A popular Nigerian TikToker courts controversy and evokes laughter on social media with her characteristic confrontational honesty, by dressing voluptuously to reveal the tantalizing contours of her seductive body.
She poses behind her dining table and asks: “What do women bring to the table?” Cameras pan to produce a close-up shot of a part of her body only A.B. Crenstil can mention in his classic song ‘Moses’. She points to that hallowed part and proclaims: “This is what I bring to the table.”
She adds: “With all this, no man should ask me that stupid question again”.
Millionaire pays small
In Ghana, that question is not just fodder for TikTok comedy; it is real legal business unfolding in the superior courts of judicature. A High Court ruling by Justice Kofi Dorgu in the divorce case between millionaire businessman Richard Nii Armah Quaye (RNAQ) and Joana Quaye, continues to provoke vile commentary from Ghanaian women and wives who are intrigued to question their place in their marriages, their contribution, and the sanity of the marriage institution.
Dissolving the 16 year marriage, Justice Dorgu refused to grant most of the reliefs sought by Mrs Quaye, on the grounds that “marriage is not an investment” and also to discourage the unpopular pattern where divorce becomes a carte blanche for financial gain.
The demands included GH₵50 Million, four cars, houses belonging to the couple, cars, 50% of his companies and custody of their three children.
Instead, the poor woman was awarded GH₵300,000, two cars, one house, custody of their children and a GH₵5,000 monthly upkeep money for the kids.
She was also told that she was beautiful enough to find another husband.
As lawyers of Mrs Quaye gather their files together to launch the much anticipated appeal, the reason to marry or not to marry seems to have assumed a new shade of meaning in Ghana, especially among the new generation, who are already struggling to tell the perfect picture on social media from the reality of marriage.
The older generation may have already lost the definition of marriage–for what it has become these days.
They invested everything they worked for but they didn’t see it as an investment.
Perhaps, it was an investment, because those marriages took their time, energies, emotions, untold sacrifices and material resources.
Unpaid care economy
The marriage story of Richard and Joana Quaye started like an investment, a seed planted in a small pot by two young people. The man who would later become a millionaire and own a private jet, once sold local bitters in his mother’s drinking shop.
Family accounts have it that young Joana shelved her plans of going to university, to enable Richard to get tertiary education. Joana worked as a salesgirl for shops at Mokola and later at restaurants, to support Richard.
It is also reported that Joana was instrumental in Richard’s travel to the UK for further studies.
On his return, Joana emptied her savings to provide capital for some of the businesses that propelled the successes of the RNAQ chain of businesses and philanthropic work.
Joana typifies the sad arithmetic in the unpaid care economy where women are the worst losers.
In Ghana, women make up about 80 percent of employment in the informal sector.
We see them selling on the streets, working at chop bars, in the markets, on the farms, and as small business owners that are headquartered in their bedrooms.
Even women in formal employment double as small and sometimes big business owners, to supplement their family income.
During lunch break, we see them move from office cubicles selling shoes, perfumes, shirts and shito.
Some husbands have moved to end this industry by asking their wives to resign, stay at home and take care of the kids.
Joana fell into this trap while Richard soared.
Often, we do not put a price to the volume of work and energy expended in unpaid care work.
The first to wake up and the last to sleep, women pour in incalculable hours in cooking, sweeping, mopping, caring for the sick and elderly, washing clothes and discharging bedroom duties.
Men bring pregnancy to the table but women carry it for nine months.
Women, according to the Ghana Statistical Service, work about 13 hours a day, but only 40% is paid; 60% is swallowed up and dismissed as traditional female roles.
The 2020 Ghana Time Use Survey reports that women spend an average of 6.4 hours a day on unpaid work while men do only 1.7 hours.
Nationwide, women’s unpaid work accounts for 76%, which translates into more than 14% of Ghana’s GDP. Nobody sees these numbers.
Payment receipts
These are not small contributions. Yet, recent rulings on divorce and property distribution, including the Quayes, continue to provoke social and legal concerns –as being disproportionate, unfair and inconsistent with the fairness provisions in our constitution.
In the throes of this tragedy, which has often left women financially vulnerable, an unfortunate pattern has evolved in recent times where successful married men hide their properties or register them under the names of their parents, to deny their wives any share of their estate during divorce.
Those are cheap men who fight women’s economic rights and stifle their independence.
To the Brotherhood (menfolk), these are smart men. To me, they are Okotobonku.
Presently, women’s groups, including FIDA, are pushing for the passage of the Property Rights of Spouses Bill, to clear up some of these problems.
Approaching marriage as a ‘no contribution, no chop’ venture reduces it to a clever mischief only the shrewdest lover would win.
Soon, women will wear tax receipts as underwear to bed, to remind men that they also brought their bodies to the table.
By KWESI TAWIAH-BENJAMIN
Tissues Of The Issues
bigfrontiers@gmail.com
Ottawa, Canada
