Ghanaian woman in business             Photo courtesy

What is the worth of women? How is the development of any particular society a direct product of how it treats its women?  In gathering my thoughts for this topic, I found my mind drifting to one haranguing experience I had, long time ago, whilst working as an expatriate teacher in the Republic of Niger, back in the 1980s. 

The scene is set in one sweltering late afternoon. There was some waft of comforting wind drifting through the afternoon breeze. The sun, a golden ball in the sky, was fast disappearing into the horizon, and everybody was looking forward to dinner and some well deserved rest. My neighbours were busy chatting away in the Hausa language, attracting no particular interest from me.  Momentarily, we became aware of some gong-gongs and shrieking voices in the distance.

There were women ululating above the cacophony of tinkling sounds, whistles, and jingles. The more we listened, the more it appeared the sounds were getting stronger and heading directly towards us. Braying donkeys would kick the soil and occasionally register their disapproval by trying to top the sounds with their own shrieks. Woe and behold it did not take long before we knew the gathering riot of voices and the beating of cooking pans were in fact coming to our compound.

The horror and fear of not knowing what was happening gripped me. Before I knew it, some old women – some needing serious dental works and few males, in colourful flouting boubous, dashed into the compound, snatched one female student, Aminatou Abubakar, bundled her onto the back of one of the women and poured talcum powder all over her. The man leading the charge was her own father, Alhaji Abubakar. 

Aminatou, one of the best and most bright students in my class, together with her twin brother, had just been given away to marriage. That meant the end of her schooling, whilst her twin continued, in a society that clearly preferred boys education over girls.

Being very agitated and angry, I confronted the father on why he would do such a thing. His reaction was framed in a question: “What is the worth of a woman? She can now read and write. That should be enough!!” he intoned.  Aminatou, aged 17 at the time, was whisked away to marry a man, the age of her father, about 55. The bridegroom was the best friend of the father – both being butchers at the local market, and according to what I heard, Aminatou had been betrothed to the friend since she was a toddler.

I must say, that whereas there are no untoward discernible domestic policies on the books designed to discriminate against women, banal systemic hindrances and encumbrances, steeped deep in traditional and cultural practices, as well as religious beliefs work together to thwart every effort and policy initiatives the authorities design to bring relief to women in these societies.

There is a Ghanaian adage out there that says: If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but when you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation. How so true but also how so tragic we have not adhered to this revelation and have often rendered our women to the bottom half of the totem pole.

In every African country out there, women outnumber men in the population but they are abysmally under-represented at the commanding heights of the economy and power. This essay is an attempt to look at some of the contributory factors and offer some policy solutions to rectify the anomaly. We would focus on: Patrilineal and Matrilineal inheritances; Girl-child education; Social norms and assigned roles for women; Religious practices, witchcraft, and the neglect of the aged; Access to credit and financing in the informal sector, etc.

Patrilineal and Matrilineal Inheritance

Both in Ghana and in many African countries, one can find one form or the other of unilateral inheritance practices. You either belong to a Patrilineal or Matrilineal heritage, but almost never to both inheritances at the same time at the local level. For women who belong to patrilineal heritage and inheritances, it turns out that your brothers get to inherit the father, whereas you, the female is expected to marry into your future husband’s family.

Titles and deeds do not pass to you and your descendants from your father side; they go to your brothers and their sons. They carry the family name, and along with that any familial titles such as ascending to any chiefly thrones and lands. Titles do not even pass over to your male issues who in this case are the grandsons of your father. For this reason, if a woman is unlucky to have married into a poor family, you and your descendants become entrapped in a vicious circle of poverty which is very hard to break.

For women caught in matrilineal societies, the deal is you and your children cannot inherit your husband, not his lands or properties. Those properties belong to his brothers, nephews and nieces. On the death of your husband, his siblings would come and drive you away from your marital home and take over his properties. If your husband was wealthy but unwise to have bequeathed to you something whilst he was alive and made it known to his family and dies intestate, you are out of luck. You are expected to seek your inheritance from your own blood family from your mother side. Clearly, with booming population, it is apparent that the share of every woman and her kids of familial lands and properties gets even smaller every year with every addition to the extended family.

For the above reasons, many African women go into marriage with clear worrisome burden and trepidations. Should you be unlucky and have only girls, in Patrilineal societies, your husband’s brothers would come for everything leaving almost next to nothing for you and your daughters, should he pass away. In either lineage, women are clearly at a disadvantage, and this is even further compounded by polygamy which means you would have to share the little that accrues to you, from your husband, with other women and their children.

The terms of the bride price that your husband paid, if you are in a matrilineal society, means you and your children belong to your mother’s lineage, not your husband’s; your husband’s nephews and nieces, and brothers and sisters, can expect to take over everything on the day he dies. Likewise if you are a woman in a Patrilineal society, the terms of the bride price dictates that you the wife and children belong to your husband’s family, but here is the catch; when he dies, his brothers come in to take everything, including even you the woman, if they so desire, and add you to their wives. You do not take direct possession of your husband’s lands and properties such as houses. In fact your sons have privileges over you, and if you do not have sons, you are out of luck.

How in the world could women in these societies accumulate wealth and pass it on to their children? Ghanaians have a saying: If a woman even buys a gun, it still behoves a man to shoulder and keep it. What that means is a woman is not expected to rise above a man. They would make sure to keep you, the woman, under a man’s thumb. Clearly there is systemic sexism arraigned against women.

To be continued.

By Eric Kwasi Bottah (Oyokoba)

Eric Kwasi Bottah can be reached at [email protected]