THAT YE MAYBE WISE AND EQUAL IN REALITY!

As some people are getting uneasy about this excellent suggestion concerning the utilisation of our own “blood language”/natural language to educate ourselves, I pause once again to provide us more enlightening information. To make this famous break away from a language that leaves over 18 million Ghanaians ignorant and miserable, who could have been contributing to the economy and development of our nation, we need to become revolutionists. According to my own estimation, we have wasted too much time and also it seems very surprising to me that people do not catch the wisdom behind such a move which had taken us centuries to make a realisation. One particular person was so excited about the news and also annoyed at the same time that knowledge of these could not have been discovered many years earlier by our forbears. This depicts ignorance concerning contextual education which so many of the so-called elites have been slow to realise that has also occasioned poverty and deliberate blindness concerning the following:

If one were to argue about this with an honest Westerner, he would politely pause and assert these “My dear brother/sister, you are in class 1; I am sorry for you that you do not catch the point in this. Have you ever asked yourself why the Germans use German language but not English; the Russians, Russian but not English; the Hungarians, Hungarian language but not English; the Finnish people, Finnish language but not Swedish; the White South African citizens (smaller group), Afrikaana language but not English; the French people, French but not German; the Chinese people, Chinese language but not English; the Netherlands, Dutch language but not German; and many others?” “To me,” he will say, “This is very simple mathematics but you and many ignorant people in Ghana do not catch this trick. You Africans are too slow to catch the point, no wonder they could take your descendants as slaves for so many years until the same Whiteman decided to give up slavery before you could stop selling your own brothers. Don't you know that if you use one language which the majority understands it will enable the country to use over 18 million people to help build the nation instead of the 2 million who are productive at the moment?” “Let me tell you,” he will continue, “when Dr Nkrumah wanted to unite Africa so that you Africans can be stronger in order to push your demands, you African people thought that it was unheard off until the Whiteman decided to build their own European Union before you came to the realisation that unity is good for Africa. Let me tell you again, you shall go on with this English language for hundred years more to come, oh dear ignorant Ghanaian, and you shall one day realise that you need to use your own Ashanti language to enable you obtain autonomy, self-confidence, become intelligent, and enlightened people. If you use one language that flows in the veins of the majority you will have the same IQ like an Englishman or Japanese; at the moment you are ignorant and far from being perfect and think that if you can speak the sieve English and turn your mouths around like a bushman that makes you intelligent. By using the English language, you educate only a few and leave the rest of the whole population ignorant and miserable. To reach the enlightenment age that many countries in the world have, you need a common language that are yours and can be developed to ensure you people autonomy and self-confidence. Asked any other honest Englishman or a German around or you meet in town and he would tell you that you are a foolish African to be importing a language to educate yourself while you have a common language that can make your people shine like stars and compete fairly with us the Europeans. This is all because you people lack original thinking.”

PROBLEM SOLVING PART
These things are clear but still I personally need to emphasise; that in the next fifty years like Britain, Germany, Sweden, and many other countries in Europe and around the world, there will not be barriers between the tribes we have in Ghana, for example, Akan-Fante, Akan-Ewe, Akan-Ga, Akan-Akyem, Akan-Dagomba, Akan-Akwapim etc. You will not know unless a person wants to trace his own history. In short, Ghana will be filled with only one people known as the Akans and there will be unity. This kind of unity which is also seen in these European countries mentioned above will be seen among you. They had numerous tribes just as we have in Africa but the introduction of one language spoken in these various countries for a long time gradually had made them disappear. For example in German and Sweden, you might think these countries had one language from the beginning. No, today these languages are spoken when family members meet alone. I have done investigations myself and some of these languages are not known by the new generations.

LEGITIMATE DEMANDS MUST BE MET!
Therefore legitimate demand concerning the initial use of this Ashanti language as aids must be met in no time. Democracy is the rule by the people which entails the election of certain people to represent them in parliament to work with legislation and other important matters affecting the people. Due to the nature of this form of government, the people, the ultimate body that holds the key to power interests become crucial at any occasion. As such when the demands of these people that hold the key to power are not met, it becomes a serious matter that can determine a change of government in the next election or the maintenance of the same leaders of the state in the future but loosing strength to effect proper changes.

The author thinks that for a long time certain things have obscured the silent demands and needs of the majority of Ghanaians that cannot read and write. These citizens educate their children with their meagre pay and yet they have not been catered for in connection with the basic need of their children who attend the schools in the country. Ghana has a population of 22 million that at least 70% of these people speak one language which is rich and therefore it is employed in all parts of the society. Yet while 0% does not understand the English language, a language forced on the people of Ghana to educate its citiznes, by the colonial regime, this language is the medium used for instruction in all schools. Though, our leaders know that the use of this language draws a barrier between the majority of citizens that have education and those that have no education, little is being done to correct this mistake. The author intention is to inform the government that the translation of the main textbooks right from primary to the university from English to Ashanti Language is an urgent need of the Ghanaian students who have this language as their mother tongue and also use it as communication language. It is a call to the parliamentarians in the Republic of Ghana to rally around this idea which is urgent and therefore must be dealt with, as soon as it convenient.

THE ABOLISHMENT OF THE NAME “ZONGO”
While this problem is being deliberated, let us see whether we can do smoothing about this. Whenever a person moves to any town in Ghana, there is always a place in this particular town called Zongo, which is devoted to people or foreigners that have newly moved to stay. The name usually was also given to people that have just immigrated from the Northern Ghana and had no place to stay so they found temporary shelter in those areas.

As Ghana is marching forward in its ethnic relations, firstly, I believe it would be a good idea to change the name Zongo in every town in Ghana into a proper name so that the connotation of the name as “Guests”, “foreigners”, or “rejected peoples' abode” will be abolished once and for all. It is time we made people feel the kind of belonging that is appropriate for nation building.

Secondly, even though Ghana belongs to all it has been complained by some people that had moved to another region in Ghana that they felt hostilities from the people they met there. I think here is example of misunderstanding by people that do no know that Ghana belongs to all so anyone irrespective of background or ethnicity could move and stay wherever he wants so far as this person has bought a land there that he can build on or renting a house from another landlord. Here, I shall remind our parliamentarians that strong laws should be made against these hostilities that are reported especially in the Ashanti Region and Volta Region. We need to let this become clear to everybody that such hostilities would not be tolerated by the various authorities in the future.

Thirdly, when applying for a job, I think the name of the town in which a person was born should not appear on the application form except the citizenship or permit that shows that a person could work should be used. If identity card is to be issued in the future this should be provided with only the citizenship or country of origin on the card. The place where one was born should not be required, that is, in connection with job application.

In conclusion it can be argued that the need is urgent for the nation to make the translations that would allow prospective students to buy the books in Ashanti language to be used as aids in the classrooms and the university campuses.

Bt: Desmond Ayim-Aboagye