An African proverb says that “when you cut off your chains, you free yourself, but when you cut your roots, you die”; it is for this reason that I wish to share my views on the public uproar and bitter resentments generated by the controversial History books published by the Badu Nkansah Publications and Golden Publications which seek to undermine we the Ewe people and our culture.
Personally, having been trained by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) as a Master Trainer for both the Standard Based-Curriculum (SBC) and the Common Core Programme (CCP) through the Ministry of Education and the Ghana National Council of Private Schools, I can say without any equivocation that there is no way NaCCA could approve books that are full of ethnic stereotypes and tribal bigotry unless they have failed in doing due diligence.
Now coming to the substantive issue, there have been a lot of attempts over the period by few individuals to subdue the Ewe people and skew the Ewe culture into a bad light. Politicians on the other hand would try and have every now and then tried to question the veracity of Ewes’ Ghanaian identity in critical circumstances.
To wit, let’s catalog few events that preceded the controversial English textbooks in recent times. The Volta Region roads were inadvertently yet embarrassingly omitted in the 2020 New year budget that was read in parliament to the amazement of the public. Then, during the 2020 voter’s registration exercise, a section of Ewes was almost prevented from registering on the basis of doubts surrounding their nationality. After that, a section of Ewes notably Santrokofi Akpafu, Lolobi, Likpe (SALL), were not eventually allowed to vote within the Hohoe constituency with the justification that their inclusion within the said constituency was under Dispute. Very recently, the former Auditor General; Mr. Daniel Yao Domelevo had to be forced to retire from office and his nationality questioned.
In contrast, we will be doing ourselves a great deal of disservice should we assume that the whole government is against the Volta Region and its natives. No, the whole NPP government is not against Ewes. Rhetorically, do we not have Ewe natives serving in the current government?
Now, is it not ironically a fact that we eat, drink and sleep in the same dormitory or even intermarry the supposed enemies?
In any case, I must commend well-meaning Ghanaians who, regardless of their political affiliations came out to condemn this act of bigotry. This simply means that though there are few people who ignorantly refuse to learn and know before they teach, there are substantially many more people who are discerning.
No matter the vilification and bastardization of Ewes and their culture, we remain an integral part of the country’s fullness and we thus remain the salt in the Ghanaian soup because Ewes have played and continue to play very critical roles in the spheres of Politics, Art, Academia and Diplomacy. In effect, Racism is to America what Tribalism is to Ghana. You can’t, therefore, condemn racism and refuse to expunge tribalism.”
By: Emmanuel Amegavi Sosu
