There are apologies and there are strategies. What Freda Afriyie is offering Maame Akosua Serwaa is not remorse. It is a script.
For months now, Maame Akosua Serwaa has been at the receiving end of a sustained, intentional campaign. Not a one-time slip on live radio. Not a misquote. A pattern. Week after week, on social media and on platforms that thrive on outrage, her name has been dragged through defamatory, downgrading, false and unthinkable allegations — without cause, without provocation, without evidence.
From claims about her personal life to attacks on her dignity as a woman and as a public figure who has served her community, the insults have been constant. And that is why the call for forgiveness now rings hollow.
1. An Apology Without Accountability Is Manipulation
Ghanaian tradition teaches us forgiveness. “Fafiri na fa kyɛ,” we say. But our tradition also teaches us wisdom. The elders say “When a person keeps stepping on your feet and then says sorry every time, he is not clumsy — he is disrespectful.”
Freda Afriyie’s alleged attacks on Maame Akosua Serwaa have not been accidental. They have been consistent and intentional. That changes the nature of an apology. An apology is for a mistake. What do you call it when someone plans, records, edits, posts, and repeats an insult for months?
If Maame accepts an apology today, what stops the same cycle tomorrow?
2. Dignity Is Not For Negotiation
Maame Akosua Serwaa has built her name on grace under pressure. She has not responded in kind. She has not gone low. That restraint has been mistaken for weakness.
Some say she should forgive because she is a mother, because she is a senior, because “that is how women should behave.” That is emotional blackmail.
Defamation is not a joke. Under Section 114 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and under our civil defamation law, a person’s reputation is protected because dignity feeds a family. When you falsely and publicly downgrade a woman with unthinkable allegations, you don’t just hurt her — you affect her children, her business, her peace.
At some point, a woman must say: My dignity is not a public playground.
3. Accepting It Sends The Wrong Message To Every Ghanaian Woman
This case is bigger than two names.
If a woman can be insulted for months — with defamatory, degrading and allegedly false claims — and then the person responsible is allowed to just say “I’m sorry” on camera and walk away, what are we telling young girls on TikTok and Facebook?
We are telling them that abuse is cheap. That you can destroy a woman’s image, get views, and then clean it with two minutes of tears.
Maame Akosua Serwaa saying “I will not accept this apology” will not be bitterness. It will be a boundary. A lesson that in Ghana, Article 12(2) of the 1992 Constitution says every person’s human dignity is inviolable, and Article 21 protects free speech but not defamatory falsehood.
4. The Law Exists For A Reason
Forgiveness is spiritual. Justice is institutional.
If Freda Afriyie truly regrets her actions, let her show it where it counts: in court, in a signed undertaking, in a public retraction with the same energy and on the same platforms where the insults were made. Let her admit specifically what she said that was false.
An apology should have three things: acknowledgement of the specific wrong, genuine remorse, and a commitment not to repeat it. A blanket “I’m sorry if I offended you” is not that.
Maame Akosua Serwaa should insist on due process. If it was defamation, let the law decide. That is what C.I. 47 and the courts are for. That is not wickedness. That is protection.
Some Apologies Must Be Rejected
Mama Akousa Serwaa owes no one forgiveness on demand. She owes herself peace, and she owes the next woman the courage to know that you can say no.
Freda Afriyie had months to stop. She didn’t. She had months to choose dignity over insults. She didn’t.
Now that the tide is turning, an apology cannot be the escape route.
Maame Akosua Serwaa should not accept it — not out of hate, but out of self-respect, principle, and to end a culture where women are insulted for content and then asked to clap for an apology.
Sometimes, the strongest thing a woman can say is: “Your apology is noted, but not accepted. Meet me where the law speaks.”