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Introduction:
A 63-year-old Ghanaian chief priest, Nuumo Borketey Laweh Tsuru XXXIII, is fending off a major national criticism after he reportedly married a 12-year-old schoolgirl at Nungua, a suburb of Accra in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The marriage between the priest and the schoolgirl, Naa Okromo, occurred on March 30, 2024, a community-based news organisation, Ablade TV Online, reported.
“In Nungua, the air is thick with tradition as the customary marriage between Gborbu Wulomo, Nuumo Borketey Laweh Tsuru XXXIII, and a young girl named ‘Naa Okromo’ unfolds. The age difference is striking: the venerable Gborbu Wulomo is ‘63 years old,’ while Naa Okromo is 12 years old,” Ablade TV reported on its Facebook page hours after the ceremony.
However, Ablade TV and the Ga-Dangme Council have said that the marriage ceremony is incomplete because the schoolgirl who has now taken on the traditional name, Naa Yoomo Aywemoede, would be expected to undergo a further purification exercise for the marriage to be perfected. See excerpts of the ceremony here in a report filed by Accra-based Joy News.
Reaction from Ghanaians and human rights organisations
The response of Ghanaians to the purported marriage on social media was instantaneous, with a section of the population urging the full prosecution of persons involved in the child marriage.
A Facebook user wrote in reaction to the report, “Future stolen, happiness stolen, right[s] stolen and incoming mental health problems. This is a barbaric act. Whether she’s a stool wife or not, it’s a total no. I can’t sit and watch my ’16-year-old’ sister go through this, not to talk of ‘12 years old’ come on.”
Another Facebook user added, “Barbaric. That tradition must be halted ASAP.” She urged the relevant state bodies to move into action on the matter.
Pro-democracy groups and human rights organisations operating in Ghana have roundly condemned the ceremony, describing it as “illegal under Ghanaian laws.” The groups include the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Ghana), the Accra Human Rights Forum International (AHRFI), the Ga-Dangme Lawyers Association, and OccupyGhana.
“The union between the 63-year-old Gborbu Wulomo and the minor, Naa Yoomo Aywemoede, raises legal issues of concern regarding cultural rights and practices with their limitations under the provisions of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. The second leg of the discussion surrounds the intersection of traditional practices, cultural norms, and child protection rights,” FIDA-Ghana said in a statement issued on April 2, 2024.
While strongly condemning the customary practice that encouraged child marriage, the Accra Human Rights Forum International has called on the police administration to arrest all persons connected to the event.
“The Accra Human Rights Forum International (AHRFI) is surprised to learn of the existence of this so-called cultural practice that encourages child marriage anywhere in the country at a time when Ghanaian law proscribes such practices.
“The Ghana Police Service should not only protect the underage girl and the mother. The police leadership must arrest and prosecute anyone who played a role in the marriage ceremony to send a strong signal to others who may be thinking of engaging in similar practices in the future,” the human rights group said.
Amnesty International Ghana has equally described as distasteful the purported marriage between the chief and the schoolgirl.
“Ghanaian law acknowledges customary marriages but firmly rejects the practice of child marriages under the guise of culture or tradition. Instead, we must uphold the principles enshrined in the laws of Ghana and ensure the protection of all children’s rights, both domestically and internationally,” the group said.
Also, the pro-democracy group OccupyGhana wants the Attorney-General to “arrest and prosecute without fear or favour, not only the direct perpetrators but also all whose conspiracy and abetment have facilitated this offence.”
“We call on the Gender, Children and Social Protection, and the Chieftaincy ministries to do a better job and root out this tasteless practice. Children are our future, and protecting them should be a paramount aim of our whole society,” the group said.
Adding its voice to the ongoing discussion, a group linked to the Gborbu Wulomo, the Ga-Dangme Council, said the schoolgirl is not properly married to the chief priest as alleged in the media.
The President of the Council and a respected Ghanaian lawyer, Ayikoi Otoo, said:
“We are inclined to side with the Gborbu Wulomo since the original reportage made the point that there was another ceremony that awaited the girl to purify and prepare her for procreation.
We concede that while betrothal could involve an underage person, it does not grant a licence to the person to start having a sexual relationship with such a child, thereby jeopardising her education and even endangering difficult childbirth since her organs are not adequately developed.”
Reaction from the police and other state institutions in Ghana
Meanwhile, the police in Ghana say they have the schoolgirl and the mother under their protection while investigating the matter.
“The Ghana Police Service has identified and located the 12-year-old girl who is alleged to have been married to the 63-year-old Gborbu Wulomo in Nungua, Accra. The girl and her mother are currently under Police protection,” the police said.
The police have assured the public that they are working with two key State actors, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the Department of Social Welfare, to “provide [the school girl] with the necessary support while the matter is being investigated.”
Also, Ghana’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has assured Ghanaians that all persons involved in the ceremony will be prosecuted if the allegations against them are proven.
“The allegations, if proven, constitute a criminal offence for which all parties involved must face prosecution. We would appreciate it if you [police] could cause your outfit to conduct the necessary investigation of the alleged child marriage to enable our office to do the needful,” the chief government lawyer said in his reaction to the event that has received both local and international attention.
The Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection has said it is working closely with the police and other relevant state bodies to probe the matter thoroughly.
“The Ministry reiterates its commitment to work closely with the Ghana Police Service and all relevant stakeholders to conduct thorough investigations into the alleged child marriage while upholding our cultural values as a people within the parameters of the law,” the ministry said in a statement.
What does Ghana’s law say about child marriage and betrothal?
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana protects children against torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 28 clause (4) of the Constitution provides that:
“Any other person shall deprive no child of medical treatment, education or any other social or economic benefit by reason only of religious or other beliefs.”
This constitutional provision has been reformulated in the Children’s Act of Ghana, 1998 (ACT 560) as amended in Section 14, subtitled “Right to Refuse Betrothal and Marriage.”
Section 14 (1) of Act 560 as amended provides that:
“No person shall subject a child to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment including any cultural practice which dehumanises or is injurious to the physical and mental well-being of a child.”
A child, according to Ghanaian parent law, is defined as a “person below the age of eighteen years.” Under Section 13 of Act 560 as amended, subtitled “Protection from Torture and Degrading Treatment,” the law provides that:
“No person shall force a child— (a) to be betrothed; (b) to be the subject of a dowry transaction; or (c) to be married.”
The Ghanaian law is emphatic that the minimum age of marriage of whatever kind shall be eighteen years. This, therefore, means that a child under 18 years is ineligible to consent to participate in any form of marriage.
Also, in Section 15 of the Children’s Act of Ghana, 1998 (ACT 560) as amended, “any person who contravenes a provision of this Subpart commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ¢5 million or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding one year or to both.”
Another important Ghanaian law relevant to the issue is the amended Criminal Offences Act of 1960 (Act 29). Section 109 of Act 29, as amended, states that “a person who by duress causes another person to marry against that other’s person’s will commits a misdemeanour.”
Also, it is provided in Section 101 of Act 29 as amended that: “a person who naturally or unnaturally carnally knows a child under sixteen years of age, whether with or without the consent of the child, commits a criminal offence and is liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than seven years and not more than twenty-five years.”
It is, therefore, apparent that Ghanaian law is vehemently opposed to child marriage and child betrothal in all forms, and anything done contrary to the position of the law amounts to an offence punishable by a fine, a term of imprisonment, or both.
What fuelled the public uproar over the ceremony
DUBAWA’s probe into the matter revealed that the public’s reaction may have been fuelled by two main factors. The first factor has to do with the schoolgirl’s age, which initial reports suggested was 12. The second factor has to do with the inconsistencies in the explanation offered by persons linked to the chief priest about the true nature of the ceremony that took place.
What is the actual age of the schoolgirl – 12, 15 or 16 years?
The initial report claimed the schoolgirl was 12 years old at the time the marriage ceremony took place. However, the Office of the Chief Priest has forcefully argued in several interviews that the minor’s age “is not 12 years as alleged, but rather 16 years.”
DUBAWA contacted the office of the Gborbu to provide evidence of the minor’s age. “The Naa Yoomo Aywemoede is not 12 years old as was put out there in the media. She is 16 years old,” TseTse Nii Bortey Kofi Frankwa II, who speaks for the Office of the Gborbu Wulomo-Shitse, told DUBAWA when he was contacted. “The issue has been blown out of context,” he added.
Ghana’s Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Stephen Asamoah Boateng, has confirmed the new age for chieftaincy and religious affairs. Boateng told Accra-based Joy FM that the age of the schoolgirl is almost 16 and not 12.
“We seem to be unravelling some few things, for instance, the age [of] 12 [years] that we were made to believe was incorrect. The child is almost 16 [years] and still a minor. My job as a government official is to secure the welfare of a minor, which the police helped us to do…But the difference in [the] age [alone] tells us that there is something that we have to look for,” the minister said in a YouTube video, starting from minutes 21:17 to 22:10.
When asked to confirm the schoolgirl’s age, the government appointee said, “No, she is not 12 [years]. Certainly, she is not 12 [years]. She is more than 12 [years]…this July [2024], she will be 16 [years], and whatever the age, she is still a minor.”
It is clear from the confirmation from both the Office of the Gborbu Wulomo-Shitse and Ghana’s Chieftaincy and Religious minister that the schoolgirl is neither 12 nor 16 years old as initially communicated. Naa Yoomo Aywemoede is currently 15 years old, with less than four months to turn 16.
Is the schoolgirl married to the chief priest or a deity?
Multiple reports filed hours after the ceremony claimed the 63-year-old chief priest got married to the 15-year-old schoolgirl. A content analysis conducted by DUBAWA showed the reactions generated by the ceremony were due to the involvement of a minor.
But is the schoolgirl married to the chief priest of the people of Nungua in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana? The Office of the Gborbu Wulomo-Shitse of Nungua has answered the question in the negative. The Office of the chief priest has said the ceremony between the Ga-Dangme State overlord and schoolgirl was not a “proper marriage ceremony” but rather a customary practice of the people of Nungua in Accra.
The Director of Administrations at the Office of the Gborbu Wulomo-Shitse, Rev. D. N. Gyasi Ankrah, said the schoolgirl is rather married to the Gborbu deity, the god of the people of Nungua. He maintained: “The items presented on Saturday, 30th March 2024, were not the usual items presented during [actual] marriage rites; they were to aid Naa Yoomo Aywemoede [the schoolgirl] to carry out her traditional duties.”
He says there is “no canal relationship or marriage involved as perceived by many.” He explained that the Gborbu deity has three other “wives” who have their respective legal husbands, adding that the schoolgirl could marry a man of her choice when she is of age.
“No one stops her from marrying when she is of age. This is not the case. The ceremony has been taken out of context. The chief priest only decided to elevate the people’s culture to the world’s admiration, but he has rather become the object of derision. Her [schoolgirl’s] customary husband is the deity and not the chief priest as claimed,” a priest at the Office of Gborbu Wulomo-Shitse said in the Twi dialect in a YouTube video, from 2:27 to 17:42.
Rev. Gyasi Ankrah stated that the underage schoolgirl “is rather married to the Gborbu deity (a spirit),” to whom she owed some spiritual responsibilities and not the chief priest as alleged. The god chose the girl because she is a virgin, and the ceremony was made public because of the need to protect her against men who would try to lure her to break her virginity, he said.
Outlining the traditional role of the schoolgirl as the wife of the Gborbu deity, he said: “During festivals, she would carry the corn wine to the festival grounds for praises and thanksgiving to be offered to God Almighty and also clean and perform ablution for the Gborbu Temple during the annual Kplejoo Homowo Festival.”
The Office of the Gborbu Wulomo-Shitse of Nungua was emphatic that the ceremony between the overlord and the minor was not a proper marriage ceremony to warrant the public’s reaction. “The Gborbu Wulomo, being literate, would not do anything that contradicts the constitution or laws of Ghana,” Rev. Ankrah said.
The ceremony that took place on Mar. 30, 2024, was a customary practice of the people of Ga Dangme State to usher the schoolgirl into the role of the spiritual mother of the people of Nungua, a role set for her while she was in her mother’s womb.
Conclusion
With the growing public outcry caused by the marriage ceremony, it is not clear if the chief priest of Nungua, Nuumo Borketey Laweh Tsuru XXXIII, and his elders would subject the schoolgirl through the next initiation rite, which is the purification rite as the custom of the Nungua people of Accra mandates.
This is truly barbaric.