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In Accra, Ghana, leading figures in the global women’s movement joined with black artists to launch Voices, an audioplay with creative listening at its core
Tue 13 Jul 2021 00.00 EDT Last modified on Tue 13 Jul 2021 00.01 EDT “All I wanted to do was help vulnerable people,” said Shaun Apong, tears streaking down his face, from behind the bars of a squalid police cell in Ho City in eastern Ghana. Apong was one of 21 people arrested in early June, charged with unlawful assembly and accused of spreading an LGBT+ agenda, amid a marked and sudden increase in sensitivities around the rights and advocacy of gay and queer people in the west African country. For years, Apong (not his real name) had held training sessions for paralegals, activists and...
+ A community centre for LGBTQ+ people in Ghana has been closed, following a wave of protest against the rights of sexual minorities in the country. In recent weeks government ministers and religious groups had demanded the closure of the centre, intended to be a safe space for LGBTQ+ people to meet and find support. Yet since the opening in January of the centre in the capital, Accra, many people have received death threats and online abuse. The centre was closed pre-emptively, its founder said, to protect its staff. Although same-sex relationships are illegal in Ghana, the law is rarely enf...