The river Offin “gods’ can stop menstruating girls. Why can’t they stop galamsey? – Joojo Cobbinah writes

For years, I reported that girls living along the River Offin were barred from crossing on Tuesdays and while menstruating. As bizarre as this sounds, the practice persists. Human rights activists and the public were outraged when the story first broke. In 2018, then Deputy Education Minister Yaw Osei Adutwum promised that no child would be denied education because of the practice.

He said schools would be built in the affected communities so that children would no longer have to cross the river to get to class. But the outrage faded, and people forgot the promises. I revisited the story in 2021, but the government simply moved on. Promises are cheap. I wanted a ruling. So I teamed up with the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) and took the case to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.

We won! Read Also: Ghana loses landmark human rights case over menstruation taboo that denies girls education IHRDA and I filed a communication on the girls’ behalf in 2022. In 2024, the Committee’s fact-finding mission met girls, families, teachers and community members. Years of submissions and attempted settlement followed before the Committee adopted its decision on October 20, 2026.

The Committee found that Ghana had violated the girls’ rights to education and non-discrimination and failed to protect them from a harmful social and cultural practice. For the girls, it is vindication. Their lost school days counted. Their voices were heard. The barriers they faced were never acceptable. But this case’s significance goes beyond one river and one bridge.

The principle is simple: a taboo cannot be used to deny girls their rights. Not on Tuesdays, not during their period, not ever. Tradition may be honoured, but it cannot overrule a child’s right to learn. Every community where a custom keeps a girl from the classroom, from safety or from equal treatment now has a ruling to point to. So far as the Committee’s published case record shows, this is the first merits decision in which it has found Ghana in violation.

Precedents are how rights travel further than the people who fought for them. Still, a victory on paper cannot carry a girl across a river when she is on her period. And this brings me to the gods of the Offin. A respectful salute to these powerful deities. Their authority, we are told, is formidable when a girl attempts to cross the river on a Tuesday or during her period.

Yet when galamsey operators rip into the riverbed, churn the water into sludge and destroy its habitat, the gods display extraordinary patience. Divine restraint, truly! Apparently, the gods have jurisdiction over menstruation but not environmental destruction. Meanwhile, some girls miss about ten school days a month. They fall behind. Some repeat classes.

Their brothers cross whenever they like. But the girls are warned that the river gods will punish them if they dare. If the gods can be invoked to stop a menstruating girl, why are they not invoked when the river itself is being violated? This is not an attack on anyone’s faith. It is a question for those who decide which traditions are enforced, against whom, and at what cost.

The Committee has recommended a permanent bridge, immediate safety measures for children crossing the river, academic support for girls who have missed school, and sustained engagement with traditional leaders and affected communities. Ghana must report on implementation within 180 days of receiving the decision. But building a bridge is only the beginning.

The real test is whether girls can attend school freely, safely and without discrimination. Girls should not have to wait through another school year, another missed examination, or another public outcry. A promise to act is not protection. A plan without a timeline is just a wish on a letterhead. This victory belongs first to the girls who kept speaking up about their lives, and to the families and communities who stood with them.

It belongs to everyone who refused to accept that a child’s education should depend on the day of the week or the phase of her menstrual cycle. But the real responsibility now lies with the state. Ghana has lost this case. The girls must not lose another school day. Build the bridge. End the discrimination. Honour the ruling. The right to education is not subject to the gods’ permission.