Empowering the Renaissance of Ga-Dángme through Education

Speech delivered by Mr. A.K. Armah, Senior Lecturer, University of Ghana, Legon,
at the 2009 Durbar of the Gá-Dángme University of Ghana Students Association,
Saturday, 18th April, 2009, Central Cafeteria Forecourt, University of Ghana.

Mr. Chairperson, (Seinotalor), Niimei, Naamei, Legon Skul wulu mlibii, Suoloi ke Nyemimei.

I would like to subtitle my speech this morning “Education and Gá-Dángme Development” and would like to limit the definition of education to formal education that is, going to school over several years to develop your God-given skills and talents to make you a useful citizen to society.

Without education development in any sphere of life or activity cannot be meaningful. Indeed, sustainable development depends on the level of education of a society and its ability to improve or grow as the prevailing circumstances also change.

Education is undoubtedly the powerful tool that holds the key to success in life. It enables you to access an unparalleled source of information to make strategic decisions. Indeed, any lasting strategic decisions must be backed by informed and accurate information which can stand the test of time.

Affirmative Action and Education
Like all undertakings, formal education requires investing time and money in oneself or one’s dependents. The future of the Gá-Dángme’s rests squarely on the quality and quantity of our kinsmen who receive formal training and earn sustainable incomes. Traditionally and historically, the vocation of Gá-Dángme’s has been and is farming, fishing and trading. White-collar jobs which require formal training in skills development and ability to write and communicate effectively in English emerged with arrival and colonization of the continent by the Europeans. These jobs were seen as commanding more respect and also financially more rewarding. So, our farmer and fishermen parents strived hard to send their children to school. In Accra, both public and private schools were established and at the beginning of the 19th Century, though these schools were few, they were accessible and affordable to many of the ordinary Gá-Dángme parents who wanted his child to have some basic education. As the years rolled by, increasingly, the opportunities for the Gá-Dángme child especially in Accra and Tema, to gain admission in even the cheaper public schools have become very very difficult. The repercussion on the Gá-Dángme youth of today is not far to find. It is staring at our faces everyday in the traditional Ga Quarters of Greater Accra. Hundreds of our youth are jobless because of the denial of the opportunity to have access to formal education. Competition for the few public schools has become keener than before with the sky-rocketing growth rate of the population of the capital city, to the extent that the Gas, in particular, have become so marginalized on our own land such that, disproportionately higher numbers cannot gain access to even the less expensive and affordable public schools.

The public schools I know of when I was a school boy several years ago have not seen any appreciable change in size though large expanses of land surround these schools, which we call scornfully SYTO. All the way from Tema to Kokrobite, the story is the same. Aayalolo and Mamprobi Sempe cluster of schools are glaring examples. These raises a few pertinent questions which I will not attempt to provide answers. Yours will be as good as mine.

QUESTIONS:
1. What has prevented past successive government authorities in expanding the physical structures so that more children will have the opportunity of acquiring basic education?
2. To what extent have we the, older generation, been vocal and used our influence to bring the needed change in the provision of education to our children of today.

Basic education, though important, should be complemented with secondary and tertiary education for our people to be able to meet the challenges of our time. Ga Mashie, Korle Gonno, Osu, La, Teshie, Nungua, Tema, Kpone, Prampram, Ada, Somanya, Dodowa, Krobo-Odumase etc etc all need to have new secondary schools based on the principle of affirmative action to serve the poor and the neglected who because of their poor financial position are at a competitive disadvantage.

There is also, another compelling reason in establishing such “affirmative” schools. Such schools, for example, could have the mandate to ensure that the culture of the Gá-Dángme’s, principally the use of the language is made compulsory and the only local language to be taught. In this way, the language will be kept from adulteration and indeed preserved in the face the massive unrelenting influx of several people of different ethnic origin into the capital city, year in and year out. In this respect, Mr. Chairperson, I would like to say a few words on the role of the print and electronic media.

The Print and Electronic media (role in language preservation and development)
Several years ago, though not so long ago, there was a popular Ga Newsletter called Mansralor. Some of the religious bodies, for example, The Presbyterian Church, also used to publish a magazine in Ga and other languages. These served as a major tool in the education of the Gá-Dángme people, not only through the articles themselves, but also in promoting our knowledge of the grammar and constructional usage of the Ga language.

One question I would like us to ponder over is: how can we bring back this magazine and similar literature and also make their publication sustainable???

My next concern is out of the over 25 FM Radio Stations operating in Greater Accra. Besides Obonu Fm 96.5 which is dedicated to the Gá-Dángme people, only Vibe Fm 91.9fm, Radio Universe 105.7fm and Meridian Fm 100.5fm have extensive programmes in the Gá-Dángme language. I would be very happy to see the appropriate national authority make it compulsory for all FMs operating in Accra give a minimum number of hours of broadcasting in the local Ga language on daily basis. Even with the OBONU FM, sometimes the number and duration of foreign music played is quite disturbing. All music played MUST portray Gá-Dángme culture or have some element of it. The lyrics also serve as an important source of rich Gá-Dángme poetry as well oral tuition, not to mention the advertisement it gives on the language itself to the non-Gá-Dángme.

Mr. Chairperson, one of the issues raised on the teaching of the Ga Language is the unavailability of teachers.

Getting teachers to teach Gá-Dángme
I have heard from several quarters that most schools do not teach Ga in Accra schools because there are insufficient Ga teachers. I think this is an excuse to weaken and annihilate any signs of our cultural heritage which is basically our LANGUAGE and LAND.

I would like to say without any doubt that there are several Gá-Dángme’s who can effectively teach the language effectively without having undergone any formal training in teaching Ga as a language. I am certainly and I can count several of us even in this very gathering. I am sure when the clarion call is made there will be hundreds of Gá-Dángme’s who will be prepared to sacrifice their time to teach the language even on week-ends if necessary. Several retired and active Gá-Dángme’s I know and have spoken to, indeed, have indicated their availability and willingness to assist. What are we waiting for?

Land matters
One may wonder the connection between land and education. There is a lot in common. I started this speech by drawing a link between poor education opportunity for the Gá-Dángme’s and the intense financial competition for both private and public schools In Accra, in particular. Fishing as a livelihood of the Gá-Dángme’s is in a terrible state. We have all heard of the paired – trawling and other intense pressures on the living marine resources which have made the average fisherman in Ghana a miserable person. Today the adage that: When you teach a man to fish you have fed him for life, no longer holds for the fisherman at Jamestown, Chorkor nor Ada! You are rather leading him down the road to starvation and deprivation. Because there is not enough fish for him to make a decent living, let alone have enough to send his child to school!!!

Unfortunately, we have sold the bulk of our lands to our own detriment!!! Our children have no place build houses to stay in, and neither do we, the living today, even can say we have decent resting place when we are called by our creator to eternity. Even burying our own kinsmen in our own cemeteries have become financial nightmares for several families. Why should a son of Osu pay high sums of money to bury his own brother in his own ancestral land, simply because of high demand for graves due to influx of other groups? I think it is about time we dedicated cemeteries’ exclusively to our own people. Cemeteries are not only burial places but with their epitaphs of the buried, go also the history of the people who lived in Gá-Dángme land.

What we have left, perhaps, is the little but VALUABLE land left. Yes, extremely valuable land. Last Thursday, we read the headlines of the biggest newspapers about the land officially released to the Nungua people by Government and also the commotion that followed created by the Nungua youth. The newspaper report explained the source of the agitation by the youth as the rumour or plans by the Chiefs to sell the land released to a major estate developer in Accra. Their concern, which I agree with, is the deprivation of land for the young and the several yet unborn Nungua citizens.

We need money to provide the quality education we desire for Gá-Dángme’s. The choice lands that the Government has decided to return to the original owners must be valued and used as equity for large scale investment on the land itself. Profits accruing from the venture should be used for the welfare of the people. This should include first and foremost funds for: 1. educational scholarships, 2. development and 3. traditional authority upkeep as well keeping a minimum of 20 % for posterity. I believe it is appropriate to call on Government to insist on the formation of a transparent independent business entity under the auspices of the respective traditional authorities and charged with the prudent management of all lands to be released for the benefit of all. Otherwise, despite all the good intentions; this will be an exercise with very little hope for future generations.

Conclusion
We are a great people with massive accomplishments. But as Oliver Wendell Holmes once said: Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it -- but sail we must and not drift, nor lie at anchor.

The success of empowering the renaissance of the Gá-Dángme through education, I should say, does not depend on numbers, but commitment and a price to pay. We absolutely must be prepared to pay that price for this great moral and business enterprise of ensuring that lands and other property are invested as equity to generate profit for the benefit of all generations, else posterity will not forgive us.

The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker (Helen Keller). Let us all resolve to give our individual tiny push for the advancement and the ultimate glory of Gá-Dángme mei.

Nyeyi wala donn!