Ghana Life: Sex in Kumasi in the 1970s

Some accounts have been given of the sex life on the campus of the University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana, in the 1970s, but it has been remarked that compared with the activities of some members of the Lebanese community in Kumasi, life on the campus was relatively monastic. Unusually in such circumstances, accounts of Lebanese parties became widely known through reports in the Ghanaian national press.

In the 1970s, it was estimated that about six thousand people of Arabic origin had made their home in Ghana. Although they came from several different countries in the Middle East they were known collectively in Ghana as Lebanese. Most of these people were in business and many had established large enterprises in the timber industry, international trade and retailing. Partly because of their conspicuous affluence, the Lebanese were not generally popular with the majority population. Whatever the state of the Ghanaian economy, the Lebanese community appeared to prosper. A group in Kumasi added to their unpopularity by using their relative wealth to adopt a decadent lifestyle that exploited the poverty of many Ghanaian young women but also promoted the establishment of many petty trading enterprises.

To explore this phenomenon from the Ghanaian perspective, what follows is an imaginary dialogue between a young Ghanaian man, Kwame Mainu, and his girlfriend, Comfort Opokua. Kwame wants to know how Comfort came to meet her former English boyfriend, Oboroni. Kwame chose his moment carefully to ask casually, 'Oboroni is close to the Lebanese community, isn't he?'

'Close,' replied Comfort, 'He works for Hanabis. That's how I met him. He came to our parties.'

'What parties?'

'Oh, the Lebanese have lots of parties; Lebanese men and Ghanaian girls. You should see the food and drink! They're really wild!'

'And you were involved in all this!'

'It was my first chance to earn some money. They paid us really well, but I stopped when Oboroni asked me to. He got jealous of the others.

'So you weren't involved for long.'

'That's right, I stopped after a short time, and most of the girls I knew also stopped soon afterwards because they had enough money to start their own businesses. Oboroni promised to help me start the shoe trading so I didn't need to go on. All the girls left when they had enough money.'

'They let you go, just like that!'

'Oh yes, It's easy for them to recruit new girls and they like fresh talent, as they call it.'

'So, many of the women who trade with people like Mama Kate, the Shoe Queen at Kejetia Market, got their capital from the Lebanese.'

'That's right.'

Later, Kwame found an opportunity to continue questioning Comfort on how the Lebanese went about persuading girls to attend their parties. 'You said that many girls leave after only a short period, Comfort, and that it's easy to recruit new girls; how is it done?'

'In my case I was recommended by a teacher at the secondary school in Konongo who was paid to be what they call a talent scout. You know many teachers take a girlfriend, and it's an easy way for them to pass them on when they want a new girl from a new class.'

'But you weren't a teacher's girlfriend, were you?'

'No, but I was told I could get a job with Hanabis after I left school.'

'How else is it done?'

'Well, they spot pretty girls who shop at their fashion stores. One of my friends was given several expensive dresses for free before she agreed to go to the parties.'

'Do any girls refuse to go?'

'Oh yes, many of them refuse, especially the dadabas, the daughters of wealthy parents, who don't need the money.'

John Powell

To learn more about life in Ghana, its people and customs, and the challenges faced by Kwame Mainu as he struggles to gain a university degree, hold his marriage together and avoid involvement in a Kumasi-based drugs cartel, read John Powell's novel The Colonial Gentleman's Son. More details can be found on the following websites

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