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

this ceremony. Family members of the couple, friends, and elders in the community witness this
ceremony. Usually when the woman becomes pregnant before marriage, only the “knocking
ceremony” can be performed and the rest may follow after given birth. See Interview with Eric
Okyere-Darko, Center for Transitional Justice, New York (Sept. 27, 2001).
[FN250]. See Interview with Hilary Gbedemah, Legal Officer, SNV/WiLDAF Legal Awareness
Programme, Ho (June 7, 2001); Interview with Mrs. Betty Adunyame, Regional Director,
National Council on Women and Development (“NCWD”), Kumasi (June 7, 2001); Interview
with The Very Reverand Kofi Ampansah, Wesley Methodist Church, Kumasi (June 7, 2001).
[FN251]. See Interview with Mrs. Hilary Gbedemah, Legal Officer, SNV/WiLDAF Legal
Awareness Programme, Ho (Feb. 16, 2001); see also supra note 249 and accompanying text.
[FN252]. Interview with Ms. Faustina Quaye, Kwanfifi (June 6, 2001).
[FN253]. One of the widows and the customary successor spoke to the Crowley Team about this
case. See Interview with Ama Konadu and Osei Yaw, Kwanfifi (June 6, 2001).
[FN254]. See id.
[FN255]. [1992] 2 Ghana L. Rep. 180.
[FN256]. Id. at 184 (relying on Justice Ollennu's opinions in Yaotey v. Quaye, [1961] 2 Ghana
L. Rep. 573 and Sackitey's Caveat, Re, [1962] 1 Ghana L. Rep. 180). Dr. K.O. Adinkrah,
Professor of Law at Ghana Law School, similarly disputes whether certain customary
formalities, including drinks and family consent, are legally required for a customary marriage to
be valid in his article The Essentials of a Customary Marriage: A New Approach. See Adinkrah,
supra note 228, at 40. He instead proposes that courts treat each determination as to whether a
customary marriage exists as a matter of proof and recommends that a court consider the
following factors in making this determination: (1) the length of time the couple has lived
together and have held themselves out as husband and wife; (2) what their community thinks
about their relationship; (3) absence or presence of issue of the relationship; (4) common
ventures such as farming or trading enterprises undertaken in the belief that they are married; (5)
how much they have co-mingled their money and property; (6) whether they hold themselves
bound to attend and pay for funeral expenses upon death occurring in each other's family; and (7)
if they name each other as beneficiaries in individual wills or death benefits or if they submit
income tax returns together. See id.
[FN257]. Essilfie, [1992] 2 Ghana L. Rep. at 188.
[FN258]. Id. at 185 (quoting Yaotey v. Quaye, [1961] 2 Ghana L. Rep. 573) (italics in original).
[FN259]. Id. at 187-89.
[FN260]. Id.