The Ghanaian Domestic Violence Bill
By Tausha Cowan and Theresa Boaslako-Korang

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Every Tuesday and Friday morning, the sun rises as the market grows slowly to life. Women arrive, setting up their wares underneath roughly made stands.

New and used shoes are laid out for display ready for purchase. Packages of crackers and gum are piled on top of tables next to silver bowls overflowing with balls of fried dough. Honking taxis and commercial buses, stray goats, a little bit of everything, from ginger to kaolin, salt, cola, tomatoes line the aisles. The smell of roasted plantains floats throughout the women's market, lingering in the air. A nursing mother in a stand hangs used clothing and arranges cosmetics for sale.

Several yards away, the ground darkens to black as the number of stands decrease and thin blankets are laid out, exhibiting mountains of charcoal. The residue fills the air, blackening the women who stand behind them.

The women of the market come here twice a each week, selling their goods from sunrise until after sunset. However, for some of the women, more is at stake than making a profit. The women are the main breadwinners so at the end of the market day, the amount of money they bring home determines whether or not their spouses will beat them.

In Ada, as elsewhere in the country, domestic violence is breaking up marriages and threatening the lives of many women. Last year, a 22-year-old woman was killed by her boyfriend in Lubur, a village in the Ada district, after insisting she wanted to relocate to Nigeria. Her boyfriend disapproved of the idea and murdered her. He was later tried and jailed.

However, most of the domestic violence cases in Ada do not end up in court.

Mabel Owusu, 46, a charcoal seller at the women's market and secretary of the Women's Association, has heard of many more instances in which women are beaten by their husbands on a daily basis and the men never receive punishment.

"Men don't value the women," said Owusu. "They are drunkards, deceiving the women and beating them merciless."

Mary Koko Ayoruoo, 45, vice chairperson of the Women's Association, agrees. "Women are suffering too much," she says.

Owusu was once an aspiring Member of Parliament. Her passion and knowledge of politics proved beneficial during the introduction of the Domestic Violence Bill in Ada. In a presentation to the women of the market, she explained the content and ramifications of the Bill .

"All of the women supported it," Madam Owusu says. The bill was introduced late last year and if implemented, would make domestic abuse illegal in Ghana.

It spells out domestic violence to include various forms of abuse such as threats, physical and sexual assault, types of psychological and economic abuse in domestic relationships.

Although much of the public debate on the bill have been limited to portions that deal with marital rape, the bill covers a range of acts including physical violence, name calling or isolation from family and friends.

"We are praying that it passes, "said Owusu. As a woman who was once in what she describes as an unhealthy marriage, Owusu recognizes symptoms of abuse in many of the women, the most conspicuous being the bruises. Owusu got out of her marriage several years ago and has since remarried. Still, most of the women are not as fortunate as Owusu.

Emmanuel Dagbey, 40, shines shoes under a stand. Married with three children, Dagbey does not approve of men beating their wives, although he knows of many cases in which women are abused on a daily basis. He claims most of the abuse that he has witnessed was triggered when the women denied their partners conjugal rights. And even though he does not know much about the bill, Dagbey thinks the bill is necessary to stop the beating of women.

Several feet from Dagbey, Kabutge Adgoryo, 60, sells roasted plantains and groundnuts in the middle of the market, an overly large wide-brimmed hat as her only protection from the sun. She is a married woman with seven children. Although not familiar with the bill, Adgoryo says that if abuse happens, it should be reported to both families.

According to Owusu, efforts are being made not only nationally but locally to draw more attention to the bill. Educational forums have been set up by the older women. In Ada a a community radio, Radio Ada, tries to educate younger women on domestic abuse.

Furthermore, women are starting to take the men to court.

Despite these efforts, Owusu says the most effective effort is to make domestic abuse illegal.

"If the bill is passed and made to be law it will make us women more courageous because we will know that we have the backing of the law," she says. "I also think that the men will become afraid and stop abusing the women."

A recent national study on violence revealed that one in three women in Ghana have been physically abused by a current or most recent partner. Further, the study found that over 90 per cent of the victims of domestic violence are women and children.

In the home setting, for example, house help, the aged, sick and physically handicapped members may be abused.

"Everyday we hear of high levels of violence against women in all spheres - wife battering, rape, incest - name them, all of which go to affect the woman psychologically, physically and mentally," says hon. Akua Dansua, MP for North Dayi in the Volta Region.

According to Mrs. Agnes Chibagatia, MP for Builsa North, women of Builsa North, just like the women in Ada, also suffer much abuse in the ugly face of outmoded tradition such as widowhood rites.

"Anytime a woman's husband dies, she is confined into a room; she is only covered with sheanut leaves to prevent the private parts from showing . she is shaved with a sharp knife or blade," says Mrs. Chigabatia. "When you are not fortunate and there are about three or four wives, they use the same blade or knife to shave their hair; and this is the era of AIDS."

Until recently, domestic violence was not given the needed attention although Ghana has signed, ratified and adopted several international documents such as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Violence against Women and the one on the Rights of the Child.

But as the incidence of domestic abuse increases, considering the number of complaints of abuse and assault cases reported at the Women and Juvenile Unit of the Ghana Police Service and other institutions that deal with such issues, making it a phenomenon needing much attention, the Ghanaian society in which culture often plays a major role, has subjected proponents of the Domestic Violence Bill to various criticisms.

Adolf Awuku Bekoe, a representative from the National Coalition of Domestic Violence, notes that the state's response to fighting violence in the home has not been effective becuase they are only fighting violence on the streets.

To Bekoe, domestic violence is a manifestation of unequal power relationships and calls for a legislative framework to help deal with the problem.

"Today, in Africa and especially Ghana we women suffer at the hands of our patriarchal society," says Mrs. Juliana Azumah-Mensah, MP for Ho East. "And to promote our status in our communities, let us pass the Domestic Violence Bill as soon as possible so that perpetrators of all terrible injustices meted out to women would be dealt with."

According to Hajia Alima Mahama, Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, the bill is receiving serious attention.