18th Book: “Ŋu Nyui Ade Ke” by Ghanaian Gifty Akosua Baka
“ ‘Ŋu Nyui Ade Ke’, translated as; 'A New Dawn' [was] launched in Accra to promote and encourage the reading and speaking of the Ewe language. It [is] authored by Mrs Gifty Akosua Baka, the Director of Development and Social Services at the Global Evangelical Church headquarters at Tesano in Accra, and a native of Peki in the Volta Region.” Ghanaian Times 1 March 2021.
The following excerpts are from the Ghanaian Times article posted 1 March 2021: https://ghanaiantimes.com.gh/an-ewe-book-nu-nyui-ade-ke-launched-in-accra/
“The book tells a story about a renowned lawyer, Dzogbese, who lost both parents in two separate armed robbery incidents during his youthful years. As he had nowhere to go because he did not know any extended family members nor where his parents came from, young Dzogbese accepted the offer of his best friend’s parents to move in with them. Dzogbese later grew to be a wealthy and influential lawyer but still felt inadequate as the search for his biological root had not yielded any results.”
“The book is dedicated to 97-year-old Madam Esther Violet Ama Leh, well-known as Abordzokpodada in honour of her selfless teaching service to children during the author’s nursery school days.”
Mrs Baka said:
‘I must confess that before I finalised my book for publication, I combed some major bookshops and libraries in Accra. I realised that either Ewe books are completely absent from the shelves or just the recycled of old Ewe literature books. So I realised that Ewe literature is at the verge of extinction in the near future if care is not taken to revive it.’
‘It is becoming increasingly difficult for Ewes to identify their fellow Ewe citizens by means of language because people are not willing to speak the Ewe language in public.’
‘Only our Ewe names remain a pointer to our root but even that some people try to pronounce the names in English thus adulterating the meaning and cultural importance of the names.’
it [is] time to rekindle the interest of speaking ‘Ewegbe among the Ewes. Our language is our unifier and we cannot afford to lose our cultural identity to urbanisation and modernity.’
‘It is time, we parents of Ewe descent, find innovative and interesting ways of teaching, reading and communicating in Ewe to our urbanised children.’
‘Ŋu Nyui Ade Ke, is written in simple Ewe and would serve this purpose excellently if all of us are determined to help our children identify who they are and the culture they belong to.’
‘It is my expectation that this book becomes an academic literature book for Junior and Senior High Schools in Ghana.’