I am creating a series where I talk about influential people from my village in Ghana, West Africa. The series will be similar to that of the new series put out by the author of HONY (Humans of New York), at the moment he is travelling around Africa and is documenting different stories to gather a different perspective and to educate the rest of the world.
I will be posting these stories to my open Instagram account: @thebrunettetakeson. I will also try to post them here but with limited internet access I don't know how up to date this will be so I suggest that you follow me on Facebook or Instagram to see the posts in real time!
Without further ado, I want to introduce my first MHOG (doesn’t have the same nice ring to it but its ok). Her name is Madame Agnus and she is my best friend in my village. She has become my pseudo mother here and I would not be as happy as I am here in Ghana without her!!
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“This is my 5th child. 4 boys, 1 girl. I got married right after I was finished with Junior High School, like most girls, I didn’t make it to senior high school. I was pregnant with my son at 22; you know that is even late for us. So I had 2 boys and 1 girl with my first husband, but then he died in 2009. I wanted to stay in Yagha and raise my family. I had made a new family here. How could I just leave this place and go home? Can’t you see there was nothing for me there. The only way I could stay was if I married my husband’s brother, so I did. That is when I had my last 2 boys.
My oldest son just finished JHS and scored a 25 on his BEC to enter Senior High School- that is a very good score. He was to go to Kaleo SHS in November, but 3 months ago he followed one of the JHS teachers to a different village. When he left he told me he was joining the man’s church, but I’ve been to the Church, and it’s no church of any God I know. I’ve been to that village four or five times now and each time we beg the children to come home but they won’t.
Last time I saw my son and he wouldn’t even mind me, he doesn’t even look at me. I found out later, it is because he is telling the teacher—now pastor— that he left Yagha because I said I wanted to kill him. You know me, you sit with me every day, I love my children, I would never say something like that, can’t you just see he is just spreading lies. I feed my children every day, bathe them every day, love them every day, and he is just saying these mean things, things that are not true. So what are we to do? He was supposed to go to school for engineering. He is so smart. But now, nothing. You know the children said the pastor is telling them that “God doesn’t accept certificates in heaven so why should they go to school?” Ahba, what kind of church is this that is saying this nonsense? Can’t the children see that this man has put some kind of juju on them?
You know, my second husband is a busy man, so my son was to be the man of the house, but now he wants to be with this church instead of his family. He has left me to care for his four other siblings and go to farm every day. I am now 40 years, so my back is paining me, my leg is paining me. The baby never lets me sleep. So I went to the clinic and got a birth control implant, like the one you told me about. I’m done having children, it’s too much. No one in Yagha here knows I have this implant, but you and the nurses. If anyone found out they would rip if from my arm and curse me. In Ghana here it is the women’s duty to have children, but I don’t care. I can’t take care of anymore now that I am on my own." -Madame Agnus
