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Pursuing a Better Tomorrow in a Multilingual Landscape: Analysing the Language Choice of Middle-Class Parents in Urban Ghana

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Pursuing a Better Tomorrow in a Multilingual Landscape: Analysing the Language Choice of Middle-Class Parents in Urban Ghana 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: [email protected] Supervisor: dr. Rachel Spronk Second reader: dr. Vincent de Rooij Third reader: dr. Marleen de Witte Date: 08 -01-2016 Place of submission: Amsterdam 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 Identity Transformation ......................................................................................................................................... 43 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................... 45 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 47 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 49 The chameleon changes color to match the earth, the earth doesn’t change colors to match the chameleon. ~ Senegalese Proverb ~ 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. Pursuing A Better Tomorrow In A Multilingual Landscape 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 1 | Page Pursuing A Better Tomorrow In A Multilingual Landscape 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
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