For the Respect of the Dignity of Womanhood, You Two Guys Should Shut Up!

Kwabena Amikaketo sat in his favourite chair on his balcony, viewing the setting sun in the hazy harmattan sky making way for the shadows to grow longer and soon cover his part of the world, like some dark blanket.

Theevening weather, today is cool, and dusty. The dry season has begun.

Tonight, Kwabena Amikaketo was contemplating on respect for the dignity of women and womanhood.

Women, even though they may be the weaker sex, are those who hold the soul of society and should not be abused, especially, abusing of their dignity. Every woman has been given a special gift from God, the Gift of Life and Motherhood so that they could be mothers to their children and all children, in general.

Most women will protect their wayward children with their lives, when such rascals are going to get punished. And true mothers will urge their children to choose the path of righteousness and suffer the consequences than choose the path of damnation and be free.

In Maccabees 2: 7, a devout Jewish mother and her seven sons, were forced to eat pork, which was prohibited in Leviticus 11: 7-8, or faced death.When this did not move them, the sons were cruelly killed, starting from the eldest.

All this while, the mother even with heart reaped apart, watching her sons being killed, encouraged them to stay the course and obey God instead of man.This encouraged all seven sons to willingly endure the excruciating pains of death. In the end, this mother was also killed.

That is the beauty of woman and womanhood. But the sole thing that is to be cherished and respected is that dignity between the thighs of womanhood. This is what actually defines the respectability of the woman, the family and society.

Kwabena Amikaketo recalled that in some indigenous societies in the country, and elsewhere in Africa, there are puberty rites performed on the girls in their late teens. The highlight of this is to determined the virginity status of the girls. A girl who broke her virginity before those rites brought shame upon herself and upon her family.

Unfortunately, these days, the dipo puberty rites, which are to instil morality among the youth, are being initiated on toddlers. So, after these early rites, what will make the young girls lead good sexually moral lives?

There is this situation where girls take their dignity for fun and lose their virginity when very young. Those who maintain good moral life would be mocked at, but when it gets to marriage, it is the virgins who are most sought after.

The worse situation is to sexually abuse a lady, whether a virgin or non-virgin. It could be as a result of rape, defilement, blackmailing, luring etc., etc. In whatever form it comes, sex without consent is sexual abuse, and it is completely inappropriate. Here the aggressor is not only evil, but must be cast out of society.

Sexual abuse can lead to deep spiritual wounding. People who have experienced such abuse may develop erroneous ideas about the Heavenly Father, doctrines of the gospel, and their own worth. They will consider themselves cheap, worthless and only fit to be laid.

The homes from which these unfortunate women come from would also suffer the consequences and be stigmatised. Then the community also suffers. In Genesis 34, after Dinah, daughter of Jacob, was raped by Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite, her brothers used deceitful means to kill the rapist and his tribesmen. When Jacob rebuked them they asked, “Should our sister be treated like a whore?”

Among sexual abuses, rape and defilement are the worse. Such sexual violence targets the core of the woman’s nature and is an attack on her basic human rights.

It is a form of violence that transcends all boundaries causing destructive consequences to not only the physical but also the spiritual health of women. Because of the taboo nature of rape as well as the societal response induced by the assault, rape is especially harmful and results in the wounding of the woman’s interiority damaging her connection with her true self and leading to continuous suffering.

In a rape culture, victim blaming is commonplace and those who have been raped suffer some sort of community rejection and punishment. Women are seen as inferior and deserving of the violence perpetrated against them causing an additional victimization or ‘second rape.’

The experience of this violent and brutal assault within a rape culture, results in the compression of multiple sufferings that Andrew Sung Park describes as ‘a slow death of the spirit’ resulting from ‘sadness, resignation, hopelessness, and despair.’

Women are special and must be respected, even though some of them do not command respect. In such a case, society must strive to set such women on the right path. The dignity and respect of a woman lift up the spirit of society. Among others, the honour of society comes with the way its women conduct themselves and are treated.

It is for this fact that men who sexually abuse women must not be classified as heroes, because they, first and foremost, have loose sexual morals and are beasts, not humans, who do not see women as humans but pieces of instruments to be used.

Sexual abuse cases are not exempt in this country. We have cases all over, and in this write-up, there are two guys, who abused women and still come out to advise Ghanaians about how to lead our lives.

Kwasi Kyei Darkwah (KKD): The Airport Police arrested KKD on December 27, 2014 after Ewureffe Orleans Thompson accused him of raping her in a hotel washroom. Mr Darkwah admitted having sex with the lady but insisted that it was consensual sex.

What does KKD mean by consensual sex? A renowned media person like him should know that even if a lady consents to sex and during the act she says, “Stop,” the man has to stop immediately and vacate the corridor. If the man continues after that command, he is raping the woman.

Ewureffe was proven in court to have not been sexually active and a virgin before she was raped. The gross misconduct on the part of KKD, could have stigmatized this lady and her family.

The shame could go on for ages and one can imagine how they will feel, seeing KKD on television, taking things cool.

After bringing such a shame on Ewureffe and her family, he now has the effrontery to advise Ghanaians how to lead our lives, politically, socially, etc.

These days, his intrusion into politics and governance, making unwarranted and false statements are completely unwarranted, since he is someone who should go into hiding because he sexually abused an innocent virgin, bringing shame on her, her family and womanhood.

Prof. Ransford Edward Van Gyampo: After the BBC documentary on Sex-for-Grades, in October 2019, which implicated two University of Ghana lecturers, namely Professor Ransford Gyampo and Dr. Paul Kwame Butakor, the University suspended the two for six months and four months respectively without pay, following the completion of hearing on the matter.

They were found guilty of conducting themselves in a manner that brought disgrace to the University, by breaching the University’s policy on sexual harassment.

The Committee said per paragraphs 10.1, 12.1 and 12.4 of the Code of Conduct for Academic Staff and the Anti-Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Policy of the University, a victim of sexual misconduct must be a member of the university, so they could be expelled.

Is the University saying that any loose lecturer is free to go about sexually abusing women, so long as these women are not members of the university family? What image is the University of Ghana creating for itself?

All said, majority of the students were glad some form of justice was done and hoped that students who get sexually harassed would be bold to come out and report. It means, sexual abuse is alive in the university with students as the victims.

Instead of keeping a low profile, Prof. Gyampo came out to say all that happened was a plot by his political enemies. This is ridiculous, a statement that will only come from a crass person.

On the BBC documentary, he thought he was dealing with a student and was ready to marry her, if she would give herself to him. What more evidence is needed to show that Prof. Gyampo could be involved in sexual abuses and harassment of female students?

While Dr. Paul Kwame Butakor has gone underground, Prof. Gyampo is all about talking against corruption in the country and attacking politicians.

Telling that young woman that he was going to marry her, would it be that he was divorcing his wife or he was just lying to the lady and luring her to have sex with her? It is very obvious his intentions here and it is only a corrupt mind that would work like this.

The question is under his watch in the department, how many beautiful girls actually merited the grade they got and how ladies who could not pull through to the end of their courses, and got expelled for poor performance, would have made high grades, if they were left alone and not made to choose between morality and immorality?

The kind of lecturers like Prof. Gyampo are breeding corruption into the system, where students are taught that they can use what they have to get what they want.

Such a person should just shut up and give Ghanaians the peace to go about their businesses. He is worse than any of the politician or state office holder he accuses.

KKD and Prof. Gyampo should just shut up.

Kwabena Amikaketo in anger rose and went indoors, meeting his sweet Echelle at the door, about to usher him in.

Hon Daniel Dugan.