Where Ghanaian Languages Die: A Critical Content Analysis of Literature in Ghanaian Classrooms

• In Event: Critical Content Analyses: Explorations of Marginalized Populations and Languages in Literature for Children and Youth

Abstract

Purpose of the study:
Through the language in literature, we construct realities, social identities, and discourses about society (Dyches, 2017). As a result, “children need to see themselves [and their language] reflected [in literature] so as to affirm who they and their communities are” (Botelho & Rudman, 2009, p.1). Current research indicates that students, parents, and educators in Ghana want English rather than Ghanaian languages to be the focus of study in school (Ansah, 2014), which means that students get to see less of their languages represented in books they read. In this paper, I study how literature read by Ghanaian students creates, reinforces an English language hegemony in Ghana and also marginalizes and “others” Ghanaian languages and cultures.

Conceptual Framework:
For this paper, I drew on two concepts from Fanon (1952) and Vélez-Ibañez (2017) - language hegemony and master narratives. Colonization brought with it attempts to replace one language – and way of being – with another. Such attempts either by violence or persuasion created master narratives or master’s narratives that “normalized rationalizations, values, beliefs, rituals, symbols and accepted civil discourses of many sorts” (Vélez-Ibañez, 2017, p. 11). These master narratives are ideological narratives that position the colonial master’s language, values, beliefs, rituals, and symbols as superior to and civilized than the native’s/colonized’s.

Drawing on the concepts of language hegemony and master narratives I asked (1) how are Ghanaian languages (and its speakers) and the English language (and its speakers) represented in literature? and (2) How are Ghanaian cultural practices and English/Western practices represented in literature?


Methodology
Data:
I selected all the literature all Ghanaian students are required to read at the senior high school level from 2006 until 2019. From 2006 till date, students at the senior high school level read a total of 12 literatures, but in order to highlight how Ghanaian languages and cultures are positioned to English, I included in my analysis only literature authored by Ghanaian authors about Ghanaians. Out of the 12 assigned texts from 2006 to 2019, 5 texts were authored by Ghanaian authors.

Analysis:
I conducted a critical content analysis of each text. Following Martinéz-Roldán’s (2017) methodology I analyzed in each text who speaks English and Ghanaian languages, when and where they speak English and Ghanaian languages, how speakers of English and Ghanaian languages are portrayed in the text or described by other characters, and also how Ghanaian and non-Ghanaian language speakers talk about Ghanaian cultural activities.

Results and Conclusions:
I found that compared to English language use, Ghanaian languages are underrepresented across all the texts. Ghanaian languages are also formatted differently and sometimes used inauthentically. In respect to culture, white/western ways of being are portrayed in these books as better than Ghanaian cultural practices.

Scholarly Significance:
This paper demonstrates how books authored by Ghanaians and prescribed for classrooms represent an example of the infusion of English in Ghanaian societies to replace Ghanaian languages through the educational curriculum, and the consent of Ghanaian authors, educators, and students in allowing master narratives that promote an English language hegemony to persist.

Author

• Edwin Nii Bonney, Radford University