Infectious disease specialist and global health advocate Dr Bertha Serwa Ayi has called on parents to support the education system to preserve Ghana’s local languages, warning that the increasing preference for English among parents is weakening children’s connection to their languages and culture.

Dr Ayi, who has lived in the United States for almost 30 years, was born in Akyem Oda but moved with her family to Lartebiokorshie as a baby.

She said growing up in Lartebiokorshie exposed her deeply to the Ga language and culture, with most of her friends being Ga.

In a social media video, she recalled learning the language at school and at the Lartebiokorshie Methodist Church, where she learnt to read the Bible in Ga.

“I speak Ga very well, and I also married a Ga,” she noted.

However, Dr Ayi said she had the “shock of my life” when she realised that some of her nephews and nieces, who are Ga and Asante, could not speak their respective local languages.

“What is going on? They don't understand the local languages, and when you ask them to speak English, it is some broken form of English,” she bemoaned.

She questioned why some parents were eager to have their children speak only English without ensuring that they also developed a strong command of the language.

“Do we understand what we are doing to our society?” she worried.

‘It is costing us’

Dr Ayi admitted that her three children, aged 26, 24 and 23, cannot speak fluent Ga and Twi. However, she said they understand both languages and can respond in English.

“There is nothing my three children cannot understand in Twi or Ga and they will tell it back to you in English,” she said.

She cited her sister-in-law’s US-born daughter as an example of what is possible when parents make a conscious effort to pass local languages on to their children. She said the girl speaks flawless Ga “like she grew up in Labadi”.

According to Dr Ayi, this shows that “some parents are actually trying [their best]” despite the challenges, while “some others parents feel ashamed of the local language[s]”.

She acknowledged that Ghanaian parents want their children “to be competitive,” but warned that this practice “is costing us”.

‘Language is like a bowl’

Dr Ayi said a colleague once offered her a different perspective after reading an impassioned article she had written on the subject.

She said the conversation “toned me down a little” by highlighting the multiculturalism created through inter-tribal marriages.

Dr Ayi noted that her friend was born to an Ewe mother and an Akan father. As a result, she could not speak either language fluently and instead picked up English as the common language. She said this was increasingly the situation in many Ghanaian homes, elevating English to the detriment of local languages. 

She nevertheless stressed the need for families to make a conscious effort to preserve Ghanaian languages by passing them on to younger generations. She advertised the profound benefits of raising multi-lingual children.

“Language is like a bowl. In it, you have culture, your dance, your food, rich proverbs,” she said.

She challenged the notion that learning local languages makes children “less smart”. She said, in fact, there are studies showing that speaking more languages can be greatly beneficial.

She said her advocacy on the issue also led to her becoming part of a committee under the Ministry of Education to review Ghana’s language policy, adding that the effort, which began around or after 2015, had contributed to renewed efforts to teach local languages in formal school settings.

‘We’re raising boring children’

Dr Ayi also pointed to the cultural value of multilingualism, drawing a connection between language and literature.

“Can you image [African] authors like Wole Soyinka and others operating in only one language? Their books would be boring. And that's what we're raising, boring children,” she admonished.

She recalled a trip to Europe, where she said she observed how proudly different countries promoted their national languages, with English often taking a secondary or no role at all.

She recounted visiting a French store where she had to rely solely on her French vocabulary to make purchases.

Later, on a plane, when she tried to speak French to a fellow passenger, she discovered that he was Italian. She said the interaction led her to learn a few lessons about the Italian language as well.

For Dr Ayi, these experiences reinforce the importance of preserving local languages and the culture they carry. Her call emphasises the superior benefits of raising a generation whose minds are enriched by first understanding their local languages and then international tongues.