After the abortion she [mother] saw I was different, disorganized, so she asked me and I 

told her [about the abortion]. In fact, she was troubled, so she went to see the man and 

she told him that if he knows that he will marry me, then if I get pregnant we should give 

birth. And she would not see me get pregnant a second time for him to tell me to get an 

abortion. If that is the case, then we should stop seeing each other. So, when I got 

pregnant again, he agreed that I should give birth... When I told him he wanted it  it 

was when I got four months pregnant he came to do the knocking. [Joy] 

Knocking 

As illustrated in the quote above, when the couple decided to give birth to a first child, 

the boyfriend made a public acknowledgment of the relationship and of his responsibility for the 

pregnancy by doing the  knocking.  For example, Eden said,  

I told my boyfriend and he asked me what I wanted to do with the pregnancy. I told him I 

wanted to carry it full term. He agreed and we decided he should go and see my parents 

to perform the knocking ceremony so that at least they would know he has put me in the 

family way. [Eden] 

The knocking ceremony usually involved a trip by the boy's parents to the girl's house to 

meet her family and discuss the couple's relationship. One girl gave the following account of the 

occasion of her knocking and how her boyfriend  contributed to her welfare afterwards: 

I told my mother, and when I was four months pregnant they came to do the knocking and 

performed the rites. They gave me three pieces of cloth so that I could sew and wear 

when I'm going to the clinic. When I was going to the clinic, I used to collect money from 

him, and when I'm given prescriptions I bring it to him. . . When I gave birth he was able 

to provide for me, but after he lost his job, things were not so good. [Zoe] 

The knocking rite (which may go by other names in other locales) is a key step in 

forming stable unions in Ghana. According to some, this can be thought of as either an 

engagement or a traditional marriage, and the participants seemed to attribute variable 

significance to the practice. One participant's boyfriend performed a knocking before the 

participant got pregnant, which connotes more of an engagement or marriage. The other girls 

said that their boyfriends had performed the knocking after they had gotten pregnant and decided 

to keep the child. These girls said that the rite was performed, at least in part, to acknowledge 

paternity, as in the case of Eden above. 

Regardless of the possible multiple significances of the rite, the general understanding 

about the boyfriend's responsibilities when a couple decides to give birth appeared to be that he 

will at least continue to contribute chop money; pay for all of the medical costs incurred for 

antenatal care, prescriptions, delivery, and other medical bills; and provide what the girl needs to 

attend the clinic. The amount of the boyfriends' contributions varied, sometimes from week to 

week, depending on how much they were able to earn. 

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