Why “Akwaaba” Cannot Be Replaced with “Tswa Omanye Aba”

I read Mr. Faisal Mustapha’s rejoinder to the rather pathetic attempt by one Rev.-Dr. Daniel Mensah Ablorh to disparage and demonize Ga-language and culture, in the main, the traditional use of salutation and felicitation expressions and protocol and could not help but celebrate Mr. Mustapha’s lambent-witted riposte to the obviously grossly misguided and inferiority-complex afflicted and cognitively and psychologically dislocated Rev. Mensah Ablorh. The fact that the latter subject of this brief writeup is impressively described as a Medical Doctor, Anthropologist and a Biblical Scholar absolutely in no way authorizes Dr. Mensah Ablorh to make the sort of culturally self-denigrating remarks that he is reported to have made at the funerary celebration of the late Prophetess Alice Korley Kotey, at the Teshie Mantse’s Palace on Saturday, May 6, 2023 (See “Come Again, Rev. Dr. Daniel Mensah Ablorh; You Are Totally Wrong and Out of Order” Modernghana.com 5/11/23).

While it might have been deemed to be out of register or contextually intemperate and temporally inappropriate, being that the occasion was the solemn celebration of the epochal passing of a prominent matriarch and an important religious figure in the Teshie Community. Still, it would have been very fitting and laudable for Mr. Mustapha to have promptly challenged Rev. Mensah Ablorh upfront and up-close or there and then, especially since the latter had been invited to the aforesaid funerary celebration as a Guest Preacher, which means that both the hosts of the ceremony and the larger community as a whole, considered Dr. Ablorh to be a man whose opinions and thoughts carried a lot of weight.

For example, in characterizing the Ga-language’s Goodwill Greeting of “Tswa Omanye Aba!” that is, “Let Peace Reign Over Our Land,” or our realm, as a demonic protocol was most unfortunate and inexcusable. But, perhaps, it would be perfectly in order to underscore the fact that the sort of Eurocentric Anthropology that Dr. Mensah Ablorh claims to have studied and/or mastered, traditionally, has a long history of witheringly downgrading Non-Western Cultures and Civilizations. Which is not saying much because Anthropology, for most of the period that it has been studied and practiced as an academic discipline by Western and Western-educated scholars and intellectuals, has been an integral part of the Western Colonial and Imperialist Project and Agenda. It was only relatively recently, with the seismic and revolutionary emergence of Afrocentric scholars and Cultural, Physical and Social Anthropologists like Drs. Cheikh Anta Diop, Joseph (Kwame Kyeretwie) Boakye Danquah, before the former, Kofi Abrefa Busia and Prof. J. H. Nketia and Theophile Obenga, lately, that anthropological studies or scholarship, as it relates to Global African Humanity, has acquired a remarkable modicum of respectability in the Academy as a subdiscipline that is worthy of specialization and mastery.

Of course, not all the European pioneering scholars in this field of endeavor, such as Franz Boas, Melville Herskovits and Edward Evans-Pritchard belonged to this malignant breed of politically and ideologically programmatic and racially supremacist enterprise. And by the way, there was absolutely no reason for Mr. Mustapha to have cross-referenced Biblical texts or the Scriptures in his bid to validating or giving greater credence or credibility to such Ga words of greetings and show of cultural refinement and civility as “Ojekoo!” and “Oshwiemra!” as occur in many other highly advanced and linguistically articulate or elaborate Continental African Cultures of its kind. Absolutely no apologetic need for the justification of their authenticity and validity among the global community of diverse cultures and civilizations. Which, of course, is absolutely in no way to argue against the sort of symbiotic organicity of the eternal intermingling of civilizations and cultures all across the globe.

Nonetheless, the writer’s scholarly references for the Ga words of protocol and civilized sociocultural and behavioral conduct positively and constructively enhance the thrust of his argument. In other words, Mr. Mustapha’s counterargument is one that is both witty and masterful and as well informed as it ought to. Now, about the only issue on which I beg to vehemently disagree with the writer is Mr. Mustapha’s advocacy for the replacement of the globally canonized and Ghanaian-identified Akan-language salutation of “Akwaaba!” – or “Welcome!” – signage at Ghana’s oldest and most significant port of aviation, namely, the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), on the rather dubious grounds that Accra, Ghana’s capital, is the traditional home of the Ga-speaking people. I am also quite certain that Mr. Faisal Mustapha is absolutely in no hurry to disown his Arabic-sounding name for one that is authentically and readily recognizable as Ga and indigenous to Accra and Ghana, for that matter.

At any rate, this proposition is as dicey as the much earlier suggestion for the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium, also located in Accra, to be renamed after a distinguished Ga native or indigene. You see, the fact of the unignorable matter is that Ghana is predominantly an Akan Culture and Civilization and Economy, I hope the author gets the “Economy” connotation here. Plus, there has always been a heavy Akan – largely Akwamu and Akyem, as well as Asante – cultural and civilizational influences on Ga culture and identity, including the name and the identity of the legendary Nii Tackie (Takyi) Tawiah, regarded as arguably the greatest Ga monarch.

As well, territorially speaking, Accra has always been as Akan as it has been Ga. In the meantime, let’s just say that if “push” comes to “shove,” as it were, the statutory decision of whether to replace “Kotoka” with “Ankrah,” hypothetically speaking, is a critical decision that can best be determined by Parliament, and not the members of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. For now, we would all be better off shelving this irredentist funk of ineffectual political masturbation. You see, there are far too many more pressing socioeconomic and national security problems to deal with than to unnecessarily saddle ourselves with such narcissistic hangups or neurosis. All the same, “Kudos!” to you, Mr. Faisal Mustapha.

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By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
May 11, 2023
E-mail: [email protected]