Older women, ‘old ladies’, hold a special position in Ghana, particularly in the context of the family. One of those old ladies was my ‘grandmother’ Lako Sakité, who recently passed away (in July 2007) and who I knew since 1994. She lovingly called me ‘my daughter’ (i bi), and I respectfully addressed her as ‘maa’ (mother). She was probably born before or around 1915 (nobody knows for sure), and a granddaughter of the illustrious Krobo chief Nene Sakite I (1892†). I was told that her funeral was grand, as befitting an old lady of her status and age. Many chiefs and queen-mothers, and members of the large extended family were among the mourners, who must have numbered up to hundreds of people. A few women from her extended family had dressed up like girls who are being initiated, to portray the work the old lady used to do. She was not only the senior woman in her family and therefore often consulted in family matters, she was also a priestess attached to the paramount chief 's ‘stool’ and a dipo priestess, whose task was to supervise girls’ initiation rites.

When people say in a ceremonial context that ‘we are going to see the old lady’, it means they are going to consult the gods or the ancestors. In the Krobo context, the proverbial ‘old lady’ originally referred to the deity Nana KlowΣki as the prototype of a wise old woman. In the surrounding Akan societies in southern Ghana the same expression is used, but, according to Boaten (1992: 90), the concept of ‘consulting the old lady’ evolved from an Akan cosmogony, in which women were said to be the founders of the various clans. They were likewise seen as repositories of knowledge and wisdom, therefore complicated issues were referred to them for advice.

Old ladies in general, and particularly first born women, are considered to be ritual experts and as such they play an important part in life cycle rituals and thus in constituting and gendering a person. Lako Sakite used to bath new born babies, and perform some particular rituals in the so-called ‘outdooring’ ceremony. One such time I watched her bathing a little baby girl and telling her what people do in this world and who she is. She told the baby that she has a father and a mother and how to address them.