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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Ghana
Index
Prior to the advent of British imperial rule, traditional law,
which sought to maintain social equilibrium and to ensure communal
solidarity, governed social relations among Ghana's peoples. Among
the Talensi ethnic group of northern Ghana, for example, homicide
was viewed as a transgression against the earth, one's ancestors,
and the victim's lineage. Deterrence from crime or rehabilitation
of an offender were not objectives of the legal system. Among the
Asante, the same concern with social equilibrium and communal
solidarity prevailed. Serious crimes such as murder, unintentional
homicide, suicide, sexual offenses, treason, cowardice in war,
witchcraft, and crimes against the chief were termed oman
akyiwad, offenses that threatened the mystical communion
between the community on the one hand and one's ancestors and
Asante gods on the other. The authorities punished such behavior
with a sentence of death in the case of murder or by the sacrifice
of an appropriate animal in the case of lesser offenses.
Efise, or minor crimes, did not rupture this relationship;
hence, an offender could repay his debt to society with a ritual
impat, or compensation.
The British imposed upon Ghana's traditional societies criminal
laws and penal systems designed to "keep the multitude in order"
rather than to preserve the equilibrium between man and traditional
gods. The development of penal law, however, was uneven. From 1828
to 1842, a council of merchants exercised criminal jurisdiction in
and around British forts on the coast. The council often abused
this power, thereby alienating many Ghanaians. After creating the
Colony of the Gold Coast in 1874, the British gradually reformed
and improved the legal and the penal systems. After more than a
century of legal evolution, the application of traditional law to
criminal acts disappeared. Since 1961 the criminal law administered
by the court system has been statutory and based on a Criminal
Code. This code is founded on British common law, doctrines of
equity, and general statutes which were in force in Britain in
1874, as amended by subsequent Ghanaian ordinances.
Data as of November 1994
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