OKYEAME AKUFFO BOUNCES BACK (PAGE 20, DEC 16)

After sojourning in the United States for over 16 years, Okyeame Kwasi Akuffo, a former State Linguist, is now back home.
Okyeame Akuffo, noted for customary recitals and appellations at state functions, funerals, engagements and other social gatherings, said he had decided to come home to help promote the country’s traditions.
The middle-aged traditionalist who was once a research assistant at the Centre for National Culture, Accra, and guest lecturer at the Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana, Legon, had in the 1980s and 1990s held audiences spell-bound with his appellations and tributes in Twi and other languages, highlighting traditional practices in almost all the ethnic groups in the country.
Explaining why he decided to come back home after a long sojourn in the United States, Okyeame Akuffo, who is currently based at Tutu on the Akuapem Scarp, said “the rich clauses and phrases in Twi and other Ghanaian languages are being replaced by English, and we should not let the science of our languages be destroyed by the language of those who colonised us”.
“Now, hardly will Ghanaians speak the local languages without lacing the speeches with such English words as hospital, post office, car, bus and milk, but we have words for such items in the local languages, which I am here to promote,” Okyeame Akuffo stated.
Okyeame Akuffo, who while in the US, lectured on Ghanaian culture during the Black History months of February and performed at various functions, including visits of former President Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman, said he had managed to portray to the outside world that Ghana had a rich culture to sustain.
He called on Ghanaians, especially the youth, to go by the Ghanaian culture in whatever they did, particularly the way of dressing and to avoid using English words when speaking the vernacular.