Bullying In Ghana Is So Horrific They Created A Word For It Why Doesn't Government Fix It?

Monday, 16 September 2024

By: TB Obwoge

Accra, Ghana - Via a WhatsApp conversation, I had a long conversation with a Ghanaian man about the bullying in Ghana. After living in the country, I couldn't understand how so many self-proclaimed 'politiest people of Africa' think they're behavior is polite.

One thing I did notice, that the 2nd highsest scamming country in Africa, has created humans that think they deserve to get paid for being kind. Its common knowledge that the corruption in Ghana is so horrible that police, immigration, politicians and even the average citizen thinks they deserve bribery money for either doing their job or being kind.

My entire time in living in Ghana I couldn't escape the bullying, I have written about it so many times I decided to write a book about it. A Ghanaian man has even written a book about the culture but nothing is being done by the government or the Ministry of Education.

As Ghanaians continue to push tourism and travel to their country, no ones trying to fix the actual issues in the country that make it a nightmare for many people.

There are an hundreds of Ghanaians fleeing the country, crime has been on the rise but they are not making any news about this because of the upcoming elections. Highway robberies have also increased as a quick, cheap way of making money.

Here I will share my brief interview with a Ghanaian I will call 'Bright', he answered many of my questions about the issue of bullying in Ghana senior high schools termed '‘Homoing."

TB Obwoge: What is homoing, have you experienced this in school?

Bright: Yes, ooo they told us about this when we started school. I was so afraid, we were so scared, I worried about this my times in school.

Tb Obwoge: So they warned you about NOT bullying?

Bright: No that there was this homoing, that we should be prepared for bullying from the older boys in school.

TB Obwoge: They warned you that it would happen? That was it?

Bright: Yes. It didn't happen, I was so thankful but I worried about this all entire time in school. Some people did in other schools, they got bullied so bad. It was so bad. He went on to share incidents of bullying he's heard from others.

Our conversation went on about the 17-year old Ghanaian student, who was stabbed to death during a fight in school. Sadly there were no adults to stop the fighting, nor was there anyone emergency services. A group of boys carried the injured boy to a hospital where he died.

Below I created a video with the comments from Ghanaians proclaiming the government should reimplement corporal punishment. The video below this one, shows Ghanaian adult men fighting over government equipment for paving roads. With more comments about how beating children in Ghana would stop them from fighting and bullying in school.

Ghanaian TikToker: (I'm hiding their handle as they appear to be homosexual but never admit to it), but gw speaks about being effeminate growing up in Ghana. This same Ghanaian doesn't live in Ghana, he lives in the UK. I started following him over a year ago because he would sing on TikTok Live.

I admit to not knowing if this person was a man or woman, they have a Ghanaian name I had never heard before. With shaved hair, there was no telling if this was a man or woman becaus many in Ghana and other parts of Africa shave their hair off.

During this TikTok Live he didn't sing, he used several products to wash his face. He spoke about bullying in Ghana, he said that he had a group of friends that were always bullied because they appeared androgynous.

an·drog·y·nous /anˈdräjənəs/ adjective; partly male and partly female in appearance; of indeterminate sex. "a stunningly androgynous dancer"

He spoke so gently, slowly laying out the words that he carefully crafted, one of the things that makes it difficult to have a good conversation in Ghana. Some Ghanaians are prone to use the wrong words, or words in which they've either made up in the society or changed the definition to fir their own use.

He said that there was a teacher that often tried to see what sexual preferences were. The teacher would also make advances in a sexual nature towards the male students, the teacher was also a male.

He went onto say how many of the other students would bully his friend group. He said sometimes one of them would get caught alone, but when the group was around they would deal with them mercilessly, he word choice was brilliant.

I had a screen recording of the that part but decided to delete it, I wouldn't want to ever post that story, his face or TikTok handle. He shared a moment that was personal, sadly this was a very important moment.

Ghanaians some of whom are very homophobic would be angry with him but not angry with the adult male teacher that was trying to have sex with children, especially male children. Many have no idea what to do with their misplaced anger, where even blaming a woman for being raped is common practice.

This damaging tradition is the focus of a chapter co-authored by Brown School Master of Public Health student, Baffour Boaten Boahen-Boaten. The chapter, “Bullying in the Name of Care: A Social History of Homoing Among Students in Ghanaian Boarding Schools,” is a socio-historical analysis of homoing among the student population; the origin and meaning of the name; its roots in colonialism; and how the behavior facilitates certain forms of social exclusion and social inclusion among students.

The chapter is part of the book “Global Perspectives on Boarding Schools in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” which brings together a collection of scholarly works from around the world examining the social complexities of ‘boarding schools’ as a global and transcultural phenomenon.

Boahen-Boaten said homoing is causing substantial social and public health burdens in boarding schools – sullying spaces that are designed to provide care.

“In these places where students are supposed to receive care, it’s important not to create subcultures that become harmful,” Boahen-Boaten said. “When people congregate in a place with its own subculture, it’s ripe for homoing behavior.”

Boahen-Boaten, a former boarding school pupil and native of Ghana, collaborated on the chapter with De-Valera N Y M Botchway, a history professor and head of the History Department at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana.

Source: Wash U Brown School

In this above post from a Ghanaian named Richard Dela Sky about cyber bulling in Ghana back on August of 2021, I find there is such hypocrisy. As Richard Sky was accused of contacting the Ghana Bar Associate to out a fellow Ghanaian who was caught in a viral post saying that she was bisexual. To which the Ghana board refused to allow her to sit for them.

I actually saw a post which implicated Richard Sky, I even sent him a messages on WhatsApp to ask him if he had indeed informed the board. He read the messages but never replied, soon after I messaged him, he posted to his Twitter account that he was in knowledge of what he was being accused of.

Nothing much happened when it comes to his implications of outing her. I for a fact know that I was bullied living in Ghana, I was bullied everyday, several times a day.

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