Board Chair of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, has claimed that contrary to public perception that Ghanaian values and norms frown on LGBT+ activities, there is evidence to show that such activities exist in some local cultures.
Speaking on Joy Newsfile on Saturday, March 2, 2024, Prof. Gadzekpo alluded that Ghanaian cultures, including Ga and Nzema, have homosexual practices embedded in them.
“The whole argument Mr Sam George advances, and it seems very logical that if you go into our history, because Kojo Besia is a coinage, it doesn’t mean that we practice it; look, I have heard people who were against the bill but have admitted that when you look into some of our cultural practices, there are homosexual practices. It didn’t come from the West,” she stated.
Probed which specific Ghanaian cultures had traits of homosexual practices, Prof Gadzekpo pointed to the people of Ga and Nzema.
“Which one? Well, I was in a training, and somebody told us that when you look in… there are practices in Ga culture, there are practices in Nzema culture, for example, that sociologists have documented,” she stated.
The Human Rights and Family Values Bill, otherwise known as the Anti-Gay Bill, was recently approved by the Parliament of Ghana and is currently awaiting presidential approval to become law.
However, according to Prof. Gadzekpo, the law which criminalises same-sex activities is an affront to the fundamental human rights permitted by the Constitution of Ghana.
She has thus served notice that CDD will seek the annulment of the bill at the Supreme Court if it is so passed into law.
