According to Mercy Amba Oduyoye in Daughters of Anowa: African Women and Patriarchy, the women of the Asante people of Ghana participated in war as nurses or in providing supplies, but only those who had not yet reached or who were past childbearing age. If such women died in battle, they died "as individuals and not as potential sources of human life." As such, many old women engaged in valiant acts, sometimes sacrificing their own lives, to defend those they had given life to.