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ABSTRACT
This article discusses the fading of bragoro, an important puberty rite of passage for girls after their first menstruation and its (gender) implications in Akan society today. As one of the few rites performed by women, bragoro was significant because it prepared a girl into womanhood and for marriage; to a large extent, it also checked pre-marital sex and pregnancy. But today, bragoro is no more performed (or only traces remain). This chapter explores effects of social and cultural changes in Ghana and in Akan society on the rite. So-called modernization, Christianity/Islam, Western education, and urbanization are all viewed as having affected the performance of bragoro. As HIV/AIDS persists in Ghana, there are calls on government to institute laws to enforce the performance of bragoro as part of HIV preventive measures. Justification for this analysis is based on the assumption by many in Ghana that the loss of such indigenous practices threatens traditional values and is contributing to declining moral standards in local communities.
Keywords: Puberty rites, gender, lineage, values, fading practices, implications, Ghana
INTRODUCTION
In June 2013, a traditional ruler in an Akan community advocated the reintroduction of the 'bragoro' puberty rite to help reduce HIV infections among the youth.1 In his view, the focus of Ghana's strategic plan of reducing new HIV infections by 50% at the end of 2015 will be a mirage if pragmatic measures are not put in place to help the youth to abstain from pre-marital sex and multiple sex partners.
This is not the first time a chief2 has made such a call. In 2003 when I did fieldwork on HIV/AIDS in Ghana similar calls had come from other chiefs to help curb the epidemic, which was causing many AIDS-related deaths. Such calls also reflect the view that there is a general breakdown of traditional structures about sexuality in Akan society, which is dangerous in regards to vulnerability to HIV (Anarfi, 1993). Certain cultural values that used to restrict people's (sexual) behaviour have been abandoned and lost or are losing their effectiveness. Bragoro is one such rite that is seen as completely faded away in Akan society.
Anthropologists, sociologists and other scholars on indigenous cultures have projected that the evolving super-culture of the post-modern world...