Sexuality and prostitution among the Akan of the Gold Coast, c. 1650-1950

Past & Present, August, 1997 by Emmanuel Akyeampong

an infraction of custom and is still severely frowned upon in the rural

areas, even though in the large towns it is generally accepted as one of

the ways women have of earning a living.(74)

The purification of prostitutes before they were reincorporated into their old communities was particularly designed to neutralize the malevolent spiritual forces that might follow them into the village as a result of their numerous sexual contacts with strangers. Some prostitutes sought spiritual protection from rural shrines before they departed for the city to practice their profession. Margaret Field encountered this during her field-work at the shrine of Mframaso in Brong Ahafo in 1956-7:

One modest-mannered but quietly business-like woman who said she was

a prostitute in Kumasi and asked for success in her work. As she was not

married, approval was readily given to her enterprise. When I sought to

know the general climate of opinion concerning this, I was told

matter-of-factly, `It is her work. When a man has to stay in a town like

Kumasi one of the things he may need is a woman. Also travellers need

somewhere to stay the night'.(75)

The irony is that male sexual needs, as opposed to female sexual needs, have always been recognized in Akan society. Public women and prostitutes met this acknowledged need.

Public women were acquired, sanctioned and regulated by the political establishment in a community, whereas prostitutes in the colonial and post-colonial era had asserted their independence. But the need for political recognition remained important for prostitutes in the colonial Gold Coast, as the following example from Kumasi illustrates. In 1943, the District Commissioner for Kumasi forwarded a petition to the Chief Commissioner for Asante from Ataa Baasi, headwoman of the `Baasifuo Community', an organized band of prostitutes living in and around Odum street in Kumasi. The group sought recognition from the colonial government:

After the [restoration of the] Ashanti Confederacy [1935], we did not

hide ourselves. We appeared before Nana Asantehemaa [the queen

mother], and Otumfuo, Osaagyefuo, Asantehene [king of Asante] in

Kumasi, and introduced ourselves to him and explain[ed] to him our

unity with our aim to substantiate to him Otumfuo, Asantehene, that our

acts and doings in the City of Kumasi, are not of the same scale as that

of the Corner-Side women [ambulant prostitutes]. Otumfuo, Asantehene,

having accepted us, handed [us] over to one of his chiefs called Oheneba

Bempah-Worakosehene of Kumasi. Oheneba Bempah had since then

becomes (sic) our chief patron.(76)

Although the Asantehene acknowledged the presence of the community in Kumasi, he gave it no legal recognition. Hence the petition to the colonial government. This was not necessarily a futile gesture. French colonial rule in Congo Brazzaville sanctioned the activities of prostitutes and even established official brothels during World War II to cater for the sexual needs of soldiers.(77) The Baasifuo Community wanted the colonial government to grant it a license and access to medical attention for a fee. It justified its relevance in very familiar terms: it would deal only with natives (not Europeans) and charge very moderate rates; it would maintain strict supervision over its prostitutes' health; its members would reject any and all marriage proposals; and finally, its presence would be beneficial to old and young bachelors. The government declined the request. The arguments advanced by the community resonate, however, with the philosophy that underpinned the institution of public women among the south-west Akan in the pre-colonial era. The Baasifuo Community was advocating its case based on old Akan cultural norms that regulated gender relations--men had acknowledged sexual needs.