Migrants, Queenmothers, and Gender-Based Violence in Ghana

Migration is a significant risk factor to experiencing gender-based violence (GBV) and women who migrate without their relatives often lack help to prevent the problem. This project is on the prevention of and responses to GBV within migrant communities in Ghana. We will employ narrative methodology to study the help- and justice-seeking behaviours of female Nigerian immigrants in response to two forms of GBV - intimate partner violence (IPV) and non-partner perpetrated sexual violence.

We will then use applied theatre and educational illustrated stories (comics) to raise awareness of how survivors can access services and justice and how their host community and female traditional leaders - 'queenmothers' - can assist them.

Our prior research in Botswana, Ghana, Liberia, and South Africa has shown that female survivors disclose incidents of GBV to female traditional leaders (FTLs). FTLs prioritise the prevention of further violence, and they sometimes support survivors of sexual violence to report the matter to the police and to seek medical attention.

However, survivors are more likely to inform relatives of GBV and it is these relatives who are most likely to intervene to prevent IPV and who support survivors of both forms of GBV in accessing justice and services. What happens to migrants who may not have family present in Ghana? To what extent are they sufficiently integrated into host communities to engage with FTLs?

Women are disproportionately affected by GBV. This study focuses on Nigerian citizens, who make up the majority of migrants in Ghana. Working with Nigerian migrant communities in Ho and Accra, we will explore: How female migrants seek help to prevent IPV and sexual violence, and to hold perpetrators accountable.

How the absence of relatives, and migrants' existence on the margins of their community, affect help- and justice-seeking behaviour. How communities can better support migrants affected by GBV and, in particular, how queenmothers can tailor their interventions to serve Nigerian and other migrant communities.

We will interview Nigerian migrants who have experienced or observed GBV, members of their host community, queenmothers, and relevant community organizations. In these interviews, we will use narrative storytelling to encourage female migrants to describe and make sense of their experiences and to reflect on possibilities for change by creating a story of their desired outcomes in terms of the responses of both state and non-state actors to GBV.

These stories will be adapted into plays that will be performed in community centres and on radio. We will also convert their stories into illustrations for social media.

Though the research site is Ghana, migrant communities in other African countries, and elsewhere in the world, similarly have limited access to formal and informal structures to prevent and respond to GBV. The study, therefore, has relevance beyond Ghana. The theatre productions, radio broadcast, and comic strips, will be used to educate communities on best practices to prevent and address GBV.

They will also inform migrants on where and how to seek help when affected by GBV. Additionally, we will draw on the findings to train FTLs on how to help affected migrants and will develop a policy brief that will feed into GBV policymaking at the national level. These interventions have the potential to benefit migrants by preventing GBV and guiding state and non-state actors on how to address the problem.