Is Twi Developed Enough to Become a National Language?

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Category: Culture & Tourism

Created on Sunday, 27 May 2012 00:00

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Is Twi Developed Enough to Become a National Language?

The Twi language is undoubtedly the most widely spoken in Ghana. However, the influence of the colonial masters' language is gradually destroying the beauty of the Twi language.

The language is fast losing its enviable store of vocabulary. I have the feeling the same is true for all Ghanaian languages. Yet our language experts and academicians look on helplessly and unconcerned. In Europe when a foreign word begins to be used by the youth or a section of the population, the experts of the country's Academy of language meet to find a local equivalent to the foreign word.

The foreign word gradually goes out of the system as educational institutions and especially the media are encouraged to use the new word. When the Academy is unable to find a suitable local equivalent, the foreign word is accepted for use by the citizens. This is how words like "safari"(Swahili), "sauna"(Finnish), "Kwashiokor" (Ga) and many others gained international acceptance.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}The British, who colonized our country for more than a hundred years, found it difficult to pronounce certain combination of letters like ky, tw, kw, and dw. "Kyebi" was pronounced by the colonialists as "Kibi", "Ntsema" was pronounced "Shama", "Nkonkoawu" became "Nkawkaw", "Nkoawu" became "Kwahu", and "Sondwaye" was mispronounced by the colonialist as "Sunyani". Very interesting enough, all the mispronunciations of the colonialists were accepted to replace the original spellings.

The British did similar things in the countries they colonized. In some cases, the independent nations have tried to change the names back to their original forms. Thus Calcutta and Bombay are now rightly written and called by Indians as Kolkata and Mumbai. Should Ghana also do the same for some of our major towns?

When a language is not taken seriously, history also gets lost to the youth. How many of our youth know the source of the name Kumasi? A teacher once asked a boy in his class who Okomfo Anokye was. The boy responded, "He is the owner of the biggest hospital in Kumasi." In fact there are many who are ignorant of the history of their towns and villages and why certain names were given to them.

I will illustrate this with Kwahu and Nkawkaw. During the war between the Ashantis and the British which became known as The Sagrenti War, the Ashantis went against the Bond of 1844 by refusing to pay a tax of one shilling which the Anglo-Irish Field Marshall and Governor, Sir Garnett Wolseley had asked them to pay. A war between the Ashantis and the British ensued after several years of refusal to pay the tax. All the royals fled and hid in the mountains when the war was going on.

The Ashantis defeated the Fantes who fought on the side of the British. Sir Garnet Wolseley, to avert the shame on him, committed suicide. A new treaty known as The Treaty of Fomena was signed to prevent the Ashantis from fighting the Fantes. The then Asantehene, Kofi Karikari who succeeded Kwaku Duah in the heat of the war, ordered his servants to go to the mountains and bring the royals home.

The royals felt ashamed and afraid to return. They killed the servants and buried them in a mass grave. The place became known as "Nkoawu" (the slaves died). This is what has been misspelt as Kwahu. An Ashanti warrior led a group to go to Nkoawu to capture the royals and bring them back to Kumasi. When they got to the bottom of the mountain, a message came to the leader from the Asantehene ordering him, Nkonkoawu! (Don't go to Nkoawu). Today's Nkawkaw is a mispronunciation and misspelling of Nkonkoawu.

By the way, it was called "Sagrenti" War because our forefathers could not pronounce Sir Garnet, which came out as "sagrenti" in their mouths. So we too mispronounce English or foreign words. But that is another story...

There is, today, no single person who can speak the Twi without mixing it with English. Hear what a spectator said about a football match: "In fact Kotoko ne Hearts game no ye interesting paa". Check this one too: "Time a mefree Kwasi no, na ne phone no aye engaged". I will not be wrong to say the Twi language should be known as Twinglish.

Indeed, Odwomtofohene Nana Kwame Ampadu, in the late 70s, made a whole song about this phenomenon: Oka Twi mienu, brofo baako... Even Twi speaking adults speak Twi wrongly without realising their mistakes. A parent told his child, "Kwasi, noa nsuohyie mame (Kwasi, boil hot water for me). The tautology in the sentence was not obvious to him. If the water is hot why should Kwasi boil it again?

There are more than a hundred Twi proverbs that are wrongly said even by native speakers. This article cannot cover all, but I am ready to send all to anyone who is interested. Here are a few of the proverbs that are said wrongly. We often say: Se yenhunuu obaa ho a yense kete, which translates as (One does not lay a mat/bed, when one has not seen the woman's nakedness). It is rather a wall (eban) not a woman (obaa). In the villages, the people normally fold their mats when they wake up in the morning, and place it against the wall.

In the darkness of the evening, they feel the wall until they finally find where the mat is, spread it and sleep on it. We often say, "Se ahwenie te wo mpaninfo anim a ebi nyera. " (When beads split off from a woman's waist to fall on the ground in front of elders, no bead is lost). This is a clear mistake which is often repeated even by adults!! The word is "mpa numu"(within the bed) and not "mpanimfo anim".

Let me consider two more proverbs: Penteng asaase nna ho kwa. (The plots of land at Penteng have owners) Penteng is a town in the Ashanti Region which has been used wrongly in the proverb. The word is "peteemu" (a land that has been cleared of weeds).

In the following proverb, "Twumasi ammodam ante a, nka akom amma". (If Twumasi's madness did not disappear, fetishism would not have remained), we discover a similar mistake as in the previous ones. The correct thing to say is: "Twumasi ammoa Damte a anka akom amma". (If Twumasi did not help Damte, fetishism would not have existed).

More than a century ago, in a village in Ashanti, a chief wanted to make sure if the fetish priests who were growing in numbers were fake or not. They were called to perform. Those who exhibited powerlessness or could not show their powers were chased away.

It was now Damte's turn to perform. He happened to be a close friend to Twumasi, the chief linguist of the palace. Every move and incomprehensible speech Damte made, Twumasi, in order to help him, pretended he understood Damte clearly, and he began to interpret them to the chief. Damte finally gained favour with the chief. The other fetish priests saw the trick and all the fetish priests began to employ linguists and interpreters. Fetishism then became a reality.

We have colleges of languages and I think one can now take degrees in Twi and other Ghanaian languages in Cape Coast University. We also had Ghana Bureau of Languages (GBL) during the Nkrumah regime which did a lot to promote the local languages including finding local equivalents of foreign words.

GBL gave out bi-weekly newspapers in the local languages (called Nkwantabisa in Twi, Motabiala in Ewe, and others in the major languages spoken on radio). But what has become of GBL? Is it still in existence and what are its tasks now? GBL is poorly resourced.

It exists only in name. The sorry and the dying state of the Bureau is a reflection of where Ghanaian languages are heading. Before the advent of all these fm stations, GBC was responsible for spreading very good local languages. Remember Akwasi Donkor's popular programme “Yen ara nkonkonko” where he talked about some of these things in very clear Twi?

What are today's radio stations doing to promote the language? Some of the best Twi is spoken in the ahenfie by the elders who know the history of the language and speak it well. How much of this are we tapping for our use before these elders pass away? The chief's linguists must be very good speakers of the language. No one becomes a linguist who is not a good speaker.

Twi is a very easy language to learn due to the blend of English with the Twi language. It has lost a great deal of its vocabulary. Even though Twi is the most widely spoken language in Ghana, it is not properly cared for by any academy of language experts. Due to this, there are so many words in English that have no equivalents in Twi. Dear reader, can you translate, "wrist watch" into Twi? If you are not able to translate it, then you should know that Twi is not yet ready to become a national language.

Stephen Atta Owusu is also the author of Dark Faces at Crossroads

From: Stephen Atta Owusu /This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Rawlings surfaces in Nigeria

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Category: History

Created on Saturday, 26 May 2012 00:00

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Rawlings surfaces in Nigeria

Current political developments in Ghana and Nigeria indicate that the former military leaders in both countries have found the civilian leaders as sitting ducks to be easily picked and tormented at will. Ghana has Rawlings doing so and Nigeria has Muhammadu Buhari, although Ibrahim Babangida also came to notice as such some few months ago.

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“Mills’ Priority Is Judgment Debts Payment”

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Category: Elections & Governance

Created on Saturday, 26 May 2012 00:00

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“Mills’ Priority Is Judgment Debts Payment”

The Minority in Parliament has accused the Mills/Mahama led NDC of prioritizing the payment of judgment debts, including “doubtful ones”, at the expense of crucial national developmental problems.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}Addressing a press conference Wednesday, the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, drew the nation’s attention to some critical areas which had somewhat been starved of the required funds, in favour of judgment debts payment.

For Priority Intervention Programmes for the 2012 fiscal year the Mills-Mahama administration could only allocate GH?30 million to SADA; for MASLOC it could only allocate GH?35 million; GH?28 million for the removal of schools under trees; GH?22 million for scholarships to all Ghanaian students both home and abroad; GH?10 million to the University of Health and Allied Sciences-Ho; GH? 10 million – University of Energy and Natural Resources – Sunyani; GH?10 million for Malaria Vector Control Programme across the country; GH?2 million each for the construction of Maternity Hospital, Tema and Children’s block at the Korlebu Teaching Hospital.

“When you add up all these figures you will arrive at GH?137 million and this same government finds it convenient and appropriate to give a dole out of GH?225 million to CP. This is the NDC government’s priority. There is something wrong with the prioritization agenda of the NDC,” Mr Kyei-Mensah lamented.

According to the minority, sufficient evidence was available which the Mills-Mahama administration could have used to prevent the payment of that amount to CP.

The Minority Leader explained that according to the three contracts -- i.e. Biriwa – Takoradi Road Project, the Assin Prasso – Yamoransa Road Project and the Akim Oda area Roads -- Government entered into with CP on December 5, 1996, CP was required to submit a performance security and also fulfil insurance requirements before commencing works, conditions they did not meet.

Again the [BTRP] contract sum CP submitted was later found out by the Ghana Highways Authority to be “loaded” or “padded” to the tune of DM44 million which represented a so-called loss of profit to CP in respect of the uncommenced Yamoransa – Assin Prasso and Akim area roads project.

He explained further that upon the insistence of the GHA, an agreement was reached that the padded rates should be unloaded from the contract price.

Interestingly, in 2001 it was found out that some payments had been effected to CP on the BTRP based on what Ghana government suspected were fraudulently padded rates.

Accordingly, in mid 2001 government suspended payments for works done under the BTRP contract. It was on the basis of this that government was sued by CP in 2002.

Meanwhile, it also came out that CP owed the Government of Ghana to the tune of €145 million and GH? 5.2 million in tax liabilities at the time the nation entered into agreement to pay the company €94 million as settlement payments.

“Aside all these facts there are unresolved cases that are pending in the High and Appeals Courts in Ghana and other courts in UK and the USA, so it beats our imagination that the NDC government could not wait for those cases to be resolved before rushing to make this gargantuan payment,” he added.

Source: Scholastica Nyarko/thestatesmanonline.com

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Western Region Registers 1.4m Voters

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Category: Elections & Governance

Created on Friday, 25 May 2012 00:00

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Western Region Registers 1.4m Voters

The Electoral Commission has declared it has no intention of extending the biometric voter registration exercise.

{sidebar id=10 align=right}The Electoral Commission (EC) recorded 1,424,727 voters in the Western Region at the end of the nationwide biometric registration.

It also recorded 1,124 people whose eligibility was challenged in the 25 registration districts in the region.

Stephen Opoku Mensah, Western Regional Director of the EC, disclosed these to the GNA in Sekondi on Monday.

He said upon assessment of the registration, the EC had decided to undertake a two-day mop-up exercise in some districts where registration equipment broke down during the registration.

Some of the districts where mop-up exercise will take place include Ellembelle, Nzema East, Tarkwa-Nsuaem, Aowin Suaman, Prestea Huni Valley and Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai.

Mr. Mensah said the EC had achieved its projected figure of 1.4 million for the region.

Figures for the various districts in the region at the end of the final phase of the exercise include Jomoro- 79,344, Ellembelle- 57,304, Nzema East- 43,496, Ahanta West- 63, 590, Takoradi Sub-metro- 55,103 and Effia Kwesimintsim- 89,136.

The others are Sekondi- 35,303, Essikadu-Ketan- 56,239, Shama- 49,400, Wassa East- 43,072, Mpohor- 23,374, Tarkwa-Nsuaem 99,085, Prestea Huni Valley100,467,Wassa Amenfi East- 66,844,Wassa Amenfi Central- 52,490, Wassa Amenfi West- 59,594, Aowin- 70,480,Suaman- 19,945, Bibiani-Anhwianso-Bekwai- 72,086, Sefwi-Wiawso- 72,879, Sefwi-Akontombra- 38,202, Juaboso- 49,351, Bodi- 35,519, Bia West- 64,538 and Bia East- 27,886.

Commenting on the delayed payment of allowances of registration officers, Mr Mensah said the EC had not received the cheque for such payment yet.

He advised the officers to exercise restraint since the EC would definitely pay all the outstanding arrears.

The nationwide biometric registration started from March 24 and ended on May 5, this year.

Source: GNA

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