Women in fratricidal conflict zones

Although the police have not openly come forward to establish a direct connection between the Mamprusi-Kusasi conflict and two incidents at Bawku and Nalerigu Senior High Secondary schools, security experts and peace analysts are smelling a relationship.

Three innocent students at the Nalerigu and Bawku Senior High Schools have had their lives snuffed out by unknown and unidentified murderers.

This has prompted the imposition of a 2pm to 6 am curfew in the two townships and their littorals, to enable the evacuation of students from the two schools, which have been closed down, to safety. 

The imposition of curfew has, however, been decried by some citizens, including a member of Parliament, as not well thought through, nor the best option aimed at resolving the near fratricidal conflict.

There is also the murder of a Kusasi chief and another unidentified man in Kumasi, which has raised tension in the Ashanti Regional capital compelling the Regional Security Council to direct motorbikes to be grounded from 7pm and banning the wearing of jalabia and smock since these clothes are used as disguises to hide weapons for dastardly acts.

Whilst the security agencies are yet to come out with the cause of the recent bestial killings, we cannot close our eyes, ears and minds to the deadly conflict between the Mamprusi and Kusasi in that part of the country.

One only hopes that the police have a tap on the perpetrators and whilst it might be imprudent to come out publicly, with the identities of the murderers, there must be a means of getting at the root of the murders and nip it in the bud.

Note

We need to note, however, that in dealing with human rights, the fundamental truth is that where the enjoyment of personal rights imperils the collective or public interest, no society will allow that to happen but step in to protect the majority interest over personal rights.

Therefore, my appeal is that citizens in both parts of the country must bear with the authorities and endure whatever constraints, as Nana Akufo-Addo said during the COVID-19 pandemic, there may be a way to rebuild destroyed infrastructure, but there is no way to bring back to life a dead person.

But the limitations of personal liberties and whatever inconvenience experienced is not what is prompting me to write to urge Ghanaians, the government, security agencies and in particular Mamprusi and Kusasi, to note that it is not in the interest of anyone within or outside the conflict area to beat war drums. 

Concern

My concern is more about the women: wives, mothers and grandmothers who are enmeshed in the fratricidal war.

In the Akan areas, lineage is matrilineal, meaning no matter the ethnicity of a husband, what matters is the ethnic origin of the woman.

In that regard, the ethnicity of children do not change. They belong to the mother.

However, in other parts of the country, including all of the northern regions, lineage is patrilineal and, therefore, women are caught in the middle of ethnocentrism in the face of conflict.

It will, thus, be common to find a woman whose mother is Kusasi and father Mamprusi.

This woman then becomes a Mamprusi. When this same woman marries a Kusasi and bears children, they automatically become Kusasi.

Whilst there would be no problem about the boys, whose children would always belong to the ethnicity of their father, that might not be the case with the daughters.

So, if the daughters marry from the other ethnic group the web becomes more complicated.

So what happens to each of these women in the midst of war? Would they be prepared to defend or expose their children — or would children betray their mothers? What becomes of motherhood?

What must we expect from a Kusasi grandmother with Mamprusi children and Kusasi grandchildren whenever she sees her children and grandchildren fighting and murdering each other.

Should she support her grandchildren, who are her kindred as against her children?

This is one of the most difficult psychological enmeshments into which we put our women when there is violent conflict, including murders.

Here is where we need to rethink. My prayer is that our academics will undertake specific research into the trauma endured by women in conflict zones and share findings with us, especially those in areas where inter ethnic marriages have been diffused and age-old.

As Chairman of the National Media Commission, I was a direct victim of limitations on my freedom of movement and restraint from performing an administrative duty when the Ghana Police Service indicated its inability to assure us of our safety to travel to Bawku to interact with journalists and media owners in the area on how to use the media to build peace, and not create wars.

When we eventually met the people in Bolgatanga, we appreciated how complicated the issues had become. 

There were journalists who had to sleep in the offices for days until they felt secure to return home.

Much more, they told us, if you worked on a radio station owned by any of the two ethnic groups and you said anything complimentary about the other group, it was seen as a betrayal of trust and ethnic fidelity by your employer’s ethnic group. 

That also meant you could not be employed to work at a station not owned by an entrepreneur from your own ethnicity.

Before the police failed to provide a safe route for us to travel to Bawku, as Director, Newspapers of the Graphic Communications Group Ltd, I had been to Bawku to witness first-hand the dangers our journalists endured in performing their duties objectively and conscientiously in the area.

I was privileged to have an engagement with the Mamprusi group and a meeting with the Bawku Traditional Council, with the Bawku Naaba Azooka Abugrago presiding.

Each side expressed exasperation and wished the conflict never recurred, yet here we are.

Indeed, I cry for the women: wives, mothers and grandmothers within the Mamprusi-Kusasi conflict area, who are bearing the brunt of the evils of this unending near-fratricidal, needless and avoidable war and destruction.

Justice must be served so that the people can live in peace together again.