Finding Hope in Conflict through Women’s Hands
Ethnic violence between Kusasi and Mamprusi tribes in Bawku, Ghana, has driven a wedge between community members who once celebrated and raised families together.
"Women are [still] drawn apart," said Lawrencia Azure, a member of the Kauasi Group. "We no longer trust. You want to talk to your colleagues but you no longer trust." Conflict between the Mamprusi and Kusasi flared up again in December 2007 around the succession of a traditional chieftaincy that carried land rights implications. After dozens of deaths, the violence has quelled and Bawku’s women are examining ways to bridge existing divides and head off future conflicts.
"We no longer visit each other because there is fear," Azure added. Not only has the feud divided neighbors and co-workers, but has also driven a wedge between families – a move that has forced children to choose which parent they will side with.
"Some are forced to be single parents," one woman in Bawku said. "Parental care is lost. Responsibility is more on the women." Often times when the family is split, the woman added, children are no longer able to attend school because no money is available for basic school supplies or the children must begin earning a livelihood for the family.
A woman in Bawku takes her turn pumping water under the hot February sun.
With an eye toward stability in Bawku and ActionAid’s assistance, women from the Kusasi and Mamprusi tribes have formed the “Concerned Women's Group.”
During a Concerned Women's Group meeting in February, the women agreed that money alone will not bring peace and solve the community's woes. Instead, the women are exploring ways to target the community's youth through education, workshops addressing ethnic difference and engaging religious leaders to begin paving the way ahead for a peaceful future.
"The youth have time,” another woman said. “We need to target them so they understand the need to have peace.”
Members of the Concerned Women’s Group are also looking for resources and avenues to teach children how to earn a livelihood after school
"We need to promote skills [for children and adults] to be gainfully employed so they do not sit idle," one woman added.
Skills such as dress making, painting, decorating and carpentry will give people an opportunity for a brighter and less violent future, she added. In a bid to help women in the community move forward, the “Widow’s and Orphans Movement” is working to help Bawku’s women impacted by the recent conflict. Widows are often denied their husband’s properties such as cattle, animals, land and homes when he dies. ActionAid helped mobilize the Widows and Orphans Movement in the early 1990s and the group has now flourished to130 widows groups made up of 11,565 women.
“When we get together we share,” said Betty Ayagiba, the national director for the movement. “We educate women on human rights when they lose their husbands.”
ActionAid is committed to helping the Bawku community heal and move toward a peaceful future. In 2008, $7,000 was invested to lay the ground work needed to build women and children’s confidence in the conflict-torn area with groups such as the Concerned Women’s Group formed and the establishment of a “Municipal Parent Teacher Association." However, more help is needed in the years to come.
Please join ActionAid and our efforts to bring peace to Bawku.
