Kofi of Africa
T O F I A K W A!
Sex Crimes, Street Violence and Corruption in Ghanaian Society
(1 of 6)
Crime Statistics
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| Mob violence is rife in Ghanaian cities as this billboard shows |
Introduction
This essay has arisen from the smolder of increased sexual rape, street violence and general corruption outrages in Ghana. The marked increases in the raping of children and women are happening mostly in educational institutions. Corollary to these rapes are increases in extra-judicial street beatings and killings, against citizens who are alleged to have committed criminal offenses. Far troubling, the above outrages are happening in an environment of burgeoning corruption at both official and domestic levels.
For the benefit of our none-West African audience, Tofiakwa simply means taboo. The increase in sex crimes, street violence and corruption in Ghanaian society is at taboo levels. These social and cultural terrors are not only denuding public moral, they are subverting Ghana's development by accretion. Ghana ignores these outrages at its peril.
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| Ghana's Chief Justice, Georgina T, Wood |
We must now ask, is the increase in violence among young males in Ghana a reflection of a more serious social and cultural rot among male adults? In other words is Ghana in real big trouble?
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| Mob victim |
I will adopt a meta-critical approach to hopefully contribute a guiding beam to Ghana's social and cultural discipline. By 'meta-critical', I mean I will argue that Ghana needs to author, teach and publicise a home-grown, meta-critical archeology of philosophy within the framework of economics, social and cultural self-development. Again it is hoped that the above disciplines will somehow positively influence our reactions to national policies on: education, economics/industrialisation, justice/morality and cultural behaviour. That it will even help speed up our national search for continental unity – the United States of Africa!
Throughout the essay, I will sincerely draw on recollections of personal experiences. This will help me to authenticate the relevant subject matter that I am discoursing. This critical technique is indebted to existentialist philosophy. By existentialism I mean the thinking that suggests that - my experiences and consciousness – creates their own values and determines meaning to the subjects discoursed.
I will try to write simply. Relevant sources for external concepts or ideas will be referenced when I borrow them. But forgive me if I am unable to do so sometimes. Because I attempt here to share with you, one-and-only in a mass audience, a subject matter that has stretched the minds of oppositional minds for years. The task at hand, as the title of this essay suggests, is difficult. Therefore, it may be difficult at times to find the most accessible words to express it. This essay from the Diaspora is an attempt to assist, in a small way with other concerned Ghanaian patriots both at home and worldwide, Ghana navigate our crisis-challenged ship from keeling over.
Method
Unavoidably the essay is expansive - in six sections, often with sub-seams. Therefore, I have borrowed a typical academic structure to help organise it, while being truthful to the essay format. First, I will evaluate statistical data on crime in Ghana. Second, I will present and textually close-read news reports of street and sexual violence in the Ghanaian media, focusing on, paedophilia and the impact of increased homosexuality on sexual violence and health. Third, I will close-read news reports of the assault and raping of Amina Haruna at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Fourth, I will critically discourse the repeat raping of the eponymous MZbel. This extended analysis will be the linchpin of the essay. It will provide the basic for engaging the multiplicity of issues that are interconnected to the Mzbel incidents: social, cultural, psychological, ethical, moral, historical, economic and even creativity and professional freedom. These should help us better address the subject of this essay.
Fifthly, like the fourth section, I will evaluate corruption in Ghanaian society. Because I believe sexual and street violence are linked to a general problematic of national corruption. This will help us better gauge and offer necessary corrective recommendations.
Sixth I will finally argue the inclusion of philosophy, development economics, applied science and technology into Ghanaian discourse. This part will be very difficult to do. But the resulting suggestions will help us, at lease, to ameliorate the effects of crimes of violence through the discourse of national development. My conclusion will pose some corrective recommendations to address the problem of sex, street violence and general corruption in Ghana.  |
| Ghana is rich but its people are poor |
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| Ghana's gold is being depleted by TNCs |
Social and Cultural Paradoxes
The title of this essay throws up some excruciatingly troubling paradoxes. Sexual rape: educational institutions are where moral, ethical and intellectual knowledge and life's skills are taught, yet there has been a marked rise in recent sexual attacks against under-aged and matured females, at both secondary school and university level. Street crime and mob violence: Ghana has a relatively capable, professional police force compared to other African countries, yet street violence proliferate. General corruption: Ghana has an excellent judicial (courts) and moral/ethical institutions (churches, educational and civil rights institutions), yet general levels of corruption has blossomed to engulf these same institutions.
 Mills Nationalise the oil $ gold! |
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| Our cultural majesty |
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| "Hey, move! Massa say mek I buga" |
Data on the Rise in Crime in Ghana
To state boldly that there is a rise in crime levels in Ghana requires an examination of comparable crime statistics. Titled: Crime Statistics, Prisoners (most recent) by Country, Nation Master (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_pri-crime-prisoners) provides an interesting 2003 crime statistics on countries with the most crimes. Ghana does not register on, Total Crimes by Country; or Perception of safety, Walking in Dark, by Country (http://www.nationmaster.com/red/graph/cri_ass_percap-crime-assaults-per-capita&b_map=1). However, in 1998 there had been a particularly frightening incident of "serial murders" in Accra:
In late 1998, a series of "mysterious" murders of women began to occur in the Mataheko area of Accra. Three of the 20 murders reportedly involved husbands' suspicion of their wives' infidelity. The men subsequently were arrested, but they were not convicted. There were more than 30 murders between 1993 and 2000, which were referred to as "serial murders." Police instituted evening roadblocks throughout Accra in an attempt to catch the murderers.http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/rwinslow/africa/ghana.htmlBetween 1998 and 2011 Ghanaians know that there has been a seismic increase in all crime levels. According to members of, United for Justice-Ghana (UfJ-GH) - a Facebook pressure group - and Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), quoting statistics from the Ghana Police (1997), states more than a thousand incidents were recorded as "mob justice" (attack and murder of alleged criminals). A massive 66.7% of the suspected thieves in mob attacks were not the real thieves! (Reported Samven’s research, 2009).
Again under, Trends in Crime, Rohan.SDSU provides a dated statistics on Ghana crime (1996-2000):
Between 1996 and 2000, according to INTERPOL data, the rate of murder increased from 2.23 to 2.48, an increase of 11.2%. The rate for rape increased from 4.04 to 6.85, an increase of 69.6%. The rate of robbery increased from 1.12 to 2.15, an increase of 92%. The rate for aggravated assault increased from 404.51 to 448.42 per 100,000, an increase of 10.9%. The rate for burglary decreased from 4.42 to 1.3, a decrease of 70.6%. The rate of larceny increased was not reported in 1996, and the rate of motor vehicle theft was not reported in either 1996 or 2000. The rate of total index offenses increased from 416.32 to 461.28, an increase of 10.8%. (http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/rwinslow/africa/ghana.htmlFor countries with the most prisoners, Ghana was placed 66th out of 159 nations in the world. It had 10,992 prisoners. Of course the US led the table with 2,019,234 prisoners. South Africa topped Africa (8) with 181,944 prisoners; followed by Rwanda (11) with 112,000 prisoners; Egypt (21) 61,845 prisoners; Nigeria (36) 40,447 prisoners; Kenya (40) 35,278 prisoners; Algeria (41) 34,243 prisoners; Tunisia (45) 23,165 prisoners; Madagascar (47) 20,109 prisoners; Cameroon (48) 20,000 prisoners; Zambia (61) 13,173 prisoners; Ghana (66) 10,992 prisoners.(http://www.nationmaster.com/red/pie/cri_pri-crime-prisoners).
The statistics for: Prisoners Per Capita, shows Ghana had 52 per 100,000 people in jail (130th of 164) in the world. Ghanaian women were 2% represented in jail per 100,000 of population (110th of 134) in the world. Ghana has more prisoners than: Panama, Bulgaria, Greece, Belgium, Bolivia, Guatemala, Austria, Slovakia, Lebanon, Sweden and even feared Jamaica (100) 4,744 prisoners!.(http://www.nationmaster.com/country/lg-latvia/cri-crime).
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| Children are vulnerable |
A 1998 study revealed that particularly in low-income, high-density sections of greater Accra, at least 54 percent of women have been assaulted in recent years. A total of 95 percent of the victims of domestic violence are women, according to data gathered by the FIDA. These abuses usually go unreported and seldom come before the courts. The media increasingly report cases of assault and rape. The police administration's...Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU) handles cases involving domestic violence, child abuse, and juvenile offenses. Located in Accra and Kumasi, the WAJU works closely with the Department of Social Welfare, FIDA, and the Legal Aid Board. During the year, the Accra Branch of this unit recorded 658 cases, including 204 defilement cases, 58 rapes, 5 cases of incest, 28 indecent assaults, 232 instances of assault and wife battery, and abductions. (http://www.nationmaster.com/country/lg-latvia/cri-crime).Qualitative Facts on Corruption
This seam of the essay provides general qualitative facts (as opposed to objective numerical data) on corruption in Ghanaian society. Again according to Rohan.SDSU, the security forces - the police, security officers and army - caused an increase in the number of illegal deaths from 5-7 in every thousand people between 2000-2001. Corruption, brutality and negligence are rife.
Public confidence in the police remains low, and mobs attacked several police stations due to perceived police inaction, a delay in prosecuting suspects, rumors of collaboration with criminals, and the desire to deal with suspects through instant justice. The Ghana Governance and Corruption Survey, which was completed during the year 2001, found that the police were among the "least trusted, least effective, and most corrupt" government institutions in the country. (http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/rwinslow/africa/ghana.html)There is a groundswell of opinion that the courts are not much better than the police. There are unexplained delays and legalistic bamboozlement in prosecuting suspects, compounding a perception of police-court-criminal-politician duplicity. This perception was affirmed when in 2007 cocaine ceased by the police from drug smugglers disappeared into thin air under the public gaze. After only a year in jail the defendants were acquitted,
The Court of Appeal (CA) on Friday acquitted and discharged Kwabena Amaning aka Tagor and Alhaji Issah Abass, both businessmen, who were jailed 15 years each on drug related offenses. On November 28, 2007, the Fast Track High Court (FTHC) presided over by Mr. Justice Victor Jones Dotse, now a Supreme Court judge, found them guilty for conspiracy, engaging in prohibited business relating to narcotic drugs...CA described the judgment as a cancerous tumour that should be flushed and erased from the legal system. It noted that the trial judge erred when he overruled a submission of no case and called on the appellants (Tagor and Abass) to open their defense. The CA questioned why the prosecution failed to call Mr Kofi Boakye, Assistant Commissioner of Police, as a witness in the case. It said the prosecution failed to lead evidence to establish the whereabouts of the said 76 parcels of cocaine on board the MV Benjamin Vessel. (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=165888)
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| Is the Ghana Supreme Court corrupt? |
Conclusion
It can be seen from the above statistical data that crime has risen steadily from 1996 onward to date. As low as its levels of crime denote, Ghana still outstrips most African and some major European countries in high crime. My experiences when on vacation in Ghana also informs me of the frightening rise in crime. One has to be careful where one answers mobile phone calls. On my last visit I was attacked by three machete-welding robbers. They snatched my rucksack with my passport and other important documents in. It can even be argued from the above data that, given that Nigeria has over 134 million people against Ghana's 24 million people (approximately), Ghana appears to have more prisoners than Nigeria. Other first!
In Ghanaian communities some residents have been compelled to form vigilante crime-watch groups. They are usually armed to the teeth with sticks, machetes, iron bars and even guns. Usually the logistically-outstretched police tacitly approved these groups.
T O F I A K W A!
Sex Crimes, Street Violence and Corruption in Ghanaian Society (1 of 6)
Crime Statistics
Kofi of Africa
T O F I A K W A!
Sex Crimes, Street Violence and Corruption in Ghanaian Society
(2 of 6)
The Media on Street and Sexual Violence
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| Poverty causes crimes, yet Ghana's wealth is TNC owned |
Mob Violence
Innocent Man Taken for a Thief and Lynched
I have detailed statistical and qualitative data above to explain the seriousness of seismic increases in various forms of violence and general corruption in Ghana. This second part of the essay presents the reality of street and sexual violence from media sources. Each news report will be immediately followed by critical analysis.
Because an actual death occurred, I will start with this news report titled: Innocent Man Taken for a Thief and Lynched:
Critical AnalysisA 25-year-old man mistaken for a thief has been lynched by a mob at Nii Boi, a suburb of Accra. The young man was said to be loitering around the area at dawn, prompting a resident whose house had been burgled at about the same time, to raise an alarm. The victim was later discovered to be innocent after the lifeless body was paraded in front of a house identified as the family house of the deceased. Assembly member of the area Michael Zigah told Joy News the Tesano police is investigating the case. “Unfortunately, information that I am also getting now, tells me that the person is not a thief but he is somebody who lives in the community, sells at Lapaz and has family in the community.” He confirmed that the police have been in the area to pick up some people they suspect of killing the young man. (http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201105/65706.asp).
A typical victim of street crime
Clearly the spark that tolled the alarm bells leading to the young man's unfortunate death, was the resentment that had built up in the resident, "whose house had been burgled about the same time". This violent incident is a sneak-preview of what mainly occurs on a fairly regular basis in the major cities of Ghana. Many Ghanaians have had some experience of crime. Therefore, like the alarmist above they keep a pressure cooker of vengeful resentment against criminals. A resentment compounded by an all too frequent experience of police inaction to crime resolution. This is evidenced by the level of unrestrained violence against alleged criminals who get caught. This violence is often perpetrated by both male and females with equal gratuitous violence and self-relish.
Sadly this phenomenon has come home to roost in Ghana. It only requires an alarm, "awi!" or "julor!". Someone is pursued, caught and beating to death.
Nearly always the police appear to lack the logistics or inclination to successfully investigate and arrest the perpetrators of the mob crime.
This reality of instant justice is indicative of public lack of confidence in the professionalism of the police or criminal justice system ...Unlike metropolitan centres of the industrialised world, with rapid police response times, the Ghana police service tend to respond too late. The cumulative result is that mob justice has sadly become a regular feature in Ghana. It would seem that this is a pervasive African problem. In the mid 1980s I observed many people being burnt alive in the streets of Lagos, Nigeria. Their apparent offense: running after being called, "ole!" (thief). Pursued and caught, they were ringed with vehicle tyres and burnt. The police mopped up the carnage weeks later.
Sadly this phenomenon has come home to roost in Ghana. It only requires an alarm, "awi!" or "julor!". Someone is pursued, caught and beating to death. Nearly always the police appear to lack the logistics or inclination to successfully investigate and arrest the perpetrators of the mob crime. This reality of instant justice is indicative of public lack of confidence in the professionalism of the police or criminal justice system.
In a recent article titled, Mass Unemployment Is Contributing to Armed Robbery, Ghanaweb.com columnist, Alex Bossman Baafi wrote:
Many concerned people are worried and trying to find out what is causing the upsurge in armed robbery because the state of insecurity these days had become a topical issue nationwide. In my opinion, the increase in armed robbery is due to multiplicity of factors. These include the influx of foreigners from our West African sub-region, increase in drug abuse with substances like marijuana, which is common in our society, effects of increase in dehumanizing conditions emanating from slums settlements in our cities, idleness and poverty arising out of mass unemployment among others.
In my opinion, joblessness is also contributing in no small measure to the current upsurge in crime including armed robbery and rape causing insecurity in the country. In search for the solution for this unacceptable social ill, the government should not discount unemployment and sweep it under the carpet. The government must accept the responsibility to tackle the problem of unemployment head-on and must be one of the main priority areas as part of its Better Ghana Agenda dispensation. (Ghanaweb, Feature Article of Thursday, 4 August 2011). http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=215422)
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| Guns have become fashionable |
So science, not non-science (nonsense) speaks: sedative drugs like marijuana equal sleepiness, distortion of reality. Stimulant drugs like crack cocaine and amphetamine-like drugs equal users feeling "on top of the world", euphoric and alert.
If I was a thief I would rather be euphoric, alert and keep my faculties sharpened rather than sleepy and lacking of reality - would you not?
Marijuana users are more likely to fall asleep (chilled out) on the job or eat a lot (have the 'munchies') than want to speed down the motorway on a hot tropical afternoon to commit highway robbery!Also Baafi stereotypes the issue in stating that, "substances like marijuana, which is common in our society" causes crime in Ghana. In the West where major studies have been done on the link between drugs and crimes among the "under-classes", there is abundant information to suggest a causal link between crime and stimulant (opposed to sedative) drugs like, cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, mephedrone, etc. The A-Z of Drugs informs us:
Cannabis: It is a mild sedative (often causing a chilled out feeling or actual sleepiness) and it’s also a mild hallucinogen (meaning you may experience a state where you see objects and reality in a distorted way and may even hallucinate). The main active compound in cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). (http://www.talktofrank.com/drugs.aspx?id=172).
Chilling out on the job on 'weed'
Taking cocaine makes users feel on top of the world. Its effect is like the stimulant ‘amphetamines’ (speed) but is stronger and doesn't last as long. People taking it feel wide-awake, confident and on top of their game"...
The effects of crack [cocaine] smoking...Users feel alert, confident, euphoric and talkative, and some feel greater empathy with those around them...Mephedrone: A stimulant drug belonging to the chemical family of cathinones...the family of amphetamine compounds. The amphetamine-like drugs include amphetamine itself (speed), methamphetamine and ecstasy (MDMA), among many others. Mephedrone produces euphoria, alertness, talkativeness and feelings of empathy. It can also cause anxiety and paranoid states and risks overstimulating the heart and circulation,(http://www.talktofrank.com/drugs.aspx?id=7513)(http://www.talktofrank.com/cannabis.aspx?id=3247)So science, not non-science (nonsense) speaks: sedative drugs like marijuana equal sleepiness, distortion of reality. Stimulant drugs like crack cocaine and amphetamine-like drugs equal users feeling "on top of the world", euphoric and alert. If I was a thief I would rather be euphoric, alert and keep my faculties sharpened rather than sleepy and lacking of reality - would you not? Marijuana users are more likely to fall asleep (chilled out) on the job or eat a lot(have the 'munchies') than want to speed down the motorway on a hot tropical afternoon to commit highway robbery!
It is certainly true drug usage can contribute to criminal activity. But we must reject the common-sense social notion in Ghana that links all aggressive or wayward behaviour to marijuana ('wee'). Like the statistical data given in the first seam of the essay, what we need in Ghana is a detailed study of the causes and solutions to the rise in crime. The blame game, as Ghanaian political protagonists tend to do, will only confuse and frustrate genuine attempts at finding solutions.
T O F I A K W A!
Sex Crimes, Street Violence and Corruption in Ghanaian Society (2 of 6)
The Media on Street and Sexual Violence
Kofi of Africa
T O F I A K W A!
Sex Crimes, Street Violence and Corruption in Ghanaian Society
Prevalence of Sexual Crimes
(3 of 6)
This brings us to the second seam of our attempt to expose the high levels of crime in Ghana: the prevalence of sexual crimes. Sexual crimes are the most despicable of all crimes, because they ultimately unleash unimaginable forms of physical and psychological violence on the victim. The combined effect of this physical and psychological violence on the victim can be everlasting.
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| Rare picture of paedophile Jacob Osei Owusu |
Paedophilia at the Calvary Methodist Educational Complex
On April 13 2011, Jacob Osei Owusu, a 62-year old senior school administrator at, Calvary Methodist Educational Complex, Adjringanor-East Legon, Accra, was exposed as a paedophile by the Herald Newspaper. Over a number of years he serially raped school girls as young as 13-year-olds. In a news item titled: Methodist Paedophile Revealed, the Herald wrote:
On April 13, 2011, a day before the school went on Easter and the second-term holidays, Mr. Owusu’s cup became full when he was found locked up with a student girl in his office during class hours. The girl revealed Owusu’s sexual perversion, leading to the discovery of other victims...The four girls, who had been abused by Mr. Owusu, were made to write statements on the ordeal they went through at the hands of the paedophile. Accosted by the supervisor of the school, Reverend Afo Ama Blay and other teachers, Mr. Owusu admitted having sexually abused two girls out of the four. Consequently, he went down on his knees, pleaded for forgiveness, and blamed the devil as the cause of it all. (Headmistress In Trouble Over Defilement Case, Sun, 31st Jul 2011, Xfm News Center: (http://www.xfmnewscenter.com/news/news.php? Also in: Methodist Pedophile Revealed, in Crime & Punishment, Tuesday, 17 May 2011, Source: The Herald).If the above crime is heinous in itself, it is particularly disturbing in another respect. The headmistress, Grace Dadson, refused initially to collaborate with the police. Most seriously she manipulated material evidence enabling, Jacob Osei Owusu to escape impending arrest. She released, Jacob Osei Owusu's photograph to the police, but only after direct intervention by, Rev. Ama Afo Blay ex-Director General of Ghana Education Service and a governing board member of the school. (Methodist Pedophile Revealed, The Herald,18th May 2011. http://www.ghanavillage.com/showthread.php/5511-Methodist-Educational-Complex-Pedophile-revealed).
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| Lord please forgive me till I con you again! |
Asem sebe (most daunting)! A sixty two year old granddad serially rapes teenage girls with impunity in a girls school, for years, under the watchful eyes of the school administration? Confronted by the seriousness of his lewd acts he kowtowed (as in the apposite picture), in a most Christian way, to the Headteacher begging for forgiveness. He claimed he had been misled by the ‘devil’.
Paedophile Osei Owusu used his creative cunning – the same cunning he had applied to con the primary school girls - to quick-think a master stroke. He knew falling on his knees is a classic remonstrative poise that will invert his position as the powerful administrator to a more humble posturing.
Hence his convincing transformation into the biblical Nebuchadnezzar - the prostrate, pitiful victim.
Also he had to blame someone else. Who better to blame for his years of perverted enjoyment? Lucifer himself. He conned the devil!How best to clinch the deal? He appealed to the Christian sense of forgiveness. His prayers could well have been, "Lord forgive me till I con you again".
Paedophile Osei Owusu used his creative cunning – the same cunning he had applied to con the primary school girls - to quick-think a master stroke. He knew falling on his knees is a classic remonstrative poise that will invert his position as the powerful administrator to a more humble posturing. Hence his convincing transformation into the biblical Nebuchadnezzar - the prostrate, pitiful victim. He had to blame someone else. Who better to blame for his years of perverted enjoyment? Lucifer himself. He conned the devil!
How best to clinch the deal? Grandfather Osei Owusu appealed to the Christian sense of forgiveness. His prayers could well have been, "Lord forgive me till I con you again". Con artists always have a 'clincher' for the con (I read about this in the books of Ice Slim, the stylistic influence on, Snoop Dog, Ice Tea and Ice Cube: 'Pimp', 'White Folks', 'Trick Baby, etc.). What was the clincher? Owusu posturing drew a biblical parallel with the trials of Jesus by the devil. This is what fooled the Headteacher into assisting him. A psychopathic rapist typically deflects blame on others. Attendant to this, the perverted personality possesses a remarkable capability to cook up the most convincing lie at the drop of a hat. Further information emerged from the Herald about Owusu’s “modus operandi” (the underlined text is my emphasis):
Mr. Owusu, apparently, might have been defiling students of the Calvary Methodist Preparatory and Vocational School since he joined it (school) in 2005. His modus operandi was to invite girls to his office and that of the headmistress, under the pretext of sending them on errands, and for an hour or two, the girls would disappear from among their colleagues. Statements submitted to the school authorities by four students aged between 13 and 15 revealed how Owusu used substances suspected to be aphrodisiacs to lace drinks he offered them after sending them on an errand. He undresses the little girls in his office, sucks their breasts, after which he forcefully tries to insert he penis into the vagina of the minors from behind. The Herald is informed that although the school authorities were aware of the reports of Mr. Owusu’s sexual molestations, they did nothing to stop it.(http://www.ghanavillage.com/showthread.php/5511-Methodist-Educational-Complex-Pedophile-revealed).We know from the above that he defiled the teenage girls for about six years. He routinely invited the girls when classes were in session, ostensibly to send them on errands “for an hour or two”. He laced their drinks. He performed kinky acts with them. He is a classic paedophile who will be a boon to a good forensic psychiatrist. But it is most puzzling, if unconscionable, how the pattern of Owusu’s behavior over six years had not been challenged by the school authorities.
In an article on criminal profiling, Hazelwood and Warren, write that there are three different styles of approach rapists frequently use: The ’con,’ the ‘blitz,’ and the ‘surprise’. They state that each reflects a different means of selecting, approaching and subduing a chosen victim.
“Con’ involves the rapist effectively convincing the victim that he or she is trustworthy. The con approach involves subterfuge and is predicated on the rapist's ability to interact with women. Tricky dick,lone-ranger, sage rooster Owusu interacted with the under-aged girls in the chicken coop of the primary school. He had all the time in the world to use his six-year credit top-up of trust, as the Senior Administrator, to plan subterfuge. He openly called his victims out of class sessions into his office. His pretext: “sending them on errands...for an hour or two”. When the victims submitted to his ‘con’ he abused them.
In a blitz approach, the rapist uses a direct, injurious physical assault which subdues and physically injures the victim. The attacker may also use chemicals or gases but most frequently makes use of his ability to physically overpower the victim. Owusu spiked the drinks of his victims and rapped them.
‘Surprise’ involves the assailant waiting for the victim or attacked them while they were drowsy. Owusu had targeted and preselected his victim through unobserved contact. He pounced on them by isolating them from class sessions.
Hazelwood and Warren further reveal shocking statistics that show that sex crimes are largely premeditated. This premeditation explains why Jacob Osei Owusu’s activities remained undetected under the noses of school staff:
The majority of the sexual attacks (55-61%) committed by these men were premeditated across their first, middle, and last rapes, while fewer rapists reported their crimes as being impulsive (15-22%) or opportunistic (22-24%). Although no comparable data on serial rape are available, it is probable that the premeditation involved in these crimes is particularly characteristic of these serial rapists. It is also probable that this premeditation is reflective of their preferential interest in this type of crime and largely accounts for their ability to avoid detection. (Behavioral Evidence - Criminal Profiling Monday, 21 September 2009, Behavioral Science Instruction Research Unit, Quantico, VA, Hazelwood, Robert, R and Institute of Psychiatry and Law, University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA’s Janet Warren).Conclusion
What emerged from the Calvary Methodist Educational Complex is the phenomenon of concealment of serious crime. Whatever the reasons why both paedophile, Jacob Osei Owusu and Headteacher Grace Dadson acted the way they did, it is more important to point out that their attitude is pervasive in Ghanaian society today - especially among middle-aged people in responsible positions.
Headteacher Grace Dadson represents thousands of such middle-aged people in responsible positions in Ghana. They are sticky, ponderous, unsure and paralytic.
Usually they exude a mixture of religion, naiveté and indecision in the face of crisis.
Yet exteriorly they pose the most obstinate, frustrating, uncooperative mannerism that one can expect from the worse type of prim-and-proper officialdom.
Such officials are the exact dinosaurs Ghana needs weeding out.
They are reactionary, work counter clockwise, sow seeds of under-development in Ghana and Africa. Let us weed them out to get real democratic progress!Of course the Headteacher's vested interest was to protect the credibility and sanctity - paradoxically not the chastity - of her school. From her cover-up one detects a desperation to prevent her school and the Methodist Church from sliding down the sexual dance pole of sleaze and infamy into disrepute. Indeed, Grace Dadson must have experienced a searing moral jolt in the vein of her conscience, as an educator, mother and Christian.
If one appears to be particularly severe on, Grace Dadson, it is because she is a Headteacher and most likely, a Christian mother. ethically and morally speaking she is expected to act responsibly. She should know better. Most importantly, although her position represents power and authority, she let herself and the young girls in her trust down.
Rape is a most traumatic, searing experience for its victims. Typically, young rape victims develop psychological impairment in later life. Thus in the initial stages of rape they need support and good counseling to help them emerge from their impending crisis. To this extent, it was imperative that the Headteacher exercised good administrative and maternal judgment to protect the rapped girls. Instead, she followed her instinct for self-preservation and stalled to protect her paedophile colleague.
Headteacher Grace Dadson represents thousands of such middle-aged people in responsible positions in Ghana. They are sticky, ponderous, unsure and paralytic. Usually they exude a mixture of religion, naiveté and indecision in the face of crisis. Yet exteriorly they pose the most obstinate, frustrating, uncooperative mannerism that one can expect from the worse type of prim-and-proper officialdom. Such officials are the exact dinosaurs Ghana needs weeding out. They are reactionary, work counter clockwise, sow seeds of under-development in Ghana and Africa. Let us weed them out to get real democratic progress!
Unfortunately, at the time of this posting I had no news of paedophile Osei Owusu's arrest. I suggest unreservedly that if caught he should spend his hundredth birthday at the worse jail in Ghana.
Recommendations
I want to make a few suggestions. First, it is hoped that initially the abused school girls were medically examined, appropriately counseled and readmitted to other schools.
The Herald informs us that although the, Calvary Methodist Preparatory and Vocational School authorities were aware of the reports of Mr. Owusu’s sexual molestations, they did nothing to stop it. School authorities in both public and private sector, and individual adults who are entrusted with the care of minors, must be culpable for serious accidents those minors may suffer. If there are no such laws, then legal droughts-persons in Ghana’s judiciary and the Ministry of Education must draw and implement one urgently.
Sending children on errands during class sessions will never be tolerated in Western schools. Therein lies the problem. This practice must be stopped. Ghana has no clear demarcating line between genuine pedagogy and demagogy (education and the misplaced power of our elders).
All educational institutions, from nursery, secondary to higher education, must institute comprehensive risk management and personal safety policies to safe-guard both students and staff.
The personal safety policies must specify what measures and how they are to be implemented on various safety issues: health and safety (first aid, fire drills, accessibility and seating, etc), cases of abuse, illness, violence and potential for natural disasters like flood, earthquake..All schools dealing with infants, teenagers and other vulnerable people – like the aged, mentally ill and disabled people – must have a mandatory Criminal Records Check (CRC) policy. All staff in such establishments must undergo automatic CRCs before working with vulnerable people.
A database of all sex crimes must be maintained, by the police and education ministry, for all teachers and adults who work with vulnerable groups.
All educational institutions, from nursery, secondary to higher education, must institute comprehensive risk management and personal safety policies to safe-guard both students and staff. The personal safety policies must specify what measures and how they are to be implemented on various safety issues: health and safety (first aid, fire drills, accessibility and seating, etc), cases of abuse, illness, violence and potential for natural disasters like flood, earthquake, etc.
A Risk Assessment policy must be in place to assess relevant students and staff on issues relating to general health, mental illness, behavioral management and criminal record. We should take no prisoners!
The five girls Owusu raped had been removed while classes were in session on a spurious excuse. All schools must ensure that children are in school purely to learn. If they have to serve vocational apprenticeships that involve practical work, that should be expressly be part of the educational institution's curricular. At all times it should be jointly supervision by two adults.
All health and safety policies must be detailed. They must stipulate what specific actions to taken to prevent or solve incidents involving children, babies, students, staff and visitors to their premises. Incidents must include: rape, fighting/violence, fainting, burglary, death, acid burning, fire, poisoning, flooding and earthquake.
This policy must be additional to strict fire drill codes and other specific health and safety drills such as first aid techniques.
It should also be clear what must be done in cases of rape, violence, bullying, discrimination, racism, sexism and sexuality discrimination. These by-laws should be written secularly - as human right consistent with educational development, rather than religious dogma. The God of Africa please protect your children!
T O F I A K W A!
Sex Crimes, Street Violence and Corruption in Ghanaian Society (3 of 6)
Prevalence of Sexual Crimes
Homosexuality and Sexual Violence
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| Sad image of Ghana's young Sakawa 'homosexuals' |
In June this year Dr. Ronald Sowah, Coordinator for HIV/AIDS in the Western Region, cautioned against the careless proliferation in homosexuality there linking it to health risks. He said two thousand people had officially been registered as homosexuals in the region, “with the influx of people streaming into the region such as refugees and expatriates, increased sexual activities could double the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS, Gonorrhea, Syphilis and other diseases...". He added, " What makes it more dangerous is when the gay man is a bisexual; he infects his partner and carries it to his wife.” (Myjoyonline.com 03/6/11 http://www.modernghana.com/columnnews/332198/1/alert-health-risks-in-western-region-set.html).
Recently, on 15 September 2011, Dr Awoonor-Williams, Upper East Regional Director of Health Services, Ghana, said in an address to a regional HIV and AIDS conference in Bolgatanga on the theme: “Reducing HIV Prevalence rate and mitigating its effects; the role of stakeholders”, a National Sentinel Survey in 2010 indicated an, "unprecedented increase of the disease in Region, with a prevalence rate of 2.4 per cent as compared to the national average rate of 1.4 per cent". He said the most affected areas were, Bolgatanga, Bawku Municipalities and Kassena Nankana East District.
Dr Awoonor-Awoonor said the core component of interventions in the Region were, "Testing and counseling, prevention of mother to child transmission of the virus, Anti-Retroviral Therapy, Sexually Transmitted Infections Management, Behavioural Change communication and targeted risk reduction programmes.
(HIV and AIDS spreading in upper East Region,Ghanaweb,General News, 15 September 2011 http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=218906)
News of sexual violence is depressing. Ghana News Agency (GNA) reported that an Accra Circuit Court remanded into Police custody a 46-year-old Ghanaian trader, Augustine Oteng for allegedly sodomising a 16-year-old boy.file://localhost/F:/Mi%20Dia/My%20Articles/Court%20remands%20trader%20for%20sodomy%20%20Crime%20&%20Punishment%202011-06-10.mht(GNA, Crime & Punishment, 10/6/11).
Arthur Panyin, a mathematics teacher was reported by Ghanaweb (Feature Article, Monday, 13 June 2011) to have preyed on teenage students at both St Augustines and Adisadal Secondary schools:
Some where in the middle of last term, the sodomy case came up when a student refused to attend a class with the guy in his house. A concerned tutor asked the student why he refused free tuition from the guy and that when the student revealed what he had been doing to some of the students. The tutor reported the incident to the Senior Housemaster and he in turn reported to the headmaster but no action was taken or the headmaster tried to shelve the issue until one of the victims got ill and the doctor detected the cause. (file://localhost/F:/Mi%20Dia/My%20Articles/Sodomy%20%20Feature%20Article%202011-06-13.mht).The highest profile case of paedophilia by foreigners ended recently when US citizen, Patrick Kent Labash, a 65-year-old retired teacher, was convicted on his own plea for raping seven children, at Adjomankope, Dangme East District, Tema. GNA reported that Labash was sentenced by the Tema Circuit Court A, to 25 years imprisonment, with hard labour for defilement:
Giving the ruling, the presiding judge [Mrs Lorinda Owusu] said all the eight victims comprising minors between three and 12 years, corroborated the facts given by the prosecution. Mrs Owusu said in her evidence, one of the victims, a three-year-old girl, said "the convict asked me to suck his manhood, which I did after which he gave me GHp20.00, and toffee, and watched movies. I have done that on four occasions.
Mrs Owusu added that the convict, who did not call any witness, claimed the pornographic pictures of his activities, which were retrieved from his computer laptop, were not real, because he created them out of his imagination. The judge noted that a court photographic expert, however, confirmed that the pictures were genuine, adding that the tattoo she saw on the hand of the faceless whiteman in the pornographic recordings, was the same one on Labash's left hand.
She expressed disgust at the offence committed by the paedophile, saying, "The victims are young to be your grandchildren and you defiled them in a disgusting manner. The offence is against public morality and society frowns on it, our courts will descend greatly on perpetrators of such acts," she added. Mrs Owusu said the sentence "should serve as a deterrent to foreigners who think they can hide in third world countries and exploit innocent children through such acts".(http://www.modernghana.com/news/243766/1/american-paedophiles-case-judgment-today.html).
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| Is this the future of parenting in Ghana? |
Predictably, this carefree behaviour has attracted onto them widespread public opprobrium. Some individuals, church groups, prominent politicians, medical doctors and journalists have angrily criticised the new-found assertiveness of homosexuals. Most news reports and feature articles on homosexuality have been hostile.
Prior to their newfound voice, only a handful of anonymous individuals had ventured to defend homosexuality in Ghana. Currently, however, a stream of lawyers, Internet-based 'gay' sites and local human rights groups are openly defending the rights of homosexuals to free association and lifestyle in Ghana.
While most news reports and feature articles on homosexuality will be deemed 'homophobic' by its supporters, a few have been thought-provoking.
The protagonists are distinct. On one side is arraigned: individuals, local human rights advocacy groups, Western-sponsored local campaign groups, Internet-based 'gay' prostitution sites and well organised, resourced Western-based 'gay pride' outfits. They collectively protest in bold headline news - as happened to Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya - against the anti-homosexual furore in Ghana. They have accused their critics of "homophobia","persecution" and of flaunting United Nation (UN) laws on human rights and sexual freedoms.
Recently the Ghana government hurriedly extended political recognition to the NATO-sponsored terrorist 'government' in Libya.
African Union member states were livid. Observers have noted this paradox as pro-NATO appeasement. Pres. Mills has to date been geo-politically tepid and acquiescent.
Against the priorities of burgeoning international debts, domestic inflation and pervasive, abject, poverty in Ghana - expressed in high social, economic crimes - he has pole-vaulted over the do-or-die necessity of wrenching control of Ghana's key export sectors from the strangulation of Western Transnational Corporations (TNCs).Conversely, the opposition has argued on cultural, moral and medical grounds. They warn of strategic attempts by the West-sponsored homosexual community to politically polarise the issue along West-good-Africa-bad lines. They claim this will gain them the awesome political and economic power and authority of their national governments, helping them to culturally swamp Ghana and Africa with their perverted homosexual lifestyles.
They are right. On Sept. 11, Hillary Clinton received the Roosevelt Institute Four Freedoms Award. She said,
(We) must condemn violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In country after country after country, young men and women are persecuted, are singled out, even murdered in cold blood, because of who they love or just based on claims that they are gay. We are starting to track violence against the LGBT community, because where it happens anywhere in the world, the United States must speak out against it and work for its end. (http://www.akawilliam.com/hillary-clinton-u-s-will-fight-homophobia-worldwide).Recently the Ghana government hurriedly extended political recognition to the NATO-sponsored terrorist 'government' in Libya. African Union member states were livid. Observers have noted this paradox as pro-NATO appeasement. Pres. Mills has to date been geo-politically tepid and acquiescent. Against the priorities of burgeoning international debts, domestic inflation and pervasive, abject, poverty in Ghana - expressed in high social, economic crimes - he has pole-vaulted over the do-or-die necessity of wrenching control of Ghana's key export sectors from the strangulation of Western Transnational Corporations (TNCs).
Critical Analysis
There is limited latitude in this essay to do exhaustive analysis on the rights and wrongs of homosexuality. However, it is important to pose a number of questions that will refocus us to the methodology stated at the unset of this essay. 1) Has the rise in homosexuality corrupted or threatened to corrupt Ghana's children? 2) Has it spread or threaten to spread HIV/AIDS and related STDs like, Herpes, syphilis, gonorrhea, hepatitis? 3) Importantly, does the surge in homosexuality affect Ghana's development? All other questions are extraneous - outside the framework of this essay.
Has the rise in homosexuality corrupted or threatened to corrupt Ghana's children? If his observations are accurate Pan African News Agency(PANA) columnist, Sakzeesi Camillus Maalneriba-Tia best measures the link between homosexuality and paedophilia in Ghana. In a lengthy feature article titled: Homosexuality in Ghana - An Under-Estimation of A Myth Or Reality? (PANA, 10/8/11), he states that he had observed under-aged boys in a cyber cafes in Tema:
These children, whose engagement could be considered paedophilic acts, have boy or man friends(LOVERS) who they kiss behind the screens with amorous statements such as “I LOVE YOU – KISS”. These kisses then graduate to monitory demands to their clients at the other ends of the conversation. Sometimes, as late as 1.00am, a particular cafe in Tema, still operates and one can see children at tender ages still stack to their sits [stuck to their seats] and doing their own ‘things’ at such cafes...Our children, who have developed ‘wild’ appetite for money at their teens, will also graduate from paedophilic adventurism, to fully fledged and matured gays...(http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=215896).
The manager's excuse reflects the Ghana government's fudged guidelines on the exposure of underaged children to information or images of a sexual nature on the Internet and multimedia.
This is alarmingly puzzling in a country so rife with a phenomenon called 'Sakawa'. Unemployed youngsters (male and female) frequent cyber-cafes to exchange text, still pictures and video pornographic images of themselves with homosexuals abroad.
They are then posted money in foreign exchange ranging from US$50 upwards.In his article (Modern Ghana 8/1/11), Homosexuality In Ghana: An Increasing Growth in Numbers,Stephen Atta Owusu attempts to gauge public perception of how homosexuality may started in Ghana. He says in the 1970s international workers and missionaries flooded Ghana. Homosexuals among them corrupted innocent boys with gifts, money and promises to send them to abroad. He added:
This was one of the ways they used to have anal intercourse with the innocent boys. This continued and most of them became addicted to it. These children kept quiet over this for a very long time. Most students began to confess when a Peace Corp volunteer was deported from Ghana for wounding the anal cavity of a young student...Many Ghanaians went abroad and returned as homosexuals. Many also went to prison and indulged in gay habits which became habitual, and followed them even after their release from prison.(http://www.modernghana.com/news/311207/1/homosexuality-in-ghana-an-increasing-growth-in-num.html).I can collaborate Maalneriba-Tia's statement above. On a routine browse through the search history on a computer at a cyber cafe near Kotokoraba Market, Cape Coast, I saw an extensive record of foreign homosexual site searches. Quickly checking the age group of the clientèle in the room, I observed they were largely underage children. Querying the manager about this, he argued simply that he could not assess the age or sexuality of users.
The manager's excuse reflects the Ghana government's fudged guidelines on the exposure of underaged children to information or images of a sexual nature on the Internet and multimedia. This is alarmingly puzzling in a country so rife with a phenomenon called 'Sakawa'. Unemployed youngsters (male and female) frequent cyber-cafes to exchange text, still pictures and video pornographic images of themselves with homosexuals abroad. They are then posted money in foreign exchange ranging from US$50 upwards.
I have heard and read enough about the repugnant exposure of our children to sexual harm to believe some of the more reasonable points raised by opponents to the surge in homosexuality in Ghana. The prostitution or corruption of our children by both local and foreign-based homosexual and heterosexual people is repugnant. It must be vehemently opposed.
The second question: Has it spread or threaten to spread HIV/AIDS and related Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like, Herpes, hepatitis, etc? The best way to answer this question is to examine the scanty data on the health risk homosexuality poses in Ghana. This is clearly because homosexuality as a historically know social practice in Ghana has only recently attracted concerted interest in the media. Ghanaians react best in crisis conditions when the horses have already bolted.
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| Data of "Men who have sex with men" in Ghana |
The closest data that links homosexuality and the spread of disease is tucked into the remote recess of a study (see above image and link below), colloquially sub-titled, "Men who have sex with men (MSM)". (Ghana, HIV/AIDS Epidemiology and Response Synthesis, pp12, November 2008, by Ghana AIDS Commission). http://www.ghanaids.gov.gh/gac/publications/viewdoc.php?docID=101; http://www.ghanaids.gov.gh/gac/publications/viewdoc.php?docID=229).
Although most oppositional arguments against the surge in homosexuality in Ghana border on 'homophobia', is Ghana missing out?
Is Ghana unreasonably squealing homophobically to wriggles itself from the tight-fit buggering that the current internet-peddled surge in Western homosexuality AIDS it?
Is homosexuality, as a "Sakawa" multimedia social and cultural fad, so "gay" - happy, jolly, immensely celebratory?
Or is it nakedly a painfully dangerous, sanitised act of sodomy that explodes a flatulence - mucous-sticky, dark, oft-bloodied faeces - that the ostensibly pre-modern, backward, culturally naked, native homophobes of Ghana yahoo against?The study was carried among MSM in Accra by SHARP/ASAID in 2006. It indicated a 25% high HIV prevalence and a high potential for transmission. 61% were bisexual, 66% paid for sex with men, 31% paid for or sold sex to women; only 48% used condom. The study team was alarmed by the revelation that, "annal sex is not as risky as vaginal sex for HIV transmission. A second study, carried by the University of Ghana, 2004, showed 19% prevalence of HIV/hepatitis among prison inmates.
Suggestions for the third and most important question, In what ways does the surge in homosexuality affect Ghana's development?, is best discoursed within a meta-critical evaluation of all issues engaged in this essay. It is wiser to leave this to the end.
Although most oppositional arguments against the surge in homosexuality in Ghana border on 'homophobia', is Ghana missing out? Is Ghana unreasonably squealing homophobically to wriggles itself from the tight-fit buggering that the current Internet-peddled surge in Western homosexuality AIDS it? Is homosexuality, as a "Sakawa" multimedia social and cultural fad, so "gay" - happy, jolly, immensely celebratory? Or is it nakedly a painfully dangerous, sanitised act of sodomy that explodes a flatulence - mucous-sticky, dark, oft-bloodied faeces - that the ostensibly pre-modern, backward, culturally naked, native homophobes of Ghana yahoo against?
To answer these questions we need to examine the soft underbelly of the surge in homosexuality in Ghana. Are there subterranean, perverted, selfish, sodomite designs behind the sudden surge? Is Ghana undergoing a slow cultural retrogression? Is it being painfully taken for a ride and culturally recolonised through the backside?
One does not need to sniff too far to pick the mating scent of Western homosexual adventurism in Ghana. The following quote is taken from a typical homosexual Internet prostitution site that forages for Western homosexuals to, "meet a (potential) lover or gay guide in a foreign country". It states knowingly that," No other country in Africa has so many boys and men looking for a partner on Outpersonals with picture (often naked) than Ghana". It gives valuable information about contacts and cautions potential homosexual punters to avoid certain communities.
Dating sites are the most frequently used ways to meet a (potential) lover or gay guide in a foreign country. At sites like Outpersonals or Gaydar you will find that Ghana is the country in Africa with the most registered hopefuls. No other country in Africa has so many boys and men looking for a partner on Outpersonals with picture (often naked) than Ghana. Does this mean Ghana is the Gay paradise in Africa? No...! It may mean that there are plenty young men desperate enough to seek greener pastures elsewhere, whilst developed enough to have access to the Internet and a digital camera.
Many of the men and boys you see on these sites are not even gay or bisexual. Some just pretend to be gay and will have sex for the money. Others are just "on-line gay", that is, they will tell you hot sexy stories after which they will ask for your financial support (need a phone to call you, mother sick, brother died etc.). Once you arrive they will vanish in thin air, the name and address they give are fake. Often the pictures are fake too. They copied it somewhere from the net.
But that is not even the worst form: The next category are the ones who will meet you and maybe even have sex with you, which will then be interrupted by a "policeman" knocking on your hotel room door. Blackmail is for some a quicker way to get the cash they're after. Sometimes the policeman is a fraud but sometimes even the police is actually involved. Corrupt policemen are just part of the extortion plot. If you don't cough up the money, you will land in prison. And the embarrassment of the story in the newspapers.
After all, gay sex is considered illegal in Ghana under the "unnatural carnal knowledge" phrase (see the page on Gay rights are human rights).
Especially watch out for Christian Village (Achimota): this has realy become a no-go zone. Very dangerous. Also see the fakers2go website on this (also see links below). (http://www.gayghana.org/page/Gay+visitors+to+Ghana).
(Also see: http://www.gayghana.org/news; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14250170;http://www.modernghana.com/news/333922/1/why-homosexuality-should-be-outlawed-in-ghana.html; http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/2011/07/21/ghana-cracks-down-on-gays/57436; http://www.starobserver.com.au/news/2011/07/21/ghana-cracks-down-on-gays/57436; http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE76L0KR20110722).Also see: (file://localhost/F:/Mi%20Dia/My%20Articles/Gay%20concerns,%20bloody%20accident%20played%20up%20by%20Ghanaian%20media%20_%20General%20News%202011-06-04.mht); General News of Saturday, 4 June 2011, PANA, Gay Concerns, bloody accident played up by Ghanaian media.Conclusion
This essay seam, Upsurge in Homosexuality and Sexual Violence(under the sub-heading: The media and Sexual Violence), has quoted and discoursed media-based news reports and discourses on the impact of homosexuality on sexual crime in Ghana.
From the above data and textual criticism, it is clear that there is direct relationship between the spread of homosexuality and possible increases in HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). It is obvious that the surge in homosexuality is likely to compound levels of existing heterosexual diseases.
This revelation will have serious ramifications for Ghana's development. The impact of diseases and their management will place immense pressures on the disbursement of crucial funds and resources earmarked for Ghana's economic, social (public health management) and cultural development.
However, I reject the mostly religious arguments, that homosexuals should be persecuted in Ghana. Their arguments are unsustainable for many reasons. Matured people have a human right to do what they want to do sexually in private. Ghana is a signatory to all UN laws on human rights, including laws on to sexual freedoms. It is unlikely the current Ghana government or succeeding ones will take a unilateral position against these UN laws. From the conflicting interpretation of Ghana's current law on homosexuality, I believe homosexuals are already beginning to sniff their freedom.
The Ghana government is better advised to concentrate on nationalising the commanding heights of Ghana's economy - gold, oil, diamonds, bauxite, cocoa, etc - to released needed funds to solve Ghana's manifold problems that emanate from poverty. It must not waste valuable time trying to buck the UN's human rights laws.
Sakawa paedophilia, homosexual and heterosexual prostitution, operate visibly and noisily in Accra's Soldier Bar, Nkrumah Circle and in many night spots in Ghana's major cities. Our governments (PNDC, NDC, NPP then NDC again) have blindfolded themselves, in the last thirty years, with the moral and fiscal portcullis of inaction to solve the root cause of the above problem: poverty and ignorance. The effect of their head-in-the sand approaches is that the chicken are already roosting in the form of vestiges of abject poverty and ignorance: child prostitution, proliferate armed robbery, sexual and street violence.
Homosexual opportunists are merely reaping the bumper harvest from the years of political incompetence. But what a rather shameful state of affairs when Ghana has the freedom on earth to seize the time to do the right thing. Why? Will good political leadership find it too dangerous or impossible to nationalise Ghana's key export sector in order to generate needed foreign exchange to address the above challenges? Let us look at nationalisation on a practical, personal level. If your family and you are dieing of starvation, while a rich bully is encroaching on your legacy of rich fruitful land, will you take back your land or placidly roll over and die?
Yes, it is obvious nationalisation is the sanest thing to contemplate, if the choice is die or live to build hope and a modern nation state. What are we waiting for? Another Nkrumah? We may as well...
Recommendation
Although I do not agree with some of his reasoning, Maalneriba-Tia makes some useful recommendations to conclude this seam:
1. There ought to be a legislative instrument that bans internet cafes to make sure that all pornographic sites are blocked-out from their systems. 2. That cafe owners must ensure that they monitor teenagers who patronise their facilities to make sure that they don’t go to sites that could promote internet cafes to make sure that all pornographic sites are blocked-out from their systems.
2. That cafe owners must ensure that they monitor teenagers who patronise their facilities to make sure that they don’t go to sites that could promote and trigger their sexual orientation. They should also regulate time for teenagers’ visits.
3. Parents must make sure they monitor their children/wards by knowing where they go and what they do. They are also encouraged to normally visit internet cafes near their vicinities to observe what children are doing in there and
4. Plain cloths security personnel should from time to time be visiting internet cafes in their catchment areas at odd hours to make sure children are not there at such times. Cafe owners should be arrested, if children are in their facilities at such odd hours.(http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=215896).I want to make subtle additions to Maalneriba-Tia 's recommendations. Ghana must tighten its laws on the exposure and effects of multimedia - TVs, DVDs, videos, camera mobile phones. It can find the technology to block or prevent erring companies from doing business in Ghana.
We can negotiate or block Internet search engine and provider companies such as: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, etc who allow paedophilia and underaged prostitution.
There should be strict licensing laws to regulate the operation of Internet Cafés. Only adults of voting age should be allowed after 18.00 hrs, on provision of their voting cards (if of doubtful age). Children should only be able to use Internet cafes after school hours and on weekends from 10hrs-18hrs.
The onus is on parents and cafe owners to ensure that 60% of Internet use by children is on school work. The government can assist in this by funding the provision of community libraries all over Ghana that are fitted with broadband Internet capability. This should be done as part of a school-community- library and Continuing Education Project (CEP), to launch children into the cyber world of discovery learning.
There should be a state-sponsored educational campaign in all Ghanaian media against the dangers of sakawa, paedophilia and child prostitution (male and female).
The government can create jobs for local-based civilian wardens to police these cafes on part-salary-part-commission. This will ensure the work is done diligently.
All homosexual and heterosexual prostitution Internet sites, cyber cafes and pornographic establishment must be relicensed. The relicensing process must commit them to signing a legally binding undertaking. This must specify regulations debarring child prostitution and the penalties they will face if they falter.
All these establishments must boldly display sexual anti corruption posters. The posters must include images of the the condition of the harshest prisons in Ghana.
Ghana must collaborate with Interpol, Scotland Yard, FBI and other prominent international law enforcement agencies, to share security data on paedophiles.
Other such agencies are, the National Crime Squad (NCS), UK. Recently they successfully bust an international paedophile ring. The 19 countries where warrants were executed are: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, the UK and the United States. Visa applications from citizens of these countries should be checked against Interpol's paedophile and sex offender register prior to issuance.(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-86679/Global-swoop-suspected-paedophiles.html).
The Ghana police and BNI should investigate all sex and sexuality sites in Ghana. A cursory look at the text of such sites I researched, as part of this essay, shows clearly that they are involved in prostitution of minors in Ghana. The following www links, below and above, will give a lot of valuable information on anti-paedophile busting operations all over the world:
http://www.thehagueonline.com/headlines/2011-03-18/europol-leads-more-anti-pedophile-operations. Cyber Criminals Most Wanted: http://www.ccmostwanted.com/report/report3.htm. Publicity and Media Media referrals: http://www.supportline.org.uk/media/mediaReferrals.php. UK Police Anti Paedophile Website: http://www.silicon.com/technology/networks/2005/01/27/uk-police-set-up-anti-paedophile-website-39127401/. Anti Paedophile Police Copter crashes: http://arthurzbygniew.blogspot.com/2008/11/anti-paedophile-police-copter-crashes.html.
There should be an agreement between Ghana and the above mentioned foreign countries whose citizens have been involved in paedophile rings (especially in the West), that paedophiles that are convicted in Ghana will serve their full sentences without reprieve, with hard labour, in Ghanaian jails.
T O F I A K W A!
Sex Crimes, Street Violence and Corruption in Ghanaian Society (3 of 6)
Prevalence of Sexual Crimes
Sexual Violence at Legon
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| Amina Haruna preparing to attend court |
The Amina Haruna rape case first caught my eye on one of my regularly news scans on Ghanaweb and ModernGhana. Like most of us, I got complacent. The horror stories I read at arms-length in the Diaspora about rape, fatal car accidents, armed robberies and such occurrences in Ghana, had been too regular, brain-numbing and stupefying. Thankfully I was jolted out of this by a campaigning item on the indefatigable, Nana Oye Lithur's Facebook wall. This led me to finally append my signature to join a nebulous on-line advocacy group, the United front for Justice in Ghana (UFJ-GH).(http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_140716815999231&ap=1), to Send AMINA to Hospital and Bring the Culprits to JUSTICE(https://www.facebook.groups/140716815999231/).
I agreed with UfJ-GH that the stripping naked, beating, sexual molestation, filming and posting of this heinous act on the internet, “Is symptomatic of the utter disregard for the rule of law and the lack of confidence in the criminal justice system by certain Ghanaians”. This is what Crime and Punishment, Ghanaweb reported:
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kofi Blagodzi told the court presided over by Mrs Georgina Mensah-Datsah that the complainant Amina Haruna, 25, a petty trader at Madina was arrested on March 30 by some students of the Hall for allegedly stealingd the court presided over by Mrs Georgina Mensah-Datsah that the complainant Amina Haruna, 25, a petty trader at Madina was arrested on March 30 by some students of the Hall for allegedly stealing a laptop computer and a mobile phone belonging to one of the students. He said after retrieving the stolen items from the complaint, she was locked up in a room for some time, was brought out and subjected to severe beating and in the process stripped naked. The prosecutor said some of the accused persons standing trail forcibly inserted their fingers into her vagina causing her to bleed profusely before she was rescued by the campus security and handed over to the police. "She was taken to the Police Hospital for treatment where she was admitted for four days," he said.
Photographs and video recordings made by some students in the process of the act were later displayed on the Internet. DSP Blagodzi said the accused persons were identified in some of the photographs and video recordings and a further identification parade held at the Criminal Investigation Department for the compliant.(Crime & Punishment, Wednesday, 1 June 2011. Source: GNA, Court Grants Bail to Legon Students).(http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=208316).Media Analysis
The maltreatment of Amina at the hands of the University of Ghana students, fit uncomfortably into the glove of analysis. It straddles the confluence of three phenomena taking place in Ghana today. On one hand a baying crowd of male students capture an alleged laptop criminal on university campus. On another the alleged criminal is a female. The female is beaten mercilessly, finger-raped. She bleeds and has to be hospitalized for four days.
The law demands the alleged criminals should have been cautioned, given legal counsel and tried until proven guilty or innocent. However, the incident has happened within a general context of perverse distrust by sections of the Ghanaian public of the criminal justice system. This point is also made in the letter sent by UfJ-GH to Pres. Mills. In the present climate of increased crime in Ghana, and perceptions of police inability to prosecute perpetrators, almost certain death befalls alleged criminals – females or males – unlucky enough to be caught.
A number of factors immediately spring to mind. The particularly brutal mob attack on Amina involved both violent beatings and rape. The incident involved students in the premier university in the country. The student mob was self-congratulatory. It gloated over the sordid acts by implicating itself arrogantly by posting still and video images of the attack to other students.
Behaviourally these supposedly 'brainy' university students demonstrated infantile parallel with the behaviour, I recall, of a group of primary school boys who had been reported by the Ghana media to have similarly recorded and publicised, among their peer group, a sexual act one of them had had with a school girl.
The legal process regarding the treatment of suspects, is assumed to be clear to the students who brutalized Amina Haruna. After all, they are part of the lucky elite that ultimately runs Ghana.
Most tellingly, it is clear that public opinion caught up with the riotous, rabid, arrogant behavior of some of these university students.
The...paradox generates ethical and philosophical questions. What is the criteria for determining what particular incident warrant the time, expense and campaigning energies in the public domain?
To what extent is that singular act of public frontage economise needed resources, yet symbolise a defining moment of national development on freedoms?Mixed with with the above complexities of the Amina case, is the slightly unpalatable and duplicitous action of the advocacy group itself that defends Amina. Of course, the ideals of all advocacy groups are laudable. Outwardly they are charitable. They give free, unsolicited legal aid to vulnerable, needy citizens in times of major injustices perpetrated against them.
As a director of an educational charity myself, I had needed no convincing to join the UFJ-GH's on-line recruiting campaign. The story of Amina Haruna's ordeal was/is heart-rending. What could have been more honorable than lending a helping hand? But alas, my experience as a tentative UFJ-GH member has been mixed. I must point out my misgivings.
But it sits hauntingly uncomfortable, in one's consciousness, how countless people have been maimed or died from mob justice and sexual violence on a daily basis in Ghana - before and after the Amina incident - yet, their death attract no such opprobrium from freedom-loving, 'liberal humanists' like you, me and the UFJ-GH.
The discomfiture of this paradox line the walls of conscience in the minds of many Ghanaian patriots. How do we find a comprehensive, sustainable, answer to the surge in gratuitous mob and sexual violence in Ghana? Is individualised, pin-hole advocacy work a mere placebo - a transient or momentary answer - to victims of violence? Might not a campaign for free and accessible right to legal aid, based on self-empowering and enforcible public security not be more sustainable?
Stephen Forson, touched on the peripherals of the above questions, in a Facebook exchange with UFG-GH's Kwame Bidi, on 08 May,
Kwame E. Bidi: thanx for your acknowledgment. for your information, i am not in support of instant justice but also remember that cutting the branches of a poisonous tree does not stop the tree from growing again.
The initial aim or topic of this group was quite a hasty and emotional one. I think amina was not sleeping in her bed around 2am when this unfortunate ordeal happened to her beautiful self. lets ask questions whether sometime the justice we seek out ways the injustice we hate.
Now that Amina has been made the heroin and nine intellectuals being sacrifice to prove justice for one notorious thief who has escaped police custody several times, we should not be led by regrettable emotions into making a mistake and properly investigate properly. remember injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
Justice to me when not executed properly becomes worse that injustice. right now, no doubt some of the students identified are innocent. Exams has just started and the were put behind bars two days to exams. hmm. court declares them not guilty. psychological trauma. who is to blamed. some of these students may never be the same. I don't have any problem with human right activists but i think we should some times be more sovereign in our thoughts than to allow our weak emotions to drive us into making fundamental mistakes.(http://brakofi.blogspot.com/2011/07/friends-i-am-member-of-internet-based.html?spref=fb; https://www.facebook.com/groups/140716815999231/)Yes one can agree. It is paradoxical - and thus a site for critical suspicion - that any advocacy group will publicly dedicate massive levels of funds, professional labour and time to save the legal right of a single victim of crime - albeit horrendous and deplorable as the violence on Amina indisputably was - to the isolation of similar incidents, some that have even been fatal.
The above paradox generates ethical and philosophical questions. What is the criteria for determining what particular incident warrant the time, expense and campaigning energies in the public domain? To what extent is that singular act of public frontage economise needed resources, yet symbolise a defining moment of national development on freedoms?
Also, internally to what extent is UFJ-GH, or any advocacy group, as a loose group of individuals, with disparate political and intellectual backgrounds, democratic (opened to fair discourse, inclusivity, collective administration, progressive self-criticism and national development?).
Unfortunately, my experience causes me to conclude that, beyond its outward credential as an advocacy group evolved from the Internet, that once sent a well-written letter to, Pres. Atta Mills, UFJ-GH is not opened to fair discourse, inclusiveness, collective administration, progressive self-criticism and national development. These are UFJ-GH's Achilles-heel.
Now, how do I know that? I was once treated contemptuously by some UFJ-GH top dogs. I had blogged a discursive article titled: Kofi of Africa: "Give Us Jobs Not Beatings". It was a one-breath attempt to stimulate discourse on issues of: the management of crime and punishment, poverty and their inter-connectedness to the control of the commanding heights of Ghana's economy. It was a profound attempt to broach the issue of the relationship between poverty, violence and Ghana's dependent national economy.http://brakofi.blogspot.com/2011/07/friends-i-am-member-of-internet-based.html?spref=fb; https://www.facebook.com/groups/140716815999231/.
The above incident exemplifies an aspect of the issues that form the basis for this essay. Therefore, I will address it under the appropriate heading in the last section of this essay).
Conclusion
The brutal mob attack on Amina involved both violent beatings and rape. The student mob was self-congratulatory. The posting of the sexual attack on Amina Haruna demonstrated infantile parallel with the behavior of primary school boys. By July 15 2011, "The University of Ghana, Legon, has dismissed one student and suspended six others for allegedly molesting a lady they claimed to be a thief".(https://www.facebook.com/groups/140716815999231/doc/168268849910694/).
We have identified the paradox of advocacy groups appearing to concentrate all their energies and resources to singular, key-hole legal surgery, that defends individual victims of violent crimes rather than the masses. I have argued that this generates ethical and philosophical questions. I have posed questions: what is the criteria for determining what particular incident warrant the time, expense and campaigning energies in the public domain? To what extent is that singular act of public frontage economise needed resources, yet symbolise a defining moment of national development on freedoms?
I have also argued for internal democracy in mass-based advocacy groups. I have suggested that, as a loose group of individuals with disparate political and intellectual backgrounds, democratic practice - openness to fair discourse, inclusivity, collective administration, progressive self-criticism - contributes to national development.
Amina Haruna's case is ongoing. A fuller conclusion will be made below (4 of 6, KNUST Sexual Violence Against Mzbel).
Recommendations
Harsh mandatory punishments should be introduced for all forms of sexual harrassment and mob violence, by students and staff in our universities. Students must read and sign an undertaking, during the registration process. It must spell out, clearly, the consequences they will face if they got involved in violence of any colouring - sexual or mob.
Students or staff who are judged to have committed violent crimes must face mandatory penalties, plus any criminal charges they may face from the courts. These should include: long suspensions, expultions or imprisonment (by the courts).
The aiding and abetting of criminals - as happened in the Osei Owusu paedophilia case - must carry similar punishments above. these recommendations are additional to recommendations I have already made in this essay under: mob violence, paedophilia, sexual violence, etc.
To date the latest news on the Amina case, reported by, Peace FM Online, states that seven Legon students were sacked outright for their role in the incident.(Peace FM Online: 7 Legon Students Sacked Over Amina, 16-Jul-2011 http://news.peacefmonline.com/social/201107/56883.php). Amina’s harrowing experience remind us of the highly publicized stripping, attempted rape and final raping, by, "armed robber", of the hiplife star, Mzbel.
T O F I A K W A!
Sex Crimes, Street Violence and Corruption in Ghanaian Society (3 of 6)
Prevalence of Sexual Crimes
KNUST Sexual Violence Against Mzbel
(4 of 6)
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| Belinda Nana Ekua Amoah a.k.a MzBel |
The most famous example of sex crime in Ghanaian universities happened against eponymous hiplife star, Mzbel, aka Belinda Nana Ekua Amoah. I call Mzbel eponymous because she is unique. Among the handful of female hiplife artistes in Ghana, she is the acknowledged diva. Others include: Abrewa Nana, Triple M (Manye Mercy), LA (made up of Lateefah and Asantewaa), Ras Nigga, and lately, Tiffany.
Some years back while on holiday in Ghana, I heard Mzbel had been raped on two occasions by students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of science and Technology (KNUST). I recall, beside my pained empathy with the talented hiplifer, I was deeply embarrassed and angry that the Osagyefo’s name was linked to this university. It was a grave (pardon the pun) insult to the lofty ideals Dr. Kwame Nkrumah envisioned for KNUST, as the conduit for academic research and excellence in science and technology in Africa.
Despite being a printer’s son who grew up distributing types into type cases, I had never heard of the words, “peri vagina (pv)” till I researched the Mzbel rape cases. For these words to ejaculate into general press media diction befuddles me.
I can only guess that its usage as common linguistic currency in the press has something to do with the recurrence of the social practice that has conditioned its use.
In other words that expression appears to have jumped from the bed of forensic gynecology into common usage by sheer over familiarity.
Too many females have suffered at the hands of prodding male hands for far too long!Naturally the experience deeply traumatised Mzbel. It caused her to uncharacteristically withdraw from the public. She would later contemplate quitting her music career. In an editorial, The Statesman broke the gory details of her ordeal to the public (I reproduce it here uncensored in order to take the Statesman to task):
Mzbel was stripped naked of her tiny performance attire, which eye-witnesses branded as very seductive, and suggestive and torn into pieces. Her nudity was in the process exposed to the public for ridicule and contempt. Eyewitnesses said but for the timely intervention of the university's private security personnel at the scene, she would have been raped, or the worst would have happened to the hip-pop star. According to the reports, in the ensuing drama, while some of the members of the student-body who joined her to dance fondled her breasts, other peri vagina (pv) her…
Interestingly, at a performance at the same University some time back, this time at a University Hall (Katanga) programme, the same artiste was reportedly harassed, albeit not to the extent of being stripped naked. KNUST students seem to have acquired a yen for rowdiness and disorderly behaviour. (Editorial: Defining a nation's depravity by its future leaders, Source: The Statesman, General News, Fri, 07 Oct 2005).Perhaps because students were involved, this incident raised considerable uproar in the media and was condemned by a number of women groups and organizations such as Abantu for Development, the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, FIDA Ghana, MUSIGA, Coalition on Domestic Violence Bill and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Again, barely before her physical and psychological wounds healed from the KNUST attack, Mzbel was rapped again. On September 12 2006, she and two female friends, Bernice Daade (19) and Rosie Niva (20) were multiple-raped and robbed by armed men at her Gbawe home in Accra. The robbers took 900 Dollars, 500 Pounds and 800,000 Cedis, two DVD players, a CD and cassette player, a digital video camera, an Epson Laptop, jewelry, clothes and five mobile phones. Dispiritedly she said to Ghana News Agency (GNA), “I do not want any problem. I am only in this entertainment business as an artiste who wants to share her talent”.(GNA, in ffweb.com/homepage, 13/9/2006).
Media Analysis
Two separate sexual harassment and rape incidents in one particular university? One terrorising gang rape by “armed robbers” against the leading female hiplife diva in Ghana? Tofiakwa!..eh..eh, Cheneke God, how manage?
Close-reading the text of media reportage provides the answers. But before we do that I must admit, despite being a printer’s son who grew up distributing types into type cases, I had never heard of the words, “peri vagina (pv)” till I researched the Mzbel rape cases. For these words to ejaculate into general press media diction befuddles me. I can only guess that its usage as common linguistic currency in the press has something to do with the recurrence of the social practice that has conditioned its use. In other words that expression appears to have jumped from the bed of forensic gynecology into common usage by sheer over familiarity. Too many females have suffered at the hands of prodding male hands for far too long!
“Mzbel was stripped naked of her tiny performance attire, which eye-witnesses branded as very seductive, and suggestive and torn into pieces”. Note the Statesman report exposes the hand of popular perceptions of Mzbel. This media slight-of-hand is called ‘objectification’ in discourse analysis. She is objectified, because the moral and legal ground on which her raping must gain our general repulsion is inverted. Turned upside down like inverted commas, Mzbel is made the aggressor for dressing scantily. In other words her attackers merely did what men naturally do when provoked. Mzbel is bad. Her aggressors are, well…understandable.
In schools of journalism, media and communications studies, it is axiomatic that the purpose of the media is to: inform, educate and entertain. But it is clear here the information we are being given is spin-doctored. The spin is Mzbel was scantily clad. This infers, the mob’s action in striping her butt naked in public, was the logical closure to her own sartorial misjudgment. Otherwise Mzbel called for it. Of course the Statesman report does not leave the matter at that. It authenticates the spin, “which eye-witnesses branded as very seductive and suggestive…”. Meaning: judgment against her behavior was unanimous.
I have neither had time to content analyse a representative sample of media reportage of the Mzbel rapes, nor is it necessary for the purpose of this article. But evidence exists to the fact of public apprehension and misconception about why Mzbel sexualises her acts. This is often fueled by the media as is admitted by Ghana Today, “When news of her ordeal at KNUST broke last year, the media reports were insensitive and inaccurate and there seemed to be an attempt to assassinate her character. Last week wasn’t any different (Mzbel: Standing Strong, http://www.ghanatoday.com/showbiz...).
I have acknowledged the initial general condemnations against the repeat raping of Mzbel. But the level of public opinion changed. In press and Internet-based music and celebrity gossip columns, hysteria against her rose to decibel levels. Ironically this hostility seemed to increase with every new rape incident against Mzbel. This is an example of such a discussion. It was initiated by, James:
Hey guys, I was having a chat with my friends this afternoon about MZBEL's rape case. The major issue was whether she is to be blamed. This is because of how she is being said to present herself in the media. I therefore thought it would be an interesting topic to discuss here. Click the link below to read the story in case u've not heard and share your thoughts.(James,http://myjoyonline.com/music/home/news/read.asp?contentid=83,Is MZBEL to be blamed for her rape? I luv HIP LIFE, Facebook Discussion Board, http://eo-eo.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2219621397&topic=1807).Against the grain of overwhelming evidence, opinions in response to James’ question ranged from: crass apology for the organizers of the music event at which she was raped; to a bumbling traditionalist; and the simply raving mad jealous.
The Apologist
The Question here is what is rape? According to the Sexual Offences Act 2003, rape is the penetration of a woman's vagina, mouth or anus by a penis. All other forms of penetration fall under indecent sexual assault. I then don't see why she should be given the chance to say she was raped when she wasn't penetrated by a penis. It's just a publicity stunt which got all of hiplife lovers schooled. If there are any accusations, it'll be that of common assault. I personally know the organises of the program she performed at and their version of events contradicts that of Mzbel. I love her music thought.ONE BLOOD (Kow,http://myjoyonline.com/music/home/news/read.asp?contentid=83,Is MZBEL to be blamed for her rape? I luv HIP LIFE, Facebook Discussion Board, http://eo-eo.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2219621397&topic=1807).Now I am no lawyer but I hope I can research and analyse text. The apologist, Kow’s, quote is especially revealing. It contains a lot of information for one to profile and almost identify its author. Whoever Kow is, he makes clear, “I personally know the organises of the program she performed at and their version of events…”. He is an insider who is desperately trying to own up but cannot. But he is not just a detached insider. He is clearly an educated man – perhaps a cocky kind of student. Now how do I know that? He is too quick to act as legal Advocate for the “organizes [sic} of the program”. And does he spare us the graphic details of the “Sexual Offenses Act 2003”? Not a chance, “Rape is the penetration…indecent sexual assault”.
He accepts, though, that Mzbel has a case but only for common assault, ”If there are any accusations, it'll be that of common assault”. What a clever dick! But even if the Sexual Offenses Act 2003 in Ghana defines rape narrowly his gratuitously crude manner of, is Mzbel right at all in asserting that she was violently raped?
He conveniently skews his definition of “rape”. Assuming he is accurate about Ghana’s Sexual Offenses Act 2003, and the act predated the raping of Mzbel by the KNUST students, it still did not alter the fact that Mzbel was violently attacked sexually.
Secondly, the definition of rape has evolved considerably in many nations, “The definition of rape varies both in different parts of the world and at different times in history…”.(Rape - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.mht). Most importantly the World Health Organization (WHO), defined sexual violence in 2002 as:
Sexual violence includes rape, defined as physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration – even if slight – of the vulva or anus, using a penis, other body parts or an object. The attempt to do so is known as attempted rape. Rape of a person by two or more perpetrators is known as gang rape". (How is Sexual Violence Defined, Ch6, Sexual Violence, p149). http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2002/9241545615_chap6_eng.pdf.What is material in the above definition is that the raping of Mzbel was not “attempted”, it was actual rape. It was, “physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration – even if slight”. The Ghana media has already established above that she was “gang rape[d]…by two or more perpetrators”. So Mzbel is right in asserting she was raped. Further, if the Sexual Offences Act 2003 happens to be exposed as backward and fossilized, compared to progressive laws on rape in other African countries such as Rwanda, then it must be replaced with a more progressive act.
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| The Africa I saw as a child has changed |
The Traditionalist
Here I categorise the writer as, 'Traditionalist'. The centre piece of his argument - and interestingly in the statements of most Internet-based respondents - is that Mzbel is an un-African tart. A scantily dressed entertainer who deserved what came to her:
Whilst we are on the subject of Dressing Skimpy (I am not talkin bout the rape). These lil young girls backhome dressed so skimpy, they just want to take yankee and put it in Ghana. You can do some things to a certain extent. Africa is Africa and when you act like you are not home bred, you will be treated as such. Put some clothes on and act like you dont have sense. They watch all the music videos and and soul train and they think that is how everybody in Yankee dresses. (Naijarules,13/9/06. http://www.naijarules.com/vb/news-current-affairs-politics/18195-armed-robber-robbed-raped-singer-mzbel-3.html).Here “the subject of Dressing Skimpy” is the issue. The writer emphasizes he has no immediate interest in the issue of rape, “i am not talkin bout the rape”, yet rape is the exact crux of the matter. Paradoxically warning us he tortuously picks his way through a debris of grammatical errors:
If he had not written, “Put some clothes on and act like you don’t have sense”. I would have assumed he meant, “Put some clothes on and act like you […] have sense”. But sense or nonsense we are reminded, “Africa is Africa and when you act like you are not home bred, you will be treated as such“. Strange reasoning. I suggest that there was more social nakedness in Africa in the past. The difference was that our people were "home bred' to understand that the intense tropical heat meant they did not have to go to the beach to suddenly realise it was civilised to strip down to their 'G' stringed bikinis and swimming trunks to aerate themselves.
Here 'the traditionalist' appears to suffer the "Blackman's burden" of Euro-Christian 'civilisation' that was imposed by the 'Enlightenment Project' or modernity.
Experientially the Africa I knew as a child has change beyond recognition. Example, the 'traditionalist' is himself able to write and publish his opinion to the world via the WWW. In the past only witches and wizards were believed to manage that. He is also cautionary. On no account must we, “watch all the music videos and soul train…”. Maybe most of us have hidden under the contemporary cultural stone for thirty years. But I thought the world stopped watching the US music programme Soul Train in the 1970s?
The Crass and Unfeeling
I call this writer, Ataklos, crass and unfeeling. He is crass because he appears to be tolerant of sexual harassment. He is unfeeling because he has followed the apparently skimpily dressed Mzbel for some years, but is deaf to her distressing screams of rape.
Abeg jare - what else is new with this girl - This is not the first time this "apuskeleke girl" has been supposedly been RAPED. A year or so ago in Kumasi Ghana- She went to one of our university campuses (University of Science and Technology) to perform and cried RAPE - that after her live show, the students raped at Tech ripped off the little clothes she had on and RAPED her -
Maybe she doesnt know the definition of RAPE, MOLEST or ASSAULT, 3 different things, though very bad and i dont condone any one of them. I can imagine they might ripped off her clothes cos its skimpy (skimpy dress girls back home are harrassed like that), but RAPE, i will take a grain of salt on this allegation until i hear more. I hope they do some deep investigation to her allegations on this one. (Atlakos, 13/9/06, http://www.naijarules.com/vb/news-current-affairs-politics/18195-armed-robber-robbed-raped-singer-mzbel-3.html).He is too busy from the unset, “Abeg jare”, to be bothered about, “this ‘apuskeleke girl’”. The documented rape against Mzbel is all pig washes. He agrees with the apologist that Mzbel is dim-witted because she, “doesnt know the definition of RAPE, MOLEST or ASSAULT”. He is pedagogical in stressing they are three different things. Thankfully he does not “condone any of them”. But like the 'Traditionalist' he is damning of “skimpy dress girls”. He enlightens us that back wherever backwaters he comes from, “Skimpy dress girls back home are harassed like that”. So “common assaults”, according to the more educated definition of the Apologist, are no big deal.
The Empathic
But it was not all one sided. Mzbel got most of her support from empathic women. The comments below are positive and self-explanatory. It is interesting to note the first quote draws a combative line through the gender line,
You are one in a million ghanian girl who has reach this far in music”. Very true, this is the best observation of the overwhelming evidence of sexism existing in the music industry in Ghana.
Mzbel definately deserves to sue the school. How can you invite such a performer to entertain without any or less security? and top of it stripping her? Good job Mzbel go ahead and sue them BIG TIME!!!... You have all my support cuz am soo proud of you. You are one in a million ghanian girl who has reach this far in music and I bet there are thousands who wishes that they can get as far as you are right now and I love all of your songs. Keeping doing your thing Lady and don’t be discourage by those haters they are just jealous. (Mzbel sues KNUST GC600m, Ghanaweb, 26/1/06, Definately deserves to Sue, Ghanaweb, Marvina, Date: 01-30 23:19).The second quote points out clear biases, in both the treatment of male artistes compared to female ones and debunks the argument the Mzbel is sexually provocative in her shows,
I think it is about time people realised that certain things are allowed in Showbiz and what the person does on stage while performing may not necessarily mean, that is how the person is in everyday life. They should not be judged by how they present themselves on the job. I think organisers of events also have the dos and don’ts when it comes to appearing on their events. Otherwise, we should expect to see the Maestro, Kojo Antwi in very highly colourful outfits when he is off stage. Or the late Terry Bonchaka would have been seen in those outfits that characterised his performances.
What about the actors and actresses? Are the roles they play when they are acting reflections of who they actually are in real life? Mzbel, don’t be bothered by the report and I will encourage you to pursue the legal action against the identified people. You need to protect your dignity. (Source: Graphic Show Biz, By: Eno Abena Mansa Mensah, Sakaman, Accra.(http://musicinghana.com/migsite/main/read_news.php?cid=138).
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| You think Mzbel is unsensored and too sexual? |
Mzbel's Ethical Flaws
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| Bleached Rihanna wants a rude boy |
For the savvy media-trained talent she is Mzbel appears surprisingly flippant about the damaging effect of her uncensored sexual media messages on children. In a Youtube interview titled, Mzbels's Privacy Abused, Mzbel is asked by journalist Joselyn about Joseph, her nine year old boy who features as her "boyfriend" in her video, Ran Away, "How does he take it when mummy is being portrayed as a sex symbol?". Mzbel: "I don't think he understands that. All he knows is am having fun...and People will love him because his mum is a musician". http://www.youtube.com/watch?xx6gddFVM&feature=related (by Axxoprime, Youtube, Apr 15, 2010).
I have stated elsewhere in this essay how primary school children take mobile phone pictures of sexual acts and post them among themselves; how 'sakawa' children go to cyber cafes to post pornographic video images of themselves to western paedophiles. Come on my Jamestown compatriot you are too streetwise to be economical with the truth!
From the onset Mzbel has had a consistent history of using children in her videos. They are used as background props, singers, dancers or even actors. These are not in themselves a cause for concern. What is objectionable is how their presence in the videos are usually juxtaposed against lewd, raunchy, or as she puts it, "saucy" materials that are meant for an adult audience.
In so doing she inadvertently exposes the children directly to paedophiles who will need only a nudge - an iota of association - to form a direct visual link from her fictionalised videos to abusing children in their psychologically warped minds. As I have just stated the lyricist of the anti-paedophile song,"Am sixteen years" does this inadvertently. She needs to be made aware of.
There is good filmic reasons for my assertion. The production of DVDs/films is a dissembling and reassembling process. By this I mean the pre-production process (costumes, choreography, stage design, props, lighting; and logistics like transportation of personnel and equipment/materials, food and other human requirements), are separate physical elements in a whole. The whole is begin to be realised when the actual acting, dancing, music, titling/sub-titling and cinematography are put together by film editors - reassembled. This is why children like Joseph and even untutored adults do not get during the production process.
The above processes are followed by the post-production processes of rushing, digitisation, editing, printing and manufacturing. However, once they see the final product: CDs, the DVDs, DVD R/DVDs, BD/DVD/CD, Blue Ray Disk (BD), they are then able to understand and make the necessary cognitive or intellectual links between their own roles in the videos and the messages in it. This is the crucial point at which they can experience what is called in media theory, 'media effects' of the reassembled messages. This happens at the juncture where they understand the import of the film narrative (story).
Also the editing process simplifies the filmic language. The narrative of the video becomes clearer from the introductory titles to the end. So if, for example, a child had been screened from seeing Mzbel sucking on phallic bananas or slashing off sausage-like penises - as I suspect the film director will responsibly do when that particular scene is being shot - the meaning of the metaphorical link between banana/sausage and a penis now becomes inescapably obvious. If they still do not get it rest assured that their friends at school who watch it will start teasing them about the size of their mother's this or that.
There are several examples of parental sloppiness by Mzbel. We can begin with her first music video sexually titled, "Awoso me" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YJ8VpKNFN0&feature=related (Fanti language: you have shaken ('fucked') me good. Liberia MusicTv, posted on Youtube, Feb 27, 2010), children in the video sing in Twi language to chorus: "Why do you squirm from such a small thing? Give it to me, pierce me, shake me". In both the original and a subsequently enhanced video, her matured female backing group dance saucily by wriggling their hips. There are close ups of Mzbel sexily rubbing down a bare-chested muscular man, while the camera pans to broadcast close-ups of the dancers gyrating their crotches.
In her most successful video, "I'm 16 Years" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ylA59j8s7s&feature=related (Nadouble75, on Youtube, Oct 10, 2006), Mzbel's acting is flawlessly convincing as a care-free sixteen year old girl. The video starts by showing her cosmetically making up her face to go out. She wears a mini dress, white belt and girlie shoes and mini school rucksack . Wearing dark plastic glasses she care-freely chews and blows bubble gum while walking excitedly on the pavement along the street. She naively accepts a lift from a middle aged man, Bra Layea, in a 4-wheel drive. He unsuccessfully attempts to sexually abuse her in the car and ends up in court where he is criminalised.
The lyrics, "I'm sixteen years, I go de be like this o, if you touch my thing o, I go tell mummie o". Castro De Destroyer, the hiplife/gangsta rapper gives a brilliant rendition to warn off pedophiles to keep off under-aged children, because they are too young, and they will end up at the, Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJO), the penultimate centre in Ghana that primarily prosecutes violence and abuse against women and children. Castro rhymes excellently, "Don't trick her like wifie, and fondle her bobbie...she will tell her poppies". It is a wholly positive, educational song against child abuse.
In Saucy Girl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-Iy8tV9keM&feature=related (Liberia Music TV, Youtube on, Jun 5, 2010), MZbel merry-go-rounds in a fruit bowl replete with a large, red water melon, bananas, oranges, pine apples. She is a Gulliver's Travel Lilliputian. She sings that she is a, "Little saucy girl", who is "little but am shy". While the bowl circles around she crosses her legs suggestively and licks her lips. Sexily twirling her tongue out she eats a phallic looking banana. She wants her man to "Rock me darling, shake me baby, play me all the naughty songs and take me home tonight...Hit me this way and hit me that way and make me feel alright".
Through all of this the camera shows a close up of water droplets that drip down the fore screen (or is it foreskin)like sperm. True to Mzbel's old format, the video includes three dancing girls aged perhaps between six and thirteen. Why on earth does she need them in there?
In Ran Away http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lum63uirBbI&feature=relmfu (Liberia MusicTv, on Youtube, Jun 5, 2010), she is phoned on her mobile by a little boy with a man's voice (her nine year old son, Joseph). She picks her call and acts unamused informing him she is engaged to someone else now so he better go away, or else she will cut "your thing" off. She hates a guy who cheats and lies. The video shows she means business when she snips through a huge sausage with scissors and a carpenter's saw. As the video proceeds she is seen protruding her ass while on her belly. Amid cries of "touch, touch", she is swamped by her team of sexy dancers who sexily simulate touching and licking her. An ode to lesbianism?
I am sure little Joseph Oedipus will need some counseling when he suddenly connects how close he was to having his equaliser cut off by mum in one of his nightmares!
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| MzBel is a clued-on professional |
Public Perception of Mzbel
Public perceptions of Mzbel, as the above quotes prove, are mostly unfounded and prejudiced. In the first quote the writer attacks her intellectual ability to understand the meaning of “rape”. Again, it is no mere coincidence that the second writer links the “lil young girls” supposed skimpy dress to the subsequent attack. The third writer's cynical comment is a synthesis of the above comments. He goes further to cast doubt on the veritableness of Mzbel’s history of being at the receiving end of male rapes. The perception common to some of these commentators is that Mzbel is a dim-witted, bimbo. She has not only got a penchant for dressing like a slag, but is a lying, frivolous minor who cannot be taken seriously.
The above perception of Mzbel is, unfortunately, the general perception a lot of men hold against women in general in Ghana. The WAJU and FIDA data I have provided, of rape and other forms of sexual violence earlier in this essay, confirms the level of sexual disrespect of women in Ghana. Incidents of domestic of domestic rapes in communities are usually suppressed on the charge that the victims asked for it. I have heard women say that their mother and step-father ganged up to exile them from the homestead because they had complained about rape.
In a recent contest for the chairperson-ship of the National Democratic Coucil (NDC), the party in government in Ghana, Nana Ayiman Kunadu, wife of the previous leader, was vilified for being too assertive, "opinionated", "aggressive", etc. I even heard a radio panelist state that,"Ghana is not ready to elect a woman president now". I suggest that all the above accusations emerged because she is a woman and is not expected to be capable of playing the traditional role of a man. Incidentally, she was only able to literally muster a handful of votes in that election.
However, history been made in Ghana on sexual liberation. On Saturday, 10 September 2011, (the day of this posting), Samia Yaba Nkrumah, the eldest daughter of Ghana's first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah won a landslide victory in an an oft delayed election for the chair-personship of the, Convention People's Party (CPP), the party her father formed that gained Ghana and the rest of Africa (on the continent and in the Caribbean islands) political freedom from Western imperialist rule. (Forward, Ever, Backward, Never! Forgive my brief indulgence, I am beside myself).
But is Mzbel really that hollow intellectually? Is she the cheap skate of a bimbo she is made out to be? Inevitably the facts prove contrary. She is actually well clued academically, technically and artistically. Her career choice was something more directorial and structured than the artistic domain of music.
She started preparatory school at Wisdom Preparatory and Morning Star schools. Her junior secondary school education (JSS) was at Owusu Mills JSS. Secondary school was at Abuakwa State College – reading economics, geography and French. She progressed to, Ghana Institute of Languages to become a bilingual secretary. Switching careers she went to Manifold Tutorial College to study: public relations, TV and radio production. After this she was interned at GBC Radio 1 where she hosted a children's programme, “Mmofra kyepem”.
Ambitious, as most successful people are, she joined Groove FM (Adom FM) and progressed to present, 'Kids on Groove’. She soon joined TV3 as a production assistant working on a Goldblast, a youth programme. Here she learnt floor management and honed her production skills. In the year 2002, Mzbel moved to, Hush Hush Studios where she released her first album, Awoso Me. Working part-time at Hush Hush Studios she got a job as producer at Metro TV’s Smash TV, a weekend entertainment programme. After a stint she joined Apex Advertising at Osu, Accra as an editor and a production manager. Asked about her stardom she said, “I liked what I was doing then and also had the chance to meet different people.” (Mzbel Biography, http://www.mzbelonline.com/biography.html).
Asked in an interview if she was born “with the talent as most artistes say?”, she said, “No I wouldn't say that because I never had any dream of becoming a musician. All along I wanted to become a broadcaster but music just came from nowhere, so I don't know if I should call it talent or hard work. So one could say the bimbo image was thrust upon her. (Mzbel, The Sexy Songstress, Source: Weekly Fylla, In the News, Wed, 02 May 2007).
So we now we know our Mzbel is got faculty. But how does that explain the skimpy dresses our conservative commentators rave against? Mzbel herself has a simple answer to those who call her artistic dressing skimpy and outlandishly sexy, “You must look unique. I usually go for white or pink colours because they are more feminine” (Biography, http://www.mzbelonline.com/biography.html).
Not too convincing an answer some might say if she is to stop idiots from raping her. I will come to Mzbel's defense. Like most observers, I do not think her answer here does her much justice. I will put it down to professional shrewdness. She does not want to reveal her professional secrets.
Like any competent contemporary artist, Mzbel is well plugged into the creation, production and packaging processes of her art. The creative aspect involves constructing a make-believe authorial persona that she knows her audience will identify with. Once this is done she creatively witches-brews different combinations of the same broth – a little more ginger here, less scallion there, medium strength kpakpo shito there, more garlic here, a pinch of salt, a hand ful of sugar.
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| MzBel's 'saucy' stage persona |
Mzbel’s Artistic Persona
Mzbel was born in Jamestown, Accra. For existential authenticity, I grew up partly in Akoto Lante and Jamestown. Jamestown was, and still is, a tough area to grow up. My father's printing press was located on Korle Bu Road, Akoto Lante just 400 meters from Jamestown. My auntie lived in Jamestown so I lived between those two communities. I can claim to know how it is growing up as a "Fanti Gomua" in those heady days of ethnic chauvinism. I believe I understand Mzbel a touch better.
As a starry-eyed seven year old, I was forced to defend myself in regular fights over frivolous provocations. Our daily diet was 'kome ke kenaa', 'banku ke shito lo', or 'Ankra Nye’s omo ke nane'. We either played football at Mantse Abonaa or Bukom. You were forced into assertive behaviour. You risked perpetual bullying if you were squeamish or deferring. This is why Mzbel appears to be irrepressible.
Korlebu Road in Akoto Lante, paralleling High Street in the Lighthouse area, was Kwame Nkrumah’s Odododiodoo constituency - the hotbeds of political, social and cultural activity. Jamestown was the most potent arena of the inevitable cultural clash between the dynamic and combinative youth of “Ga Mashie” (youth from other linguistic groups inevitably forget their native tongues), and the deracinating, alluring influence of Western, materialist, modernity. The cultural ramifications on children were/are immense. Mzbel's imaginative combination of western and traditional iconic images and ideas come from this Jamestown combinative culture.
Her entertainment persona, like Michael Jackson’s Peter Pan, is the perpetual sweet-sixteen, Alice-in-Wonderland, saucy fairy. This is ingenious because Mzbel’s body type is sweet petite. With the right make-up, kitsch dressing - the vulgar, bad-taste, colourful dresses she intentionally wears on stage, that is meant to enhance the desired effect of her posturing as a careless teenager - she created a different performance style.
Adding a choreography of “sexy-gogomi” body wriggles, she dramatically switches from thirty-something to fourteen in make-believe videos and stage acts. This is the Mzbel magic.
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| Lady Gaga's backside through her meat 'dress' |
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| Rihanna's licorice slit |
The wealthiest media trans-national corporations (TNCs) churn out the glossiest press, on-line television, music and pornographic film streams on our TVs, DVDs, computers and mobile phones. They force us to listen to their daily diets of war mongering, skewed political news propaganda, crime and pornography. We are all captured audiences of these irrelevant, audacious and outright culturally offensive news items. We are all equally victims of the above media allure as Mzbel is.
Take for example music. Do you not feel overwhelmed by the nonsensical “celebrity” spoutings of a: Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Snoopy Dog, Cheryl Cole, Simon Cowell and Puff Daddy? As I write my Yahoo search page tells me Rihanna performed somewhere wearing a bra and nickers (panties) made of licorice sweets. Do you think if she had performed at KNUST the student sex mob would have “peri vagina(ed)” for main course, and eaten her bra and panties for desert?
Not long ago Lady Gaga wore a revealing dress made of raw beef oozing blood. “Charming, we really needed to know that” some might say. Equally could the KNUST sex fiends have barbecued her with a dash of kyinkyinga powder to spice things up? The irony is intended, of course. I expose here the ridiculousness of arguments posed to justify the sexual violence against Mzbel.
In the context of the above high-tension exhibitionism by some of the most outrageous leading female entertainers in the global music business, it is patently clear that everything Mzbel has done, regarding her “skimpy” cloths and sensual dance video routines, pales into insignificance.
Reactions to the serial rapes against Mzbel were not all doom and gloom. I picked up a number of sensible commentsre not all doom and gloom. I picked up a number of sensible comments, mostly from women like Lordine:
I totally agree with Kevin. Mz Bell is just an image. It's not who she is its simply a stage persona. In reality she is probably the opposite of what we perceive her to be. If anything she is just a businesswoman who has probably realised that sex sells and the media will buy into it. This does not mean that it is ok for a man to go out with the intent of violating her and humiliating her in this way. Its outrageous and disgusting and yet not surprising at all. When will some men (a surprisingly high number) realise that no means no in any country, continent or language in the world at any stage or time? If a woman saYS NO and the man continues then it is rape and he is disgusting, vile, pathetic and an absolute dikhead with no shame or self-worth. (Lordine,http://myjoyonline.com/music/home/news/read.asp?contentidge. It's not who she is its simply a stage persona. In reality she is probably the opposite of what we perceive her to be. If anything she is just a businesswoman who has probably realised that sex sells and the media will buy into it. This does not mean that it is ok for a man to go out with the intent of violating her and humiliating her in this way. Its outrageous and disgusting and yet not surprising at all. When will some men (a surprisingly high number) realise that no means no in any country, continent or language in the world at any stage or time? If a woman saYS NO and the man continues then it is rape and he is disgusting, vile, pathetic and an absolute dikhead with no shame or self-worth. (Lordine,http://myjoyonline.com/music/home/news/read.asp?contentid=83,Is MZBEL to be blamed for her rape? I luv HIP LIFE, Facebook Discussion Board, http://eo-eo.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2219621397&topic=1807).
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| Hiplife giant Obuor |
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| The unique King Ayisoba |
Beyond the flawed excuses for harassing females in Ghana and continental Africa, male and female hiplifers and their audience are heavily influenced by Western culture. The music genre of ‘rap’ that transformed into 'gangsta rap' on both the West and East coasts of the USA, influenced Ghana’s hiplife revolution. Ghanaian artistes still retain elements of the above forms. Most hiplife artistes, with few exceptions like Okomfo Kwaadei, One-love Kubolo and the unique King ("I wan to chee ma fada") Ayisoba, are attuned to the US genre.
We see this in their: phraseology, stylistic form, politicized social commentary, dress code and textual character – in vocal, cloths, written language and stylistic physical gesturing (gangsta rap-like hand and body movements). We also see this in their rhyming style. Why some of these characters did not even know what poetry was at school. Examples: Chicago, Tiny, Mzbel, Ofori Amponsah (excepting his Asante vocals), Ayigbe Edem, Castro De Destroyer and even Sydney.
In this vein Lordine above is right in saying that Mzbel has seized on a business opportunity to sexualize her act, “She is just a businesswoman who has probably realised that sex sells and the media will buy into it”.
It is instructive to point out that despite the above influences, creditably the Ghana gangsta rap and R & B genre has been remarkably indigenised, unlike Nigeria and South Africa where there are still strong African-American and African-Caribbean cultural mimicking – monkey say monkey do! Examples, the linguistic art form termed “Kasahari” by hiplife ‘cribs’ like Obrafour’s Executioner label (itself patterned on the West Coast label to which 2-Pac belonged. Even Puff Daddy’s outfit) has strong resonance with Ghanaian and Nigerian rap artistes.
Back in 1984, I interviewed Okyeame Okuffo, state linguist in the Kwame Nkrumah era, for an oral tradition retention recording project directed by, Kwaatey Nii Owoo, School of African Studies, the University of Ghana. At first-hand Okyeame Akuffo dazzled us with staccato verbal virtuosity (near rap or Kasahari style ) - the history of the people of Akropong, Aburi and other areas in. We learnt that his people hailed from “Mogya bi yedom” (the blood of the ancestors that multiplies into the multitude of present-day Akropong, Aburi, etc).
Given the above discourses questions can be raised in Mzbel's favour. Who among us is not influenced by MTV, Utube, America’s Got Talent, X-Factor and when we scan the Internet for mind-boggling news on Beyoncé and Lady Gaga? Can any of us escape the omnipresent lure of Western entertainment media magic? Let us start with Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Hotmail and Google. If they do how about Western video films, music, ‘Obroniwawu’ secondhand clothes, dead people’s or synthetic wigs, false nails, cosmetics, cars, etc.
Recently when Ghana played against Malawi, in the penultimate Confederation of African Football (CAF) football qualifier, I heard football commentators complaining on Internet radio about the lack of patronage by Black Stars fans at the Ohene Djan Stadium. The fans were busy watching their choice Premiership and other European football to bother to support their own national team. This is the first time I have heard about this damaging penetration of Western sports culture on Ghana. So I ask how many Africans can now truly claim authentic purity from World social and cultural influences?
Conclusion
In this second and third seam of the essay on, the Media on Street and Sexual Violence, I have presented news reportage from the Ghana media and critically discoursed them. I have examined evidence of alarming increases in varied forms of crime in Ghana in the last twenty years: mob violence, street crimes, paedophile, homosexual crimes, and the most alarming phenomenon of sexual violence in Ghana's universities.
FIDA and the Legal Board state that in 1998 its Accra department recorded 658 cases, including 204 defilement cases, 58 rapes, 5 cases of incest, 28 indecent assaults, 232 instances of assault and wife battery and abductions. The above figures have increased alarmingly in Ghana. We need a comprehensive national crime data on all forms of crime. It must be accessible in paper form and publicised on the Internet.
I have stated that the impact of these crimes has had irrecoverable effect on the psyche of the victims. The effect on the general public has caused it to exert the most violent forms of retribution on innocent victims. This is evidenced by the level of unrestrained violence against the alleged criminals who are caught. This violence is often perpetrated by both male and females with equal abandon. The courts, police and other law enforcement agencies must review and address the issue of surge in violent sexual and street crime with urgency. Ghana needs a new form of policing.
Alex Baafi's analysis on the surge in street crimes in Ghana, while largely reasonable, exposes a common-sense attitude held by most Ghanaians regarding the inaccurate understanding of the relationship between drug usage and crime. We need to do serious research on this rather than hawk anecdotal analysis.
Although the school authorities had been aware for some years of paedophile, Osei Owusu’s serial sexual molestations of the under-aged primary school girls, they did nothing to stop it. They even went as far as doctor evidence of his photographs to thwart the police. There should be a comprehensive legislation on the interaction between staff and looked-after children. This must include Risk Assessment and criminal profiling of all such staff.
Paedophilia has been on the rise in Ghana for some time. Ghana has overtaken Thailand and Vietnam as the new haven for international pedophiles. Also with the evolutionary social surge in homosexuality sex crimes against young males is increasing alongside female sex crimes. We need urgent and clear definitions, guidelines, resourcing and enforcement of policing from the Ministries of justice and interior.
There is direct relationship between the spread of homosexuality and possible increases in HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). It is obvious that the surge in homosexuality is likely to compound levels of existing heterosexual diseases. This revelation will have serious ramifications for Ghana's development. The impact of diseases and their management will place immense pressures on the disbursement of crucial funds and resources earmarked for Ghana's economic, social (public health management) and cultural development.
However, equally, homosexuals in Ghana must be protected from the harms of persecution. Adult homosexual men and women who engage in mutual relationships of consent under Ghana's laws must enjoy the benefits of all UN-sanctioned human/civil right laws which Ghana is signatory to.
The preponderance of homosexual targeting of minors, and Internet prostitution rackets by homosexual groups in Ghana must be seriously policed and prosecuted. There must be clear, enforceable laws to protect the young and vulnerable from homosexual preying. Licensing of Internet cafes must depend on clear policies to prevent 'sakawa' youths accessing adult materials on the net. The Ghana government should blog these sites on mass.
The brutal mob attack on Amina involved both violent beatings and rape. The student mob was self-congratulatory. The posting of the sexual attack on Amina Haruna demonstrated infantile parallel with the behavior of primary school boys. By July 15 2011, "The University of Ghana, Legon, has dismissed one student and suspended six others for allegedly molesting a lady they claimed to be a thief".(https://www.facebook.com/groups/140716815999231/doc/168268849910694/).
We identified the paradox of advocacy groups appearing to concentrate all their energies and resources to singular, key-hole legal surgery, that defends individual victims of violent crimes rather than the masses. I have argued that this generates ethical and philosophical questions. I have posed questions: what is the criteria for determining what particular incident warrant the time, expense and campaigning energies in the public domain? To what extent is that singular act of public frontage economise needed resources, yet symbolise a defining moment of national development on freedoms?
I have also argued for internal democracy in mass-based advocacy groups. I have suggested that, as a loose group of individuals with disparate political and intellectual backgrounds, democratic practice - openness to fair discourse, inclusivity, collective administration, progressive self-criticism - contributes to national development. Amina Haruna's case is ongoing.
Of course we must be intelligent or selective in the way we embrace and consume western cultural ideas and materials. It is always exceedingly more beneficial to be self-sufficient. In this respect Mzbel and other artistes in Ghana must exercise some self-control. They are seen as role models by impressionable youth. It is inevitable that their live styles influence them. If it is objectionable to copy or consume kitsch or "Obroni wawu" western culture wholesale, it is plain silly to purchase them through China.
The above said, questions can be raised in Mzbel's favour. Who among us is not influenced by MTV, Utube, America’s Got Talent and X-Factor? What do you feel about when we scan the Internet for mind-boggling news on Beyoncé and Lady Gaga? Can any of us escape the omnipresent lure of Western entertainment media magic? Can we forgo, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Hotmail and Google? How about Western video films, music, ‘Obroniwawu’ secondhand clothes, dead people's or synthetic wigs, false nails, cosmetics, cars, etc.
Unfortunately, at the time of writing Mzbel had fallen foul of the law. She was recently accused of assaulting a police officer and placed in cell. Again, the rights and wrongs of this allegation falls outside the objective of this essay. But we must be cautionary, sensitive and perceptive enough not to underestimate the damaging post-traumatic effect of the repeat raping of Mzbel has suffered.
She probably knows, from experience, there is no tangible meaning to her life other than to fall back on her own inner resources. Like us all she may not always feel strong. In her canned, pressurized disposition, as a much abused individual, with no prompts hiding in the wings to hint her lines, she must do what she must do. This is what happened to Whitney Houston, Mike Tyson, Chris Brown, Amy Winehouse, etc. She needs serious counseling and loving care from her closest family. We must all wish her well.
When one's back is against the wall and must clutch the fickle straws of life's meaning, one experiences what the French existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, termed angst - a sense of dread. Angst, according to Sartre is akin to, "alienation...a sense of despair, boredom, nausea and absurdity". (Gaarder, Jostein, Sophies World [1996], p379, New York, Phoenix Paperback). Or an intense feeling of apprehension, anxiety or inner turmoil.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angst).
The criticisms Mzbel has faced reflects on all women in Ghana. In a recent contest for the chair of the National Democratic Council (NDC), the party in government in Ghana, Nana Kunadu Agyeman Rawlings, wife of Ghana's charismatic former leader, J.J. Rawlings, was vilified for being too: "assertive", "opinionated", "aggressive", etc. I even heard a radio panelist state, "Ghana is not ready to elect a woman president now". Well he did not ask our opinion did he?
I suggest that all the above accusations emerged because she is a woman and is not expected to be capable of playing within the status quo. She is known to have her own mind. She cannot be one of the boys. Incidentally, Mrs. Rawlings was only able to literally muster a handful of votes in that election. weeks after the election her enemies are still song and dance about it.
T O F I A K W A!
Sex Crimes, Street Violence and Corruption in Ghanaian Society (4 of 6)
KNUST Sexual Violence Against Mzbel
The author, Kofi Nyaako is a Director of, Resources for Education for African Development (READ). READ is a UK-Ghana educational charity that aims to fund free provision of community education by recycling resources. He was a lecturer at, University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University (1992-07). He has also worked variously as: Assistant Editor, Marketing Manager, Media Researcher, Printer, Graphic Designer and Journalist. He is the 1985 Mohamed Maiga laureate in journalism for, “Ghana’s Daughters in Lagos”. He received the prize in Ouagadougou from late, President Thomas Sankara.
Hello Kofi of Africa,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this incitive analysis into issues concerning sex crimes, street voilence and corruption in Ghanaian societies. I find it quite intriguing how these issues keep meandering without the necessary concernt from the suppose "leaders" of our beloved country. Sometimes I wonder, because they always act contrary to their "sweet scented" manifestos, and should I say no matter what party they belong to, all politicians are simply the same. I really do wonder when we will 'see the light' considering all the factors discussed above.
Does it seem like we will overcome our predicaments one day? Well...!
Hello Naabenaa, thank you again for your contribution. This post is 1-in-6. As it unravels you will be amazed at the level of general conundrum our dear Ghana - and by extension Africa is in.
ReplyDeleteI think Ghana has most of the social, cultural and legal/enforcement structures to deal with the subject matter. The missing link include: philosophical, ethical, funding measures. Also media commodity fetishism does not help: everyone wants a camera mobile phone!
But the discourse to combat poverty, ignorance and powerlessness must be continued by all of us. It is an evolutionary and revolutionary process.
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