Ghana: Chief Regrets Not Writing a Book

Posted to the web July 5, 2006
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
SEVERAL YEARS after leaving the teaching profession, Nana Yeboah AfariObuogyan II, chief of Obo Traditional Area in Kwahu, Eastern Region,has regretted not releasing a publication.He regrets that after 40 years of extensive teaching, he does not havea single publication to his credit."Having taught for 40 long years, I am ashamed I have not written asingle book," he said.Having been the principal and head of several educationalinstitutions, he believes he could have written a couple of books todevelop education in the country.He has therefore stressed the need to inculcate the habit of writingand reading into all children of school-going age to develop andmaximize their potentials in education.Speaking at the launch of 'Octagon', a book on vocabulary to provide amulti-lingua guide for schools and beginners in English, French,Arabic, Hausa, Twi, or Akan, Ga, Ewe and Dagbani, the Chief noted thatit was about time Ghanaians took up the challenge to develop ourlanguages to be accepted by the international community.According to him, there was an urgent need for Ghanaians to committhemselves into studying our local languages and develop them to beaccepted as the English and French languages that have been acclaimedby the international community with most annexing them as their secondlanguages.This, he said, would make teaching and learning much easier sinceGhanaians would feel better and comfortable using their own languagesduring examination periods.Malaysia is one of such countries that have developed its locallanguages to an extent that it translates foreign languages andexamination questions into their local language for better understanding.This is said to be one of the reasons why that country is highlyranked in the Association of Chartered Accountants (ACA) examinationin which they score high marks because they better understand and givemore accurate answers.On her part, Mrs. Rosemond Asiamah Nkansah, author of Octagon,reiterated the need for Ghanaians to adopt their own mother languages.According to her, the speaking of 'pidgin English' by Ghanaianstudents was gradually affecting the level of written and spokenlanguage in the country.She said it was evident in the poor writing skills exhibited bystudents of this country lately and also spoke against the poorreading habit of Ghanaian students."The sort of language that people speak nowadays, I don't even know,"she bemoaned. "We want to see our language grow to be acceptedinternationally".