When I was a student at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, I was drugged and raped.
I only trusted two people with my story: my best friend in school, and an older colleague who is a well-known, prominent media personality. When I confided in this media colleague, he was the one who directed me to speak with one of our lecturers who was also a lawyer, promising that he would know exactly what to do to help me.
Instead of protection, I was met with systemic betrayal. That lecturer stepped in, not to fight for me, but to silence me. I was forced to sign an NDA. My trauma was reduced to a “compensation” of 500 Ghana cedis. And to make a horrifying situation worse, the confidentiality I expected was shattered. The news was leaked, and people would literally walk up to me on campus asking invasive, traumatizing questions: “Oh, I heard this guy raped you, is it true? How did it happen?”
I had to endure that public scrutiny while simply trying to survive, finish my diploma, and secretly process an unwanted pregnancy and subsequent abortion.
Back then, I was also completely naive about my sexual and reproductive health and rights. I didn’t know how fertility windows or safe periods worked, or how emergency contraception functioned. Because we aren’t taught these realities, I was left entirely vulnerable. I trusted the adults and professionals in the room, and they weaponized my lack of knowledge against me forcing me to take immediate blood and urine tests, knowing fully well they couldn’t possibly detect a pregnancy within just a few days, all to protect a perpetrator.
I look back and wonder how I managed to graduate without dropping out. The truth is, survivors shouldn’t have to rely on sheer, exhausting survival instincts.
This is exactly why educational institutions MUST have independent, transparent sexual harassment policies and survivor response systems. When schools lack safe structures, predatory people exploit the gaps to silence victims and take advantage of a student’s naivety.
I survived a broken system, and that is exactly why I started Suitcases and Butterflies. We need spaces that heal, reproductive literacy that empowers, and systems that actually protect the people they are meant to serve.
To anyone else carrying a heavy, silenced story: The shame was never yours to carry. You are not broken. The system was.