Silence has entered our homes : Salomey Awiti Bafoh and the chilling effect of free expression in Ghana
A few days ago, I was at home speaking with one of my cousins. She was unhappy with the government. There was nothing remarkable about the scene: two citizens, in a private home, discussing those who govern them. She was explaining what frustrated her and why she thought some things were going wrong. My grandmother overheard us. She came out, asked my cousin to lower her voice and then said, with the instinctive anxiety of someone trying to protect her family: Why are you talking like this with everything that is going on? I don't want any trouble in this house. Nobody had threatened my grandmother. No police officer had visited her. No government official had telephoned her. Nobody had instructed her that criticism of government was forbidden. That is precisely what troubled me.