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

Polygyny is the practice of a man having more than one wife at one time. Fitnat N.A. Adjetey,
Violence Against Women in Ghana: A Pervasive Yet Ignored Problem, in Rights of Women
under National and International Laws 25 (1995). Adjetey argues that polygyny is discriminatory
against women because it allows men to have more than one wife while women are allowed only
one husband, that it denies a woman her sexual freedom and equality in marriage, and has the
effect of placing woman in a low bargaining position in marriage and family relations. See id. at
26. As will be discussed below, there are three types of marriages in Ghana, customary law
marriages, marriage under the Marriage Ordinance, and marriage under the Marriage of
Mohammedans Ordinance. Marriages contracted under customary law and under the Marriage of
Mohammedans Ordinance are potentially polygynous. See Kuenyehia & Ofei-Aboagye, supra
note 40, at 25.
[FN77]. See Kuenyehia & Ofei-Aboagye, supra note 40, at 25 (80% of married women are in
customary law marriages).
[FN78]. See id. (33% of married women are in formally polygynous unions).
[FN79]. Id. For instance, Justin Dorgu, Legal Officer of the Commission for Human Rights and
Administrative Justice estimated that 60% of men have children outside of marriage whether or
not they are married to multiple wives. See Interview with Justin Dorgu, Legal Officer of the
Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Ho (June 5, 2001).
[FN80]. Interview with Justin Dorgu, Legal Officer of the Commission for Human Rights and
Administrative Justice, Ho (June 5, 2001).
[FN81]. See Interview with Rosaline Obeng-Ofori, Actionaid, Accra (June 4, 2001). It should be
noted that these informal unions are not an opportunity for informal polyandry. Although
married men commonly enter such unions, married women do not--marriage entitles men to
exclusive sexual rights to the woman.
[FN82]. See Kotey & Tsikata, supra note 1, at 219 (claiming that women's duty to labor for
husband interferes with women's ability to build their own assets); Manuh, supra note 41, at 81
(noting that women had duty to assist husband in chosen profession); Dankwa, supra note 41, at
1-2; see also Mikell, supra note 56, at 100 (asserting that although women had to labor for
husband, their primary obligation was to lineage).
[FN83]. Quartey v. Martey and Anor, [1959] Ghana L. Rep. 377.
[FN84]. Id.; Oppong, supra note 54, at 31 (noting that even “property a wife helps her husband to
acquire and maintain, belongs only to the husband”); Dankwa, supra note 41, at 2. The courts in
Ghana have also found that, under customary law, a widow had no legal right to her husband's
estate even if she helped him to acquire it during his lifetime. In Quartey v. Martey, [1959]
Ghana L. Rep. 377, the High Court held that the widow's “right is maintenance and support from
the family of the husband,” and she was “not entitled to a share in her husband's estate upon his
death intestate.” But see Manuh, supra note 41, at 81 (noting that whether property acquired as
result of joint effort of husband and wife is sole property of husband has been subject of