malachytochukwu: My very close friend is a ghanian. In Nigeria, the husband is seen as having " more right" over the children than the wife. Hence we hear such thing as "to serve our fatherland" in Nigeria's national anthem. However, in Ghana, the reverse is the case. The wife is seen as "the owner" of the children. Their national anthem also talks of "motherland" instead of the fatherland obtainable in Nigeria's anthem. The question is: in a situation where a Nigerian man is married to a Ghanian lady, paraventure there is a problem in their marriage which eventually leads to divorce, who will have "more right" over the children? This is a real situation, so your comments and contributions will be highly appreciated. Ghanians in the house should also say something from their own perspective please. Thank you.

JiggamanGh:

Depends on what country they are in, and in Ghana it is only the akans that practice the matrineal descent system. The mother will only get the child if the case goes to akan chief or king and i only see such cases in village setting. In a city setting, the courts and judge decides the case and the child will go to the more resourceful parent. I believe the same system will apply in Nigeria should the case be held in a court.

JiggamanGh:


Depends on what country they are in, and in Ghana it is only the akans that practice the matrineal descent system. The mother will only get the child if the case goes to akan chief or king and i only see such cases in village setting. In a city setting, the courts and judge decides the case and the child will go to the more resourceful parent. I believe the same system will apply in Nigeria should the case be held in a court.

drealnamdy:
Tor...this one na gbese!! Who send am go ghana go marry in the first place

malachytochukwu:
My very close friend is a ghanian. In Nigeria, the husband is seen as having " more right" over the children than the wife. Hence we hear such thing as "to serve our fatherland" in Nigeria's national anthem. However, in Ghana, the reverse is the case. The wife is seen as "the owner" of the children. Their national anthem also talks of "motherland" instead of the fatherland obtainable in Nigeria's anthem. The question is: in a situation where a Nigerian man is married to a Ghanian lady, paraventure there is a problem in their marriage which eventually leads to divorce, who will have "more right" over the children? This is a real situation, so your comments and contributions will be highly appreciated. Ghanians in the house should also say something from their own perspective please. Thank you.

malachytochukwu:
Its true, however there was a case where both parents are Ghanaians, the court ruled in favour of the wife but because the husband is more endowed the child refused to go with the mother and based on that ground the man was allowed to take care of the child. This was not in a village setting though.

IloveGH:


If you had asked your Ghanaian friend, he/she would have told you that the bolded is inaccurate.

First of all, the Ghanaian anthem doesn’t have motherland in it….. and both motherland and fatherland mean the same thing, ‘homeland’. Saying one or the other has nothing to do with a country, but the individual’s preference.

Secondly, not all Ghanaians practice matrilineal system. Only the Akans do. Not even all the Akans, and it’s only for inheritance purposes, and not who has right or owns the child. It is still the father who names the children not the mother, and the children bare their father’s last name, not their mother’s. In addition, the father is supposed to name the child after his family member (for example, his mom, dad, uncle, auntie, brother, sister, etc.) and the woman has no say whatsoever. So as you can see, the system is still very much patriarchal, as the man still has more power over the woman.

In case there is a divorce, it’s not different from a patrilineal system. Younger children tend to stay with the mothers most of the time, while some fathers usually take the older children. If there is a disagreement, they can battle it out in court for a judge to decide.

BTW, historically, the Akans use to practice patrilineal. The matrilineal system was later adopted so that in case a woman secretly has an affair and becomes pregnant, that child cannot inherit the husband’s property or chieftaincy title. As they say, only a woman knows the father of her child. The worst scenario would be, if another man impregnates the Ashanti king’s wife and the child grows up and becomes the king of Ashanti, LOLz! .... The matrilineal was therefore adopted so that property and title would be inherited by the female lineage. It's not about giving power or rights to the woman. The man still remains the head and the woman the tail

IloveGH:


You are still generalizing. Not all Ghanaians practice matrilineal system, and the couple you are talking about may not even be Akans. The woman getting custody has nothing to do with having power over the man.

Even here in Canada, a judge will consider the mother first, unless she is unfit, before the child would be given to the father. I have a female Yoruba friend who has a child with a Jamaican guy. They went to court and she was given custody of the child.

JiggamanGh:


Thats not the reason why akans adopted the matrineal system. Back in the day the ashanti king had a problem and seek help from the gods, but the gods said in order for them to help him he must sacrifice a child from his family.

He went to his first wife to give him one of her sons but she said no, then went to second wife she also refused. He went to his sister and his sister agreed to give him her son and from that point on the King made a proclaimation that the king can only cone from the mom side of the family. Thats why till this date tou cant be a king even if your dad was king in most akan tribe. Since then wveryone in the tribe have been tracing their lineage through the mother.

Chillisauce:
Nigerian women should start migrating to ghana Asap!

nigeria no favor women at all at all.

ghanians sabi take care of women too. very straight forward people.
very nice people.

as per topic, no idea

IloveGH:


LOL!

You are right about the bolded, but the OP has no knowledge about Ghana. What he wrote is far from the truth.

Chillisauce:


im very sure, takoradi is my second home

they are really nice. They know what courtesy is. even the ones that didnt go through high level education. And they very much respect women.

charlie