe, women should be thinking about what they wear. Prof. Adomako-Ampofo again:
“…when we talk about so-called “women’s issues” such as violence against women, including rape, these are in fact “gendered” issues. In other words, if we take the case of rape, women are disproportionately the victims of rape and men are disproportionately the perpetrators. This is because rape is about exerting power and control, and men generally have more “power” in society than women do. Therefore, the ministry is expected to address the gendered nature of our societies when it addresses issues such as rape.”
This 2005 expert paper prepared by Elizabeth Ardayfio-Shandorf for the UN of over 3000 individuals in Ghana suggested:
“Female respondents were asked whether any man had forced sex on them. Likewise male respondents were asked whether they have forced and had sex with any woman (whether a wife or a girlfriend) against her wishes. Eight percent (8%) of the females said they have had that experience before and 5% of the men also said they had forced sex on their wives and girlfriends. According to the males, this happens when women/girls always request for money from them and deny them sex in return. It is also meant to settle a quarrel between them.[..]On the question of what action was taken after these acts, 59% said they never reported these actions to anybody.”
What can we do?
Many societies have a rape culture, Ghana from everything I have discussed above most definitely does, and to change it I believe we can and should:
- discuss sex openly to make sure young people know as much as possible about sex
- place sexual consent center stage, not what she wore, where they were, or what time it was
- make rape a criminal rather than a civil offense so that charges cannot be dropped and threats to doing so will always be fruitless
- educate ourselves about patriarchy, rape culture, and slut-shaming
- get outraged and speak up to make a difference
When the Minister who is supposed to protect young women does the opposite, it is a time to throw your hands up in disbelief and shock, but it is also the time to roll up your sleeves and educate. In this post, I have sought to highlight some of the activists in Ghana leading the ensuing educative, enlightening conversations. Thank you for transforming the conversation. I applaud you.