ADWOA runs down the street clutching her torn clothes with her swollen face covered in blood. Following her in-tow with tears streaming down her face is Serwa, her three-year old daughter.
Not far away, Adwoa's husband, Kofi, is running after her with a pestle that looks like it has just been pulled out of a busy mortar.
Minutes after catching up with her, Kofi hits Adwoa on the back with the pestle, which sends her tumbling down into an open drain. He stands akimbo, screaming and calling her names.
"Get up, get up and let me teach you a lesson. Let me teach you how a woman must talk to her husband."
There is no response from Adwoa. Just then, spectators begin to gather and some restrain Kofi while he rains insults on his wife. Not even the wailings of his daughter can stop him.
With the speed of a cat, two young men entered and pulled Adwoa out of the gutter but she laid motionless on the ground surrounded by the multitude.
Then one person screamed, "She is not breathing. Is she dead?"
A number of cases of spousal killings have been reported in both the print and electronic media since the beginning of the year and the question is: What would make a relationship which was once full of love and life, suddenly turn sour and end on a bitter and acrimonious note?
Report by HRAC
Spousal killing is the intentional killing of one’s partner either by the husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend or any other intimate relations.
Last year, the Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC) published a 42-page report titled “Deadly Relationships and Toxic Bonds, Spousal Killings and Rival Killings in Ghana”.
The research was based on media report by some selected media houses including Myjoyonline, Modernghana.com, Peace FM online, Ghanaian Times, Daily Graphic, Ghana News Agency and the Daily Guide.
According to the report, 53 cases of wife killings, husband killings and rival murders were reported in a period of two years. Forty-two were cases of wife killings, five cases of husband killings and six cases of rival murders were reported from January 2010 to July 2012.
The report also revealed that most of the cases were accompanied by motives of domestic violence or abuse, infidelity or belief of infidelity, separation or ending of a relationship (or refusal to re-establish a relationship) or on-going arguments between the two.
The report recorded an alarming number of cases during the period of two years. Therefore, it is very clear that further research would disclose an increase in the number of cases nationwide.
This year’s report
This year, in the first two-and-a half months, the Daily Graphic carried stories such as “Man beheads girlfriend”, “Man sets lover ablaze, killed by fire”, “Man attacks former girlfriend”, “Man stabs another to death over woman”, among others.
Content analysis of the Daily Graphic by this reporter, from January to March 10, showed that about nine cases have been reported in the paper during the period with three female deaths and one male death.
This meant that the number of females becoming victims of male abuse were more than that of the males, despite the fact that it happens to both sexes.
There was a report on an attempted murder where the suspect inflicted the lover with machete wounds. There was one rivalry killing where a man killed the other man for been with his former girlfriend.
There were also three reported cases of family relations killing their step-daughters, niece and uncles for one reason or the other. There were also cases where the suspects committed suicide after engaging in the act of killing or attempted murder.
Most of the cases were accompanied by the motives of domestic violence. For instance, in the case of the woman who was beheaded, neighbours said, “The suspect was fond of subjecting his girlfriend to severe beatings on daily basis.”
According to statistics by the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), 15,495 cases of domestic violence were recorded in 2011.
In an interview with a renowned marriage counsellor, Mr Ogochukwu Nweke, he said, “Most men use violence and the beating of their spouse as a way of settling disputes and that becomes a part of them.”
Consequently, he said this habit gets out of hand and the day of reckoning comes when they beat them to death out of rage and provocation.
He said some men deliberately plan and kill their spouses for reasons such as their inability to forgive and taking their properties.
An example is one of the reported cases in the Daily Graphic which stated that a dispute between a 58-year-old business man and his concubine over the ownership of a building they had both acquired had resulted in the death of the man.
He added that the causes of this violence are mostly infidelity and misunderstandings of domestic issues which may happen between the two in the relationship.
“Instead of using ways such as dialogue to treat some of these issues, some men prefer violence, which to them is the best way of showing that they are the men,” he said.
Abusive relationship
Most women, despite the pain and beatings that they go through in abusive relationships, still prefer to stay in the relationship or marriage.
According to Mr Nweke, some women would stay in a relationship for fear of losing their partners due to the intimacy between the two.
Also the fear of losing their financial dependency is another factor.
“Especially where children are involved and the woman doesn’t have any business to sustain herself and the children, she would be forced to stay in such a relationship due to financial problems.”
Some women, he said, would stay in an abusive relationship because of shame.
He explained that some women felt ashamed to complain to their family and friends that their spouses was abusing them, so she would prefer to keep the pain within.
“Sometimes, these women sustain internal injuries and they keep it to themselves ,which even kills them slowly,” he added.
Recommendation
He advised women to be financially independent so that they would be able to fend for themselves and support their partners financially. “The woman should not necessarily have everything, but a business that she could rely on for a living,” he said.
He also recommended the need for separation when there were serious disputes in a relationship or marriage, adding that it helped to calm down nerves.
“There is the need to study your partner to know how he or she reacts to provocative issues and managed pain; in this case you would know how to deal with him or her,” he advised.
Counselling, he said, was also another way to deal with misunderstandings occurring in relationships instead of resorting to violence that can lead to death.
Counselling could be by an expert or an elderly person in the family.
“Sometimes, there is just the need to also share with trusted friends and family when these abuses take place to find solutions to the causes before they get out of hand,” he said.
A case study titled “Violence against women: The Ghanaian case” by the Department of Geography and Resources Development Ghana led by Prof. Elizabeth Ardayofio Schandorf in 2005, also confirmed that men generally beat their wives.
“The men generally explained that wife beating is a way of correcting their wives, but they also accepted that it is a wrong practice,” the study stated.
The report also revealed that 25 per cent of the males reported that they beat their partners whiles 72 per cent of all respondents responded that wife beating was common in their communities.
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