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Outmoded cultural practices: …widow recounts harrowing experience
A 37-year-old trader has shared her experience on widowhood and called on society to be more humane towards women who find themselves in that state.
She says it is unfortunate that in the Ghanaian society, anytime a husband dies regardless of the circumstances, the widow is fingered as the killer of the man by her in-laws.
“Some of them wanted to take me to my late husband’s grave at night to bathe me with water used to clean his dead body, so I ran away with my two children,” she recounted in an interview with the Spectator on condition of anonymity, on Monday.
She disclosed that the water they were going to use had been stored for three days and the bathe was ostensibly to cleanse her so that no “bad luck” could come to her.
She said when she received the message from a “good samaritan” about the intentions of some of her in-laws to take her through that ritual, she was baffled because both her family and that of her late husband had agreed that there would be no such widowhood rites because her husband died as a Christian.
“I was not going to allow myself to go through that when I heard that the water had been mixed with some substances to make me mad and even cause my death in six months (to confirm the suspicion that I killed my husband) and make my children orphans,” she said.
She questioned why any woman in her right frame of mind who was together with her man raising children and struggling to even pay bills, could take the life of her husband.
“Imagine single handedly paying bills and taking care of two children aged three and eight under this economy?” she questioned.
The trader said her husband did not own any property to even motivate her to termination his life in the first place and that their rent had even expired at the time of his death.
“He was involved in a road crash but I was shocked to hear that because I did not give him his peace of mind, that is why he became absent minded when crossing the street and was knocked down,” she said.
She said the back and forth with the family about the death of her husband, preparations towards his burial and life after, had seriously affected her mental health.
“The fact that they even wanted to take my children from me because they said I did not have the financial muscle to take care of them and also that the children belonged to her late husband’s family was most torturing” she disclosed.
She said it was interesting that she and her children were asked to pay GH¢1,000 for the funeral and when they incurred a debt the family again told her to pay about GH¢4,000 more though they did not allow her guests to eat the food they prepared for those who attended her husband’s funeral.
The woman said she had been denied access to her late husband’s shop but the family was unwilling to give any financial support to cater for the children.
She said she was never going to allow anyone to take her children from her but feared she might lose the strength to fight them along the line and wished she could get help from the public to keep her in-laws away.
“I need legal advice and action to protect my children and I” she pleaded.
From Dzifa Tetteh Tay, Tema.
The 30th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Media Awards has celebrated three decades of recognising excellence and contributions to journalism and national development, while highlighting the media’s role in Ghana’s democracy.
Marking the milestone, Philip Osei Bonsu of the Multimedia Group emerged as the GJA/P.A.V. Ansah Journalist of the Year.
The Ghanaian Times’ Benedicta Gyimah Foley won the Best Feature Reporting, Print category, alongside other journalists recognised across various media platforms.
Other winners included Nathaniel Attoh, Best in Sports Reporting; and Godwin Asediba of Media General, Best in TV Documentary; Doreen Ampofo of GBC, Best in Radio Documentary; and freelance journalist Nii Adjei Mensahfio, Best in Online Documentary.
Daniel Kwabena Mantey was adjudged Best in TV Feature, while Clinton Yeboah of Luv FM won Best in Radio Feature, with Gilbert Azeem Tiroog of GNA taking Best in Online Features.
For news reporting, Mohammed Fugu of the Daily Graphic won Best in Print News Reporting, Nabil Ahmed Rufai, a freelance journalist, Best in TV News Reporting; Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman of EIB Network, Best in Radio News Reporting; and Timothy Ngnenbe of the Daily Graphic, Best in Online News.
The ceremony, held in Accra last Saturday on the theme, “Celebrating Excellence, Advancing Media Freedom and Combating Hate Speech in the Digital Age”, was attended by President John Dramani Mahama as the special guest of honour.
Also in attendance were the Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, and the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Christian Tetteh Yohuno, among others.
In his address, President Mahama announced a GH₵10 million allocation in the 2027 national budget as seed capital for the reactivated Media Development Fund to support journalists’ welfare, professional development, investigative reporting and safety training, with additional corporate contributions expected.
Mr Mahama, also urged media practitioners to uphold professionalism and accuracy by avoiding sensationalism, unsubstantiated allegations and the deliberate pursuit of scandals, while promptly correcting inaccurate reports and apologising when necessary to maintain public trust and professional standards.
On journalists’ safety, he assured that the government would continue to act against attacks on them.
By Stephanie Birikorang
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Today, I focus on the theme of Ghanaian/African migrants in Finland and economic empowerment, a move away from the topic of personalities or groups and their accomplishments within the Ghanaian community in Finland that I have been writing on.
In recent times, African migrant associations and Finnish institutions are organising meetings or forums and help people seeking employment to meet employers or build professional networks to achieve economic empowerment.
Such forums are usually open to their members and anyone of African descent.to get into the Finnish job market.
Competences
Researchers and experts say entrepreneurship or self-employment has great potential to offer a route for migrants, including highly-educated ones, to participate in and contribute to the local economy.
Competences, including knowledge and knowhow, opportunities, and social capital such as family support, language, etc., are necessary to boost the entrepreneurship endeavour.
Competence in the official Finnish or Swedish languages is undoubtedly a key quality to improve employment prospects, especially for migrants since the overall unemployment among migrants could be higher than in the mainstream Finnish population.
There could also be particular privileges which may be the provision of the right information for potential entrepreneurs or job seekers.
Barriers and stress factors
Although language has a huge potential to contribute positively to entrepreneurship possibilities, studies have shown that some of the major stress factors are language problems, finances or economic capital among African migrants.
Other barriers or challenges may be how to grow the business venture or its sustainability.
Thus, migrant communities can generally be highly vulnerable to language barrier, lack of information, the nature of the work of migrants in professions where working from home is not possible.
Migrant associations, social networks, and information
By their activities, migrant associations are doing much to educate and create awareness as well as enhance economic empowerment through migrants’ entrepreneurship or self-employment and enhance opportunities.
Such associations and institutions become networks that create an important social capital as well as outlets for sharing and gaining information or knowledge. Also, it will all be for societal good if such activities are able to help reduce stress and anxiety in the migrants’ entrepreneurship endeavours.
As I keep pointing out, Finland is committed to the integration of migrants into the Finnish society. A number of research studies from surveys and other in-depth enquiries have shown a trend of increasing efforts to integrate African and other migrants into the Finnish society.
Public agencies, migrant associations and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Finland have been publishing information to help educate people, which is also good for their wellbeing.
Generally, migrant associations formally create awareness among their members and other migrants usually in collaboration with some Finnish institutions, and are thus an important tool for several migrants to be positively active and to get their interests and claims heard.
As I wrote previously, the role of migrant associations acting as bridge-builders for the integration and inclusion of migrants through participation in the decision making process and by acting as a representative voice is highly appreciated in Finland. Thank you!
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