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

[FN106]. Svanikier, supra note 5, at 30 (noting that with the passage of Law 111, there is no
longer a compelling economic reason for a widow to marry her husband's customary successor
and quoting Law and Status of Women in Ghana, United Nations Economic Commission for
Africa, Addis Ababa: Research Series, African Training and Research Center for Women, 1984,
at 7, which found: “Widow inheritance treats women as chattel, instead of human beings who
have rights equal to those of a man.”); Interview with Chiefs and Queenmothers, Ho (June 6,
2001) (Togbe Keteku II noting that the custom in the past was to give the widow to the
deceased's younger brother but now a woman can choose not to remarry or to go wherever she
likes).
[FN107]. Kludze, supra note 41, at 293; Dowuona-Hammond, supra note 35, at 138-39. The duty
of a successor to maintain and support the widow and children of the deceased has increasingly
become a legally enforceable right, with many cases before the courts concerning this issue.
Manuh, supra note 41, at 88; Dowuona-Hammond, supra note 35, at 144; see, e.g., Manu v.
Kuma, [1963] 1 Ghana L. Rep. 464, 467, 469 (stating that “the responsibility of a successor to
maintain and train the child of his predecessor is a legal one”); In Re Kofi Antubam (Dec'd),
Quaicoe v. Fosu & Anor, [1965] Ghana L. Rep. 377 (holding that widows and children have
right to maintenance by successor).
[FN108]. Manuh, supra note 41, at 81; Dowuona-Hammond, supra note 35, at 140.
[FN109]. Manuh supra note 41, at 81; Kludze, supra note 41, at 296; see also Dowuona-
Hammond, supra note 35, at 141 (noting that widow's option of re-marrying into husband's
family was purely voluntary).
[FN110]. Vellenga, supra note 104, at 225; Manuh, supra note 41, at 81; Dowuona-Hammond,
supra note 35, at 141.
[FN111]. Vellenga, supra note 104, at 225; Dowuona-Hammond, supra note 35, at 141.
[FN112]. Vellenga, supra note 104, at 225.
[FN113]. See Manuh, supra note 41, at 79.
[FN114]. Ewe Law, supra note 49, at 306. The widow may remain in the matrimonial home. Id.
If the children who inherit from the deceased father are not children of the widow, the children
are less likely to care for the widow. Id.
[FN115]. K.E. de Graft Johnson, Succession and Inheritance Among the Fanti and Ewe: A
Comparative Study of Current Trends, in Domestic Rights and Duties in Southern Ghana 164
(Christine Oppong ed., 1974).
[FN116]. Cheiftancy, supra note 60, at 273-76 (citing Ewe cases in which courts recognized that
children inherit property from parents). See also Kludze, supra note 41, at 266 (explaining that
among the Ga-Adangbe, children, not the family, inherit the self-acquired property of the father).