BARAKE vs. BARAKE [1990]DLHC714

Date	1990-06-25
Suit No.
Citation No.	[1990]DLHC714

BROBBEY J

DR EKOW DANIELS FOR THE PETITIONER.

E D KOM (WITH HIM BODZA LUMOR) FOR THE FIRST RESPONDENT.

[1990]DLHC714
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													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" ><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;
mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;mso-bidi-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;
color:#00B0F0">BARAKE<o:p></o:p><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;
mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;mso-bidi-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;
color:#00B0F0">vs.<o:p></o:p><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;
mso-fareast-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;mso-bidi-font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;;
color:#00B0F0">BARAKE<o:p></o:p>[HIGH COURT, ACCRA]<o:p></o:p>[1993-94] 1 GLR 635<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">

</div>COUNSEL:<o:p></o:p>DR EKOW DANIELS FOR THE PETITIONER.<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">

E D KOM (WITH HIM BODZA LUMOR) FOR THE FIRST RESPONDENT. <o:p></o:p>

</div>JUDGMENT BROBBEY J.<o:p></o:p>The petitioner and the first respondent were married on 25 March
1969. The marriage ceremony was conducted in the Sekondi-Takoradi City Council
Marriage Registry.<o:p></o:p>They cohabited in various places after the marriage, notably
Takoradi, London and Lebanon. There are four daughters born out of the
marriage. They are Mouna aged twenty years, Nadia aged sixteen years, Amoula
aged nine years and lastly Naya aged eight years.<o:p></o:p>On 13 August 1979 the first respondent instituted an action for a
decree of divorce and custody of their first two children who were the only
children they then had. According to the petitioner, the first respondent said
that the 1979 petition was withdrawn and that was why she brought the instant
petition. The first respondent’s attempt to have the instant petition struck
out on account of the 1979 action was disposed of in the course of the trial. I
do not need to take that issue up again, more especially since none of the
counsel for the parties raised it in his written address.<o:p></o:p>In the instant case, the petitioner has applied for divorce and
six other reliefs on the main ground that their marriage has broken down beyond
reconciliation. Particularising that round, the petitioner averred, inter alia,
that the first respondent had committed bigamy and adultery with the second
respondent.<o:p></o:p>The case of the first respondent is that he first went through a
Moslem marriage with the petitioner. The precise date of the marriage was
uncertain. In his testimony in court, he said on one occasion that it was a few
months before March 1969 and on another occasion he said it was in 1968.
However, in the affidavit which he himself tendered in support of that
averment, exhibit 2, the date of the marriage was given as January 1967.<o:p></o:p>The first respondent admitted that he went to the marriage registry
of the Sekondi-Takoradi City Council but his father-in-law, ie the father of
the petitioner, made him to understand that it was to register the Moslem
marriage. In any case, he maintained that at the relevant time of the marriage
in 1969 he was illiterate in the English language and did not understand the
true nature and import of that marriage ceremony. He added that he was and has
always been a Moslem, and that was a fact well known to the petitioner. The
petitioner was originally a Christian. She converted to the Moslem faith after
the marriage. It was the case of the first respondent that while he remained a
Moslem and his wife, the petitioner, had converted to the Moslem faith, and he
regarded the 1969 marriage as a Moslem marriage, he was entitled to take on
another woman. He consequently married the second respondent on 15 April 1988.
The first respondent maintained that that second marriage was indubitably
consistent with the religious practice of the Moslem faith to which at the
material time in 1988 he and the petitioner faithfully subscribed. Under that
religion, marriage was essentially polygamous and therefore his taking on
another wife was perfectly in order.<o:p></o:p>The petitioner’s explanation to the change of religion from
Christianity was this: Some time after their marriage she had to live in the
Moslem quarter of Lebanon where she stayed with the relatives of the first
respondent. Unfortunately she found life there rather unpleasant because, among
other things, the petitioner alleged that the relations of the first respondent
who were all Moslems went to the extent of having to wash their hands with
water whenever they had to shake hands with the petitioner. Apparently they
regarded her as some sort of infidel as she was a Christian. To be able to live
harmoniously with the first respondent’s people, she changed her religion and
became a Moslem. The change of religion took place in Lebanon while the first
respondent was in Ghana.<o:p></o:p>On the return of the petitioner to Ghana, she and the first respondent
lived as Moslems and so did their children. The Moslem religion allows
polygamy. The first respondent in due course, decided to marry another woman in
addition to the petitioner. The petitioner at once objected to the marriage to
another woman. The first respondent persisted in implementing his decision. The
petitioner then reconverted to Christianity. Nevertheless, the first respondent
went through a second marriage in the Moslem faith, not to a Moslem woman, but
this time to a Roman Catholic, who is the second respondent. It is this second
marriage which grounds the application for divorce of the marriage between the
first respondent and the petitioner. The petitioner also applied for an order
declaring the second marriage between</main>