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Takyiwaa Manuh The Intestate Succession Law of 1985is part of legislation in Ghana which seeks to resolve some long-standing issues affecting the inheritance of property and the status and rights of wives and children. Together with other laws affecting marriage and divorce, and family economic accountability,1 these constitute an attempt at legislative reform of some aspects of the "customary law," which has been acknowledged as causing hardship and injustice for women and children (Asante 1975; Bentsi-Enchil 1964;Ollenu 1966). The passage of the Intestate Succession Law marked a success for churches, traditional authorities,2 and women's groups3 who had long pressed for changes in the marital laws of Ghana but were frustrated by colonial and legislative resistance. At the same time, the passage of the law reflected the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) government's attempt to conform with international standards and recommendations that urged a review of legal codes relating to the rights of women and children in order to end discrimination against them. Although the progress toward this legislation has been long and difficult, the law abolished for all practical purposes the stigma of illegitimacyapplied by the state legal system , under which a wife and children could be legitimate for some purposes , but illegitimate for others. The ambiguous status of women and children derived from the development under colonialism of what has been termed "legal pluralism"—the operation of several legal systems in tandem (Allott 1960;1962). In most colonies in Africa the predominantly Western legal system constructed by the colonial power, and modified to differing degrees bycustomary law, had set the conditions for the admissibility of other rights and legal systems (Woodman 1988). Now, more than thirty years after independence, many African governments are addressing familial and gender inequities thatpersist in modern as well as customary law and which have the effect of economically handicapping women and children. Chapter 2 Wives, Children, and Intestate Succession in Ghana The Intestate Succession Law (PNDCL.lll) appeared to meet with initial approval, particularly from urban women and women's organizations. It is even claimed that some men in rural communities felt relieved that the issue had been settled by law and that they would not have to be seen as contravening customary norms by making dispositions in favor of their wives and children instead of their traditional families. There is still no unanimous position, however, among the general public regarding the nature of a wife's interest in the property of a divorced or deceased spouse; and the extended families of deceased men have not yet reconciled themselves to the requirement that they relinquish property of their children. Both of these problems point to the continuing need for the involvement and vigilance of the state and women's groups in looking at the consequences of the lawand monitoring the economic issues that affect the wellbeing of wives and children. In most Ghanaian ethnic groups, small children come under the immediate day-to-day supervision and care of mothers who actively contribute to their economic support, despite the fact that their membership in the larger and more extended "family" may make them the formal responsibility of either the father's family or the mother's family. This means that the economic conditions affecting all Ghanaian women, whether they belong to patrilineal or matrilineal communities, is an important concern. Women constitute 51.3 percent of the Ghanaian population of approximately 15 million,4 but they constitute nearly 70 percent of rural dwellers and about 52 percent of workers in agriculture, fishing, and forestry. Despite their predominance in rural work, only 26 percent of farm owners or managers are women, many of whom are unpaid workers on the farms of their husbands or extended families. A significant number of rural women occupy a vulnerable status, resorting to agricultural wage work when economic decline occurs (Oppong, Okali, and Houghton 1975). Women constitute 89 percent of workers in trade and sales, with most reaping only small profits from market activities in rural and urban areas. Since marriage is expected of most Ghanaian men and women, less than 5 percent of women have never been married, according to census reports. The median age at first marriage for illiterate women is about eighteen years, and for women with secondary education and beyond, the median age at marriage is twenty-two years. As a result of early marriage, the high status associated with large families, and the low rate of contraceptive use, total fertility...

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