ivy fofie

Assistant Professor of communication studies, LMU

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Grace Omaboe, a TV and radio personality, started a program on Choice FM, a private radio station in Ghana, to address gendered issues. Through her show, titled Odo ne Asomdwoe, she mediated patriarchal problems between women and children, and mandated state institutions like the courts, police, and traditional authority. More than twenty years later, this genre of journalism is a mainstay in rural radio in Ghana, serving a primarily radio-based audience and targeting diasporic audiences through platforms like YouTube and Facebook, albeit in both empowering and limiting ways.

Following a long history of military rule in Ghana, the move to constitutional rule in 1993 was a welcome historical event that changed media practices. This meant that the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation’s (GBC) monopoly over broadcasting would be a thing of the past. Despite the presence of some public and private newspapers pre- and post-independence, GBC had become the mouthpiece of the nation, and many military governments used it to snatch political power. Kwame Karikari, professor and former Director General of GBC, said, “You simply had to announce on GBC 1 that there had been a new government, and the country was yours to govern.”[i]

The move to constitutional rule lifted restrictions, and newspapers mushroomed. Audrey Gadzekpo, professor and media historian, said they were called mushroom newspapers because “they seemed to have been springing up like mushrooms all over the place and like mushrooms also, their shelf life was not very long.”[ii] Grace Omaboe’s show Odo ne Asomdwoe[iii] became popular during this period. Having had a fulfilling career in the media, first as a stage actress and a children’s program show host, Omaboe branched into what I call feminist activist journalism through her radio and later television program, Odo ne Asomdwoe, in the early 2000s following the repeal of the criminal libel law by John Agyekum Kufuor’s[iv] government in 2003.

This essay will show how Omaboe defined activist journalism and paved the way for women-led activist media in contemporary programming in rural Ghana. I use “journalism” because the boundaries of journalism are blurred in Ghana, with media personnel straddling the fine lines between journalism, producing, and show hosting.[v] Also, I use gender advocacy and feminist activism interchangeably because, in Ghana, many women whose work resembles feminist advocacy refuse to take on the tag “feminist” because of its negative connotations.[vi] I interviewed Omaboe and two other women radio activists whose work followed her lead: Afia Ansaa Ampene and Mama Efe. Other interviewees included media historians and experts Audrey Gadzekpo and Kwame Karikari, and other sources, including clips from recorded shows and archived oral histories.

With a new media landscape starting alongside a new political regime, the expectation was for journalists to enjoy some freedom in their work. However, this was not the case, as the government had changed but the same characters were at play. So, subtle threats and messages were sent to loved ones, including parents, to rein in very vocal persons against the government.[vii] New media organizations were wary about their programming, lest they be slapped with a libel suit. Omaboe’s work started in this era as a light-hearted program to discuss gendered issues that mainly affect women and children. It did not gain momentum until the repeal of the criminal libel law made it easy for radio stations to diversify their program offerings and broadcast freely in languages besides the official English language.

Odo, ne Asomdwoe started at Choice FM. Choice FM was one of the many radio stations that launched during this time to test the media industry for profitability. As noted earlier, Omaboe had successfully built a career in the film industry, straddling between stage drama, dance, music, children’s programs, and other theater forms. Her work as a children’s show host on By the Fire Side in the 1980s was most significant, as it propelled her into the limelight of gender advocacy. By the Fireside was a children’s program aired every Saturday afternoon from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. on GBC. It was co-owned by Omaboe, who controlled the content, and Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, through her NGO, the 31^st December Women’s Movement,[viii] which owned the franchise.

Omaboe used By the Fire Side to project a strong archetype of an African woman who excelled in public and at home. She used African music and folktales told to children around a fire to depict pre-colonial times. Through her storytelling, she challenged gendered stereotypes in popular Ghallywood[ix] and Nollywood[x] cinema at the time, such as the wicked stepmother and old witch. Other times, she was critical of governance and told stories about these ideas, urging her female audiences to take up political power.

Contemporary research assumes that radical feminist activism is new to Ghana and manifests mainly on digital platforms driven by techno-cultural affordances. Gadzekpo’s work argued otherwise, focusing on Mabel Dove Danquah, a pioneer female journalist whose writings in newspapers post-independence pointed to women’s radicalism in media writing.[xi] It must, however, be noted that Danquah represented privileged and classed female journalists whose work was primarily in English and had the privilege of paper archives. This was not the same for radio programs, which were not recorded or stored until recently. Luckily, Omaboe had a good archive of her work, which was coupled with a few copies retrieved from GBC.

Shortly after wrapping up By the Fire Side in the early 2000s, Omaboe expanded to include adults through Odo ne Asomdwoe. The show was an hour-long magazine-style broadcasting program with resource persons who discussed many topics affecting women, including female genital mutilation, rape, sexual abuse, physical abuse, incest, and other forms of domestic violence. The program opened with a short description from Omaboe on the day’s topic; then, panel members took turns engaging in discussions. Usually, Omaboe interjected when her panelists were going off on tangents, especially when the issue was not being discussed from a feminist perspective. For example, during one of the shows, she said in response to a panelist who was victim-blaming a single mother whose husband had abandoned her:

We have normalized irresponsibility and keep saying that children will seek their fathers in the future. This is the reason why we are here. If you are not ready to have a child, stop having unprotected sex with women. If you are old enough to impregnate a woman, you should be old enough to care for a child… two people procreate, and so two people must bear the burden of care.[xii]

To this, the audience gave resounding applause. It even elicited a comeback from the initial speaker, who attempted to present a more progressive view of the topic. It also set the tone for subsequent submissions from audiences who agreed profoundly with Omaboe’s point of view. The women in the studio used the rest of the time to share stories of their struggles as single mothers, exhibiting feminists’ ethos of care and shared struggles.[xiii] The men on the platform also advised other men to be responsible for their children. This was not an isolated case, as Omaboe successfully set the agenda for a progressive gender discussion several times on the show.

Odo ne Asomdwoe grew from radio to television in 2007 when Metro TV, a private TV station, was set up. Its new home had added perks: more visibility, audience involvement, and sponsorship. Retired host Afia Ansaa Ampene said, “I didn’t think people would be interested in a program like that, or that sponsors would invest their money in it, but it happened.”[xiv] Having established this as a progressive show, Omaboe received funding from close family, textile companies, hospitals, and NGOs, local and abroad. This ensured that she secured help for affected women and children and facilitated the arrest of perpetrators. It also culminated in an orphanage for single mothers for whom she facilitated jail terms for their abusive husbands and for children who were victims of all kinds of abuse. Her orphanage provided women and children shelter, food, education, and skills-based training.

Following the success of her program, many others sprang up in the late 2000s, including Ansaa Ampene’s Mmaa Nkomo and Mama Efe’s Obra. Mama Efe said in response to my question about why she started Obra: “I had an example to follow, and I wanted something different in our local language. My media organization was opening a new branch in Kumasi, and I was like, why not start a women’s advocacy program?”[xv] Obra started broadcasting in Kumasi in 2005, catering to women from the rural areas in the Ashanti region and other parts of the country. Mama Efe built on Omaboe’s blueprint and expanded to include key government institutions, like the Women and Juvenile Unit (WAJU), the police, hospitals, and courts. Her networks ensured that women were redressed for their grievances quickly and without cost. Obra soon became Nhyira FMs flagship program, earning the most revenue from the station in five consecutive years from 2018-2023. The Nhyira FM marketing manager said, “This is our cash cow; it anchors the rest of our programs.”[xvi]

It has been over 20 years since Odo ne Asomdwoe was born in Accra. Today, every radio station established in the Ashanti region and its surroundings has a feminist activist show as part of its offerings. Notable among these are Oyerepa Afutuo, Ezra Nkomo, Lawson Efisem, Sompa Nkomo, and Akoma Mu Nsem. While these programs have had the same purpose—to adjudicate abuse against women and children_—much still needs to be done to ensure that they do not perpetuate colonial and neocolonial ideas of gender and sexuality. In addition, political, social, and economic constraints like media ownership, lack of gender-sensitive training, and advertising patterns affect the content of contemporary shows.

Although Omaboe never took on the tag “feminist,” her program fiercely expanded feminist ideals, partly because she owned and controlled her program franchise and paid media organizations to broadcast it. Contemporary shows do the opposite. Media organizations own them and employ vocal women as hosts and panelists. As a result, women have little autonomy over content and try to negotiate between feminism and patriarchal culture. Nevertheless, these shows have the potential to do more. Hopefully, in the future, a more progressive use of the term “feminist” will allow women show hosts to embrace its ethos to support women and children better.

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[i] Kwame Karikari (former Director General of GBC and retired media professor), in discussion with the author, June 2023.

[ii] Audrey Gadzekpo, interview by Collison Lori, May 28, 2018, interview 3, transcript and recording, J.H Kwabena Nketsia archives at the University of Ghana.

[iii] Translated as Love and Peace.

[iv] John Agyekum Kufuor was the second democratically elected president in Ghana. He was president from January 2001 to January 2009.

[v] Yeboah-Banin, Abena A., Ivy M. Fofie, and Audrey S. Gadzekpo. “Status of Women in the Ghanaian Media: Are Women Conscious of their Own Inequalities?,” Journal of African Media Studies 16, no. 2 (2024): 197-215.

[vi] Arnfred, Signe, and Akosua Adomako Ampofo. African Feminist Politics of Knowledge: Tensions, Challenges, Possibilities, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2010.

[vii] Audrey Gadzekpo, (professor and media historian) in discussion with the author, June 2023.

[viii] Nana Konadu was the first First Lady of Ghana after constitutional rule in 1993. During her husband Jerry John Rawlings’ rule under dictatorship in 1983, she set up the 31^st December Women’s Movement as a gender advocacy NGO. Her NGO provides skill-based training and formal education for underprivileged women and children. Dee Ivy Mingyase Fofie, “Print Media Coverage of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings as a Presidential Candidate in 2011” (Mphil. diss., University of Ghana, 2016) for a more detailed description of the NGO’s work.

[ix] The Ghanaian movie industry.

[x] The Nigerian movie industry.

[xi] Gadzekpo, Audrey, The Hidden History of Women in Ghanaian Print Culture. Palgrave Macmillan US, 2005.

[xii] Grace Omaboe, Odo ne Asomdwoe, Episode, “Who Gives Birth and Who Raises Children” 4^th July 2003, Grace Omaboe’s archives.

[xiii] Puar, Jasbir K. “‘I Would Rather Be a Cyborg than a Goddess’: Becoming-Intersectional in Assemblage Theory” In Feminist Theory Reader, edited by Carole McCann, Seung-kyung Kim, and Emek Ergun (Routledge, 2020), 405-415.

[xiv] Afia Ansaa Ampene (retired show host, Nmaa Nkomo) in discussion with the author, July 2023.

[xv] Mama Efe (contemporary show host, Obra) in discussion with the author, June 2023.

[xvi] Prince Asamoah (marketing manager, Nhyira FM) in discussion with the author, June 2023.