Women and the 1979 Ghana Revolution
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WOMEN AND THE 1979 GHANA REVOLUTION by Barbara Harrell-Bond he marketplace - and the traders who icwnate it -was a focus of rage for ,ard-oressed Ghanalavs Destruction of AaMa Market Nunber One may also be ,een as part cf a long Drocess directed cward l,m*tingtbe economic field in whlch vomen can effectively compete w~thTen SqB 1 - 801 The American Universities Field INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS American Staff, Inc., founded in 1951, is a non- profit, membership corporation of University of Alabama American educational institutions. It Brown University employs a full-time staff of foreign Universities Dartmouth College area specialists who write from abroad and make periodic visits to lndiana University Field Staff member institutions. AUFS serves University of Connecticut the public through its seminar pro- University of Kansas grams, films, and wide-ranging pub- Michigan State University lications on significant develop- Ramapo College of New Jersey ments in foreign societies. University of Pittsburgh University of Wisconsin AUFS Reports are a continuing Associates of the Field Staff are series on international affairs and chosen for their ability to cut across major global issues of our time. the boundaries of the academic dis- Reports have for almost three ciplines in order to study societies in decades reached a group of their totality, and for their skill in col- readers- both academic and non- lecting, reporting, and evaluating academic-who find them a useful data. They combine long residence source of firsthand observation of abroad with scholarly studies relat- political, economic, and social trends ing to their geographic areas of in foreign countries. Reports in the interest. Each Field Staff Associate series are prepared by writers who returns to the United States periodi- are full-time Associates of the cally to lecture on the campuses of American Universities Field Staff the consortium's member institu- and occasionally by persons on leave tions. from the organizations and univer- sities that are the Field Staff's spon- sors. THE AUTHOR BARBARA E. HARRELL-BOND is a the Afrika-Studiecentrum, Leiden. Ap- social anthropologist who has conducted pointed a Senior Research Fellow at the research in England and in West Africa. School of Law, University of Warwick, in Her special interests are family, urban 1976, Dr. Harrell-Bond joined the Field problems, law, and the history of the im- Staff in 1978 to report on West Africa. position of alien law in colonial Africa. She received a B. Litt. and D. Phil. in Anne Fraker is an administrative assis- anthropology from the University of tant with the lndiana University African Oxford. Her publications include Modern Studies Program; she traveled with Marriage in Sierra Leone: A Study of the Barbara Harrell-Bond through parts of Professional Group and Community West Africa during the summer of 1979. Leadership and the Transformation of Freetown (1801-1976), the latter being co-researched and written with two historians, Dr. Allan Howard and Dr. David Skinner. She has also published widely in academic journals, lectured in a number of universities including the Uni- versity of Illinois (Urbana), the University of Helsinki, and the University of 0 1980, American Universities Field Warsaw, and was a Visiting Scholar at Staff, Hanover, NH 1980INo. 4 by Barbara Harrell-Bond WOMEN AND THE 1979 Africa and Anne Fraker GHANA REVOLUTION [BHB-1-'801 In a recent article on the roles of their aim of eliminating women as Calabully (feminine Kalabule) is a African women in literature, economic competitors. well known figure; an identifiable personality in the Ghanaian society. Professor Kenneth Little comments During the period of transition to . Calabully is described as a person that "the general characterization is civilian rule that began in January . who has inordinate propensity to not consonant at all with 1979 and before the June coup! grab and cheat, and does in fact stereotypes of African wives as there were many calls in the press grab and cheat his fellow man and spiritless downtrodden creatures" for Ghanaian women to participate country through deceit and trickery. (WestAfrica, September 17,1979). actively in the political process and KALABUL E is more prolifio [sic.I The validity of such stereotypes is to support the government's efforts dynamic, volatile, and more equally challenged by events in to improve the quality of life. dangerously devastating than Ghana after the June 4 coup d'ktat, Among the many political parties CALABULL Y, the male led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry that emerged then was the Mother counterpart.. the English words Rawlings on behalf of an Armed of Ghana Solidarity Party. While the . CALAMITY and BUL Y [sic.] are the Forces Revolutionary Council party was primarily intended to origin of CALA BUL L Y. Its female (AFRC), which climaxed in the provide an avenue for women to . counterpart KAL A BUL E derived destruction of Accra's Makola exert political leadership, its aims from two Ewe words KALE and Market No. 1 on August 18,1979. extended to specific social and BUL U. KALE means "overbearing The evidence suggests that economic reforms. Ghanaian women are regarded (and strength and braveryr'such as shown regard themselves) as equal with After General Acheampong's by David in tearing lions into pieces men, their economic power being overthrow in Julv 1978. the Akuffo and overpowering and killing clearly demonstrated through their government made numerous official Goliath. BUL U means "one who can control of trade and food supplies. inquiries into corrupt practices or be made a fool, or who can make "kalabu1e"-a term coined by fools of others through cheating, Given the extreme shortages that Ghanaian author Joyce Addo to grabbing deceit and tricks.". prevailed at the time, it is not describe a range of illegal activities. Calabully has brought a great surprising that traders were under These commissions put most of the misfortune, deep distress and severe attack by the public and the blame for Ghana's economic disaster to Ghanaians as individuals military, and fairly extreme maladies on officialdom, particularly and to the country as a State. (July punishments were meted out in an the military-in other words, on 29, 1979)' attempt to eliminate hoarding and institutions controlled by men. After profiteering. That the vast majority the AFRC assumed power and One of the first "Kalabule" incidents of these traders were women meant began its "clean-up" operation, we heard about soon after arriving that women were a major target for however, not only were traders in Ghana in late June 1979 revolutionary "action." Attacks on obviously singled out for concerned a woman in Kumasi who those who control the marketplace revolutionary "action," but even the had allegedly purchased a piece of frequently accompany a revolution term "kalabule" came to be cloth at the control price and sold it and as such are not unusual. This invested with new meaning. A almost immediately for a much Report argues, however, that the writer in The Standard invented an higher price. The soldier who attack on traders during the etymology for the word which arrested her was reported to have "revolution" in Ghana had more included gender distinctions. It is asked here where she came from. significance because the traders significant to note that, according to The woman, it was said, named her were women. Men seized upon the this view, women are more powerful home village. The baby that was tied crisis as an opportunity to further and more wicked than are men: to her back was removed and she was killed with a bullet on the spot. sweeping and was bound over for 6 course simply got carried awa y by While the punishment in this case months to keep the peace greed and avarice and plundered was more extreme than most, it was (Ghanaian Times, August 3, 1979). Ghana shamelessly.. The not an isolated example of women "Graphic" would be the last to being "disciplined" for hoarding and We personally observed many cases advocate a preferential treatment profiteering in the marketplace. The of women being brought from the for female criminals. It is obvious following accounts in the Ghanaian market at gunpoint to military however that the types of press illustrate the severity with camps for interrogation and punishment being meted out to which women's economic "crimes" punishment. At the naval base women and publicly too, must were treated. women were laid across stacks of outrage every decent norm. If they old car tires for caning. At Burma must be flogged, need they be One woman "contractor," a Madam Camp, three women came to Margaret Domson, was given 24 stripped naked?. It is bad enough complain to the AFRC about having that some very few soldiers. strokes of the cane after a dawn raid been arbitrarily beaten by soldiers, by the military had uncovered "large indulge in such acts, but the crying their swollen heads and faces shame for the whole country is that quantities" of hoarded essential bearing mute testimony to the commodities. These included two crowds look on and cheer. (July 27, severity of their punishments. 1979) cartons of corned beef, two cartons Throughout July and August, of Omo detergent, toilet soap, reports of such "disciplinings" of The dominant position of women in whiskey, and building materials women traders continued. the market economy of West Africa (Ghanaian Times, June 25,1979).A is well known. In 1976, for example, later issue of the paper carried a But even the Ghana Women's it was reported that in the largest of photograph of the woman standing League for Social Advancement did Accra's 11 markets, Makola Market with the soldiers in front of her not question the justification for No.