Positive taboos must be re-introduce - Traditional Leader

Nana Ogyedom Tsetsewa I, Mankrado Gomoa Oguan, has called for the reintroduction of positive taboos to bring back sanity into society.


She said issues of human rights had seemingly rendered taboos dormant and had somewhat plunged society into committing abhorrent acts that generally had rippling effects.

In an interview with Ghana News Agency(GNA) at Tema, Nana Tsetsewa I said, in the past, breach of taboos attracted punishment which deterred reprehensible acts from recurring.

The Gomoa Oguan Mankrado said such punishments came in the form of monetary fines or exile, depending on the intensity of the offense.

She explained that, when a man committed incest, or in the case of rape or same sex relationships, the punishment was rapid; all abominable acts attracted punishment.

According to her, due to the punishment that came with breaking taboos, people were very careful with whatever they did and said, "It was even rare to see people misbehaving or disrespecting anyhow."

Nana Tsetsewa, who is also the Osompa Hene of Gomoa Achampim Traditional Council, stated that with the enforcement of human rights laws, the authority of traditional leaders in handling such cases had diminished.

"Whenever such cases come to us, we are asked to send it to the courts or human rights advocates for adjudication, which often went unsolved sometimes," she noted.

She added that, "now people are living life anyhow, there is no fear in the people and so many abuses are going on, because the people believe that once they are taken to court, they will be released, but this wasn't so in the past when taboos were working effectively".

She called for forum with Government, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) and Educational Institutions to discuss the possibility of reintroducing some positive aspects of taboos to bring some sanity in society.