Women From Ghana

"The world we live in has changed exponentially since the Legal Professions Act was passed 62 years ago, and there is an urgent need for its revision to reflect these changes and make the training of lawyers in Ghana more relevant and in tune with the world we live in today."

"I know that women in the world I grew up in did not have a voice. The truth is that at the high table we still do not have enough women. The policymakers are still mainly men. We need to woo enlightened men to back our quest for equality because unless we make men champions for gender equality there will never be a permanent change."

"That point was, and still is, that all women are working women and their work should be valued. Women do housework, care work, looking after children but none of this is reflected in the statistics. Outside of the home, their work tends to be low paid and in segregated areas. I am an economist. We at the ILO were looking at how women’s work could be counted, because what is not counted is not valued."

"I’m a pharmacist so one of my strengths is in chemistry, in pharmaceutical chemistry. I have developed an interest in plants as therapeutics because, as we know, a lot of the medicines that we currently have, found their source from nature, which happens to be a very rich source for new therapeutics. We do not have too many highly effective medicines that can affect conditions of the brain. So, that’s why I’m very interested in developing new therapeutics."

"“Start with the limited capital you have, never give up, seek knowledge on ideas before and after initiating, diversity in skills within an entrepreneurial team is an important factor for success, networking is an important thing in the business world and passion for a business is good but not enough, commitment and determination sustain it.”"

"Have discussions with God on the go. Be business-focused and ignore distractions. Be humble and respect all. Do not seek confirmation from another. Only God. Trust your intuition. Move above the best speed you can. When you identify your leading product, run with it."

"We can do almost anything that the man is allowed to do, but, that still does not absolve us of what is considered our traditional roles. Leaving the office at 8pm, I get home and I still have to cook a meal from scratch. I had to constantly explain why getting married first was not my plan and that getting my PhD first was actually my plan. I feel that a lot of the discrimination we suffer is born out of unconscious bias – most people don’t even realise that they are discriminating against us."

"As women, we often say that when a woman decides to have a career it is not always as easy as it would be for her male counterpart. We have been saying this to the extent that it is beginning to sound like a cliché. However, that is the truth of the matter. It is never easy for us women, especially when we grow up in very traditional societies. Right now, we are at the point where women have opportunities available to them."

"When I started my career, I started to realise that there were a lot of things that I could have done if I had received the right guidance earlier. There are also a lot of things I would have done differently. Because of that I see myself as the person whose job it is to give younger people proper guidance. I like to open up people’s lives so that they can see what options they have in this world. The world is actually open and they are free to choose what they would like to do. They are free to try things. If it does not work out, they are free to start all over again."

"Actually, to date, 2019 has been the most exciting year for me not only personally, but also career-wise. It was a real honour to be selected for the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science award. I was introduced to all these incredible scientists and I met some pretty amazing people. To be selected for the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World early career fellowship later the same year honestly started to make me feel a bit invincible. It felt that all the good things that were happening to me were happening to me in the same year."

"The world will make room for us. The more women push for senior roles, the harder it will be to ignore them.""

"Sometimes it’s important to hold your mentee’s hand and guide them towards opportunities they never knew existed."

"[...] the Chief Justice who should know the law, threw away any sense of integrity and decency and went for the land-grab. It is a travesty that this same person, the Chief Justice, is the one who is appointing judges to sit on cases to decide on whether the land-grab is lawful or not."

"Justice has been wounded in the past week."

"To my great pride my citation for my OBE was as chair of the Society of Black Architects. I am a campaigning architect. That’s what I do. It’s part of my architectural life."

"You may write me down in history, but still like dust, I rise."

"My parents were my first major influences. They ran a literary magazine called Imagine, which had stories about Accra; articles on art, science, film, books; cartoons—which I especially loved. They were (and still are) my heroes. I discovered Toni Morrison when I was thirteen, and I was hooked. I devoured everything she wrote. I remember reading Paradise, and while its meaning completely evaded me then, I was left feeling like it was the most amazing book written and that one day I wanted to write a world full of strong female characters, just like Ms. Morrison had done."

"“Commonwealth of Massachusetts"

"Belinda Sutton’s Petition"

"Power changes hands. Be respectful and kind to everyone, you never know whose help you might need."

"“You have to look at your art as a commodity, and you have to understand how the world of commerce works. Otherwise, it can leave a bitter taste in your mouth, and leave you quite disillusioned.”"

"Nobody owes you anything. It’s really up to you to make the best out of situations"

"“As a human being, you retain the right to your freedom - mental, physical, emotional, financial, sexual, etc. Being a young African we’ve been bred with our core values out of fear.”"

".....Akobi beat me a lot at home, yes, but somehow I identified beatings like this with home. That African men also beat their wives in Europe somehow didn’t fit into my glorious picture of European life."

"My husband brings me from home to a foreign land and puts me in a brothel to work, and what money I make, he uses to pay the rent on his lover’s apartment, to renovate a house for her in village back home. I came to Gerhardt expecting the worst, but this was even worse than I had conceived of."

"At first I didn’t understand, because here, we hear always that African people are hard workers and love work because God made them specially for the hard work of the world…"

"… this ministries man, he is not only a bad man and bad husband, he has also got something inside his head. I only hope that he won’t destroy you with it before you too start seeing red with your eyes like I do."

"Why couldn’t I take control of my own life, since after all, I was virtually husbandless and, what did my husband care about a woman’s virtue? If I was sleeping with men and charging them for it, it was me giving myself to them. The body being used and misused belonged to me."

"...when the seed of a curse finds fertile ground in a human mind, it spreads with the destructive speed of a creeping plant. And while it does, it nurtures superstition, which in turn, eats into all reasoning abilities and the capability of facing responsibility"

"...the nurturing of another prospective soul into the devouring jaws of the street, a life brought forth for the sake of bringing forth"

"Before I went there, I knew by all means she would give me food. But this woman gave me more. She hugged me. I was dirty. I smelled bad. But she hugged me...Sometimes I wish to be hugged even if I am smelling of the streets"

"Girls are pressurized to prove their womanhood whether they can adequately care for a child or not. You know the popular saying, don't you? 'You give birth. God will take care of the child' "."

"I have decided to stop thinking about ever going home. I just don’t belong there any longer."

"Your life is your road, Mara. God puts you at the start of this road and propels you to walk on, and only He knows where your road will end, but it is the road He choose for you and you must walk it with gratefulness because it’s the best for you."

"After all, I was also party to it all even if involuntarily. And I guess that my punishment for it is that I am stuck with Oves for the rest of my life. I have decided to stop thinking about ever going home. I just don’t belong there any longer."

"You were green then, Mara. Totally green. And I was also in love with Osey then. And I did what Osey ordered me to do. I was his property then, Mara. I love him. Mara. I really did."

"what African man gets angry because his wife was carrying a baby? And the first baby at that."

"He was lying on the mattress, face up, looking thoughtfully at the ceiling when I entered. Cool, composed and authoritative, he indicated with a pat of his hand on the space beside him that I should lie down beside him. I did so, more out of apprehension of starting another fight than anything else. Wordlessly, he stripped off my clothes, stripped off his trousers, turned my back to him and entered me. Then he ordered me off the mattress to go and lay on my mat because he wanted to sleep alone."