Law, Culture and Women's Inheritance Rights in ... - Leitner Center

[FN64]. Oppong, supra note 54, at 28.
[FN65]. See id. at 28; Duwouona-Hammond, supra note 35, at 134.
[FN66]. Ghana: A Country Study, supra note 47, at 116.
[FN67]. Oppong, supra note 54, at 30; Gwendolyn Mikell, Pleas for Domestic Relief: Akan
Women and Family Courts, in African Feminism: The Politics of Survival in Sub-Saharan Africa
96 (1997).
[FN68]. Kludze, supra note 41, at 259; Oppong, supra note 54, at 29.
[FN69]. See Rachel Naylor, Ghana: An Oxfam Country Profile 71 (2000) (describing importance
of funerals in Ghana and expense of these ceremonies); Interview with Professor L.K. Agbosu,
Dr. K. O. Adinkrah, Lecturers Prempeh-Eck, Ghana Law School, Accra (June 13, 2001).
[FN70]. Kludze, supra note 41, at 259; Interview with Professor L.K. Agbosu, Dr. K. O.
Adinkrah, Lecturers Prempeh-Eck, Ghana Law School, Accra (June 13, 2001).
[FN71]. Kuenyehia & Ofei-Aboagye, supra note 40, at 26.
[FN72]. See id. at 28 (claiming that customary marriage does not create notion of husband and
wife as “two persons in one”); Dankwa, supra note 41, at 7 (maintaining that husbands and wives
do not become part of each other's families); Dowuona-Hammond, supra note 35, at 138
(examining inheritance consequences of children and wife not being included in husband's
matrilineal family); Manuh, supra note 41, at 77, 80 (noting that wives do not belong to their
husband's matrilineage because they already have their own matrilineal family); Kludze, supra
note 41, at 253 (claiming that marriage is not relevant to membership in family).
[FN73]. There is no defined minimum age of marriage under customary law, however, a girl
cannot be given in marriage until she has reached the age of puberty. Kuenyehia & Ofei-
Aboagye, supra note 40, at 26; Oppong, supra note 54, at 30; Nkrumah, supra note 48, at 51.
Nevertheless, a girl may be betrothed long before she is of marriageable age. See Kuenyehia &
Ofei-Aboagye, supra note 40, at 26.
[FN74]. Kuenyehia & Ofei-Aboagye, supra note 40, at 26.
[FN75]. Marital rape is not considered a crime in Ghana. See Cusack, supra note 10, at 29
(noting that marital rape claims carry no legitimacy in Ghana and quoting one queenmother as
saying “it is the right of a husband to have sex with his wife”); Interview with Mrs. Ursula
Owusu-Adjei, Vice-President, FIDA-Ghana, Accra (June 12, 2001) (explaining that “rape is
defined outside marriage”); Interview with Gloria Ofior-Boadu, President FIDA-Ghana, Accra
(June 12, 2001) (expressing the view that marital rape provision would probably have to be
removed before pending domestic violence legislation could be passed by Parliament).
[FN76]. See Kuenyehia & Ofei-Aboagye, supra note 40, at 24; Oppong, supra note 54, at 31.