She comes to me and asks “What do I have to do to be like you?”
And I start in pity.
“Be like me?” I ask.
“Why in God’s name do you want to be like me?
Everyone is unique in his or her own right.
My dear”
“No madam, you are beautiful, intelligent, confident and above all vociferous
My parents only tell me to always keep my voice in a bottle as it is a tool of sin.
I do not get to even look up where elders and men have gathered.
Madam, please tell me how I can be a human being like you”
“I am left breathless, angry at the society that makes women less human, then I feel sorry for the feeble being that stands helpless before me. Aisha, you can be you, you can have a voice, you are so beautiful, you are important. What your mother says is what she does, but that does not bind you to do whatever she wants you to do.”
“But madam, she says I’ll have to get married before next year as my husband to be has been found”
You will not get married before next year Aisha, you will get married when you want to. There are laws ready to guard you against being forced into anything you do not want to do as a young girl. Just study hard and abstain from bad deeds.
“Madam, how about adopting me? How about letting me be with you?”
Why must young minds worry about keeping their fire of life glowing? My heart bleeds when I hear these words from female students who have been told where they belong: the kitchen, in the bedroom, or to men ready to adorn them with clothes and jewelry to be used as a decorative tool. Why must children suffer this injustice?
Why must girls be told that women without husbands can never make in the society. Why must girls be subdued and made timid or stupid for the benefit of men who may not deserve them? Why can’t we encourage them instead of killing their potentials? Why can’t we tell them that they can have it all? Why must we make education a scarecrow to scare our girls from soaring in success?
This Ghana-woman needs answers and needs heads to think. Many who do this may not be able to read this, but of course, those who will be able to read must be able to show some care by trying to impart knowledge to people who need to be educated on the importance of the girl child education.
Amoafowaa Sefa Cecilia (c) 2014.
Mum Cee 
2 replies on “GIRLS BEING FORCED INTO SUBMISSION?”
Exactly Theo. It is very appalling when I hear things like this from my students. It seems to sound like stories from bad nightmares but some girls are going through things like this each day while the society nods in approval. May God help Ghana, may God help Africa.
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I share the same sentiments as you Mom C. The issue of the society thinking that men are demi-gods to women is unfair and misplaced.
I am a ‘boy-man’ and the little that my small ears have heard concerning this issue is quite disturbing. I often do quote Dr. Kwegyir Aggyrey of Anomabo of his famous quote, “to educate a man_boy means to educate a single soul, but to educate a woman_girl means to educate an entire nation_generation”.
Our Ghanaian society must see the essence in finding modalities to unearth the potentials of her female.
The last woman is the survial of many generations unborn…..
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