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Did the Akan resort to abortion in pre-colonial Ghana? Some Conjectures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Wolf Bleek
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Extract

In his survey of abortion in 400 pre-industrial societies, Devereux (1955: 161) concludes:

…there is every indication that abortion is an absolutely universal phenomenon, and that it is impossible even to construct an imaginary social system in which no woman would ever feel at least impelled to abort.

Where the universality of abortion is equated with the urge to abort, one can hardly disagree with such a statement. The question, however, of whether or not abortion ever actually occurred—or still occurs—ubiquitously and to a demographically significant extent is difficult to answer. Among the Akan in Ghana, where I did anthropological fieldwork intermittently between 1969 and 1973, abortion was widespread, a practice which seemed to have roots in precolonial traditions. People referred to abortion as sɛe adeɛ (‘spoiling the thing’).

Résumé

Les Achantis avaient-ils recours à l'avortement à l'époque précoloniale?

Bien que l'avortement soit une pratique répandue dans le Ghana d'aujourd'hui, il est probable qu'il s'agissait d'un acte rare chez le peuple Achanti de l'époque précoloniale. Certains facteurs qui poussent maintenant les femmes à avorter (éducation, mariage plus tardif et le fardeau économique que représentent les enfants supplémentaires) n'existaient pas à cette époque. De plus, la situation précoloniale des femmes rendait l'avortement inutile, si ce n'est désavantageux pour elle. Les travaux de l'auteur au sein d'une communauté Achantie ont confirmé ces points de vue. L'argument selon lequel l'avortement aurait eu lieu en cachette du genre masculin en raison du ‘silence’ des femmes reste peu convainçant.

Type
Shorter communications
Information
Africa , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , January 1990 , pp. 121 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1990

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