What you can and cannot post on a billboard in Ghana

All over the world billboards are used to transmit messages en masse, most often to advertise goods and services like fan ice or a freezer to put said fan ice in.

Ghana is no different and billboards serve this purpose here too. You can sometimes see large vertically arranged billboards displaying large posters full of a lot of information. More recently, twitter’s presence in Ghana displayed the funniest and best tweets by Ghanaians on billboards much to a lot of people’s delight.

In Ghana, you can even display on a billboard what date you think the world will end. To warn the people and make sure they have time to prepare, obviously by repenting. You can even keep the billboard up after this date has passed, perhaps for people to bear in mind that the apocalypse might still happen. Just as another day. this message, whether true or not, is ok to be broadcast. This message, generally, is fine.

In Ghana, you can display on a large billboard that sex with someone they are not married to is a sin and will send them straight to hell. You can use a bible quote for good measure since that is a fact. Everyone knows that and everyone is a Christian in this country. Either that or muslin and they would surely still agree. Yes, this message too, whether true or not, is ok to be broadcast. This message, generally, is fine.

So what can you not display on a billboard in Ghana? Surely there is a line. Well, as we learnt in recent events this line is crossed by stating that when all Ghanaians are treated equally no matter who they are on love that will be true freedom. No that’s not benign. That is threatening enough to cause this billboard and neither of the ones mentioned before to be torn down just 3 days after it was put up after controversy stirred up by certain individuals.

So what does all this mean? Well for Ghanaians who happen to be LGBT this billboard which was bravely put up offers a small but still significant bit of hope in a climate in which their own rights and the rights who love and support them are threatened. This hope was cruelly snatched away. No these Ghanaians cannot be even given that.

All of this shows the nature of what we are dealing with and the level of trauma inflicted mentally on queer Ghanaians by this should not be underestimated. We can see that religious belief is prioritised over the equal rights of all people. A concerning reality in a country as diverse as Ghana and one that marginalised people are unfortunately very used to.

Though as sad as this was, some hope still remains. The brave act of putting the billboard up in the first place shows progress, however small and this act is supported by people in and outside Ghana. A light that cannot be quenched Though we need to realise what this was. It was not just about a billboard that was just ripped down. It was about silencing and squashing a people’s rights. More people need to realise this is deplorable and unacceptable. The people who are struggling to give rights to LGBT people in Ghana should be supported.

Like Janelle Monae sang “this is a cold war, you better know who you’re fighting for.”