In the 1920s women had no rights and their marriages were arranged to
suit the needs of families. Dowries were paid to the groom’s family in cowry
shells, the currency at that time. They still are, but the cowry shells are now
more expensive due to their scarcity. Some families still demand cowries,
despite their cost, or their cedi equivalent. Men had as many wives as their
status allowed and all the ensuing children belonged to them, not the child’s
mother. This also is still the case. Men and women ate separately too. As some
men, over time, gradually adopted Christian practices, they had to release all
their wives save one before they could be baptised. However, all the children
stayed with him! The spare wives returned to their fathers in the hope of
marrying again. The emancipation of women is a key issue being addressed by
Ghana Education Service and supporting NGOs today. There is a Girl Child
Officer in District Education Offices and families are encouraged to recognise
the rights of the females in their communities. Girls are still less likely to
continue their education past the age of 15 and are at risk of sexual abuse and
early pregnancy from a young age. Some VSO volunteers work with groups of women
helping them develop skills, including cooperation, so they can make money and
develop their self-worth within their communities. Locally that has involved a
successful project to grow, harvest and sell ground nuts in village cooperatives.
Life for the missionaries was not easy, as you would
imagine. The descriptions of their journey from the Upper East across to the
Upper West to set up the Mission are amazing. All types of travel are
described, a motorbike being the best of them. The roads were completely washed
away which was disastrous in the dark on some occasions. I hasten to add that
this same road is in a similar condition today! A missionary with Diphtheria
was taken on a moto back to the Upper East for treatment, in torrential rain.
The journey took many uncomfortable hours, some in the dark, and the moto
careered off the road and steeply down into a swollen riverbed. Miraculously,
he survived the journey and the illness!
Medical advice and treatment brought the missionaries closer
to the people, initially…….along with football, of course. They were saving
lives. Sometimes the treatment of a patient was a simple task and the recovery
was immediate. Miracles can happen. Gradually, people were drawn to the Mission
for a wide range of reasons, sometimes as a place of safety. Many were baptised
as they were dying. The people who steadfastly rejected the words of the
missionaries disputed much of the work and evidence of success that resulted
from the efforts of these men. They claimed that the people died as a result of
the baptism, even though the patients were at death’s door already. It is still
common practice for people to return to their home town or village to receive
“traditional treatment” from a fetish priest or other. Teachers ask for
permission to take leave for this purpose. For some it seems to work, for
others the ailment becomes worse and they hope for a late miracle at the
nearest hospital. The missionaries managed, with difficulties, to recruit a
skeleton staff of a doctor & sisters to nurse patients. Eventually the
hospital at Jirapa was built and the permanent church building in the year of
my birth, 1954.
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