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Chapter 2 Inter-Party Insults in Political Discourse in Ghana: a Critical Discourse Analysis Emmanuel Amo Ofori University of Florida/University of Cape Coast

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Chapter 2 Inter-Party Insults in Political Discourse in Ghana: a Critical Discourse Analysis Emmanuel Amo Ofori University of Florida/University of Cape Coast Chapter 2 Inter-party insults in political discourse in Ghana: A critical discourse analysis Emmanuel Amo Ofori University of Florida/University of Cape Coast In recent times, politics in Ghana has become the politics of personal attack, vilification, and insults. Various attempts have been made to stop this brand of politics, including one spearheaded by the Media Foundation for West Africa, which releases a weekly report to the general public aimed at shaming politicians who are involved in the politics of insults. If a country could go to the extent of shaming politicians involved in politics of insults, then it shows how the issue of intemperate language has become entrenched in Ghanaian political discourse. Thus, there is a need to conduct a thorough analysis of the realization ofinsults in Ghanaian political discussion. Utilizing a Critical Discourse Analysis approach, this pa- per analyzes the underlying ideologies in the representation of insults in pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) newspapers. It further compares and contrasts the use of insults in the newspapers. 1 Introduction Ghana is a democratic country, and this has earned the West African country enviable recognition in the world. Ghana experienced her stable democratic dispensation in 1992 after a series of military take-overs/coup d’états from the period of independence until 1992 (4th republic). The democratic practices in Ghana are still in the infant stagesand therefore it could be considered as an emerging democratic state. Since 1993, political dis- cussions in Ghana have centered on various topics, such as the economy, social policies, employment, youth development, education, national security, and health. However, in recent years, Ghanaian political discourse has become a discourse of personal attack, vil- ification, and insults. Many have argued that the surge of insults in Ghanaian political discussions is due to the liberalization of the media in Ghana (Owusu 2012; Marfo 2014). This stems from the fact that before 1992, Ghana did not have many radio and television stations, newspapers and online websites. Currently, there are numerous radio stations and newspapers in Ghana, and most of the insults emanate from politicians through the various media outlets. These outlets have their own interest in promoting certain Emmanuel Amo Ofori. Inter-party insults in political discourse in Ghana: A critical discourse analysis. In Jason Kandybowicz, Travis Major, Harold Torrence & Philip T. Duncan (eds.), African linguistics on the prairie: Selected papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 21–35. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1251710 Emmanuel Amo Ofori ideologies and political positions. This is seen in how the media present their audience with “a steady supply of problems and crisis, and it may be their interest to exaggerate a problem, fostering the impression that there is a crisis and not just business as usual” (Cameron 2012: 83). It may seem that they are alerting the public to the surge of intemper- ate language; however, it is a subtle way of promoting an ideology or political position. Therefore the representation of insults from opponents is publicized or foregrounded not to alert the public about the problem of insults, but to put a political spin on it. The us versus them dichotomy was seen in media reportage of insults in pro-NPP and NDC newspapers. Thus, van Dijk’s (1998) concept of ideological square, which is expressed in terms of emphasizing the positive actions of what a media institution considers the in- group and deemphasizing its negative actions, while, on the other hand, deemphasizing the positive actions of the outgroup, and emphasizing its negative actions, is applied in the analysis of the use of insults in Ghanaian political discourse. In Ghana, politicians own some of the radio stations and newspapers as the means to disseminate the ideology and philosophy of their respective political parties. This is an attempt on the part of the political parties to control the media. Different groups compete in order to control the media as an instrument of social power, or an Ideolog- ical State Apparatus (ISA) in the sense of Althusser (1971), to legitimate and naturalize their ideologies, beliefs, and values (van Dijk 1995). Anyone who controls the media, to some extent, controls the minds of its listeners. This is because the media is seen asa major source of information. Therefore, this paper analyzes the underlying ideologies in the representation of insults in pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Demo- cratic Congress (NDC) newspapers. It further compares and contrasts the use of insults in newspapers. 1.1 NPP and NDC Ninsin (2006) observed that when the ban on political parties was lifted in May 1992, by November the same year 13 political parties had been formed and registered. However, the two dominant parties that have survived since 1992 are the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). The NPP, the current party in opposition, emerged from an old political tradition dat- ing back to the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) and United Party (UP) of the Danquah-Busia tradition. They fought for independence with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s Conventions Peoples Party (CPP). The UGCC and the UP metamorphosed into theNPP in 1992 when the country returned to civilian rule after 11 years of military rule, in order to contest the 1992 December elections. Their political ideology is founded on capitalism, and they believe in privitalization, rule of law, and democracy. In short, they see the pri- vate sector as an engine of growth. The NPP lost both the presidential and parliamentary elections in 1992 and 1996. They won the 2000 and 2004 elections, and lost to theNDC in 2008 and 2012 in one of the most closely contested presidential elections in Ghana’s history. The NPP lost by a margin of 0.46% in 2008. 22 2 Inter-party insults in political discourse in Ghana: A critical discourse analysis The NDC, the current government in power, is one of the newest parties in Ghanaian politics. It was formed in 1992 from the Provincial National Defence Council (PNDC) military regime with Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings as its leader. The PNDC overthrew a constitutionally elected government, the People’s National Party (PNP), which ruled Ghana from 1979 to 31st December 1981, and ruled Ghana from 1981 to 1992. During the return to civilian rule, the PNDC metamorphosed into the NDC. The NDC won both the 1992 and 1996 elections. They then lost to the NPP in 2000 and 2004, and won the2008 and 2012 elections. The political ideology of the NDC is founded on social democracy. 1.2 Data collection The data for this study were obtained from reports in pro-NPP and NDC newspapers. The newspapers are Daily Guide, The Daily Searchlight, The New Statesman, and The Chronicle (pro-NPP newspapers);The Informer, The Democrat, The Palaver, The Al-Hajji, The National Democrat, The Catalyst, The New Voice, Daily Post, Daily Heritage, Radio Gold online (pro- NDC newspapers). In all, a total of 78 news articles were gathered from 2012 to February 2014. The articles were sampled and analyzed, using Fairclough’s discourse-as-text (1989, 1992a, 1995a,b, 2000, 2003) and van Dijk’s (1998) concept of ideological square. 1.3 Definition of insult There are various definitions of insult. According to Aristotle, “insult is belittlement. For an insult consists of doing or saying such things as involve shame for the victim, not for some advantage to oneself other than these have been done but for the fun of it” (Aristotle Rhetoric cited in Yiannis 1998). Aristotle’s definition of insult focuses on shame, for the fun of it, and it is a form of belittling the target. In this paper, the working definition of insult adopted is a modification of Yiannis’s (1998: 3) social psychology definition of insults, which considers insult as “a behavior or discourse, oral or written, which is perceived, experienced, constructed and at all times intended as slighting, humiliating, or offensive. Insult can also be verbal, consisting of mocking invective, cutting remarks, negative stereotypes rudeness or straight swearing”. I therefore define insult as “a behavior or discourse, oral or written, direct or indirect, gestural or non-gestural, which is perceived, experienced and most of the time intended as slighting, humiliating, or offensive, which has the potential of psychologically affect- ing not only the addressee or target but also his/her associates.” This definition should not be taken as universal because there is no universal measure of insults. The yardstick to measure insults differs from society to society and also from culture to culture. 2 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) The revolving idea of CDA is power, and it analyzes opaque as well as transparent struc- tural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in language (Wodak 2001: 2). van Dijk (2001: 96) also postulates that CDA focuses on social 23 Emmanuel Amo Ofori problems, especially on the role of discourse in the production and reproduction of power abuse or domination. This means that it focuses not only on linguistic elements perse, but also complex social phenomena that have semiotic dimensions (Wodak & Meyer 2009). In effect, the overall aim of CDA is linking linguistic analysis to social analysis (Wood & Kroger 2000: 206). CDA aims at making visible and transparent the instrument of power, which is of increasing importance in the contemporary world. It is very criti- cal of the relationship between language, discourse, speech, and social structure. As the dimensions of CDA include “the object of moral and political evaluation, analyzing them should have effects on society by empowering the powerless, giving voices to the voice- less, exposing power abuse, and mobilizing people to remedy social wrongs” (Blommaert 2005: 25).
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