Widowhood & Land Rights

FACILITATOR / EDITOR

There are an estimated 50,000 widows in the Upper East region of Ghana. Traditional rites and practices vary between communities, however the loss of land by women following the death of their husbands is consistent across communities.

In 2016, ten widows from the small village of Kulbia joined a participatory video process to explore and document the land issues affecting widows in their community. The group comprised women of different ages and diverse experiences, all of them are illiterate and none have ever operated video equipment prior to the workshop. They learned basic video skills through a series of experimental games and exercises; working together over several months to create a powerful video on corruption in the community and the resulting loss of land by those who are most vulnerable: widows.

Their short video ‘Pakorpa Susangho’ (Widow’s Cry) was completed in November 2016. It has been watched by audiences around the world (including screenings at UN Habitat III in Ecuador and the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Panama) and has brought about significant changes locally. I facilitated this project while working with InsightShare, on behalf of Transparency International and in collaboration with Ghana Integrity Initiative and the Widows and Orphans Movement.