“Who will believe you?”: 6 stories of speaking up about sexual abuse in Ghana

*Trigger warning: This story features multiple accounts of sexual abuse and harassment, including child sexual abuse.

On 15 October, JoyNews aired Manasseh Azure Awuni’s investigation into Obuasi Senior High Technical School, where students accuse their headmaster of sexually abusing them.

Five girls spoke to him at first, and within days the number had risen to 19.

As the story spread, so did the comments asking why the girls hadn’t spoken sooner and whether they could be trusted.

For many survivors, those questions are exactly why they stay quiet, sometimes for years.

These six stories show what speaking up can look like in Ghana, and why so many people never do.

My mother told me to take it to God — Akosua, 26*

I was 13 when my mother’s cousin came to stay with us in Kumasi while he looked for work. Nobody thought twice about him sleeping in the hall, because he was family. It started a few weeks after he arrived and lasted almost a year. When I finally told my mother, she was quiet for a long time, and then she said we should take it to God and not “spoil the family’s name.” He moved out a few months later, and nobody ever mentioned it again. I didn’t tell anyone else until I was 24, when I started therapy and realised that what my mother called a family matter was a crime.

The boys in my house laughed for a week — Kwesi, 23*

In my second year at university, a senior I looked up to invited me to his room to talk about a group project. I won't describe what happened, but I left that room feeling like I’d lost something I couldn’t name. I told my roommate, thinking he’d understand, and by the weekend half the hall knew. They didn’t call it abuse. They made jokes about it and asked what I had done to “invite” it. I stopped going to lectures for a month. To this day, my parents think I just had a bad semester.

I needed the grade, so I kept quiet — Efua, 29*

After my final-year project defence, my lecturer called me to his office and told me my grade depended on how “cooperative” I was. I walked out, and my grade came back lower than I expected. When I complained to the department, one of the female administrators told me to be careful, because “these things can follow you.” I graduated, but I’ve never forgiven myself for not pushing harder. When I saw the Obuasi story, I cried, because I knew exactly what those girls meant when they said nobody listened.

My aunt said I should be flattered — Yaw, 31*

When I was 12, a house help who lived with us would come into my room at night. I didn’t have the words for it, and when I finally told an aunt years later, she laughed and said that boys should be happy when women “show them things.” I’ve heard that joke so many times since then, at weddings, in WhatsApp groups and on the radio, and every time I laugh along, because what else can you do? It took me until I was almost 30 to say the word “abuse” out loud.

My boss was untouchable — Naa, 34*

I worked at a company in Accra where everybody knew about the deputy director. He would comment on your body, ask you to stay late, and touch you when nobody was looking. I reported him to HR with two other women, and within six months all three of us were either moved to other departments or let go. He was promoted the following year. I now work for myself, partly because I never want to be in that position again.

The police asked what I was wearing — Abena, 21*

A man followed me from the trotro station to my hostel gate and grabbed me before a security man chased him off. That night I went to the police station with my friend. The officer on duty asked what I was wearing and why I was walking alone at that time. We left without making a statement. A month later, I heard he had done the same thing to another girl on my street.

None of the people in these stories went to the police and got justice. Some were laughed at, some were told to pray, and some lost their jobs or grades for speaking up. As Ghana watches the Obuasi case unfold, these are the stories behind why so many survivors choose silence, and why the girls who did speak up deserve to be heard.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual abuse, you can report it at the nearest police station or Social Welfare office.

*Names in the story have been changed to protect the identity of the victims