Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T22:21:41.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Did the Akan resort to abortion in pre-colonial Ghana? Some Conjectures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Wolf Bleek
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In his survey of abortion in 400 pre-industrial societies, Devereux (1955: 161) concludes:

…there is every indication that abortion is an absolutely universal phenomenon, and that it is impossible even to construct an imaginary social system in which no woman would ever feel at least impelled to abort.

Where the universality of abortion is equated with the urge to abort, one can hardly disagree with such a statement. The question, however, of whether or not abortion ever actually occurred—or still occurs—ubiquitously and to a demographically significant extent is difficult to answer. Among the Akan in Ghana, where I did anthropological fieldwork intermittently between 1969 and 1973, abortion was widespread, a practice which seemed to have roots in precolonial traditions. People referred to abortion as sɛe adeɛ (‘spoiling the thing’).

Résumé

Les Achantis avaient-ils recours à l'avortement à l'époque précoloniale?

Bien que l'avortement soit une pratique répandue dans le Ghana d'aujourd'hui, il est probable qu'il s'agissait d'un acte rare chez le peuple Achanti de l'époque précoloniale. Certains facteurs qui poussent maintenant les femmes à avorter (éducation, mariage plus tardif et le fardeau économique que représentent les enfants supplémentaires) n'existaient pas à cette époque. De plus, la situation précoloniale des femmes rendait l'avortement inutile, si ce n'est désavantageux pour elle. Les travaux de l'auteur au sein d'une communauté Achantie ont confirmé ces points de vue. L'argument selon lequel l'avortement aurait eu lieu en cachette du genre masculin en raison du ‘silence’ des femmes reste peu convainçant.

Type
Shorter communications
Information
Africa , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , January 1990 , pp. 121 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abu, K. 1983. ‘The separateness of spouses: conjugal resources in an Ashanti town’, in Oppong, C. (ed.), Female and Male in West Africa, pp. 156–68. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Aidoo, A.A. 1981. ‘Asante queen mothers in government and politics in the nineteenth century’, in Steady, F. C (ed.), The Black Woman Cross-culturally, pp. 65–77. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Akuffo, F. O. 1987. ‘Teenage pregnancies and school drop-outs: the relevance of family life education and vocational training to girls' employment opportunities’, in Oppong, C. (ed.), Sex Roles, Population and Development in West Africa, pp. 154–64. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Ampofo, D. A. 1971. ‘Abortion in Accra: the social, demographic and medical perspectives’, in Addo, N. O.et al. (eds.), Symposium on Implications of Population Trends for Policy Measures in West Africa, pp. 79–105. Legon: Demographic Unit.Google Scholar
Ardener, S. 1978. ‘Introduction: the nature of women in society’, in Ardener, S. (ed.), Defining Females: The nature of women in society, pp. 9–48. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Arhin, K. 1983. ‘The political and military roles of Akan women’, in Oppong, C. (ed.), Female and Male in West Africa, pp. 91–8. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Asare-Opoku, K. 1977. ‘Procreation in Africa: traditional and modern’, in Pobee, J. S. (ed.), Religion, Morality and Population Dynamics, pp. 105–10. Legon: Population Dynamics Programme.Google Scholar
Baesjou, R. 1979. ‘Dutch “irregular” jurisdiction on the nineteenth-century Gold Coast’, African Perspectives 1979 (2): 21–66.Google Scholar
Bleek, W. 1976. Sexual Relationships and Birthcontrol in Ghana: a case study of a rural town. Amsterdam: Antropologisch-Sociologisch Centrum.Google Scholar
Bleek, W. 1981. ‘Avoiding shame: the ethical context of abortion in Ghana’, Anthropological Quarterly 54 (4): 203–209.Google Scholar
Bleek, W. and Asante-Darko, N. K.. 1986. ‘Illegal abortion in Ghana: methods, motives and consequences’, Human Organization 45 (4): 333–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browner, C. H. 1985. ‘Traditional techniques for diagnosis, treatment and control of pregnancy in Cali, Colombia’, in Newman, L. F. (ed.), Women's Medicine: a cross-cultural study of indigenous fertility regulation, pp. 99–124. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Caldwell, J. C. and P., 1987. ‘The cultural context of high fertility in sub-Saharan Africa’, Population and Development Review 13 (3): 409–37.Google Scholar
Devereux, G. 1955. A Study of Abortion in Primitive Societies. New York: Julian Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Field, M. J. 1960. Search for Security: an ethnopsyckiatric study of rural Ghana. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1954. ‘A demographic fieldstudy’, in Lorimer, F. (ed.), Culture and Human Fertility, pp. 255–339. Paris: Unesco.Google Scholar
Hardman, C. 1973. ‘Can there be an anthropology of children?’, Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 4: 85–99.Google Scholar
Meerts, H. C. G. 1974. ‘De Nazarene Healing Church of Ghana: een studie van een onafhankelijke kerk in Ghana als faktor in het proces van religieuze verandering’, unpublished MA thesis, Theological Faculty, Katholieke Hogeschool, Tilburg.Google Scholar
Newman, L. F. (ed.). 1985. Women's Medicine: a cross-cultural study of indigenous fertility regulation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Ngin, C.-S. 1985. ‘Indigenous fertility regulation methods among two Chinese communities in Malaysia’, in Newman, 1985: 25–42.Google Scholar
Oduyoye, A. 1979. ‘Female authority in Asante law and constitution’, African Notes 8 (2): 9–14.Google Scholar
Oppong, C. 1982. Middle Class African Marriage. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Oppong, C. (ed.). 1983. Female and Male in West Africa. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Oppong, C. (ed.). 1987. Sex Roles, Population and Development in West Africa. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Page, H. J. and Lesthaeghe, R. (eds.). 1981. Child Spacing in Traditional Africa: traditions and change. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1927. Religion and Art in Ashanti. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, P. 1975. ‘The village school teacher in Ghana’, in Goody, J. (ed.), Changing Social Structure in Ghana. London: International African Institute, 245–60.Google Scholar
Sarpong, P. 1977. Girls' Nubility Rites in Ashanti. Accra-Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar
Sukkary-Stolba, S. 1985. ‘Indigenous fertility regulation methods in two Egyptian villages’, in Newman: 77–89, 1985.Google Scholar
Van den Borne, F. 1985. ‘Uit de school geklapt. Een case study over ongewenste zwangerschap en abortus bij scholieren in Duyaw Nkwanta, een Ghanees stadje in Brong Ahafo’. Nijmegen: MA thesis, Department of Social Anthropology, Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1975. Asante in the Nineteenth Century: the structure and evolution of a political order. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar