| Every year in the spring, Krobo girls become women, or do they? The krobos, a small ethnic group of Eastern Ghana, have for generations practiced the dipo, a series of rituals held for the passage of girls into adulthood. For two days, a group of young girls will be kept together in a house and taught by older women the rudiments of being women. They will eat nothing but traditional food prepared on the spot, and drink only rain water. The dipo formerly indicated that a woman was ready to take a husband, but important changes in the ritual are threatening its meaning and purpose.
While the dipo remains an important step in the life of every Krobo woman, some of its components are conflicting with the religious values that are at the center of the Ghanaian society. Many churches and parents have, over recent years, opposed to the requirement for dipo initiates to show their breasts for part of the ceremony. “The exposure of the private parts bothers me,” said 16-year-old Joyce Kwesi as she prepared to take part to the rituals in Somanya, Eastern Ghana. “I was taught in Sunday school that as a female, it is ungodly for me to expose myself […] because my body is the temple of the Lord.”
To remedy the situation and prevent the disappearance of the rituals, fetish priestesses in charge of the ceremonies have agreed to let younger children take part in the dipo – the bodies of young children being less shocking than those of teenage girls. The rituals are nowadays performed by children as young as three years of age, but no longer indicate the readiness for a woman to get married. Yet, for many Krobo women, the importance of the dipo as a necessary prologue to marriage remains unquestionable. “My mother told me no man would marry me if I don’t perform the dipo,” said Kwesi, “and should I get pregnant, I would be banished from the town and disgrace my family.”
It is the parents who decide when their daughter is ready to perform the rituals, and the decision is often heavily influenced by financial factors. The dipo can be an expensive affair, as parents must purchase heavy strings of beads to adorn the body of their daughters. With initiates every year younger, parents have realized that a smaller waist means smaller expenses, therefore contributing to lowering the minimum age.
However, the reduction of the required age isn’t the only change the dipo has seen in recent years, and the rituals are quickly changing to adapt to the increasingly modern way of life of Ghanaian families. Formerly the affair of weeks - sometimes months - the ceremony is now carried out over a weekend to accommodate work and school schedules. The same way, the mandatory shaving of the hair for initiates can now be avoided for a nominal fee ($0.40). Many parents chose to pay to save their family the criticism of classmates or fellow church-goers who disapprove the practice. Because Krobo men needed a way to be sure their bride-to-be had completed the dipo, markings were traditionally made on the wrist of initiates with a sharp blade, leaving unmistakable scars. This has now been replaced by a much less painful process: photography. A man will simply need to ask parents for photographic evidence of their daughter performing the dipo to be convinced.
Across Ghana, as elsewhere in Africa, culture is often a strange mix of modern religious values and animist beliefs. If rituals such as the dipo aren’t necessarily threatened of disappearing, they are certainly adapting to an involving social context. Still, for many Krobo women, there’s no doubt about the importance of a practice that goes back hundreds of years. “I will perform the rites when I attain the age of 14,” said 12-year-old Thhiyat Mohammed. “It’s a tradition that goes on from generation to generation. I will get a good husband to marry; the initiate is respected in the community.” | | |
