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East meets West (Africa) 1: Ghana's love affair with telenovelas reached a new pinnacle this year with one TV station in Kumkum Bhagya particular featuring an Indian 'soap opera' dubbed in Twi. I didn't believe it could ever happen until I saw it with my own eyes on Adom TV recently. Imagine....some beautified Indian actresses complete with sari spitting some Twi lyrics!!! It is definitely novel and the dubbing is ok... I hardly saw any out-of-sync lips movements and audio. I guess the  novelty hasn't worn off for me yet as it is the Indian-Ghanaian contrast that transfixes me at the moment....not the cheesy content. Let's hope more of these dubs emerge in other Ghanaian languages. The mother of reinvention 2: I love a good spelling error and Ghana never disappoints when it comes to dishing out howlers. local dishe Her most recent faux pas being the 59th Independence Day brochure. In the document, the Kenyan president Uhuru ...

The UK's major towns and cities are famed for their diverse non-indigenous populations. In the Office of National Statistics' latest census in 2011, almost 100,000 Ghanaians are living in Britain with big cities such as London, Birmingham, and Manchester having significant populations. Queen Charlotte of England was of African descent captured from © National Museum Cardiff But it has not always been the way. According to historian Onyeka, author of ' Blackamoores: Africans in Tudor England, their Presence, Status and Origins'  , the African presence in England between 1485 and 1603 can be traced to more provincial parts of the land. His evidence is based on more than two decades of research and over 250,000 documents and artefacts mainly from Tudor England. Onyeka argues that Africans had a rich and diverse presence in Tudor England that transcends the familiar and singular slavery story. In this podcast segment, Onyeka highlights the stron...

A British-Ghanaian documentary-maker is taking her investigation into language endangerment within the Ghanaian community back home. Ortis, Dentaa, Naomi Fletcher, Pamela & Claire Clottey  ©   MisBeee Writes Pamela Sakyi - the woman behind the 'British Ghanaians: Lost in Translation' documentary - plans to start filming a sequel in Ghana by early 2017 at the latest. The first production features Gadget Show TV presenter Ortis Deley who explores the reasons why some British-Ghanaians are struggling to speak their parents' languages. Around 70 languages are spoken in Ghana. The most widely spoken are Akan, Ewe, Ga and Dagomba. But shockingly, Ghanaian languages spoken on home soil face a similarly uncertain future as abroad. Ghanaian children at school and at home have been encouraged to speak English rather than their native tongues and as a result this is affecting fluency, Sakyi said. So much as that Ghana's education minister Pr...

I've been trying to understand this phenomenon for years. When I compared my situat ion to friends from other cul tures - I struggled to understand why that same pride in speaking Twi was not part of my upbringing. Lawrence Darmani's book 'Talata' written in the Akwiapem Twi language of Ghana As a result, I have be c ome more than a little obsessed by my Akan roots and the Asante Twi my family speak. My cousin in the U S told me that he's been trying to encourage his little ones to learn the language and even invested in so me books for that reason. But - in his words - the children are not interested. Part of the issue - I think - is relevance. If the language is not viewed as relevant, valued and important in the house, it is unlikely youngsters would want to learn or speak it . It is often associated with admonishment, rules and directives . Most of you in this position will know that your parents will fall into speaking their home language when the...