Gender Apartheid, Crime or Custom?

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue I, January 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Gender Apartheid, Crime or Custom?

Dr. Miriam Rahinatu Iddrisu¹, Dr. Dominic Alimbey Dery², Dr. Adam Bawa Yussif^3
1United Nations Population Fund
^2,3Department of Languages and Liberal Studies, Tamale Technical University, Ghana

Abstract: – The purpose of this study was to ascertain why majority of those who are accused of witchcraft happen to be women, a very disturbing situation. Thus, the research was to establish whether witchcraft was a purely women’s affair, why is it that their male counterparts are normally treated as wise people who wield respect in the society? An appropriate methodology was used. Some of the techniques included focus group discussions, interviews, questionnaire and personal observation. The evidence gathered pointed to the fact that the phenomenon of witchcraft is a social rather than a natural phenomenon.

Key words: Gender, apartheid, crime and custom.

I. INTRODUCTION

In Ghana, literature on women indicates the distressed circumstances in which some women and children live (Van Den berg, 1999). Violence against women in Ghana often occurs in the context of patriarchal relations, which perpetuates a system of female subordination and male domination (Tsikata, 2001). Also, sexual harassment is believed to occur widely in Ghana, but not widely acknowledged or reported, partly because of problems of its definition and problems associated with tradition and difficulty of proof (Tsikata, 2001).
In recent times, attention has been focused on witch camps by the media, non-governmental organizations and some orthodox churches. Discrimination against women is not only limited to the physical world but also in the spiritual realm. Whilst witchcraft powers of men are believed to be a skill and a protective one that of their female counterparts are believed to be highly destructive. As a result women identified with witchcraft in Northern Ghana are banished to witch camps.
Men, when aged are regarded wise men and elders of their communities, their female counterparts for that matter old women stand a higher risk of being branded witches and consequently seem to cause disasters and misfortunes in their communities. Witchcraft is so associated with women in the Ghanaian society that it does not only demean the dignity of these women, but it is also a stigma on them and their families.
Could witchcraft then be described in the words of one reporter as “The African Women’s antidote, defense and response to years of male domination and high level of abuse and violence against them at the rural level?”

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