The English Language as a Modern Ghanaian Artifact

Abstract

In anglophone West Africa, the country that had the longest tutelage under British rule before independence was probably the Gold Coast (Ghana). By 1844, the Gold Coast had entered into treaty relations with Her Majesty's Government whereas Nigeria, for example, did so in 1916. This state of affairs gives the English language more than a century and a half's existence in Ghana up to the present time. This historical fact should have made the topic of this article irrelevant, but unfortunately the Ghanaian scene and the noises made about English in the country would not allow the topic to rest (Amonoo, 1989). There is so much anxiety about the English language in Ghana that the topic is worth exploring at all levels. English was originally not a Ghanaian language, nor African. In historical linguistic terms, it is a Germanic language of the IndoEuropean language family. Herder (1744-1803) was quoted by Lyons (1984, ch. 6) as postulating that, just before the rise of German nationalism, there was an intimate connection between language and national character.' The Germans used this phenomenon to assert and authenticate their concept and identity of the German-speaking peoples during the first half of the 20th century. The consequences of the extremities with which the Germans went in pursuit of this kind of thought taught those who were alive and adult at that time the agonies of war and national disaster. It also taught them the opprobrium that race and language can inflict on the world. Although Simon Potter (1961), for instance, wrote his book Our Language (1950-1960) after World War II, he did not agree with the argument we are making when he was talking about