Ghana: Ahumah Ocansey's Insult Against All Akans

Tue Feb 5 16:46:35 UTC 2008

Ahumah Ocansey's Insult Against All Akans

Ghanaian Chronicle (Accra)

4 February 2008
Posted to the web 4 February 2008

By I. K. Gyasi

"Akans who don't speak Ga retain their quintessential countrified
cultural habits." -Ahumah Ocansey (See The Daily Graphic of Monday,
January 14, 2008.) THE MAIN purpose of this installment is to point
out to Mr. Ahumah Ocansey an obvious fact about language so that, in
future, he will hopefully avoid the kind of tribalistic diatribe he
wrote entitled LIVING IN HARMONY and published in The Daily Graphic of
Monday January 14, 2008. Before I do so, I feel it is important to
draw his attention again to the grievous and gratuitous insult in the
phrase, "quintessential", which is made up of two Latin words, namely,
"quinta", meaning 'fifth', and essentia", meaning 'essence'.

THE CONCISE OXFORD DICTIONARY defines the word 'essence' as "the
indispensable quality or element identifying a thing or determining
its character, fundamental nature or inherent characteristics." The
ancient Greek and medieval philosophers held the idea that matter
existed in four elements, namely, fire, air, water and earth. Later,
another element, known as the fifth element or 'quinta essentia' was
added. The fifth element was supposed to be common to the four
elements and to unify them. It was, therefore, fundamental.

In effect, the message which Mr. Ocansey seeks to convey is that the
culture of the Akan people is by nature unrefined or uncivilized or
"bush" as we put it in Ghana.

Mr. Ocansey's prescription for us, the bush Akans is simple: learn to
speak Ga because it will help us to acquire a charming openness, quiet
sophistication and inner confidence and self-possession. Indeed,
according to Mr. Ocansey, so great is the civilizing power of the Ga
language that "The Gas and non-Gas born in Accra took along with them
to the schools outside the GAR (Greater Accra Region) the cosmopolitan
sophistication and savoire faire of the city of Accra.

When Akans migrate to Accra in a "massive inflow, what do they do?
Instead of leaving behind their inferior language and culture and
mingling with the Gas so that they can learn the Ga language and
become civilized, "They come with their language and congregate in the
city to carry on their way of life." An obviously inferior,
countrified way of life that does them no good.

These Akans do not know that, when they do not learn to speak Ga, they
miss "the vitality and influence of the social enlightenment of
speakers of Ga. No wonder that, when Mr. Ocansey tunes in to a radio
station, he finds it "unnerving" "to hear Akan being spoken, with
speakers sometimes snarling in arguments." Snarling like dogs or
uncivilized people or what? The fact which I want to point out to Mr.
Ocansey actually stares him in the face. He himself writes of Ga and
Akan, "None is superior to the other, none inferior."

It is indeed a fact that no one language in the world is inherently
superior or inferior to another language. Every language works well
for the people of that speech-community where the language developed.

In Ghana, even though official policy settled on Akan, Ewe, Ga-Dangme,
Nzema and Hausa for radio news and discussion, the other languages not
chosen are not inferior or inadequate in any way.

Still, in spite of the INTRINSIC or INHERENT equality and adequacy of
all languages, it is a fact that, in the course of time certain
languages come to acquire what might be described as an extrinsic
importance that has nothing to do with their intrinsic worth.

Mr. Ocansey himself writes, "In the 1950s through the mid 80s, Ga was
the lingua franca of GAR. It was also the spoken language on the
university campuses at Legon, KNUST, UCC and in almost all the Cape
Coast Schools." Was it because Ga was inherently superior to Akan or
the other languages?

People learn to speak a language in addition to their mother tongues
because they like it or it is fashionable to speak it, just as pidgin
English has become fashionable on our university campuses today,
especially among the male students.

People may also learn to speak another language because they have to.
For example, Ghanaian students going abroad for further studies in a
non-English speaking country may have to learn the language for the
purpose of furthering their studies. In Ghana, by the accident of
colonialism and imperialism, we have to learn English for obvious
reasons.

The preference for a particular language may have nothing to do with
the size of the country. For example, though the Chinese language is
spoken by more people (the Chinese people) than any other language, in
point of geographical spread, English is the Number 1 world language
today. It has not always been like that.

In turns, Greek, Latin and French have been the lingua franca. When
the Normans conquered England in 1066, the French language became so
dominant that the English people, especially those of the upper class,
found it more fashionable and civilized to learn to speak French.

So pervasive was the use of French that it was not until 1362 that a
law was passed to make English the official language again.
Ironically, the law was written in French.

The uncomfortable fact which Mr. Ocansey hates to admit is that, in
Ghana, more people speak Akan or their mother tongue than any other
indigenous language, and I believe more non-Akans speak Akan than the
other languages. Akan, in fact, has acquired an extrinsic dominance
not attained by the other languages.

Mr. Ocansey himself admits "the relative smallness of the Ga-Dangme
race." He admits the commercial and economic power of Akans by
stating, "Several businesses have been established by Akans that have
brought in wealth and with wealth, power and influence." He admits the
wider territorial spread of Akan when he states, 'Twi is the general
language in Ashanti, Eastern, Western and Brong Ahafo regions. Fanti
is a sister language spoken in Central Region. Even then, Twi is
comfortable there.

Let me repeat that I can understand Mr. Ocansey's anxiety about what
he sees as the threat to the existence of the language and culture of
Ga-Dangmes. The French are unhappy about the intrusion of English
words and phrases into French. The Welsh have similar anxiety about
Welsh, their language, under threat from English.

However, it is extremely dangerous and unhelpful for Mr. Ocansey to
smell a conspiracy, "the conscious" plan to kill the Ga-Dangme
language and culture. It is dangerous and unhelpful for him to write
so contemptuously and even so enviously of another people, their
language and culture and success. Rather than be consumed by "a
subterranean rumbling of disquiet and discontent and incipient anger,
educated and intelligent people like Mr. Ocansey should rather think
and act soberly about what he sees as a problem. Hostilities will not
help anyone. Neither will insults.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200802041191.html
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