Another International Mother Language Day has been celebrated with well-intended messages purported to spur indigenous societies to honour their respective worldview through their indigenous languages.
Undoubtedly, a nation’s sense of dignity can be measured by the value it places on its indigenous language. Bangladesh remains a constant monument of dignity through its unshakeable resolution to uphold its language.
Dignifying Bangladeshi nationals for asserting their dignity through their own tongue simultaneously heaps coals of shame on other nationals who betray their individual and collective identities by shunning their mother tongue.
Ghana leads that pathetic crusade of monolingualism even as UNESCO diligently advocates multilingualism for diverse purposes of education, indigenous heritage, cultural identity, linguistic diversity, and social cohesion, to mention five.
Paradoxically, many who deny the mother language in Ghana claim pride in culture through food and clothing.
“Culture is not just about food and culture; culture is a way of life.” That was how the late Professor de-Graft Hansen, a devoted scholar, introduced my University of Cape Coast (UCC) undergraduate class to Classics.
In that first lecture, I gained the knowledge that culture is the totality of a people’s life. That life or worldview is primarily articulated and projected through the indigenous tongue.
The ancient history of Greece and Rome forcefully underscores the relevance of language in a civilisation. Rome conquered Greece, but Greek conquered Latin, and the Greek culture glowed formidably alongside its conqueror.
To wit, Greek somewhat dimmed the valiantness of the ancient Roman World Power in some socio-cultural aspects.
Earlier in ancient history, King Nebuchadnezzar had used similar tactics to submerge able Jewish youth slaves in the Babylonian culture.
The youth were immersed in vigorous training in the language, art, religion, and administration of Babylon. They were required to eat Babylonian food, sometimes, already sacrificed to the Babylonian god Bel.
Indeed, territorial usurpation is never complete until the mentality of the conquered is encapsulated. Young minds are crucial in strategising cultural subjugation.
That is the reason UNESCO is stressing youth voices in multilingual education in the 2026 Mother Language celebration. The youth are sustainable agents for education and culture.
Whereas conquering societies subjugate other cultures, the Global Body advocates multiculturalism for social cohesion, human dignity, and multilingualism for inclusion, tolerance and respect for others.
“… no voices should be missing from the history of our humanity.” That is UNESCO’s poignant message for the world as we celebrate Mother Language in 2026.
For this writer, the cruel sadness stems from the fact that an international body projects indigenous languages for human reasons, while a cross-section of the indigenous robustly deny their mother tongue and cling, not so competently, to a dominant language.
The ultimate sadness lies in the reality that the comprehension skill, thinking processes, and sense of humanity – to mention three – are warped in such parochial ones.
Ghanaians eye serious problems, sidestep honest, contemplative analyses for pragmatic solutions, and loudly pray to God for help. Preferring indolence to diligence.
Yet, this same God has given us a powerful brain which empowers humans to even the most daunting tasks/obstacles.
And it all begins with communication – conceiving ideas and articulating them in intelligible language – and all can pursue that to the most effective levels in all life’s endeavours.
In the Ghanaian university classroom, one gets alarmed at the display of porous intelligence by a large cross-section of students, which porosity emanates from poor language skills.
The language of instruction eludes such learners, rendering assimilation of information almost impossible. In the context of TVET, such learners can only lend a mediocre hand to industry.
Competency becomes scarce amid glittering certifications. Yet, the Communication Skills course is consistently undermined by administrators, faculty and students, a sad indicator of the sunken level of our educational system.
UNESCO advocates multilingualism for effective learning and competence for a very basic reason.
When the mother tongue is used at home, and the language policy of teaching the child in the language s/he understands – the language used at home, i.e. the mother tongue – is upheld, the child understands the basics in the formative classroom for progressive learning.
The contents of the basics include a dominant language.
In the upper primary, where the language of instruction is a dominant tongue, the child transfers the linguistic principles grasped in the mother tongue to the dominant language to aid the learning processes.
Undermining the basic linguistic principles is contributing to poor teaching/learning outcomes in the country, research continues to alert us, but we heed not. Our negligence is costing us diligent, competent, innovative human capital for the 21st Century.
Our linguistic dubiousness is displayed daily on our airwaves. TV stations translate Mexican and Indian telenovelas for broad patronage. The same people who do not speak Twi with their children at home patronise telenovelas in Twi. I saw a translated Indian serial at a restaurant once.
The following day at a hospital, the same serial was aired in English. The Twi serial I had seen the previous day was a joke in content.
That has become the sad story of this country: Largely, poor handlers of language, mediocre or non-performance in diverse endeavours, thus swallowing our own stories in the global cultural heritage.
Usually, we do not listen, so we remain clueless about serious issues, but who knows? We just might be motivated by UNESCO’s message of telling our own stories to be loyal to our indigenous Ghanaian Languages. Speak our mother tongue!
The writer is a Senior Lecturer, Language and Communication Skills, Takoradi Technical University.
Takoradi.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh