Dipo and the Adolescent Krobo Girl: Redemption of a Contested Puberty Rite for Contemporary Sexual Health Education

Introduction

The Dangme people’s dipo and the Bragro of the Ashanti in Ghana, are the two most prominent and well-preserved traditional puberty initiation rites for girls in Ghana (Osei-Adu, n.d.). In most African communities, there are three initiation rites, child-naming, puberty, and marriage. While child-naming and marriage involve both men and women, dipo and Bragro is strictly a female initiation rite. According to Brown (2018), a female initiation rite “consists of one or more prescribed ceremonial events that are mandatory for all girls in a given society” (p. 838). A female adolescent qualifies for dipo rite after her first menstruation and is supposed to be a virgin at the time of the rite’s performance (A Safe Hands for Mothers, 2017 & B. D. Amoatey and N. Kaney, personal communication, October 15, 2014).

The Dangmes comprise Ada, Ningo, Krobo, and the Shai tribes found in the south-eastern parts of Greater Accra and south-western portion of the eastern regions. Even though all the Dangme tribes perform dipo, there are minute differences in the way the rite is performed from one group to another. There are also many similarities in the way the ritual is performed and its overall significance as an essential cultural initiation rite used to transition adolescents from childhood into womanhood. Besides its role as a transitional rite, the value systems of dipo also aims at preventing sexual promiscuity and premarital sex among adolescents before they participate in the ritual. A virginity/pregnancy qualification is one of the central tenets of the rite. A candidate’s failure of her test is considered a severe taboo that is punishable by banishment from the tribe.

Christian religious beliefs and secular and social recognition of the rights of women and the privacy to their bodies have challenged the Dangme people’s continued adherence and performance of this well-known puberty rite. Christians, especially those of the evangelical and pentecostal traditions, have cast dipo as immoral (because dipo candidates expose their bodies to public gaze) and heathen (because of the animist rituals incorporated into the rite) and therefore, dissuade their followers from participating in it. According to these Christian traditions, adherence to dipo reaffirms the individual’s and their families’ belief in ‘other gods’ besides the Christian God (Teyegaga, 1985, & Oklemeh, 2010). Christian converts are expected to reject heathenism and commit themselves to their newfound belief in Jesus Christ (Akande, 1988), and therefore, performing and or participating in the dipo puberty rite runs counter to the tenets of the Christian life.

Contemporary Ghanaian society also frowns on performing dipo puberty rite because the candidates are paraded, almost naked, throughout their communities. This exposure of the candidates’ bodies is viewed by contemporary society and women’s advocacy groups as a backward and outdated culture that publicly shames young girls while bringing ridicule from their male peers. Despite these contemporaneous challenges, the Dangme people and dipo adherents insist on the values of the rite and the need for its continued performance and sustenance. These challenges to performing dipo is manifested in the continued decline in adolescents who participate in the ritual. This decline has led to some significant changes in how the ceremony is performed. Despite these contemporary challenges to delivering dipo and the decrease in the number of adolescents participating in it, the rite has mostly survived with some few changes (Schroeder & Danquah, 2000; Agra & Gbadegbe, 2014; Abbey, 2016; A Safe Hands for Mothers & Marlow Film Productions, 2017).