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

Past & Present, August, 1997 by Emmanuel Akyeampong

III

MIGRANT LABOUR AND PROSTITUTION IN COLONIAL GOLD COAST

Studies of prostitution in colonial and post-colonial Africa agree that prostitutes were often outsiders with no kinship ties in the communities where they practiced their profession.(48) The expansion of commerce and industry within the colonial economy attracted male migrant labour and increased the presence of Europeans in towns. Although the colonial urban economy was essentially a male economy, the unwillingness of the colonial state and capital to provide for the social reproduction of their labour force, and the sexual imbalance in working-class towns, created economic opportunities for women in the interstices of the colonial system. Elderly informants in the railway town of Sekondi noted of the early twentieth century: `Some of these [male] migrants didn't even have rooms, so they spent the night with prostitutes then went to work the next day'.(49) In the Gold Coast census of 1901, Sekondi had a male population of 3,469 and a female population of 626, a ratio of five men to one woman.(50)

Kenneth Little has pointed out that one of the `main ways in which women subsist in town is by rendering sexual services'.(51) Indeed, this was an important initial strategy for newly arrived women. The sale of sexual services could secure migrant women their first, temporary place of residence. Unlike the sale of foodstuffs or liquor, prostitution did not necessarily require start-up capital. Eventually, the prostitute could move to her own residence. The need for security and social networks encouraged prostitutes, often from the same ethnic group, to settle close together.(52) This encouraged the construction of ethnic sexual stereotypes by other ethnic groups, as well as conscious attempts at self-definition within ethnic groups and a contest over the meaning of prostitution and the control of sexuality. Gradually these perceptions would influence marriage and other gender relations in towns.

In 1925, Kadri English, headman of the Hausa community in Ussher Town, in the centre of the colonial capital of Accra, wrote to the District Commissioner of Accra concerning his uneasiness about the increase in prostitution among Hausa women. It was an important opportunity for him to express his definition of Hausa social identity:

As you are aware Sir, chastity is essential in Mohammadanism especially

among women; prostitution is a thing outside our creed -- good Hausa

women who were living good lives in Northern Nigeria change for the

worse on arrival on the Gold Coast colony in which evil influences are

somewhat paramount.

He wisely linked his petition to colonial concerns about health and finances:

Venereal disease is too common among my people and unless a law is

enacted by you or the authorities enforcing the repatriation of all Hausa

women without husbands to their homes, immorality will be on the

ascendant and indubitably defy the praise-worthy endeavours of the

Health Officers.(53)

The prominence of Muslim prostitutes in Nairobi and among Hausa communities in southern Nigeria contradicts Kadri's assertion that prostitution was alien to Muslim Hausa women and that it was a result of the `evil influences' of the Gold Coast.(54) Indeed, in Nairobi, prostitutes converted to Islam and underwent training in Islamic decorum as a trade strategy. While it must be emphasized that Islam does not condone prostitution, it is likely that Kadri found it difficult to accept the assertiveness of these Hausa women and was embroiled in conflict with them. He sought the colonial government as an ally in this conflict. In addition, newspaper reports that categorized prostitutes as mostly from Nigeria may have spurred his action.(55) The preponderance of Krobo prostitutes in colonial and post-colonial Asante also encouraged the folk tradition that Okomfo Anokye, an indigenous priest instrumental in the founding of the Asante nation and state, had cursed Krobo women with prostitution.(56)