Songor for all: Full statement of Ada Songor Women Association petition to President Mahama

ADA SONGOR SALT WINNERS WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION STATEMENT AND PETITION TO H.E. PRESIDENT JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA FOR SONGOR FOR ALL (FOR ALL TO THRIVE AT AND THROUGH THE SONGOR SALT LAGOON) presented through the Ada West District Chief Executive at our Peaceful Demonstration at Sege,  Ada West on Thursday, 29 September 2016.

We are embarking on this Demonstration because we could not get ourselves heard otherwise. Twice, we wrote to you, our dear President, and we did not get a reply. Twice, we were not given the opportunity to present our petition to you at Asafotufiami. Thus, we are availing of our right under Public Order Act, 1994 (Act 491) even as we are heartened by your statement at the U.N. 71st General Assembly in support of freedom of expression.

WHO WE ARE

We are literally, the salt of the earth, the women salt-winners of the Songor, hailing from every

contiguous community around the lagoon. We are the great-great-granddaughters of Yomo, the old woman to whom the discovery of the Songor Salt Lagoon over 400 years ago is attributed. We are the sisters of Maggie Kuwonor, who was shot dead in 1985 by soldiers who invaded the Songor Lagoon as she stood innocently with the child in her belly.

We are the women who have for generations through our toil on the Songor fed our families and sent our children to school – and continue to struggle to do the same. We are non-literate, many of us, because of poverty and cultural barriers. Yet We are deeply knowledgeable about the developments, plans, laws and agreements on the Songor. We are peace-loving but unflinching in our commitment to Songor For All. We are Yihi Katseme (Brave Women).

WHAT WE KNOW

We know that traditionally, Songor was For All, a communal resource open to Adas and all Ghanaians and even foreigners who respected its regulation and ‘winned’ salt on that basis. We know that the living respect for Songor For All enabled all to feed from the Songor and also to better conserve it for the future, even more important now in the face of climate change. We know that the arbitrary successive efforts by government and industry starting with the Volta Dam in the 1960s first damaged the Songor and then aimed to exploit the Songor salt as white gold, ushering in the beginning of Songor for A Few.

We know that the Songor Master Plan of 1991 recognized our rights as indigenous primary stakeholders and sought to integrate our livelihood needs with government and business interests – but it has yet to be implemented.

We know that PNDC Law 297 sought our interests as those living in contiguous communities around the lagoon – but was, ironically, shunted aside under Constitutional rule. We know that the practice starting from 2003 of Atsiakpo, whereby water is unilaterally and illegally siphoned away from the Songor Lagoon into private ponds, has divided our communities, pitting its practitioners against the rest.

We know that whereas in the past we were independent salt-winners, many of us have become wage labourers paid a pittance for each pan of salt and even then sometimes allowed to win salt only if we agree to sexual favours. We know that salt has become even more valuable because of its use in Ghana’s petrochemical industry. We know that a government delegation in 2011 sought, along the lines of the Songor Land Use Plan, to evict us and our communities from the Songor and to give us alternative livelihoods.

We know that a secret memo in 2012 between government and our traditional authorities reemphasized giving us alternative livelihoods, thus alienating our birthright. We know that a Cabinet memo to turn the Songor into a limited liability company to exploit salt for the petrochemical industry was announced at Asafotufiami in August 2015 without our being consulted in any way.

We know that contradictorily, even as the Government seeks the development of the Songor salt industry, artificial salt is being imported into the country. We know that we are poorer even as Ghana has been declared a middle-income country.

We know that we remain steadfast in our commitment to Songor For All. We know that we are Yihi Katseme (Brave Women).

WHAT WE ASK

Thus, respectfully, but urgently, we ask, Your Excellency, our President: As a Co-Chair of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals Champions, to support our empowerment as women and uphold inclusive and equitable development by endorsing Songor For All. As our leader on the world stage, to abide by the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) and work with us in developing our resource, and ensure our consent in whatever plans for it emerge.

As father of the nation, to enjoin our traditional authorities to exercise their stewardship over the Songor

as a communal resource and unite to eliminate atsiakpo. As the effective national manager, to ensure the coherent and consistent formation and implementation of policies relating to the Songor.

As an executive President, to proactively and urgently institute policies and effect action to implement  the clause in PNDC Law 287 (1992) to ensure the efficient development of the Ada-Songor Lagoon to benefit the contiguous communities and the public interest.

As the main defender of our constitution, to uphold our rights as citizens by affording us an equal stake in discussions on a limited liability company and all current and future decisions on the Songor.

We as these as Yihi Katseme (Brave Women of the Songor).

Signed on behalf of ASSWA

MARY AKUTEYE, Chairperson