CULTURE-GHANA:
Musician Changes her Tune
Isabella Gyau Orhin
ACCRA, Jul 30 (IPS) - She used to sing on television in the late 1980s, then
a student, preaching love and patience and understanding among lovers and
all people of the world.
Dressed in traditional Kente cloth, with a strap of it around her head
the singer - known only as Angela - used to sing to nice tunes played by her
well known musician brother, Carlos Sakyi.
The lyrics of one of her most famous songs went "Anuanom, Adofo, odo na
ehia ohooh-oh" literally meaning in local twi language "brother and sisters,
love is the most important thing in life".
But that was then. Today, Angela Dwamena Aboagye is a leading women's
rights activist in Ghana who is doing much more than just singing and
appealing to senses of people to treat their spouses and relatives well. She
is backing her words with action by dragging wife beaters and people who
assault women to the law court for punishment and redress.
Born some 38 years ago in Ghana, Angela obtained her Bachelor-of-Laws
(LL.B) Degree from the University of Ghana in 1987. In 1989 she obtained her
Certificate of Law from the Ghana School of Law as a Barrister and Solicitor
of the Superior Courts of Judicature of Ghana. Between 1990 and 1999, she
worked with the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General's Department as an
Attorney for the State.
She undertook her Masters-in-Law (LL.M) Degree at the Georgetown
University Law Center in Washington D.C, under the Leadership and Advocacy
for Women in Africa (LAWA) Fellowship Programme, a component of the Women's
Law and Public Policy Fellowship Programme (WLPPFP) of the same University.
She is also an alumna of the African Women's Leadership Institute of the
Akina Mama wa Afrika Organisation, based in the United Kingdom.
"I felt I was missing something when I was working for the Attorney
General's department," she said. She therefore resigned in 1999 and set up a
shelter for battered women known as the Ark Foundation.
"I named it The Ark to resemble Noah's Ark where battered women could
seek shelter and feel safe and secure," she explains. The Ark Foundation,
Ghana, is an advocacy-based human rights organisation.
"The Shelter strives to create a safe place for our clients by providing
confidential lodging facilities and a supportive living environment that
allows for healing and recovery," she says. "We also endeavour to provide
practical alternatives for life after the Shelter and follow up with clients
who have left to ensure their continued safety and well being."
Wife-battering cases in Ghana were estimated to have increased by 400
percent in 2002 over the total figure for the whole of 2001. In Ghana,
studies show that 30 percent of women have experienced domestic violence.
Research shows that one in three women has suffered from physical
violence while one in three has also suffered from psychological violence.
And, one in four have been threatened with physical violence while one in
three have been sexually harassed. Over 90 percent of the perpetrators of
these crimes are men while 95 percent are usually close relatives.
The World Health Organisation estimates that at least 20 percent of the
world's women have been physically or sexually abused by a man.
The primary reason women seek shelter at the Ark or when referred from
other agencies, is to secure the safety of themselves and their children.
Sometimes young children and teenage girls are also brought to the Ark for
safety. In many instances the threat of injury or death is so real that
there is no other alternative but to seek refuge in the Ark.
According to Angela, crisis intervention and assessment of clients is
handled by the Crisis Centre in Kwabenya, Accra as a basic first line
response service. About 300 clients have been attended to by the Project.
"These clients are referred to us mainly from the Police Women and Juvenile
Unit (WAJU), the Police Criminal Investigation Department, and other
government and non-government service provider agencies, such as the
Commission on Human Rights, International Federation of Women Lawyers," she
says.
Other clients, consisting of women, children and sometimes, men, come by
themselves. "For abused clients who have to remain at home where the abuse
occurred, safety planning is a routine part of our process with them. About
97 percent of our clients are female, about one percent consist of adult
males while two percent are young boys between ages three and 13 years.
Beneficiaries of the shelter have included battered women, spousal abuse
survivors, women fleeing from harmful traditional practices such as early or
forced marriage, survivors of sexual assault - rape, defilement and incest.
The Ark has also started operating a Legal Centre at Maamobi, a suburb of
Accra, to provide services for abused women and children.
This is manned by a full time staff attorney and four volunteer lawyers.
Clients are shown various options under legal processes where the cases
involve civil law issues such as divorce and custody.
Clients at the Shelter are also afforded case support where they have to
appear in court. They are accompanied to court and supported by the Shelter
Social Worker. This support lessens the fear they entertain regarding the
perpetrator who is, more often than not, a close family member - a husband,
brother or uncle.
Angela was also instrumental in the recent formation of a number of
networks in Ghana, such as Sisters' Keepers, a broad-based coalition of
women's groups and individuals as well as the Network for Women's Rights
(NETRIGHT).
With Angela playing a leading role, these two organisations organized a
series of demonstrations and vigils to protest the serial killing of women
in the Ghana between 1998 and the year 2000.
They have been credited for being responsible for the suspension from
duty of an Inspector of General of Police (IGP) after calling for his
resignation for failing to solve the mystery behind the serial murders. Soon
afterwards, the IGP went on a long leave and did not return to his post. A
couple of months after a new IGP was appointed, the serial murders stopped.
Angela is also the Director of the Women's Law and Human Rights Consult.
She is a member of several civil society organizations, including
International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Ghana Bar Association,
African Women Lawyers Association and the Leadership and Advocacy for Women
in Africa (Alumnae) Incorporated.
In addition, Angela is also a member of the Gender Violence Survivors'
Support Network (GVSSN) and the Ghana NGO Coalition on the Rights of the
Child (GNCRC). She is an Alumnae Co-Director of the Women's Law and Public
Policy Fellowship Programme, Georgetown University, Washington D.C, USA,
serves on the Boards of Central Aid, Ghana and Playsoccer, a children's
educational program in Ghana. Angela is also a member of the African
Regional Advisory Committee of the African Women's Development Fund.
Angela is married to Kwame Dwamena-Aboagye, a former Member of Parliament
and a Development Management Consultant and has four children, Freda,
Dorsina, Nana Akua and Papa Kweku.
She is also a staunch Church goer. "We have just embarked on a campaign
to sensitise churches not to protect wife beaters," she said adding a lot of
men hide behind the gospel beating their wives into their own kind of
submission." (ENDS/IPS/AF/WA/WL/CR/IGO/SM/03)
= 07300409 ORP005
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(END/2003)
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