Women were dynamic • In Independence struggle

Daily Graphic. Pg.27 Friday, March 05/10

Article: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho

Women in Ghana from the pre to the post-independence era’s have contributed in diverse ways towards the development of the country. Over the years, through systematic educational and empowerment programmes championed by civil society organisations, women have gradually moved from their traditionally ascribed and gender stereotyped roles into roles as professionals, bread winners and role models.
Society has for years experienced significant transformations in the experiences and positions of women in Ghana's history from independence to date thus women are no longer primarily in their domestic roles as caregivers, housewives and homemakers, but have taken on various careers and have chalked up enviable successes in their chosen fields. Some examples of such accomplished women in recent times are Akua Kwenyehia, a judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Prof. Ama Atta Aidoo, a renowned writer and poet, Prof. Abena Dolphyne, first female Pro-Vice Chancellor, Prof. Takyiwaa Manuh, Director of the Institute of African Studies (IAS) University of Ghana, among others.
However, before the advent of women advocates to see more women in the limelight, some women distinguished themselves and therefore gained popular recognition.
One such woman who distinguished herself and her name has become a household one is Yaa Asantewaa, born in 1840 and died on October 17, 1921. She was the Queen Mother of Ejisu and in 1900 she led the Ashanti rebellion known as the War of the Golden Stool against British colonialism.
When the British exiled her grandson in the Seychelles along with the King of Asante, Otumfuo Nana Prempeh I, and the British governor-general of the Gold Coast, Frederick Hodgson, demanded for the Golden Stool, the symbol of the Asante nation, the men feared to voice their displeasure and she is quoted to have said: “Now I see that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king. If it was in the brave days of Osei Tutu, Okomfo Anokye, and Opoku Ware, chiefs would not sit down to see their king to be taken away without firing a shot. No European could have dared speak to chiefs of Asante in the way the governor spoke to you this morning. Is it true that the bravery of Asante is no more? I cannot believe it. It cannot be! I must say this: If you, the men of Asante, will not go forward, then we will. We, the women, will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight the white men. We will fight till the last of us falls in the battlefields.”
With these words, she is said to have taken on leadership of the Ashanti Uprising of 1900, gaining the support of some of the other Asante nobility.
This brutality was the instigation for the Yaa Asantewaa War for Independence, which began on March 28, 1900. Yaa Asantewaa mobilised the Asante troops and for three months laid siege to the British mission at the fort of Kumasi. The British had to bring in several thousand troops and artillery to break the siege. Also, in retaliation, the British troops plundered the villages, killed much of the population, confiscated their lands and left the remaining population dependent upon the British for survival. They also captured Yaa Asantewaa whom they exiled along with her close companions to the Seychelles Islands off Africa's east coast, while most of the captured chiefs became prisoners-of-war. Yaa Asantewaa remained in exile until her death 20 years later.
After Yaa Asantewaa one other woman who has held the flag of womanhood high is Mrs Theodosia Salome Okoh, born on June 13, 1922 in Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The originator and designer of the Ghana flag, she has seen all the various historical transitions of this country. That is, from British colonial rule through the Gold Coast to modern Ghana.
Responding to an advertisement placed in the Gold Coast newspapers for the designing of a National Flag, she decided to choose the colours red, gold and green and the five-pointed Black Star.
"The red stripe represents the blood our forefathers shed for us during Ghana's struggle for independence, gold represents our rich mineral resources, green for the green belt on which the country lies and also the vast forests and cash crops which we grow, while the black star is our identity as black people and also symbolises African freedom," she explained.
It was adopted as the national flag at 12 noon on March 6, 1957, and was hoisted at a colourful and emotional ceremony held at the Old Parliament House.
In appreciation for her creative work for the nation, she was presented with a medal.
Also partly in recognition of what she had done for the nation, in 1992 she received the entertainment Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana (ECRAG) Mahogany award for designing the national flag. In 1996 she received a Grand Medal from the State during the 40th independence celebration of the country. In 1997 she also received the Arts Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana (ACRAG) award for designing the national flag and in 2004 she received an award from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports for her role in building a national hockey pitch.
A woman who has blazed the industrial storm in Ghana to become a force to reckon with is the late Dr Esther Ocloo of Nkulenu Industries Limited.
The Cambridge Biographical Society named her as one of the foremost women leaders of the 20th century.
She has contributed in no small measure towards Ghana's economic independence and economic empowerment of women. In her over 40 years’ involvement in human resources development, she founded non-governmental organisations (NGOs) focusing on ways and means of creating jobs for the unemployed youth through the establishment of a farm for the youth and African women entrepreneurial training centre for training unemployed girls and women in employable skills and upgrading the skills of women entrepreneurs.
She started her factory with six shillings in the year 1942.
In the early 1990's she received an award from the African Leadership Prize for Sustainable end of hunger, which aims at encouraging and supporting local initiative in food production, processing and preservation.
She was the first Ghanaian woman to be appointed Executive Chairman, National Food and Nutrition Board of Ghana (1964-1966).
She was a member of the advisory Board, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and a consultant to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, as well as a co-ordinator of the Africa Women in Development from 1982-1987.
She also became a Chairperson, UN Committee for International Federation of Business and Professional Women (IFBPW) from 1985 to 1989.
She served on many boards and councils and also became the first Chairperson of Board of Directors of the Women's World Banking International, New York, USA from 1979 to 1985.
She was honoured and received various awards by institutions including the Ghana Millennium Excellence Awards for Women and Gender Balance Development - 1999.
She is said to have contested the 1969 parliamentary elections on the Progress Party (PP) ticket for the West Danyi Constituency in the Volta Region but did not win. She was also a one-time member of the Council of State. She died at the age of 83.
Ghana's first female scientist, Dr Mrs Leticia Obeng, an educationalist, is also worth mentioning.
Dr Leticia Obeng, First Woman Scientist in Zoology, is an unsung heroine, born on January 10, 1925 at Anum in the Eastern Region.
She is a product of Achimota School from 1939 to 1946 when she took the London University International Examination. Since there was no university in the then Gold Coast, those who passed that examination had to continue their university education abroad.
She was employed at the University College of Science and Technology, where she headed the Zoology department.
She left the university and became the first and only scientist to be recruited into the National Research Council, which is now the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). She was also the first Ghanaian woman to establish a new research institute, Institute of Aquatic Biology, for the Ghana Academy of Sciences in 1964.
She later enrolled at the University of Liverpool for her PhD in 1962 where she obtained her doctorate degree. For her thesis, Dr Obeng investigated into the life cycle of the Simulium fly popularly called the black fly, which transmits the worm that causes onchocerciasis or river blindness. This made her the first Ghanaian female to obtain a PhD in Simuliidae from the Liverpool University in the United Kingdom.
She also worked at the Volta Lake Research Project, where she co-managed for four years and looked at a number of environmental issues related to the lake.
The United Nations invited her to take part in the 1972 UN Human and Environment Conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
From 1974 to 1985, Dr Obeng was appointed the Director at the Regional Office for Africa of the United Nations Environment Programme, initiator and co-ordinator of the African Sub-Regional Environment Programmes and also held the position of a senior Programme Officer in charge of water for five years.
She has received numerous awards and been honoured both nationally and internationally. She was the first female recipient of the CSIR Award for Distinguished Career and Service to Science and Technology in 1997. She also has the CSIR Laboratory, "The Dr Leticia Obeng Block", named after her and "Service to Science and Technology" award was bestowed on her in 1997.
In 1998, she received the first national award for Science and Technology, Biological Sciences, and was the first female Executive Member of the Council of the Africa Leadership Forum.
In 2006, Dr Obeng was selected among the few Ghanaian women to receive the National Award of the "Star of Ghana” in 2006, she was also unanimously appointed as the first female President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has a number of publications to her credit and they include "Man-made Lake"; "Environmental Management"; "Volta Lake Ecology", "Environmental Problem of Africa"; "Health Hazards Of Agricultural Projects"; "Dr Ephraim Amu - A Portrait of Cultured Patriotism" and "Parasites: The Sly and Sneak Enemies Inside You".
In 2007 she became the Chair of the Global Water Partnership (GWP).