‘It was in palpable agony wrapped rather in her affable smiles that she narrated how bookshops had refused to take copies of her book ‘Nu Nyui Ade Ke’
Lang Nubuor expresses his disappointment in the loss of interest in books written in the indigenous African Language.
In todays African society do we even read? Not to talk of African Youth reading in their local languages.
Its Heart Breaking to put all you have in writing, to see just a handful read or zero views. Most articles written which are 500 words and over, we see our viewers to just scroll very fast through to the end and exist.
If your article is not less than 4 to 5 sentences but more it is skipped very sad.
Here we see Prof. Lang Nubuor Narrate the happening at the Ghana Association of Writers (GAW SUNDAY) where a colleague felt disappointed in writing her book in the local language.
‘‘It was in palpable agony wrapped rather in her affable smiles that she narrated how bookshops had refused to take copies of her book ‘Nu Nyui Ade Ke’ for sale on the premise that it would not be bought due to lack of readership in the Ewe language.”
PROF. LANG NUBUOR;
Just before 9am on Sunday, December 5 2021, I had the benefit of being invited to the resumption of the IN-PERSON GAW SUNDAY Programme at the PAWA House in Accra.
I had missed the in-person version for months if not for over a year. Though it was to get started within a few hours at 3pm I did not miss the opportunity in spite of my health condition. I got to the PAWA House in a rather dull state. But I did not regret being there, Allah! 😃
I got there at 2.29pm as the seventh among the early birds. By 3.12pm the Programme had started with more seats to be filled as they were largely filled later.
Apart from the immediate past and current Presidents of the Ghana Association of Writers (GAW) as well as the MC all others were not familiar faces. I saw Mannaseh Azure and Afa Monney (?) for the first time.
The occasion had a number of short-listed writers for award on December 16 2021 as the focus of attention. It was a good mix of male and female writers of all ages – old and young.
All protocols observed with self-introductions by each within the small but handsome gathering, a powerful spoken word was delivered by Pobee with a focused theme on Africanity.
That was great to start with as his powerful voice served as an appropriate means of awakening all others to the urgency of the occasion – an authentic African voice lamenting the loss of the African Personality and craving for its restoration.
GIFTY AKOSUA BAKA
In representation of that loss, Gifty Akosua Baka, when it was her turn in the interview series that followed, lamented the loss in readership of books written in indigenous African languages – on her part, in the Ewe language.
It was in palpable agony wrapped rather in her affable smiles that she narrated how bookshops had refused to take copies of her book ‘Nu Nyui Ade Ke’ for sale on the premise that it would not be bought due to lack of readership in the Ewe language.
Certainly, that is not the lot of the Ewe language alone. All other African languages face that tragedy.
Any doubt then that all the other books by the other writers were/are written in the English language which is accessible to only a tiny fraction of overall African readership.
If we took a special note of this lapse in language education in Africa it might be because Prof. Adams Bodomo’s Afrihili Project to provide Africa with an all-embracing single African LINGUA FRANCA always lingers in our mind upon such encounters.
EVENTUALLY GIVING OUT THE BOOKS FOR FREE
The depth of frustration that African writers in our indigenous languages experience was demonstrated at the end of the Programme when it was announced that Akosua had offered her book FREE OF CHARGE for the picking of ALL of us even whether we could read Ewe or NOT. In the event of the latter we could later pass it on to an Ewe reader we knew. That’s how yours truly got a copy home.
Talking about book distribution a number of the short-listed writers spoke about attempts being made to get their books read at our schools.
That focused our attention on the CONTENT of those books that the educational authorities might allow therein. Could we vouch for the Pobee type of rebellious content to be accepted by such authorities in our neo-colonial schools? O hoo!
SHORT-LISTED BOOKS FOR AWARD
So, therefore, what CONTENT in the books short-listed for awards was exhibited on the occasion? Surely nothing rebellious that might challenge the African youth to attain heights of champions of the African Personality. No, we heard nothing to that effect.
And do we blame the lonely writer seeking to impact society through the agency of our educational system? We do not, for sure, do that. We rather ask whether GAW addresses itself to this drag on LIBERATION LITERATURE in our formal institutions of neo-colonial instruction.
Certainly, such INSTRUMENTALIST literature aside, we need that literature that also speaks to the individual struggling WITHIN this System to make it to potentiality realisation.
Such informed the content of an autobiography by Daniel Owusu Koranteng which at a point got the audience exclaim in unison ‘Aoo!’
That content expresses the remnant spirit of African communalism when relatives take up the rearing of a child with the potential to be great for society when their immediate parents are not in a position so to do.
The selflessness of that undertaking and the child’s inability to reciprocate at the correct time – seeking to make it big – tell us when to act to show appreciation even with the little we can afford in the immediacy. Life is short!
The reverse of that communal spirit, presented by G. Edusei Derkyi, was highlighted in another presentation when an uncle’s wife subjected a child to such denial that a total stranger rather had to be the person to help that child realise his potentiality to the later advantage of the very village that could not make it up to him.
It all comes to raising the question: Which is your family, the blood type that denies you in your moment of need or whoever comes to your side to assist when you urgently require their help? Is it necessarily a question of blood?
The development of the new Africa out of the remnants of its disappearing communal mode of production within its general trisystemic mode of production prevails on our mind as we listen to such stories.
Such is perceived and conceived as the task of intellectuals of The Left. But how many of these latter were present at the PAWA House to even just watch proceedings as yours truly did?
Not a single one of them that we know was short-listed among the lot that were. WHEN does The Left project to make an impact on the direction that African society should take, after capturing power? Morborful!
Thanks, GAW SUNDAY!
Prof. Lang T. K. A. Nubuor seekersnewsgh
