*The Saga of being Ewe.....Part 4*
*By Dr Akofa K Segbefia*
In this penultimate episode in the series, I intend to address the Ewe directly. The final part will delve into the Komfo Anokye narrative.
I am accused of being a de-tribalized Ewe. To this, I plead guilty as charged. It is true I have more friends and acquaintances from other ethnic groups than from Ewe. It is not deliberate I drifted towards others in my professional career, as I worked outside of Ewe land.
Apart from English, which is our official language, how often do you come across Akan, Ga-Dangbe, Dagomba speaking another language other than their own among themselves? Virtually none. But it is common to hear the Ewe speaking Twi, Fante, Ga among themselves. It beats my mind.
It is understandable if they are born out of mixed marriages where the choice is obvious. Sadly, a good number of my own siblings and cousins speak other languages among themselves. Because of this, their own children follow in their footsteps, to the extent that when I converse with some of them, their end of the conversation sounds Ewe patois.
Is it a lack of confidence in our identity as Ewe? Of course, no other reason can be adduced for this. Personally, I speak to friends in Twi, Fante, Ga and Guan whenever we meet, but never another language to my fellow Ewe, even de-tribalized as I am.
I have had colleagues lambast me at the workplace when I spoke Ewe to Ewe colleagues of mine. Meanwhile, they were all comfortable speaking Akan among themselves. I am aware this happens in almost all workplaces. I do not yet know what accounts for this.
If we allow ourselves to be cowed by this behaviour of others, then we have the propensity to sell
our birthright to others. Then we recoil into our closet and complain of discrimination. We can only be purchased at the price we sell ourselves.
I recollect a visit with a friend to a restaurant in Baychester area of the Bronx in summer of 2012. There were some Akan-speaking women at the joint. My pal and I were chatting in Ewe. On their way out, they greeted us in Twi. We responded in English that we did not understand their language.
"Are you not from Ghana?" One of them asked. We answered in the affirmative. "And you cannot speak Twi?" Suppressing my revulsion to this uppity, I slowly asked if Twi was Ghana's lingua franca. "Sorry, but every Ghanaian understands Twi," she pressed on. I shot back, asking her how many of the "every Ghanaian " she spoke to. Her companion told her in Twi,, "Let's go. You are getting the man angry." Wishing us a good day, they sauntered to the door and into the summer sun.
I am proud of our compatriots from the north of the country. They speak their languages with such finesse and pride wherever they are. So do the Akan and the others, but not my people. Many languages have atrophied for lack of usage and Ewe is likely to follow if this attitude does not change. The Latin I read in school has only enriched my vocabulary and understanding of certain expressions but there is no one to speak it with.
The only positive for the Ewe language is that it is the main one in Togo and parts of Benin and so if we kill it here in Ghana, it will still be alive elsewhere. I cringed when I saw a niece on Whatsapp Status describing herself as "Ayigbe toffee". How can a people accept to be called whi or what they are not? Are we being mentally enslaved? Or we are allowing it?
All of a sudden, we are importing other cultures into our own. It is not in Ewe culture to have a one week celebrated when a relative dies, but this has crept into our culture. We all saw the Akan display at the funeral of my own friend Jerry John Rawlings. Rawlings was not Akan. Even if it was because he was at a time our head of state, then all major traditional practices must have been involved. In my estimation, Rawlings suffered an indignity at his funeral.
Also, the Akan funeral dirges are on display at Ewe funerals these days. It is true that the Ewe in the north of the Volta Region are closely linked to some Akan cultures, which is understandable, but what of the rest? The etenteben (flute), invented by Tata Dr Ephraim Amu, a native of Peki-Avetile in the Volta Region, has become the Akan instrument of choice for dirges.
The only honour for the great Ephraim Amu is a dirty road that passes by the western gate of the Central University at Mataheko in Accra.
We have condoned it and we have embraced it. If you fear to speak your language, who will speak it on your behalf? I have friends who are not Ewe but speak the language flawlessly, but among their people they speak their own language. This is the way to go.
I espied a video on social media addressing what the person referred to as Eυegbetɔwo. .. There is nobody or group as Eυegbetɔwo. We are Eυeawo (Ewe) and we speak Eυegbe (Ewe language). If we are even wrong in addressing who or what we are, who does the right thing for us?
Are you aware that there are more Ewe landlords in Accra than any other ethnic group, except Kwahu? Yet, they cannot assert themselves on the capital's social ladder? Is it a lack of a rallying call for the Ewe to stand up and be counted?
Then there is this other thing about the Ewe being interested in juju. I have been trying to understand where this one came from. The first time I heard this was when I was in training college in the early seventies but took it as a stupid joke. Later in my interactions with some people, I heard if you offended an Ewe, you are either killed or hurt through juju. If it were really so, I reckon I would have sent scores of people to their graves.
I spent ten uninterrupted years in the Volta Region and only saw mystical display at certain cultural festivities. Some people put thrust burning fire in their mouths, strike themselves with daggers that did not cut the flesh.
I heard that if you wanted witchcraft, you went to Nzema. This was after I joined my family in Koforidua. I later learnt of deities called Antoa, Akonedi, Nogokpo etc. etc. I know there are deities in almost everywhere in this country. Where do the Ewe feature in all this?
In my study of philosophy and psychology, fear-induced guilt has the potential of killing people faster than any known ailment, and so crystalization of such thought sends people to their early death and others are blamed for it.
What are the opinion leaders (Dumegāwo) doing in all these? What are Torgbegawo/Torgbuigawo doing to preserve the cultures and traditions of the Ewe people? They are the custodians and embodiments of the soul of the Eweland and must act to stem the negatives assailing their people.
Our chiefs must not be seen or heard only at festivals or when politicians come calling. We need them to lead us every minute of the day throughout their reign.
Now, I have realized that it is only in the heat of party political activities that I get the Ashanti Region pitted against Ewe. This is stoked by political activists and their masters who should know better. Truth is that the Asante generally are not tribalistic. You realize this when you live with or among them. Neither are the Ewe. So the toxic atmosphere can only be blamed on the political actors.
Ghanaians have a way of poking fun at one another without hurting anyone's sensibilities. It happens in every society, but it becomes rather serious when people we see as leaders poison the atmosphere for whatever gains, only they can tell.
This is where I call on our traditional rulers to use their authority to ensure unity and camaraderie among all the people living in their areas of traditional control. That way, everyone of us will have a sense of belonging as Ghanaians.
*Writer's email address:*
*akofa45@yahoo.com*
*Weekly Spectator Saturday July 9, 2022*
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