Graduate School of Social Science
MSc Cultural and Social Anthropology
Pursuing A Better Tomorrow In A
Multilingual Landscape:
Analysing the language choice of middle-class parents in
urban Ghana.
Edna Ofori Gyamfi Student ID: 5940583
E-mail: edna_ofori@hotmail.com Supervisor: dr. Rachel Spronk Second reader: dr. Vincent de Rooij Third reader: dr. Marleen de Witte Date: 08 -01-2016
Table of Contents
Introduction ...1
Language, Culture and Identity ... 3
Ghanaian Languages, a Cultural Heritage ... 3
English, a Hegemonic Language ... 5
Language, Identity and Agency ... 7
Methods ... 9
Reflection: Challenges of the Outsider “Indigenous” Ethnographer ... 11
Structure of the Thesis ... 13
Chapter 1: Negotiating Modernity and Cultural Heritage ... 15
Gold Coast, the Mercantile period:15th – 19th century ... 15
From Exclusive Education to Missionary Schools ... 17
Under the British Rule in the Colonial period: 1901-1957 ... 18
Achimota College: The best of “both” worlds ... 19
Decolonizing the Country and the Minds in Post-Colonial Ghana from 1957 ... 20
Sankofaism ... 21
One Nation, One Language ... 23
Conclusion ... 24
Chapter 2: Acting
Brofo Sem
and being “too” Local ... 26
Ethnic Rivalries in Urban Multilingual Accra... 27
Multilingualism in a Bus ... 28
The Multilingual Market Women ... 30
Debating Tradition and Modernity ... 32
Conclusion ... 36
Chapter 3: Acquiring a Cosmopolitan Identity from Home ... 37
Aspirational Vision ... 42
Conclusion ... 45
Conclusion ... 47
Bibliography ... 49
The chameleon changes color to match the earth, the
earth doesn’t change colors to match the chameleon.
Abstract
Ever since Ghana gained independence in 1957 and introduced English as the official language, it has attracted a lot of criticism from a section of academics, politicians, educators, traditional rulers, and the general populace. The debates are mainly centred around this key question: what is the true definition of a Ghanaian? What does it mean to be Ghanaian and what practices are considered to be Ghanaian? In this thesis I explore the relation between language choice and identity formation of middle-class well-educated parents in urban, multilingual Ghana.
Interviews, participant observation and field notes were conducted to collect local narratives on identity and its role with language. Qualitative analysis of the results revealed that the practice of English as first language in Ghanaian households which looked seemed as an act of culture betrayal, appears to be an act of aspiration desire in transmitting a cosmopolitan awareness and identity into the child.
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Introduction
Can you imagine Ghanaians speaking English all over? It’s not our culture. We are losing our culture! … If we continue on this path for the coming years, we are likely to lose our culture. Most of our culture is embedded in our language and language is a key factor in our culture. Even the drumming songs and so and so forth. They are all done in the local language. I can’t see how all our songs are going to be
translated in English. (…) We are losing our focus. Any country that abandons its culture is likely to be something else.
-Paa Kow, 12 June 20151
I had the opportunity to interview Paa Kow Ackon, a freelance columnist. In his e-article titled
Stop Confusing the Ghanaian Child he discusses the growing trends of households where parents
teach their children to use English as their first language. 2 He argues that parents that are
performing these practices are putting the Ghanaian cultural heritage at stake. He writes:
It is true that globalization has placed an importance on the learning of English at every level of society. However, I have observed a seemingly dangerous sub-culture occurring in Ghana, which I am convinced, is an affront to our culture. It is very normal now to see a sizeable number of parents who have developed the proclivity of always speaking English with their children at the expense of the local language; just with the hope that their children will become better English speakers (...) One can comfortably say that parents have the choice of deciding which language they would want to teach their children so why the bother. The plain truth is that we all have the responsibility as a society to promote our culture. The Ghanaian culture which includes our local languages plays a central role in shaping the principles of our lives. Our culture shapes our
personality and gives us unique identity. Why do we want to be what we are not?”
1
Besides Paa Kow, all other names in this thesis are pseudonyms. Though my informants gave me their consent to use their quotes, I preferred to keep their identities anonyms.
2
Article is retrieved on 18th of April via http://www.modernghana.com/news/602058/1/stop-confusing-the-ghanaian-child.html
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Paa Kow’s opinion summarizes the current ongoing debate about the role of the English
language in the Ghanaian culture. Ever since Ghana gained independence in 1957 and introduced English as the official language, it has attracted a lot of criticism from a section of academics, politicians, educators, traditional rulers, and the general populace. The debates are mainly centred around this key question: what is the true definition of a Ghanaian? What does it mean to be Ghanaian and what practices are considered to be Ghanaian? In today’s globalized world
questions concerning the role of African identities and languages are also intensively discussed on diverse social platforms by various groups and individuals in and outside the continent (Spronk 2014).
Like most post-colonial African countries, Ghana too has adopted the language of the former colonial power as their official language. Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first Ghanaian president, saw language as an essential tool to lead the country to economic and social
development. Before the independence, Ghana was inhabited by multiple ethnic groups that all had their own cultural identity and language (Edu-Buandoh 2006; McLaughlin & Owusu-Ansah 1994). However, notions of the local language serving as a key marker to index a speaker’s ‘natural’ belonging to an ethnic group caused Nkrumah not to select a particular local language as an official language. Instead, English, as a non-ethnic language, was given a symbolic status of creating a unifying identity as it leads the country to economic and social development.
In today’s Ghana, English is used in the official domains of power such as government and education. However in a nation where the daily language practices of the local people are mostly done in local languages, tension emerges within the linguistic field where the official language becomes an object of oppression and a means of discrimination towards the other languages (Blommaert & Verschueren, 1998a in Blackledge 2000:30). In the introduction of the book The Languages in Urban Africa, McLaughin (2009) makes claims that official non-African
languages contribute to the development of a language-based system of social stratification that favours a small, educated African elite and limits access to economic advancement for the majority of the African population. In this stratification model, English serves as a formal medium which is conceived to be an essential communication tool for power and economic advancement for a selected group. In this sense, the English language is considered to be an instrumental language that stimulates economic and social progress for those who have access to it. On the other hand, the Ghanaian languages are accessible to people from all social classes and is translated as merely languages of solidarity amongst the natives, outside formal contexts. More important in this field of tension is the question: to what extend does the use of the English
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language contribute to the reproduction of the “Ghanaian” identity? The majority of the local’s argue that the language does not help to establish and maintain notions of what is perceived as the Ghanaian identity; for it is not a Ghanaian language that expresses the history or the culture of Ghanaian people. However to those that practice English as their first language believe that their practice is embedded in notions of a modern Ghanaian identity. For this group of people their notion of identity is not a fixed concept belonging to a single geographical space, but rather having the desire to belong to a global community. In this thesis I discuss the self-identifications of this minority group who haven’t been given the opportunity to speak and explain their motivations, reasons and beliefs for using the English language as their first language in their household.
Language, Culture and Identity
The study of linguistic anthropology explores the relation between language and identity while looking at the role of language in the process of culture production (Schieffelin & Ochs 1986, 1994; Bucholtz & Hall 2004; Duranti et al. 2005). The general understanding of language is that it mirrors one’s culture and identity (Kropp-Dakubu 2014). However, Bucholzt & Hall argue that ‘…identity is not simply the source of culture but the outcome of culture: in other words, it is a cultural effect. And language, as a fundamental resource for cultural production, is hence also a fundamental resource for identity production’ (2004:382). This description emphasizes that identity, culture and language are not to be treated as three separate domains, for they are intertwined with each other. In this section I review existing literatures that focuses on the relation between language, culture and identity in a general context. My goal for this section is to situate this thesis in the general context of linguistic anthropological studies and then move the thesis to the specific context of multilingualism and kin-relations in Ghana.
Ghanain languages, a Culture Heritage
Our social lives obtains meaning through the use of language. A broad definition of language in this context is that language is an essential instrument human use to express, transmit and adapt their cultural reality. It is the symbolic representation of a group, community; including their historical backgrounds, as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking (Nolan & Lenski 2008). Brown (1994 in Jiang 2000) explains the relation between language and culture as follows: 'A language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language; the two
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are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture’ (2000:328). In other words, language and culture are so interconnected that without language culture cannot be completely acquired nor can it be effectively expressed and transmitted; and without culture, language cannot exist.
Another approach on the relation of language and culture is the language socialization theory of Ochs & Schieffelin (1986, 1994). Their theory suggests that the processes of linguistic and cultural development are interlinked and vary across cultural contexts. The main argument is that in the early years of socialization, the linguistic and cultural symbolic systems in which an individual is raised plays an instrumental role in socializing an individual, shaping his perceptions and his identity. Thus, language can be translated as an instrument that is used to form the individual in becoming a competent member of community, group to which they belong. In order to understand the process of language socialization, close attention must be paid to the structure of discourse in families and school settings (1994). In the Ghanaian context, family functions as a social and cultural institution that serves at the centre of Ghanaian social
organization. Through series of kinship networks and marriages, the family is acknowledged as the bedrock of all social life. It provides upcoming members with a cultural framework through which they view the world, their life as well as their personality. After gaining independence in 1957, Ghana experienced processes of rapid demographic and socio-economic changes caused by urbanization and modernization. These developments also led to transformations in the society’s orientation, the social system, patterns of family formation and family life, especially in the urban cities (Ansah 2014; Bengtson 2001; Edu-Buandoh and Otchere 2012; Edu-Buandoh 2006; Kropp-Dakubu 2000). Kin-relations in the new urban cities transformed from functioning as an cultural institution that educated children to become future custodians of societal values and traditions; to a socioeconomic institution in which the biological parents equip their children with resources that are needed to become part of the modern community that pursuits after prestige’s and economic advancements (Bengtson 2001). In other words, notions of reproducing the importance of social cohesion and sociocultural values and traditions are downplayed while awareness of individualism and the pursuit of social and economic success are emphasized. However, this does not mean that urban kin-relations have neglected the use of their native languages, as suggested by Paa Kow.
Swanepoel discusses in his article African Languages and identity question in the 21th century that
the language of parents functions as a distinct marker on the identity of the child. He argues that the use of African languages is essential in the reproduction of African identities. Identity in the African context denotes ‘being’, or ‘belonging to’ and/or ‘acceptance of’ (2013:20). He argues
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that African languages in Africa symbolize the cultural heritage of the people as it reveals their history, culture and their physical and geographical space. The use of the local languages also implies an act of faith: ‘an assertion of African identity and an instrument to subvert colonial imperialism, one that will be difficult to replace with any other tongue not rooted in Africa and not acquired at home’ (2013:24). The symbolic status of African languages is that the use of it denotes resistance from anti-African notions from the colonial past, which is believed to be essential for the decolonisation of the African minds (2013:26). What is important here is that the author makes a clear distinction between African languages as the language of the local people and English as a foreign language whose root is geographically located elsewhere. Local languages in this context are described as ‘heritage languages’3 that mirrors the sociohistorical and
sociocultural background of the natives. Language is therefore perceived as something natural and antique that belongs only to the local people.
Another important factor that Swanepoel highlight is the link between the use of local language and pride. This relation emphasizes the authenticity of the native people. Many postcolonial studies in the African context suggest that the use of local languages above foreign languages is form of resistance that emerged to oppose the colonial rulers that rejected the culture of the local people. In the case of Ghana, even though the English language is adopted as the official language, the majority of the local people reject this. To locals, the use of the English language as a Ghanaian links them back to the colonial past where they were ruled by the British and demanded to reject their authentic culture. Swanepoel’s framework helps to get a better understanding of the sentimental critics given by the natives on the use of English language in informal domains. However, it does not give any explanation on why a small group of parents choose to use only English in the socialization process of their children.
English, a Hegemonic Language
In debates concerning the role of English in a global context and how that influences and/or endangers local languages, Antonio Gramsci and his concept of hegemony are often applied for better understanding. The Italian communist and political theorist Antonio Gramsci is known to be one of the first to discover a relation between language and power. To him, because language affects how people think it is therefore a political instrument. Gramsci was most certainly interested in analysing the role of language in education and how that leads to the development
3 The term heritage language (HL) is used by Weiyung (in Duranti et al 2012). He used it to refer to an
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of hegemony (Gramsci in Ives 2009). The relation between hegemony and language education rejects the idea of individuals freely choose what language to learn, and therefore shift to learning a ‘common language’. Instead Gramsci argues that the complex reasons why individuals, families, community groups, regional territories, and states foster the teaching of English (or any other language) is intimately tied to education, culture, ideology and politics.
In the article Global English, Hegemony and Education: Lessons from Gramsci, political scholar
Ives (2009) uses Gramsci’s notion of language hegemony to examine the hegemonic role of English. For some, the spread of English is taken to be beneficial as lingua franca for its speakers as for the world. Even Philippe Van Parijs who is more concerned on the injustices created by the spread of English also notes on the benefits of acquiring the English language. He states: ‘If we want all sorts of workers’, women’s, young people’s, old people’s, sick people’s, poor people’s associations to organise on the ever higher scale required for effective action, we must equip them with the means of talking to one another without the need for interpreting boxes and the highly skilled and paid professionals who go in them’ (Van Parijs, 2004:118 in Ives 2009: 662).
Others, who disagree, argue that the spread of English is strongly linked with imperialism and domination whether economic, cultural or political. Scholars like Pennycook argue that the perception that people have of English as being beneficial and/or as the language of advantage, threatens other languages. For them, English acts as a gatekeeper to positions of wealth and prestige both within and between nations. It is also the language through which much of the unequal distribution of wealth, resources, and knowledge operates’ (1995:55 in Ives 2009:662).
Gramsci was in favour for the spread of a ‘standard’ national language in a country. To him the absence of a ‘standard’ national language was seen as an obstacle to a country in
becoming a successful, modern nation-state. Implementing a ‘common language’ provides many benefits for individuals and social groups but also for the society as a whole, in terms of increased possibilities of communication and solidarity. However, he was also concerned with the political inequalities that came with these ‘benefits’. For Gramsci, and his followers, it is crucial to explore how English as a ‘common language’ is created or selected, and how it is spread.
Studies concerning the role of language policy in the Ghanaian education often argue that the language policy tends to neglect the multi-ethnic and multilingual character of the country and its people, by selecting a non-native language as medium of instruction which that does not represent the identity of the local people (Rosekrans, Sherris & Chatry-Komarek 2012;
Blackledge 2000, 2005; Davis & Agbenyega 2012). Owi-Esi (2006) goes even further, accusing the State’s implementation of the English-only policy for committing the crime of “linguistic
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genocide” (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2000 in 2006: 79); taking away the rights of children to be taught and use their native language(s). Instead a bilingual program should be designed and introduced in the Ghanaian educational system.
In the article, "Speak English!" A Prescription or Choice of English as a Lingua Franca in Ghanaian Schools, Edu-Buandoh and Otchere (2012) explore whether the language behaviour of
Ghanaian students are structured by hegemony or choice. It important to note that the term hegemony is not mentioned in their work. Yet, their approach on this issue questions whether language behaviour is constructed by choice or by political policies which is implemented by the state to control the linguistic situation in the country. In 2002 Ghana promulgated a law, which mandates the use of English language as the medium of instruction from primary one also known as grade one. Local languages were now to be studied as a compulsory subject up to the Senior Secondary (Senoir High) School (Owi-Esi 2006; Ansah 2014). Students are now required to speak and write English at all times whenever they are in school. The speech of students is controlled by threats of sanctions. Students who do not abide by the language regulation are punished. The punishments include washing dining-hall plates, weeding, scrubbing, writing lines and wearing labels that say “I will not speak vernacular in school again” (Edu-Buandoh & Otchere 2012).
Based on the focus of this thesis the study of Edu-Buandoh and Otchere (2012) stands out because it is one of the very few studies that de-emphasizes the relation between language and ideologies and emphasizing the role of personal motivations. Their findings showed that the students preferred to speak English as an instrumental language whereby the students are ruled by the notion that the acquisition of English means to possess the “passport to prestige and success”. At the same time it also functions as a political instrument that enables speakers to distinct themselves from the mass and to identify themselves with a target community they wish to be a part of. Local languages, however, are primarily used whenever students wanted to express their ethnolinguistic identities. Edu-Buandoh and Otchere theoretical framework provides a good starting point for this thesis when it comes to language use as a choice.
Language, Identity and Agency
In the article English in Ghana: Growth, Tensions, and Trends, Adika (2012) concludes with the
argument that ‘English should not be perceived as displacing the local languages, but rather complementing the Ghanaian languages and constituting an inherent “part of the local language ecology”; they are neither mutually exclusive nor do they necessarily ‘create tensions’ (2014:163).
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A minority of the population agrees with Adika’s statement that English is part of the Ghanaian history and should therefore be treated as such. One of the supporters of this statement is the well-known and one of the most respected ‘celebrity-pastor’ Mensa Otabil. He is one of the few public figures that pleads for cultural transformation in his sermon, challenging and criticizing the common distinction between African and foreign. In his interview with De Witte (2008) he says:
You see, the world, there is a blurring of cultures all over the world. The headfast west-east, African-Europe, all those duals are crumbling. For example, a lot of Ghanaian children are growing up and their first language is English, it is a reality. Now if we say that English is a foreign language, than what are we saying? English is not a foreign language, not anymore, it is a Ghanaian language. It is the official language, it is the language we conduct business in and for a lot of young Ghanaians it is their first language (2008: 109).
He states that Africa’s status as being undeveloped is due to the fact that African people are unable to modify their so called authentic African culture. There is this dominant assumption that by transforming the African culture one becomes ‘Western’ and therefore loses their ‘African identity’. To be able to partake in the world and also be successful as an individual and as continent, Africans should transform their culture (Otabil in De Witte 2011). His argument highlights two aspects concerning the role of English in the Ghanaian context. First, the English language was selected as official language not by the British but by Ghanaian rulers that re-interpreted it as a part of the Ghanaian identity that leads to modernity. Secondly, in this modern time of globalization, English has become the language of global relations and trade. This means Ghanaians have an advantage on the global market, placing them higher than countries that have not adopted English as their official language.
Blackledge (2005) argues that within a multilingual context the choice of language at any particular time reflects how speakers want listeners to perceive them. In each speech
environment speakers can choose a particular language to mark identity, social control, or both at the same time. Ahearn (2001) highlights the importance of studying agency when discussing issues concerning language. Thus, inspired by Ahearn I employ language as a form of social action, a cultural resource and a set of sociocultural practices that reproduces or transforms the socio-economic identity of an individual. In this thesis I argue that people in multilingual context
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tend to choose a language that fits with the identity which they desire to acquire. I stand alongside Norton (1997) arguing that identity is not a fixed concept which is passively received but rather a fluid concept whereby speaker actively re-construct their identity as their social and economic relations changes. Norton’s notion is embedded in West’s conceptual framework which relates identity to desire: -the desire for recognition, the desire for affiliation, and the desire for security and safety. West (1992 in 1997: 410) argues that the realisation of such desires is intertwined with the distribution of material resources in society. The amount of access people have to material resources determines their desire. In this thesis I also argue that the choice of parents to speak English with their children is embedded in their subjectivities, a concept borrowed from Ortner (2005). Subjectivity in Ortner’s framework refers to humans as partially knowing subjects who are aware of their self and are reflexive of their decisions and practices (2005:45). In the context of subjectivity, the language choice of Ghanaian parents is one the one hand influenced by aspirational thought, desires, fear, and on the other hand by political and cultural discourses. In this thesis I intend to explore the motives of Ghanaian parents to teach their childeren to use English as their first language and how that influences the formation of their identity in local speech spheres. The term speech sphere in this thesis is used to describe the implementation of un-official language regualtion in informal domains in which speakers are silently demanded to speak the dominant local language provided by the informal domain.
Methods
I conducted most of my three month ethnographic field work in Pokuase, a traditional homeland and suburb of the Ga people in Accra. It is a mixture of high-end developing residential areas, gated community of ACP Estates; and lively retail shopping areas, with local stores, bars or 'drinking spots', bus/taxi stations; and a local market. The majority of the people that reside there have their own enterprises. I categorize them as entrepreneurs. A lot of them owned a little supermarket store at the porch of their house, a food kiosk alongside the road. Some men were taxi drivers of their own car and the sales women that sell their own goods at the local market or at the bigger markets, like Makola in the city. I managed to establish social relations with a lot of these area entrepreneurs, like Esther and Maa Janet who were both sales women and also lived in the house in which I resided. These relations were of significant means for it was through them that I gained a better understanding on the roles of Ghanaian languages, including the English language, in daily lives of the locals.
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I used different methods to collect data depending on the progress of the research. At first, I conducted the method participant observation to get familiar with the daily course of life of the locals and to explore ‘the complexity of the multilingual situation’ in Pokuase and in Accra city as discussed by Kropp-Dakubu works on the multilingual character in Accra (1997, 2000). Most of my observations were carried out in Pokuase and during moments when I was on the local public transport, also known as the tro-tro. The tro-tro is a minibus that can seat a total of 10 to 15 people. My trips with the tro-tro’s and shared taxis were of great benefit to me, since it gave me a chance to experience the daily language practices of the local people.
I also conducted a semi-structured interview with six well-educated young professionals between the ages 25 and 35. One of them grew up in an English speaking household. Another one had chosen to have an English speaking household for their children. The rest of them just wanted to share their opinion on this issue. The questions in the interview were designed to explore the narratives that are held by young professionals on the use of English and Ghanaian languages in informal spheres, such as the household. The aim of the interviews was to discover the motives parents (could) have to using English as the first language of communication in their household. The questions were all open-ended and provided the participants the opportunity to express their views. I recorded the interviews using a digital audio recorder and transcribed it for analysis. These interviews were held with: a business executive, a freelancer columnist, a junior attorney, a first degree holder in agriculture, and a jobless graduate. All of them are eloquent in English speech, except for James, who was introduced to me by his girlfriend Sarah that describes him as being too “local”.
At the end of each interview I would ask the informants if they could connect me to other people in their social environments that would also like to talk to me on this matter. Unfortunately, this snowball method did not seem to work for me. I think that the fact that I originate from Ghana played a part. Anytime people asked me of my mission in Ghana, I always answered: ‘I am a master student in Anthropology and I am here to do research’. I received a lot of funny, surprised faces that asked me why I choose to do my research in Ghana, why did I want to study my own people, what was I going to do with all that data and so on. At some point I concluded that in order to gather more data, it would be best if I did not mention my reason for being in Ghana. I then changed my method to conversational interviews. A conversational interview is best described as a ‘natural’ conversational ethnographic interview where I, the ethnographer, become a participant in a conversation (Whitehead 2005:16). I discovered that this method helped me enormously in collecting data on the ideas the locals have when it comes to language issues and language choice in urban Ghana. As these informal conversations came up, I
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was always alert when issues related to the research emerged. I would then ask my informants questions to further explore the issue of interest. Since these conversations occurred
unannounced, I was required to make field notes; writing the context in which these conversations took place and also making notes of the interesting and funny stories my informants told me that I considered relevant for this thesis.
Reflection: Challenges of the Outsider “Insider” Ethnographer
The following is an extract from the fieldnotes that I collected when I arrived in the field on june 6th 2015:
“We wish you a happy stay in Ghana”, the pilot said from his cockpit. My heart was doing a happy dance whilst my mind was hoping and planning on doing a good research. I waited anxiously in the line to hand my passport to the immigration department. My flight had delayed for an hour and a half. I was nervous, irritated and anxious all at the same time, yet I tried to stay calm. Then it was my turn to go to the officer. He reached out for my passport and I gave it to him. As he inspected the content of my passport he looked up at me: “Edna Ofori Gyamfi, welcome to Ghana or is it welcome home?”, he asked. I looked at him surprised for I did not expect this question. “Uhmm… Actually both, I guess?!” I responded. I was overwhelmed with mixed feeling. In a way it is ‘welcome home’, because it is the motherland of my parents. Both of my parents were born in Ghana and many of my relatives are located there. To phrase it differently, my cultural identity as a young adult of African descent is rooted in Ghana on the soils of the African continent. In this view, yes it is a welcome home for me. However, at the same time it is also ‘welcome to Ghana’ for it is the motherland of my parents and not mine. Differently from my parents, I was born and grew up in the Netherlands. Therefore, I have no history or any knowledge of how the locals’ people live their daily lives. After questioning me on how long I was going to stay and where I was going to stay, the officer stamped my passport that symbolizes that I was approved of entering Ghana. Before handing me my passport he looked up at me again and asked me: “Wo ti Twi [Do you understand/can you speak Twi]? Me pa wo kyɛw, aane, me tumi ka Twi [Yes please, I can speak Twi]”, I responded with a smile. Immediately his face lit up and he gave me a warm and welcoming smile while handing me my passport. I walked to the baggage hall and
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reflected what I had just experienced. Had my ability to speak Akan-Twi, a local language, verified my ethnic identity as Ghanaian and made me gain acceptance of the natives? Does this then imply that a Ghanaian identity is only significant if a person can speak his/her (local) mother tongue? What then does this mean for those who are born in Ghana but are brought up in an English-only speaking household and are who unable to speak their mother tongue? With all these questions going through my mind I saw my luggage on the belt. It was time for me to prepare myself to enter into the country.
This vignette sums up my three months of expierence as an ethnographer in the field. I consider my biggest challenge to be the complex relation I had with myself as an insider and outsider, at the same time. To the locals I was considered as one of them because of my ability to speak Twi well and also my knowledge of the so called Ghanaian culture4. Although I was born in the
Netherlands, I grew up in a Ghanaian household. My mom tried to transmit, the Ghanaian cultural framework and Akan-Twi as a form of cultual heritage that links me to my cultural roots. Twi, which is a dailect in the Akan langage, is also one of the most spoken language in the southern part of Ghana. One of the greatest benefits of being an insider ethnographer, is that my ability to speak one of the most used Ghanaian language gave me full access to the daily lives of locals and granted me with multiple oppertunities to interact with them. However, at the same time, the downfall of being an insider ethnographer is that I was having difficulties in finding people to interview. As I mentioned earlier in the method section, I think that to a certain extent my position as an insider also worked against me; creating forms of tension between me and my informants. I noticed that my informants upheld a suspecions behaviour towards me, especially when I told people that I came to Ghana to do an independant research. When I did managed to find someone who wanted to partake in the interview, I had to reassure them that I was not going to ask any personal questions before they agreed in doing the interview. I think that some of the locals I spoke to had a different profile of how an ethnographer lookes like: a white ‘Western’ female. Instead they were approached by one of their owns; a young “aburokyire nyi” [foreign] woman from Ghanaian descents that studies anthropology and “returns home” to Ghana conduct research amongst her “own” people. Nonetheless, at the same time, I also received a lot of praise of people; saying that they admired my interest in studying my own culture, which they translated as me being proud of my cultural identity as a Ghanaian; a black and proud African woman.
4 Culture in this context refers to cloths, popular music (hiplife, highlife, gospel) and cuisine (eating like the
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Though I very much enjoyed operating as an insider ethnographer, I noticed that I did find it challenging to shift to the “neutral and rational” identity of an outsider ethnographer. During my moments of observations and data collection I actually felt like a spy that was selling out her “own” people. To some point I even felt bad towards some people with whom I became very close. Most of these people referred to me as their friend, sister or daughter. Before these relationships became personal, I considered these people as my informants or gatekeepers. However, as my relationship with them became closer, guilt emotions increased. As a solution to decrease my guilt feelings, I discovered the importance of having a journal to write down
experiences, thoughts, concerns and so on. I can’t say that by writing everything down I was freed from my guilt and spy feelings, but it did help a little as the journals ended up having a liberating effect on me. Besides writing, my room also became the place where I often made that shift of being an outsider ethnographer. This was the space where I could think and analyse all the events that occurred around me.
In spite of all the challenges, I must say that it was an enlighten experience. The experience gave me the opportunity to get to know Ghana for myself. Not only did I gain a better understanding of the natives on how they view and live their lives. I also gained a better understanding of my mother who as a Ghanaian mother has worked so hard to provide for me and my sisters, pushing us and motivating us to do our best at school in order for us to have a better and prosperous life. All in the name of aspirations.
Structure of the Thesis
The central question of this thesis is: Why do some local middle-class Ghanaian parents choose to have English as their first language in their households? The aim of this thesis is to explore the relation
between language choice and (re)production of identity. The outline of the thesis is based on how the research evolved itself in the three months that I was in the field. Chapter one starts with an historical overview on how English entered the country as a foreign language and ended up being adopted as the national language of the nation. In chapter two I explore the narritives held by the locals concering the status and function of English language in the daily course of the local lives. I then explore, in chapter three, how these narritves on the status and the use of English and Ghanaian languages influences the kind of socialization process parents conduct to establish the identity they want for their child(ren). Finally, in the last chapter all the pieces will be brought together and used to reflect the relation between language choice and the (re)production of identity.
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Chapter 1
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In this chapter I briefly discuss the historical development of Ghana’s language policy. To understand the language choice of Ghanaian English speaking parents, it is important to look at how English, a foreign language, transformed into a symbolic language of progress and
unification amongst the Ghanaian people and nation. I distinct three periods: the mercantile period, the colonial era and the postcolonial period. With each period I will discuss the historical events that took place and how these events led to the establishment of schools as cultural institutions that was (and still is) assigned to transmit the hegemonic frameworks of the ruling party.
Gold Coast, the Mercantile period: 15th – 19th century
Before the first Europeans arrived in the late fifteenth century, many inhabitants of the Gold Coast area were striving to enhance their newly acquired territories as they settled into a secure and permanent environment. By the end of the sixteenth century, most of these ethnic groups which constituting the modern Ghanaian population, had settled in their present locations. Unfortunately, little is known of the small African kingdoms in the region between the Tano and Volta rivers until the arrival of Europeans in the fifteenth century. Archaeological studies suggest that the area, now known as Ghana, had been inhabited since the early Bronze Age (ca. 4000
B.C.). However, there is no evidence indicating that these early inhabitants were the ancestors of the current peoples of the country. Oral history and other sources say that the ancestors of some of Ghana's residents entered the country at least as early as the tenth century A.D. migrating from the north and east continued thereafter.
Ancient Ghana derived its power and wealth from gold during trans-Saharan trade, resulting that the majority on the knowledge of Ghana came from Arab writers. Al-Hamdani, for example, described Ghana as a country with the richest gold mines on earth.5 The trade
stimulated the establishment of early Akan states located in the forest zone of the south. The forest itself was not yet populated. The Akan-speaking peoples began to move into it towards the end of the fifteenth century with the arrival of crops, such as sorghum, bananas, and cassava, from Southeast Asia and the New World that could be adapted to forest conditions.
5 Retrieved on 15th of December 2015 via
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The first Europeans to arrive in the Gold Coast area, were the Portuguese in 1471, under the patronage of Prince Henry the Navigator. After their arrival, the Portuguese named the region Gold Coast. The name was later adopted by the English colonisers. The initial interest of the Portuguese was to trade gold, ivory, and slaves. They established their commercial mecca where they traded weapons and slaves from other parts of Africa for gold dust. Competition with Portugal's monopoly in the gold trade soon came from other European traders, such as the Spanish, Italian, and British. In 1482 the Portuguese build their first permanent trading post in a coastal village they named Elmina.6 The fortress was constructed to protect their commercial
interests from other European competitors and hostile Africans. The Portuguese managed to maintain their monopoly position on the Gold Coast for a century.
During the 1500s, European plantations in the New World were introduced, demanding slaves in the Americas. This contributed to rise of the slave trade, which overshadowed gold as the principal export. The Gold Coast, and other surrounding coastal countries had now become the principal source of slaves for the New World. The seemingly ravenous market and the substantial profits to be gained from the slave trade attracted adventurers from all over Europe; first the Dutch and later the English, Danish, and Swedish. In the following two centuries, other European competitors established their fortified trading stations on the Gold Coast as they challenged the monopoly position of the Portuguese. In 1637 the Dutch invaded and took over the Portuguese fortress at Elmina causing the Portuguese to leave the Gold Coast permanently. Afterwards, a century of aggressiveness emerged for control of trade between European groups on the coast and also between competing African kingdoms, mainly the Asante’s (or also known as Ashanti). European powers struggled to establish and maintain their position of dominance in the profitable trade of the Gold Coastal cities. Forts were built, abandoned, attacked, captured, sold, and exchanged. Many sites were selected at one time or another for fortified positions by contending European nations.
In the mid of the nineteenth century the power of the British expanded globally through the Industrial Revolution. Their also gained more power in Ghana through alliances with coastal regions. These alliances were formed to prevent the Asante kingdom from gaining dominance over the whole southern area of the Gold Coast. In 1844 the coastal Fante states signed a political agreement with the British, also known as the Bond of 1844. In this agreement it was stated that the British would extend protection to the signatory states in return of a degree of
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authority over them. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, other coastal and interior states followed the Fante’s states by signing the Bond. As a result the majority of the coastal regions came under the authority of the British government. In 1850 the British Government bought all of Denmark's Gold Coast territory and later the Dutch fort at Elmina in 1872. With these purchases, the British became the only European power left on the Gold Coast. Two years later the British proclaimed the coastal territories as British colony under the name Gold Coast and moved their administrative centre from Cape Coast to Accra. After three decades of warfare against the Asante kingdom, the British accomplished in having total control over the whole of Ghana after seizing the Asante and the Northern Territories from the Gold Coast Colony.
From Exclusive Education to Missionary Schools
The earliest form of western-type of formal school education in Ghana started in the fifteenth century by the European traders in the form of Castle Schools. These schools were established in the Forts of the European merchants.7 The schools were established to provide formal education
to mulatto children or children of African wives. The British Cape Coast Castle School was also open to children of important chiefs and wealthy merchants. The students were taught how to speak, write and read the mother tongue of the country that ruled in the fort. By doing so they managed to preserve their language and culture while being far from home.
During the second phase of the mercantile period, the main goal of education in Ghana was into to transforming the pagan lifestyle and thinking of the local people. The people were educated to become agents of civilization and Christianity. Mission Schools followed the Castle Schools with the arrival of Christian Missionaries in the country. The aim of the missionaries was to spread the word of God and convert the natives to Christianity. The missionaries realized that to convert the native souls from paganism to the Christian religion, the local people had to be schooled in their own native language on how to read and understand the bible. Also, these schools educated the some locals to take on positions as clerks and teachers to teach and also convert their fellow people to Christianity. Others were trained to become interpreters and help the colonial government in the export-trading firms. The three most influent missionary schools were the Basel and Breman mission school from the Germans, and the Wesleyan mission school from the British. Each school conducted their own language policy. For instance, the Wesleyan
7 The Danish in the Christianborg Castle Accra, the Portuguese then the Dutch in the Elmina
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missionaries advocated for a greater use of English, whilst the Basel and the Breman missionaries encouraged the use of vernacular. Besides the use of vernacular, students from the Breman missionaries. The students from Basel schools, on the other hand, were only permitted to speak German and no other European language like English.
Once again, the aim of these missionary schools were to socialize the natives to civilization through Christianity. However the natives reinterpreted these schools as an
instrument for upward social and economic mobility. It created opportunities for them to work in the colonial service or commercial sectors. Being fluent in the language of the colonial ruler meant non-manual employment, “modernity,” and “progress.” (La Verle et al. 1994; Coe 2005). According to historians the main problem of the British mission school and their education program was: their extensive use of the English language at the expenses of the local language. The second problem was that all three mission school forced the banning of expression and appreciation of African culture as it was associated with paganism.
Under the British Rule in the Colonial period: 1901-19578
The British ruled over Gold Coast for 56 years. The gradual emergence of centralized colonial government brought about unified control over local services, although the actual administration of these services was still delegated to local authorities. The role of the traditional states in local administration was clarified. This period is noted to be the era in which the country experienced significant progress in social, economic, and educational development (La Verle et al. 1994). These improvements were attributed under the authority of Governor Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, from 1919 to 1927. At the beginning of his governorship of the Gold Coast, Guggisberg presented a ten-year development program to the Legislative Council. His program has been described as the most ambitious ever proposed in West Africa up to that time (1994; Coe 2002, 2005). In order of priority, he first suggested the improvement of transportation, followed by the water supply, drainage, hydroelectric projects, public buildings, town improvements, schools, hospitals, prisons, communication lines, and other services.
Developments on education was given special attention in the governor's ten-year development plan. His educational policy, written in 1919, stated:
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Our aim is not to denationalise [the people of the Gold Coast], but to graft skillfully on to their national characteristics the best attributes of modern civilisation. For without
preserving his national characteristics and his sympathy and touch with the great illiterate masses of his own people, no man can ever become a leader in progress, whatever other sort of leader he may become (Quoted in Coe 2002: 27,28).
His education policy stressed the need for improved teacher training, equal education for girls, a greater emphasis on vocational training, and the establishment of secondary schools. One of his main goals was to replace various work positions done by European with educated Africans in many administrative positions within the country. This contributed to the establishment of the Achimota School in 1927. The school was the first secondary school designed to train the natives of the Gold Coast Colony for the lower levels of civil services. Conversely, the means of formal education was once again reinterpreted by the locals as a virtual guarantee of acquiring white-collar jobs and wage-earning positions, creating economic and social advantages for them and their families.
Achimota College: The best of “both” worlds
Coe describes the Achimota college as a hegemonic project designed by idealistic people aiming to bring together “the best” of African and European culture through progressive modes of education (2005:25). During the colonial period, colonial rulers in Africa viewed education as an essential instrument to control the future of the country by influencing the cultural framework through which natives give meaning to themselves and their social reality (Foucault 1979 in Coe 2005; Yamana 2005). The education system of Achimota college was designed to be the “model of all education” forms in Gold Coast (Annual General Report 1925−1926:46 in Coe 2005). The programs in the school were intended to educate the students to become Ghana’s next leaders.
Achimota hopes to produce a type of student who is “Western” in his intellectual attitudes towards life, with a respect for science and capacity for systematic thought, but who remains African in sympathy and desirous of preserving and developing what is deserving of respect in tribal life, custom, rule and law (Achimota College Report 1932:14 in Coe 2005:29).
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Although the school used English as their main medium of instruction, great attention was paid to notions of the African culture and customs. For the founders of the school, it was crucial that educated Africans did not fall in the trap of alienating themselves from their social and cultural backgrounds as well as the tribal system that dictated the social and political life of the locals (Yamada 2005). The school initially admitted children from matrilineal societies, like the Akan’s,
that were in line to become chiefs themselves and run the local councils in the future (Coe 2005). To the British, ‘culture’ was purely a form of entertainment. As a result, the promotion of African culture in Achimota included arts, especially music and dance, performed during extracurricular and celebrative times within the schools schedule. Students were taught about cultural customs by chiefs and community members. In sum, the Achimota project promoted a hegemonic
framework that created ties between modernization with Western and traditional with African. In other words, the students of the Achimota College were formed to embodied notions of
modernization and tradition.
Decolonizing the country and the minds in Post-Colonial Ghana from 1957
On the 6th of March 1957, Gold Coast became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain
independency from their British colonial rulers. Shortly after, the area Gold Coast was renamed as Ghana. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, an old student at Achimota College, became the country’s first president. He is described as an ambitious man with socialist goals and high hopes.9 His ultimate
goal was to liberate the entire African continent from the hands of the Europeans. His policy for Ghana was to lead the nation to economic growth and modernity in the context of a new
“liberated” Africa (Botwe-Asamoah 2005). Nkrumah used the term ‘modernity’ as a critique to the assumptions implanted by the British which claimed that modernization could only occur within “Western” standards. He disapproved of the notion that modern civilization could only be established if Africans would trade their African culture for Western culture and world view. In addition, he argues that modernity and socio-economic transformations in Africa can be establish once the African personality is revived and appreciated and celebrated by the people. He argued that during the colonial period, the African identity had been dehumanized and attacked by the European merchants, Christian missionaries, tourist and anthropologists. With their Western view and educational system they promoted Eurocentric social thoughts and cultural hegemony
9 Retrieved on 15th of December 2015 via
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(2005). Nkrumah believed that the African identity symbolized interdependence,
interrelationship, and collective responsibility. Nkrumah viewed education as ‘the academic focus of national life, reflecting the social, economic, political and cultural aspirations of the people’ (2005:35). The educational system was redesigned became an with the aim to revive the African personality. As a result his educational policy led to the establishment of mass education which ‘educated’ Africans about “their” culture. School had now turned into a cultural institution where natives are transformed to regain their dignity and agency as they are schooled to become
“modern” Africans (2005:8).
Sankofaism
After the 6th of march, the government was challenged to create an unifying identity amongst the
people. The Ghanaian population has always been made up by different ethnic group, each with their own cultural heritage10: history, language, and origin. The hundreds of subgroups are
divided in five major ethnic and linguistic groups which include: the Akan, Ewe, Mole-Dagbane, Guan, and Ga-Adangbe (La Verle et al. 1994). The presence of ethnic tension has always been part of the country due to ethnic rivalries of the precolonial era, variance in the impact of colonialism upon different regions of the country. Thus, to create an awareness of unification amongst the people, the state developed a cultural policy that would re-asses and re-interpret the African history and culture and at the same time also recognize cultural diversity within a national identity, that transcends ethnic and religious boundaries (Botwe-Asamoah 2005).
The nationalist framework of ‘Sankofaism’ was implemented. This ideology referred to the recovery of the ‘authentic’ African selfhood lost in alienation by returning, in a mode of self-retrieval, to the cultural heritage that colonialism taught Africans to forget or reject (De Witte & Meyer 2012:46).11 Nkrumah’s government was convinced that the best way to undo the alienation
of colonialism and restore the African identity was through education (Coe 2006: 57 ff. in De Witte & Meyer 2012: 48). Besides his policy on Africanization of the curriculum of the
10 I used De Witte & Meyer’s translation of the concept heritage. In the Ghanaian context, the concept heritage
refers to ‘an expression of a true national culture backed by spiritual powers and rooted in the past, or as some kind of folklore’ (De Witte & Meyer 2012:48).
11
This nationalizing project took shape around the Akan symbol of Sankofa, a bird looking back and walking forward. The symbol refers to the Twi proverb ‘worefi na wosankɔfa a, yenkyi’ – it is not a taboo to go back and fetch what you have forgotten. Simply put, it means that ‘one can always undo past mistakes.’ In the framework of post-colonial identity politics, the Sankofa symbol was used to by the state to express the need for cultural heritage in moving ahead as a people (De Witte & Meyer 2012:46)
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educational system in the country, Nkrumah also established various cultural institutions ‘for the discovery, interpretation, evaluation, preservation and development of the African heritage,’ (Quoted Hagan in Botwe-Asamoah 2005:31). For example, the African Studies department of national universities were funded to conduct research on Ghanaian traditions and were assigned to teach students the cultures and traditions of Ghana’s various ethnic groups in school curricula and books. Cultural institutes like the Bureau of Ghana Languages was established to preserve, promote and teach the selected nine Ghanaian languages and other cultural aspects through pragmatic strategies.12 The selected languages are: Akan13, Dagaare/Wale, Dangbe, Dagbane,
Ewe, Ga, Gonja, Kasem and Nzema. These languages are based on the major ethnic groups in Ghana, mentioned earlier on. Furthermore, traditional cultural festivals were discovered and revived as well. According to Ghanaweb.com14 these cultural festivals “historically, religiously,
socially, economically, culturally, morally and politically [celebrates] the lives of Ghanaians”, to “forge close bondage with their ancestors and ask for their protection [and lastly] to purify the whole state so that people can enter the New Year with confidence and hope”. In other words, these festivals functions as social instrumental events that stimulates community solidarities as it celebrates the life experiences of the people (Botwe-Asamoah 2005). Lastly, media productions were also stimulated to promote Ghana’s ‘rich and colourful heritage’. Nkrumah was convinced that the media also played a significant role as it stimulates national unity. The primary use of media to educate the ‘people, enlightening them on their national responsibilities and the need for development,’ (Quoted Ansah 1991:95 in 2005: 138).
As I mentioned earlier on, the legacy of ethnic rivalries during the colonial era influenced the inter- and intra-ethnic relations in the country. The Akan’s, which includes about twenty sub-groups, constitute about half of the Ghanaian population, making them the largest ethnic group in Ghana. Their overall dominance is present in the public sector; and in the economic and social life of Ghanaians as they overshadow other non-Akan ethnic groups. Consequently, one of the major critics on the Sankofaism framework on cultural heritage was that other non-Akan ethnic groups accused Nkrumah and his government of implementing a form of Akan hegemony to ‘Akanize’ the nation that ignores the minority ethnic groups (De Witte & Meyer 2012; Simpson 2003). Nkrumah explained his interest in the Akan culture during the inaugurating of his theatre
12 Retrieved on 18th of May 2015 via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_of_Ghana_Languages
13 Akan includes: Asante, Fante, Akuapem, Akyem, and Kwahu. However as Ethnologue.com states,
Asante-Twi and Fante are most widely-spoken Akan dialects in Ghana. Retrieved via 18th of May 2015
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/tribes/languages.php 14 More information on Ghanaian festivals and holidays see
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group, “Osagyefo Players” on January 24, 1965. He argued that although the Akan people had not written their history nor culture they were one of the few ethnic groups that were able to maintain their culture in its pure state through traditional cultural expression that include music, dance, art, designs, names, signs and symbols, performances, ceremonies, architectural forms, handicrafts, and narratives, or many other artistic or cultural expressions15 (De Witte & Meyer
2012; Botwe-Asamoah 2005:65).16 Nkrumah reinterpreted culture as a lived experience of
Ghanaians. To him, the culture of African people was embedded in interdependence, interrelationship, and collective responsibility (Botwe-Asamoah 2005).
One Nation, One Language
The second mission of the Nkrumah government was to decrease any notion of ethnic consciousness in attempts to create national unity and harmonious inter-, and intra-ethnic relations. Various projects were established to stimulate this process. For example, the boarding school system served to bring educated elites from different ethnic backgrounds to interact across ethnic differences as they shared their experiences. Promoting rural-urban migration and the growth of towns also served to improve the social interaction between people from different ethnic background and to downplay existing ethnic animosities and rivalries. In the context of national unity, these projects were established to influence notions locals held towards national and cultural identity. It was Nkrumah’s desire that locals would first define themselves as Ghanaians and then followed by the ethnic group they are a member of (Botwe-Asamoah 2005:121).
Another strategy to stimulate national unity and economic development was the implementation of a national language, a language that would support the country to be a competitor in the global economy. Led by the political framework ‘‘one nation, one language’’, Nkrumah’s Government promulgated English as the official nation language, lingua franca and medium of instruction in education. The English language symbolized as a neutral non-ethnic language that transcended ethnic differences and stimulated unification amongst the different cultural groups. Although the State supported the use of local languages as a form of expressing cultural pride, at the same time it also served as an ethnic marker. Selecting a local language as the
15 Cultural expression or "expressions of folklore" are categorized under the term Traditional Cultural
Expressions (TCEs). This term was first introduced in 1985 by UNICEF in their rapport on the national laws of the protection of expressions of folklore.
16 La Verle et al. (1994) writes that the Akan culture is one of the purest West African cultures that still exist.
The Akan people managed to protect themselves from outsiders’ influences as they preserved the core fundamentals of their culture. For instance, the Akan’s rejected the Islamization process that took place in sub-Saharan Africa between the 9th and 14th centuries
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official language could be interpreted by the local people as an act of ethnic preference which could lead to more division instead of stimulating unity amongst the people.
Today, the English language is used for all formal, status-full and specialized domains like government affairs17, large-scale business transactions, as well as legal, administrative and official
procedures and documents. It is also the standard language for all formal professions, as educational instruction and in national radio and television broadcasts. In contrast to the local languages which is mainly used for cultural affairs within cultural domains, such as chieftaincy18
(pre-colonial institution of governance with judicial, legislative, and executive powers), kinship relations and in daily lives of the locals. According to La Verle et al. the distinction between English as formal language and local languages as informal is to ‘minimize internal divisiveness’ in order to establish notions of unification in the whole of urban Ghana (1994:46).
Conclusion
The focus of this chapter was to explore the political context in which the English language and the Ghanaian languages functions. The historical events in this chapter illustrated the relation between language and hegemonic ideologies, in which cultural institutions such as schools plays a significant role in transmitting political and culturally loaded hegemonies to the people. English in the Ghanaian political context has always enjoyed the status of being the instrumental language for social and economic developments. In the last two periods we saw that the value of the English language was redefined as the language for modernity which lead to not only economic and social upwardly mobilisation but also upward motions on cultural level. In both periods notions of modern identity were extremely highlighted. However the difference between the two periods is that the modern identity in the Achimota college framework referred to the exclusion of traditional Ghanaian culture and its influences on the thought and the behaviour of the
speaker. In Nkrumah’s framework modernity is established in the Ghanaian, African culture. The English language serves to stimulate national unification and symbolizes as an important key to the global world, whereas the local languages serves to promote solidarity and symbolizes cultural heritage, In other words, the English language functions as an essential instrumental language
17
Moreover, during the Constitution of 1969 all members of the parliament were required to speak, read, and understand English. This policy was put to an end by the Consultative Assembly in 1992.
18 After independence, Nkrumah’s government aimed to reduce the political significance of chieftaincy and to
subordinate it to the authority of the modernizing state. Yet, the chiefs managed to obtain their degree of influence over the political life of the country’ and their ethnic members. In today’s modern and urban Ghana, postcolonial chiefs continue to derive power from acting as intermediaries between the spheres of the state and tradition (Willis 2013:218).
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that causes social and economic advancements for the nation as it obtains a modern identity and the local language as a medium that preserves the cultural lived experiences of the locals.
Chapter 2
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The three historical events discussed in chapter one, have contributed to the complex
sociolinguistic situation in Ghana. Ghana is located at the centre of the West African coast and is bordered by three French-speaking nations of Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Togo to the east, and Burkina Faso (Burkina, formerly Upper Volta) to the north. Towards the south are the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ghana is best described as a multilingual landscape with a total population of about 26 million people (Undesa in Lewis et al. 2015). The population can be divided in the five major ethnic- and linguistic groups I mentioned in the previous chapter. Researchers have presented different numbers on the amount of languages spoken in Ghana. However, this thesis uses the numbers as listed by Ethnologue.com because Ethnologue catalogues all the languages it identifies. The number of languages recorded in Ghana are a total of 81 living local languages. Out of the several languages and many dialects, Nkrumah’s
government selected eleven major local languages as government-sponsered languages that are being funded by the government and used in literacy programs schools and in the (electronic) media (see chapter one).
Some theorists argue that the political framework “one nation one language” is not applicable in African countries because of their multi-ethnic and –linguistic character. In the book Discourse and Power in a Multilingual World, Blackledge (2005) further indicates that language
policies in multilingual heterogeneous societies claim to have a tolerant identity, which imposes to emphasize pride for the linguistic diversity, but in reality tend to undervalue or ignore the
multilingual character of the country because of their focus on unifying and modernizing the nation. Phrased differently, the argument is that the language policy of Ghana does not reflect the social reality of the country, where local languages plays a very important role in the daily lives of the locals. Questions concerning the role of the English language oppose to the preservation of cultural heritage, cultural identity and promoting social transformation bring with them a field of tension and contradictions. This field of tension is dominated by two discourses that were introduced by Nkrumah’s government after Independence: emphasizing the preservation of cultural heritage and pursuing modern identity. In this chapter I argue that in non-formal speech domains these discourses, which were allegedly assigned to complement each other as they were embodied by the locals, tend to conflict with each other.
