Women’s Political Role and, Patriotism: Recognition, and Underappreciation
The exploration of nationalism and Ghana’s independence in older studies rarely valorized the efforts of women. Seminal works like Austin (
1964), Padmore (
1953), and James (
1977) explore nationalism and political party developments in the Gold Coast. They make only passing references about women as part of the plebian masses or backbone of the political parties (James
1977, pp. 55–56, 131; Padmore’s
1953, pp. 67 and 115). While these studies are revealing in describing aspects of the history of mass mobilization and nationalism, women’s organizations are obscured by the larger history.
Some attempts have been made over the last few decades to focus on the political and nationalist roles of women: to rewrite women into the mainstream history. Attention has been paid to women’s organizations, activism, their political empowerment and marginalization, and the intervention by male-led governments in their mobilization across the country’s different epochs (Allah-Mensah
2005; Apusiga
2014; Fallon
2008; Medie
2013; Prah
2004; Tripp et al.
2009). Scholars have highlighted the inner workings of these organizations, their goals, histories, and their achievements (for example, Fallon
2008; Hassim
2006; Steady
2006; Tripp et al.
2009; Tsikata
2009).
The contributions of women included forming resistance movements (Lazreg,
1994; Mba
1982). Women worked as organizers of political parties and toured several regions with the men to develop party branches, first for the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), and later for the Convention People's Party (CPP) when the UGCC split (E. Tsikata
1989 p. 77; Manuh
1991). Some of the movements formed included the Accra Women’s Association, the Ghana Girl Guides Association, the Accra Market Women Association, the Ghana Women’s League (GWL), and the National Federation of Gold Coast Women (NFGCW); also, alliances of voluntary groups, such as Gold Coast Women’s Association and various market women’s groups, formed around 1953, notably under the leadership of Mrs. Amartiefio (Awumbila,
2001).
After independence, Ms. Hannah Kudjoe formed the All-African Women’s League (AAWL), later renamed the National Federation of Ghana Women (NFGW). This organization emphasized issues pertaining to the “registration” of customary marriages and forging of pan-African and international networks. During the early post-independent period in the 1960s, the GWL and the NFGW were merged to form the National Council of Ghana Women (NCGW) (Awumbila,
2001; Daily Graphic,
1960a, b, p. 3; Mensah-Kutin et al.
2000; Tsikata
1989).
In July 1960, the NFGW organized the Conference for Women of African Descent which brought together 150 delegates from Africa, West Indies, the USA, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the Afro-American Heritage Association, and the United Church Women in the United States (Wuver
1960, July 13, p. 8). Through these groups, women across the class spectrum both educated and non-educated actively participated in activism and nationalist struggles in Ghana and beyond. They were noted for initiating acts of civil disobedience (for example, the 1948 riots). Through these groups, they mobilized other women and men in support of political nationalist causes. They were the major financiers of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) (Nkrumah
1957). These acts created conditions that made political change possible (Austin
1964; Awumbila
2001; Manuh
1993; Tsikata
1989; Nkrumah
1961). Their activism brought the first political party, Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party to power in 1957.
Individual Roles: Leading Women of Ghana’s Independence and Post-independence Nation Building
This section foregrounds the contributions of specific women to the nation’s building, drawing on what is a rather limited body of existing scholarship. Scholarship on these women is limited because the tradition of providing written accounts of the careers and personal philosophies of nationalist leaders is a male-dominated territory. A few published biographies exist about other countries (Sweetman,
1984; Mirza and Strobel
1989; Denzer
2005) and in Ghana (Allman
2009; Amenumey
2002; Mensah-Kutin and Akrofi-Quarcoo
2007; Vieta
1999). These biographical studies make it possible to identify some of the women of our own nationalist struggle.
The first is Hannah Kudjoe. The story of her disappearance from mainstream history has been narrated by Allman (
2009). She was the CPP organizer, the propaganda secretary, and a founding member of the Committee on Youth Organization (Apter
1955). She was a signatory to the document that threatened the split of the CPP from the UGCC in the wake of the deposition of Nkrumah as general secretary on condition that Nkrumah who was then ousted as secretary be reinstated (Austin
1961). Kudjoe evaded detention and continued to organize rallies, and meetings, creating slogans in praise of Nkrumah during the ban on public gatherings (Allman
2009). She founded the All-African Women’s League (AAWL) after independence in 1957 which was focused on pan Africanism. Her resistance, her mobilizing prowess, and her enormous contribution to the struggle earned her the nickname “Convention Hannah” (Allman
2009, p. 12; Ghana Yearbook
1961, p. 210). Her ability to organize the masses towards the cause of the CPP and ultimately Ghana’s independence surpassed her male colleagues’.
Sackeyfio-Lenoch (
2018, p. 29) also names some of the women who were thick in the struggle for independence, such as Evelyn Amarteifio, who created the National Federation of Gold Coast Women (NFGCW) in 1953—and other influential women such as Sophia Doku, Margaret Martei, Susanna Al-Hassan, and Annie Jiagge. Sackeyfio-Lenoch describes them as influential in “local, regional, and transnational dialogues” about the place of women in the context of nation-building.
A group of women namely Akua Asabea, Ayisi Ankrah, Ama Nkrumah, and Hannah Kudjoe led rallies across the country, mobilizing people and funds in defense of the arrested UGCC leaders despite the ban on public gatherings (Vieta
1999, pp. 127–131). I name this group of women, the “Big Four” in this paper. Akua Asaabea was also arrested and imprisoned for taking part in the positive action campaign. She earned the nickname “James Fort Prison Graduate” after her release from prison. She worked together with Mabel Dove at the offices of the Evening News, raising nationalist consciousness with their publications (Austin
1964, p. 115; Vieta
1999).
Mabel Dove Dankwah worked at the offices of the Evening News. She urged Ghanaians to support the CPP and Kwame Nkrumah through her publications, and informed readers about the progressive policies of the CPP. According to Vieta (
1999), her writings were defiant of colonialism. Several other women became propaganda secretaries of the CPP including Sophia Doku, Leticia Quaye, Hannah Kudjoe, and Ama Nkrumah. These women managed the campaign of the CPP in the press.
Leading market women also played significant roles in the nationalist movement that led to Ghana’s independence. They took part in the 1948 boycott (Padmore
1953, p. 67; Oppong
2012, p.40). They campaigned in the remote part of the country where the CPP could hardly reach (James
1977, p. 55). They also mobilized funds from other traders for party activities (Oppong
2012, p. 41). The ingenious political activism of women was crucial in enabling Nkrumah and the CPP to win the elections in 1951 while still in prison and to win subsequent elections in 1954, 1956, and the eventual independence in 1957.
How Women’s Patriotism Is Underappreciated
Women were instrumental in the independence struggle of Ghana and other African countries: spreading nationalist ideologies, funding political activities, founding and leading political parties, taking parts in civil disobedience, forming organizations, organizing rallies, canvasing for votes, defying public orders to organize rallies, getting arrested, composing party songs and slogans, and launching petitions for the release of men who were arrested.
Beyond their enormous contribution to the nationalist independence struggle and post-independence nation building in the 1960s, Swantz (
1985, p. 159) notes that “women became targets and not actors in development.” In the efforts to get women’s votes they were not regarded as “ignorant.” Only after independence did the problem of how to organize women arose (Swantz
1985). The scene where women’s activism is encouraged, and exploited but later denied is not unique to Ghana. Other scholars note similar trends in Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria where women organized and played frontal roles in the nationalist liberation efforts but were rarely rewarded with political positions in their countries as male leaders monopolized the spoils of office (Denzer
1987, pp. 451–452; Geiger
1997; Mba
1982; Schmidt
2002).
In the Ghana-specific context, Manuh (
1991) notes that all the cabinet ministers in Nkrumah’s government were men. In May 1960, however, ten women got elected to parliament. The women are Comfort Asamoah, Sophia Doku, Christiana Wilmot, Ayanori Ayambila, Lucy Anin, Regina Asamany, Grace Ayensu, Mary Koranteng, Victoria Nyarku, and Sussanna Al-Hassan. This recognition stemmed from the reservation of ten seats out of one hundred and fourteen for women in parliament (Madsen
2019; Manuh
1991, p. 132). The CPP government under Nkrumah also nominated Mabel Dove to stand on the ticket of the party in the Ga rural electoral district in the 1954 elections, and she won (Oppong
2012, p. 33).
A few women were appointed to various leadership positions. Sophia Doku for instance was appointed as a welfare officer at the Department of Social Welfare in 1953. She also became the first female camp Superintendent of the Builders Brigade in 1958 (Ghana Yearbook
1962).
Seats in parliament were not open to all women. Eligibility criteria existed, including being an active party member with proven accomplishments, and having fluency in both English and Vernacular. The two leading nationalist women—Hannah Kudjoe and Evelyn Amarteifio—who formed and led organizations which benefited the CPP efforts were not nominated to stand for election (Denzer
1992, pp. 217–236). Similarly, Akua Asabea, Ayisi A Ankrah, and Ama Nkrumah were not asked. Men activists who played roles in the CPP ended up standing for Parliament, serving as ministers, or heading departments (Allman
2009, p. 27).
One positive reward was reforming the civil service policy requiring women employees to resign upon marriage. There was also discussion of permitting pregnant married women to opt to resign or stay in service on their own volution, rather than forcing them to leave their post (PRAAD ADM 13/1 /22. Cabinet Minutes “Employment of Women in Government Service,” 20th October
1953).
Yet, an underappreciation of women intensified when the CPP government began to sideline the leading women who had worked hard to organize the independence struggle. The government also subsumed all women’s groups under one recognized body. According to Adamafio (
1982, pp. 116–19), the two large women’s groups in Ghana with distinct identities, namely the previously mentioned GWL and the Ghana Federation of Women, known earlier as the National Federation of Gold Coast Women (NFGCW), were brought under one wing, the National Association of Ghana Women, to control it. The purpose of the merger was to control women because of the fear they were becoming too powerful.
At the inauguration of the new women’s group, the leadership (patrons) was offered to either women MPs or wives of leading party activists. These included Madam Fathia Nkrumah, First Lady of Ghana, Lady Akiwumi, wife of the former speaker of the National Assembly, Mrs. Sophia Doku, the first National Secretary, and Mrs. Margaret Martei, National Secretary. Other executives of the Council included Mrs. Ruth Botsio and Mrs. Nkumsah who were Trustees. The former executives of the GWL, Lady Korsah and Mrs. T. A. Casely Hayford, were National Chair and Vice Chairperson respectively (Daily Graphic,
1960a,
b, September 12, p. 4; Manuh
1991, p. 126).
This phased out any influence of the leading women nationalist particularly Mrs. Kudjoe and Mrs. Amarteifio who were in the trenches with the men during the nationalist struggle that led to independence. The powers (extensive arbitrary powers) by male-led governments ensured women’s organizations and mobilizations were done on terms that rarely broached the subject of power, for example, the Preventive Detention Act of Ghana passed in 1958 (Apter
1972; Apter
1955), while women have worked to contest the state for a fuller citizenship where access to institutional and political power is equitable (Tsikata
2007) that has rarely yielded equality in political representation. Women’s representative in the legislative arm of government has never exceeded 15% since independence (Bauer
2017a,
b). Women’s appointment to ministerial positions stands at 19.25%, ambassadorial appointment is 12.36%, and Municipal and District Chief Executives appointments 17% (Dzradosi et al.
2018).
Memorialization
The valuing of labor is important for recognition and pay. Once labor is valued for its contribution, it is easy for people to be paid commensurably. Payment for labor can also be in the form of honoring or memorializing. In this context, memorialization is explored in relation to how it makes and legitimizes heroes and de-historizes others in the process.
Memorializing people by naming monuments and institutions after them, or honoring them with commemorative dates and public holidays, influences how the public perceives the roles they played in the achievement of our independence and post-independence. Memorializing people through monuments is important to preserve memories (Olick
2007). Importantly, memorialization can also enable symbolic reparation (Olick
2016). Doing commemorative activities and mounting monuments enable people to remember those who played active roles in Ghana’s independence struggle. The government of Ghana has employed commemorative dates, such as the Founders’ Day, to honor the Big Six, while women have not been memorialized in proportion to their contributions. This point is even more relevant today, given the recent masculinization in the memorializing of public universities. This paper adopts the term gender memorializing gap or honoring gap to explain the differential honoring or memorializing of men and women and how that de-historicizes women in the process.