Every night, after her three children fall asleep, 31-year-old Amadu Barikisu is left alone with memories she wishes she could forget.
The young mother from Bawku was three months pregnant when her husband, a construction worker, was shot and killed in 2023 while returning home from work during the protracted Bawku conflict.
“My heart sinks and weeps anytime I think about the conflict and how it has impacted my life,” she said, her voice heavy with emotion. “But for the conflict, my husband would have been alive. He was just coming back home from work.”
His death shattered more than her family. It also wiped away their livelihood. The small provision store her husband had established for her collapsed, leaving her alone to care for three children with no reliable source of income.
“Life was really difficult. To get one cedi on myself was almost like a miracle,” she recalled. “Sometimes, what my children would eat before going to school, or when they returned home, was a problem.”
Relief came when Sakina Mumuni, the Queen Mother of Kpalwega and founder of the Asungim Women Group, invited her to join the group. There, she was trained in producing “kulikuli” (a crunchy peanut snack) and extracting peanut oil. Sakina also provided the equipment and raw materials needed for her to begin the business.
“I started this business with one bowl of groundnuts,” Barikisu said. “Today I’m doing five or six bowls of groundnuts sometimes.”
The steady income has transformed her family’s circumstances.
“My children are happy with me because I’m able to do things for them, unlike before,” she said. “I’m able to buy clothes for them, pay for their school fees, and I now feel I’m a human being.”
Yet she says her journey has only just begun.
“My wish is for me to grow this business and do up to ten bowls of groundnuts,” she said. “There is a market for it. If I get support to expand it, I know gradually I’ll even get to processing a whole bag.”
Her dream extends beyond her own family.
“My wish is that I’m able to use this and also train other women and young girls on how to make ‘kulikuli’ and extract peanut oil,” she said. “I know a lot of other women who need support. If I’m well established, I’ll extend some support to them too.”
For now, however, her greatest concern remains her children. “If I don’t get support for my business now, but rather get some support for my children, especially on their education, I’ll be very happy,” she said. “For now, they are my worry when I go to bed at night.”
Above all, she longs for an end to the violence that changed her life forever. “I want peace to return to Bawku so we can live happily as we used to,” she said. “If there’s peace, businesses will flourish, and there will be work for everyone.”
She paused before adding quietly: “I’m still young to be called a widow.”
Editor’s Note: Barikisu’s story is part of a wider feature article on how women are surviving and rebuilding their lives amid the Bawku conflict, which is yet to be published.
