Tag: rape

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Pimpinaa MiCheck Review

Pimpinaa – Stories by the Fireside is a modern, pidgin, spoken-word, love story, wrapped in conversations between poets embodying different characters.

It is a poetry duet, sung by voices from Ghana and North America exploring the different stages in the love cycle to explore the unfamiliar and familiar, in a different light to reveal another side of the sentiment known as love.

Pimpinaa Album Cover

Ghana-based poet S.Losina and American born spoken word artist ShaiYaa, embark on a journey that ShaiYaa says would not have been possible, had she not gone abroad.

ShaiYaa studied in Ghana for four months in 2018 and underwent an experience that reshaped her creative trajectory.

Mutual love for Ghana and pidgin connected S.Losina and ShaiYaa. Their collaboration resulted in a documentary-style album of love showcasing its different sides.

The scenarios in each track of Pimpinaa, are familiar, and like parables, hold a moral. The artists use rhyme, pidgin, accent, and culture to strike a contrast, creating a unique viewpoint of the various issues discussed.

Aside from a unique viewpoint, the project explores relationships between western and African cultures.

The spoken word style by each artist, characterized by language and accent, reflects the cracks and beauty within the relationship of love and cultures.

Ignorance is one of these cracks explored in this river of words. The artists do well to showcase it and the different scenarios and cultures.

To some degree, the album mirrors the stereotypical nature of people to other cultures and reveals that often in love, assumption is at play.

The content is solid and well written; featuring themes ranging from puppy love, abuse, hope, family, and ignorance.

S.Losina’s emotion is felt in each character he plays. His rhyme scheme and humor are well placed; articulating the typical Ghanaian attitude to the scenarios cast in the project.

ShaiYaa’s voice is beautiful but lacks the emotion which we see in S.Losina. We, therefore, hear rather than feel the emotions of her characters. ShaiYaa must however be praised for embracing and falling in love with pidgin. Her pronunciation of certain pidgin words is honorable but sounds lackluster in my ears. It however doesn’t take away from the beauty in her work and the project as a whole.

The interludes in the project must also be recognized. They are brief but important transitions keeping the album together.

As the name of the album goes, Pimpinaa is a call declaring that a new voice of poetry is here. Not only for the west or the diaspora but for the Ghanaian as well.

From the cover art to the interesting conclusion in the final track, Pimpinaa is a different brew of the poetry I am used to.

“I hope say this no be the last we go hear” from ShaiYaa and S. Losina.

Listen to Pimpinaa here

Written by Hondred Percent

About the poets

ShaiYaa

ShaiYaa is a 22-year-old Black creative who was born and raised in Connecticut, USA but relocated to North Carolina in 2013; she earned a BA in English and TESOL certificate from East Carolina University in 2019. While moving to the south played a major role in who she is today, four months spent studying abroad in Ghana in 2018 completely transformed the trajectory of her life as a fiction and nonfiction writer, poet, and spoken word artist. ShaiYaa uses her pen and voice to uplift, heal, and bring light to a world desperately in need of it.

Follow her work here

Follow Shaiyaa on Instagram @piercingsandpineapples

S.Losina

S.Losina is a Ghanaian born creative hailing from Nima.

His love for art from a young age forged his creativity and during a stage performance after high school, was discovered by one of Ghana’s renowned movie directors, Abu Idi.

The director helped him gain a scholarship at Ghallywood Academy of film acting where he studied acting, writing, and voice training, to master his craft.

As a poet, he draws inspiration from his surroundings and utilizes pidgin often in his works.

Not limiting his talent to only poetry, he has also starred in movies with well-known Ghanaian Actors such as Umar Krupp just to name a few.

Follow him on Instagram @s.losina

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Justice Where Are You?

I’m an African but I don’t feel proud to be one. Roll up in my streets and you will feel foul to be one
– Hondred Percent

The statement above comes from my track titled Akola Boni of my album WTF? I never thought I would refer to this specific line but the situation I find myself fits perfectly into that sack of words.
Today I am ashamed to be called a Ghanaian. I feel no confidence towards our justice system. There are tortoises instead of hares in the system and disgusting lacks the foul stench I require to describe how this unfortunate crime to a four year old went past six hours without the necessary action taking place.
This is just some plain old BULL SHIT!
When I first stumbled upon the story it was so horrid that I expected obvious action to take place. I didn’t see the need to voice out my thoughts because I felt we lived in community of love, a community that wants progress, a community that has billboards saying the future is exciting.
Sorry to burst your bubble but this right here is some messed up matrix without Neo or Morpheus. Ghana is a hypocritical society where we know how to pray more than take action. We have become numb towards crime that we don’t even see what’s wrong with it and I have to say that I am ashamed.
I am ashamed because I expected there to be action by now. I hoped that the hashtag #Justice4Her would have stopped appearing on my social media channels as a result of justice being served. Rather I am met with the opposite reaction and I have seen too much that I can’t be quiet anymore .
So I am voicing out my complaint and enquiring through this blog post to ask a single question.
Why has it taken so long for justice to be served?
The necessary authorities at this point need to have the facts of the matter and offer options to the family for action to be taken. I feel that there is a lackadaisical attitude to this whole crime and it’s more irritating than scabies.
Justice I know you are on vacation but please come back to Ghana.
If you’re looking at making a difference tread through and sign this petition.
Keep it One Hondred! 

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Are We Sure We Know Who The Victim Is?

This is my final thought on my female abuse series which I started last week beginning with I hear rapists love mini skirts, followed by Park and chop kiss. 
Today I conclude by looking at the Ghana Football Association (GFA) Isaac Addo, the acting FA General Secretary, and Nanabanyin Eyison, a member of the GFA’s Executive Committee and also chairman of the management committee of the national female Under-20 team, ban for sexual harrasment by FIFA.
Media covering the story said that ban is as a result of remarks the two passed comments about a female laison. Check out the details of the story here.
After reading the story I am highly concerned about the whether the GFA officials are being wrongly accused. 
In addressing this two things catch my attention. The seriousness attached the sexual harassment in Papua New Guinea compared to Ghana and possibility of punishing someone for something they didn’t do.
Sexual Harassment in Papua New Guinea
A quick internet search on this topic will reveal shocking results. Papua New Guinea is apparently perceived as the worst place in the world for gender violence. So you can imagine why their sexual harassment laws are stringent.
I guess it is only natural that it is so but it begs the question, should sexual harrassment laws be stringent all over or only in the countries that are known to have cases of sexual harrassment?
I believe that the law should be the same regardless of what opinions are. People should be sensitive towards others and know that their actions may cause discomfort in a manner that is really disturbing.
Unfortunately this message is not echoed enough and leads to us as individuals taking it for granted and not having a unified voice to fight myths about sexual harrassment and abuse. This leads to assumptions on the issue and makes the issue worse.
I didn’t do it
In the GFA officials case, the story being told by the officials makes it seem as if they are victims of miscommunication. It sounds as if the laison misinterpreted their communication as part of what they said was in a local Ghanaian dialect.
As I read this I thought to myself how do we tell who the real victim is? Without evidence its my word against yours. We sometimes tend to sympathize with the one who is abused and harrassd due to their plight absent of the possibility that there may be more than meets the eye. 
There are a few cases of people who have been wrongly convicted for abuse and harrassment due to failure by the bodies responsible to judge fairly.
It may sound like a pretty insensitive thing to do but I believe every harassment or abuse case must look at both sides of the story very carefully to seek the truth. Without the truth its difficult to understand the details of the story. 
Its not always about who is to blame or arresting or punishment. In my opinion every harassment or abuse case is an unfortunate opportunity to understand what causes these incidents. This helps in knowing how best to deal with the issue to prevent future incidents.
In conclusion we must all do more to understand the issues surrounding abuse and harrassment. It happens to both sexes and is surrounded by a lot of assumptions. Lets educate ourselves to aid the future generation in mitigating these incidents and make the world a better place.
Keep it One HONDRED!

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Park and Chop Kiss

Shatta Wale’s song “Chop Kiss” comes to mind when I think of this unfortunate incident. It won’t surprise me if it was on the mind of the policeman that decided to kiss a female driver of whom he had never met before one evening whilst on duty.

My reaction to the policeman's kiss
My reaction to the policeman’s kiss
 
Now if your facial reaction to my opening paragraph turns your face into my illustrated reaction in the picture or something worse, you join many people around the world who felt the same way on twitter when the victim tweeted the incident.
This is the second article relating to the recent abuse on women in Ghana. The previous article dealt with the Minister for Gender’s comments on rape you can check that out here
Tweets from victim

The pictures above detail the tweets by the victim on twitter. In summary she was stopped by the police whilst driving home for a routine security check. The policeman asked her to step out of the car and proceeded to kiss her on the lips. She questioned why he did that of which he responded saying, “I don’t know”. She then sat in her car and proceeded to find a police station to report the incident. Unfortunately finding a police station to take her seriously was more difficult than expected. One station even laughed at the issue.
Fortunately an investigator has been put on the case and the policeman responsible has been identified and he has pleaded guilty.
My Thoughts
Such disgraceful conduct by police should not be tolerated. Police are to protect and serve the citizens of Ghana, so how does a routine security check enable a policeman to stain the honour of the police institution (that is already questionable) by stealing a kiss from a woman? 
What sickens me however is not the kiss deprived policemans actions but that of his colleagues who probably do not know him in other stations. How can you laugh at such an issue or ask the victim to forgive the guy?
I am a Christian and as much as I am all for forgiving, it doesn’t mean that his wrong should go without punishment. The culprit and the police who failed to take this seriously are simply not fit to serve on the police force. 
Security in our nation that has enjoyed peace for all these years is not a matter to be flirted with. We as citizens are to be able to trust the police to enable them carry out their duties. Such repugnant behavior by the police does not encourage Ghanaians to begin trusting them with issues. 
I mean if this incident attracted laughter then what of sexual assault, rape or other crimes that involve men abusing women?
This is how some staff of the police of Ghana treat such an incident. Though it is not the whole police force, it does present us a nation with a view of how abuse of women is dealt with. In my view this needs to change and not only for the police force but all public institutions and the people of Ghana. Women are human beings lets take their issues seriously and curb such acts that are disgraceful to the honor of men.
Keep it One HONDRED!

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I Hear Rapists Love Mini Skirts

I think a bunch of people ganged up together and decided to piss females off in Ghana or around the world these past few weeks.
From the Marwako incident, the Minister for Gender and Social Protection, Otiko Afisa Djaba remarks on rape and clothing, policeman kissing female driver and Ghana football Association (GFA) officials being charged with sexual harrassment by FIFA (I must admit after hearing both sides of the story its a tricky one), this here is more than just coincidence.
To top that all off women are pissed; and when women are pissed you better duck for cover. 
This however is good grounds to discuss the issues at hand and educate those ignorant in areas that the world finds unforgivable.
I am going to try and tackle three issues in three different blog posts. I shall start by looking into the Ministers comments on rape and clothing.
Now this really pissed a lot of people off. It pissed them off to the extent that some are calling for the Minister to be replaced. Below was the comment made
“In conclusion, I want to say to you, be bold, be confident, be respectful. If you wear a short dress, it’s fashionable but, know that it can attract somebody who would want to rape or defile you. You must be responsible for the choices you make,”
(The article detailing the comments and Ghanaians outrage can be viewed here)
The fact that she is a female and also the Minister making those remarks hurt many women. I hadn’t read the comments she made at the time and reserved my comments until having read the article.
I however had a long and interesting conversation about the issue before reading the article. It was with a female friend and I must say that the conversation changed the lens in which I viewed the whole matter.
Initially I did not see the big deal with comments of clothing having a possible correlation with rape; as long as clothing wasn’t perceived as the sole reason for rape.
The more I tried to justify the possible correlation however small, the more I realized that it probably had very very little to do with rape. 
I don’t have statistics but I do have a number of close friends who have been raped. These are not girls who are indecent or love to show skin. Yet they were the victims of rape. 
Truth be told unless you have been in a victims shoes, dealt with such issues on an intimate level or bothered to honestly know more, it is hard to understand why the comments made by the Minister are wrong.
In fact, this is notion about clothes and rape is a global myth and not one unique to Ghana. So though I am sympathetic to her flaw, I equally understand the pain that her words caused.
So yes, maybe you do need someone who understands victims of rape better as a Minister; but maybe this is grounds to educate people and dispel a myth that unfortunately has sunk its teeth deep into the minds of people all over.
I can bet you that a number of high ranking officials, both male and female from all walks of life assume that there is a correlation between clothing and rape.
The conversation on this issue should be encouraged to eradicate the ignorance that exists. The rants to curb such discussions with the notion that it “justifies” the excuse by the culprit is something I disagree with. 
There is no excuse for rape by a sane person. Discussing possible causes for rape provides an opportunity to those discussing to learn and rid the notion of a correlation that doesn’t exist.
So lets engage each other and read more about this issue to dispel this painful myth that suggests that rape victims “ask for it”. 
If you do believe that there is a correlation lets talk and learn from the discussion without emotions. It is hard but once emotions are brought in, it seems like more of an attack than a discussion. 
Lets keep it One HONDRED and dispel the myth because rapists are not particularly interested in mini skirts.
Look out for my posts on the next two issues