By Julius S. T. Baayel
Nandom – Sunday, December 14, 2025

The Queen Mothers’ Council of the Nandom Traditional Paramountcy has appealed for institutional and public support to enable them to perform their roles effectively within contemporary society. The appeal was made during the Council’s annual get-together held at Yeltule Annex on Sunday, December 14, 2025. The gathering was chaired by the Vice Paramount Queen Mother who sat in for the Nandom paramount queen mother Pog-Naa Constant Dery who was said to have been indisposed

Speaking to Nandom FM Online at the event, the Vice Paramount Queen Mother, Pog-Naa Rosaline Babai of the Gengenkpe Divisional Area, together with the Ko Divisional Queen Mother, Pog-Naa Patricia Gyereh, expressed concern over the lack of financial and logistical support available to queen mothers, a situation they said is rendering them largely ineffective.
According to them, queen mothers have significant roles to play in advocacy, moral guidance, role modeling, and mobilizing women for community development and self-support initiatives. However, without adequate support, they are unable to respond meaningfully to pressing social issues confronting their communities. They identified several societal vices that deeply worry them, particularly among women and the youth. They lamented that some behaviors increasingly observed among women bring embarrassment to Dagara womanhood and undermine cherished cultural values. They cited instances during traditional funerals where widows are publicly embarrassed due to actions that contradict long-held customs. Traditionally, married women did not migrate to southern Ghana to engage in menial labor on their own, but this practice, they noted, has now become widespread. They further observed that prostitution, once considered an abomination within Dagara society, is gradually emerging in the area. In addition, they raised alarm over increasing alcohol consumption and substance abuse among the youth.
“As concerned queen mothers, we wish to embark on sustained public education to appeal to our women and youth to return to positive cultural values,” they stated. “We also want to undertake outreach programmes in our various communities, especially to educate women on alternative livelihoods.” The Queen Mothers’ Council is therefore appealing to individuals, organizations, and development partners for support, particularly to sponsor weekly radio airtime that would enable them carry out regular public education on various issues of concern. They also appealed for modest financial assistance to support their community outreach activities, including the provision of pito, which traditionally serves as a medium for gathering and engaging women during such programmes.
Moreover, most of the queen mothers explained that they are either pensioners or unemployed, a situation that makes it difficult to fund their initiatives from personal resources. They therefore, expressed deep gratitude for the intervention of the former Member of Parliament, Hon. Ambrose Dery, whose financial support served as seed money, “that initial assistance has since been carefully managed and rotated among members, sustaining our activities up to the present”, Pog-Naa Patricia Gyereh indicated.
Tracing the history of queen mothership in the Upper West Region, the Council noted that the concept was introduced about 15 years ago when an NGO, the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD), invited all paramount chiefs in the region and introduced the idea to them. Following their endorsement of the initiative, the then Paramount Chief of Nandom, Naa Dr. Puoure Puobe Chiir VII, instooled the first Paramount Queen Mother and the Ko divisional queen mother during a Kakube Festival durbar in 2010

Currently, the Nandom Traditional Area has about 45 queen mothers, comprising one Paramount Queen Mother, divisional queen mothers, and sub-divisional queen mothers.