Answering a question that shouldn’t be asked
By A Concerned Ghanaian · 15 May 2026 · Culture
Ghana, my beautiful country is a wonder in itself. In the face of our many problems we always have room to argue and digress about topics that do not add value to our national life while staring at the problems which actually require us to come together and overcome some of the little insignificant questions we fret over. I am sure in some way you have been asked by another Ghanaian the question of “where you come from”. That question is not just requesting for your hometown or place of birth but it is a peep into which tribe or what ethnicity you belong to. In Twi the question may sound like “wo firi he” or “wo ye den ni”, i.e., where do you come from or what tribe are you. It may seem unintelligent that as a country these things get asked at various points so that people can actually dig into the stereotypes in reacting to their fellow Ghanaian.
Typical stereotypes abound. He is an Asante, he must be arrogant. He is an Ewe, he must be a very bad person. He is a Kwahu man, he must love money. She is a Krobo woman, she can never be faithful. These are a few of the many wrong assumptions people make about people of various descents even within this small country. None of these hold water. In my small life I have made friends, worked with people of various backgrounds and I can say these are just not true. I was born in small village in Bono Ahafo (Japekrom). I had my primary education there and then came to Sunyani, the capital of the Brong Ahafo Region, then to Cape coast and to Legon and I now live in Accra. We speak our own version of the Bono language that uses “b3” for they instead of “omo or wommo” as is used in Asante Twi. Some time ago, if we travelled to Berekum and Sunyani we got laughed at because of the kind of Twi we spoke. Surprisingly even when we spoke Asante Twi and we got to Kumasi, we would still be laughed at by reason of the kind of Twi we spoke whether from Dorma, Berkum of Sunyani or my village. I realized the kind of Asante Twi we spoke differed from what my other siblings in Kumasi spoke. Laughing at each other is a normal therapy that has kept us together but some people are so emotional they can’t handle.
In most parts of Asante or Kumasi, English, though a national language is not an admirable language. The people are so unfazed about it and they would speak their language no matter what. A few years ago, they used to be laughed at because they did not speak English. Even musicians who chose to sing in Twi—Amakye Dede, Sarkodie and Obrafour etc—were laughed at at some point because they couldn’t speak English. They could but they believed it wasn’t their language and so why bother. When Daddy Lumba attempted to do this English some of his songs became so inaudible (At some point his name Lumba sounded like Lumberr). Many Ghanaians have in one way learnt the Akan (Twi) language and Twi is spoken in almost every region. Apart from some sections of the Volta Region where you will struggle to communicate if you don’t speak Ewe, you could get a pass throughout the country with your version of Twi. Those who learnt the language did so because most the people they interacted with could understand and communicate in. It did not suggest they were abandoning their mother tongue or native languages.
We are in search for a national language other than English. Just like the Chinese have stuck to Mandarin and the East Africans have made efforts to make Swahili a regional language we also need to have something other than what the colonial master left for us. So someone suggested if we could consider the Akan language (Twi) as a second national language to English because it is spoken by the majority of people in Ghana. The reaction to this suggestion is part a stereotypical, innate, detestation of the people who speak this language. Twi is spoken by most people in Ghana but Akans are not in the majority by land size or population, invariably they are the single largest group and the language is the most prevalent and spoken by any group in Ghana. If they were the majority, would that justify the suggestion? After all democracy obeys the majority? Are there other considerations such as the ease with which this could be learnt nationwide since it is spoken by the largest number already?
In this country, do not expect such a thorough sequential set of arguments to decide on anything. Let someone with clout speak and let it get into the media space and by the next week a narrative is formed. I have only tickled this conversation and you can see how this simple matter could actually lead to angry vituperations by people because everyone is so entrenched in their small “tribal or ethnic” comfort. Anyway back to attempting to answer the question of where I am from. My dad is an Asante man so I claim to be Asante but I do not wear the uniform of “Otumfour wofase kronkron” but my mom is a Bono and so by inheritance I should be a Bono and then I find out my mother’s grand father is from Yamoransa and that the connection to the Fante family is so strong like “apartyre” so I want to go and claim Fante. If you see how I struggle to fit myself into this then you can understand why I would probably respond to the question that “I am an Akan”—simple.
Today some of my children have an “Ewe mother” and some have “A Northern Mother” so what will they say when this same question comes to them some day. Should we actually be asking this question when we are dealing with our fellow Ghanaian? My view is a Big NO. We need to identify as Ghanaians first and foremost and no matter which part of the country swallowed the placenta that bore you, you are not any special and more human than any body. A few years ago in 2019, I visited Rwanda and had a tour of the genocide museum and after listening to the history I understood why they have outlawed any classification of tribe in national identification. When you fill a form you only identify as a Rwandan, period, not as Tutsi or Hutu. In most of the advanced democracies we have sought to follow, there is not much emphasis on these minute sub classifications as tribe or ethnicity. Can we also as a people, fashion a way to minimize the impact of these our tribe and ethnic sentiments and project Ghana? We dey back too much because of this tribe thing oo.
Well, when you are my Ga friend and you come to my house and I give you water won’t you drink because I did not Obaake you or you are Ewe and you come and I serve you fetri toto and eworkple you won’t eat because I did not welcome you with Weozor. You will eat and say ‘Akpe” after and I will be fine. All the ‘where do you come from question” is a needless one that should not be asked koraa. Do you hear?
Yaw Brefo