Pognaa Rosemary Bangzie Mumwilma, the Queen Mother of the Duong Traditional Area in the Nadowli-Kaleo District, has recounted the impact of the USAID/LRI-funded networking for change project on the leadership quality of Queen Mothers in the Upper West Region.
She said the project, dubbed “Networking of Queen Mothers with Chiefs and Fulbe Women Leaders in the Upper West Region,” had impacted the socio-cultural lives of the beneficiaries, especially Queen Mothers in the region.
It had, among other things, led to the establishment of the Upper West Female Chiefs Associations, a network of Pognamine (Queen Mothers) in the region to help strengthen the region’s chieftaincy institution.
Pognaa Mumwilma, also the coordinator of the project, recounted these in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa as the world marks International Women’s Day on the theme: “Accelerating Action.”
The four-phased six-month project comprised leadership skills, conflict resolution, and Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) training for Queen Mothers; advocacy meeting between Queen Mothers’ and youth groups on substance abuse and peaceful election and Queen Mothers and Fulbe women and youth leaders’ engagement.
96 Queen Mothers in all 32 Traditional Areas in the region participated in the project, including leadership skills enhancement.
She explained that despite their influential role in society, many Queen Mothers in northern Ghana assumed their roles without adequate training or understanding of their responsibilities.
Pognaa Mumwilma said that, among others, informed the initiation of the project to adequately equip them with the needed skills to serve, not only as mediators but also as agents for social cohesion in their communities.
She recounted that the project had fostered a cordial relationship between Pognamine and the Fulbe people, especially the women in their traditional jurisdictions, and built a fraternal relationship between the Fulbe women as well as Christian and Muslim women in society.
Additionally, the project helped address the issue of marginalisation of minority ethnic groups through its joint engagement with Queen Mothers, women associations and the Fulbe community.
“So, the Muslim and Catholic Women’s Associations have agreed that anytime they have activities they would invite Fulbe women.
Immediately after the engagement, some of the women’s associations organised community durbars and invited some Fulbe women to take part in them,” Pognaa Mumwilma explained.
Some beneficiaries of the project told the GNA that it had empowered them to meaningfully participate in social activities and promote peaceful co-existence between Fulbe people and the indigenes.
Pognaa Amamata Mumuni, the Queen Mother of Duori in the Wala Traditional Area, said aside from enhanced leadership skills, the project also ignited the consciousness of the Queen Mothers to the sanctity of their offices.
Ms Murihat Sidibe Suleman, a member of the Fulbe Youth Association of Ghana (FUYAG), stated that the engagement between the Fulbe people and Queen Mothers had created a bond between them.
She said they now felt part of society due to their involvement in some community activities such as durbars.
On her part, Madam Margaret Joyce Dangah, a retired Prison Officer and farmer who also took part in the engagement, told the GNA that though she had been engaging Fulbe people on her farm, the project had encouraged her to enhance that engagement.