How my pastor father abused me for 50 years – 54-year-old Ghanaian woman narrates ordeal

Christopher Sededzi Kwame 11:16 - 19 February 2026

For more than five decades, Afua Kesse-Amponsah says she carried a story too painful to tell – a childhood marked, in her words, by silence, fear and unimaginable violence.

Now 54, she has chosen to speak publicly for the first time about what she describes as years of “systematic abuse” inflicted by her father, a man who would later become a prominent church pastor.

Ms Kesse-Amponsah said,

I’ve managed to find a voice, and it was not easy. I had to suffer

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Born in 1971 to an Irish mother and a Ghanaian father, she recounts that her life changed dramatically at just two years old when her father took custody of her.

She believes the decision was driven by his desire to secure a passport and access social benefits, despite what she says was his deep aversion to children.

According to her account, the abuse began early and intensified over time. One of the earliest triggers, she says, was her natural preference for using her left hand — something her father allegedly sought to “correct” through violence.

Afua Kesse-Amponsah

So he started to beat me because he was trying to get me to change from left-handed to right-handed. Akan people don’t like using their left hand. Am I lying? It’s all built into you from childhood. And so for him, it was a crime.

One that he was determined to fix. It was a fault. And he broke my left hand first to try and persuade me to use it.

What she describes did not stop there. Ms Kesse-Amponsah alleges that the violence became relentless, leaving her with severe and lasting physical injuries.

He subjected me to constant, severe, chronic violence, and I had no idea how bad it was because he fractured my skull. So I lost my memory.

I had amnesia as a result. I have multiple fractures to the skull, a split around my head, a broken nose, broken cheekbones, a broken jaw, six cracks along my spine, a fracture at the back by my tailbone and pelvis, and a fracture in the front. My leg came out; the thigh bone broke, the two bones here broke, and the ankle fractured. The sternum broke.

She further alleges that efforts were made to conceal the injuries. According to her, she was forced to take powdered aspirin mixed with water on an empty stomach after beatings to reduce visible swelling.

So he would feed me aspirin, which was in powdered form in water, at night after he’d beaten me. That would take down the inflammation, and no one would see that the bone was broken. It burns the inside of my stomach because he was feeding it to me without me eating. I have ulcers throughout my body. Sores inside me. I’ve been bleeding internally since I was five.

The long-term psychological impact, she says, has been equally devastating. Ms Kesse-Amponsah later received treatment at St Thomas’ Hospital for Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), a condition associated with prolonged trauma.

I started being treated at St Thomas’ for complex post-traumatic stress disorder. It is a lifelong condition. I suffer from flashbacks. I live in the seventies. I have no life of my own.

As an adult, she reported the allegations to UK police as a historical child abuse case. However, she says she was informed that no criminal proceedings could move forward because her father had died.

I did report it to the police as a historical allegation of child abuse. They told me they couldn’t do anything because he was dead, but it is on record. They advised me to go after the institutions that failed in their duty of care, namely the schools I attended, the council that was supposed to be looking after me, and the government, basically.

Now living with severe disabilities, Ms Kesse-Amponsah says her decision to speak out is driven by a desire to confront harmful cultural attitudes toward discipline, particularly within Ghanaian communities.

She argues that violence is too often normalised under the guise of correction.

You get kids, and you’re abusing them. You’re raising your hand to them. Who are you? Look at your own life.

Don’t do that ‘spare the rod’ stuff, because we’re in 2025. Child abuse exists. That book was written 1520 years ago. It does not apply to today.

A human being is a human being and has rights, whether it’s a baby or an adult. We need to start treating our children with more respect and restraint. Yes, you can discipline your child, but you can do that without beating them. You’re treating them as you would treat dogs, and the way you treat dogs is not acceptable either. You’re too violent against things that are smaller than you and can’t fight back.

“He subjected me to constant, severe, chronic violence” – 54-year-old woman speaks out on abuse suffered at the hands of her father.#JoyNews pic.twitter.com/pEc2LHi6U5
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Beyond seeking acknowledgement, she is now focused on accountability. Ms Kesse-Amponsah maintains that the institutions meant to safeguard vulnerable children – schools, local authorities and government bodies – failed in their duty of care when she needed protection most.

Her story, painful as it is, has become a call for reflection: on parenting, on culture, and on the responsibility of systems designed to protect the powerless.

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