Whatever the narrative may be about the origin of the Ga people; the historian, F.K. Buah, said a Fanti hunter, while having a leasurely walk along the beach, saw several boats disembarking people whose numbers made the hunter equate them to driver ants – Nkran in Fanti.
What brought a fanti hunter to the beach was not made clear, but another historical coincidence, was that the word, nkran, as driver ants in fanti, had its equivalent in the language of the ga people, as ga ga.
So the numerous people the fanti hunter saw disembarking from boats at the beach, can also be called the ga ga or ga people. This is one of the happy coincidences in our indeginous anthropology.
The nkran fo in fanti, are thus called the ga people. Ghana’s capital must then be called, Nkran, the home of the ga people, and not Accra. Like many words in our indigenous languages which the colonialist could not pronounce well, we turn to retain the adulterated colonial pronounciations.
Words like klepi became peki, akyem became akim, kwawu became kwahu
Xɔxɔe is now hohoe. So our political capital is called Accra instead of Nkran. The ga people, have not protested though.
They however own many words found in a number of other indeginous languages. Words like anukwade, agoo, soremɔ, shitor, ,akpeteshie, ayikoo, blewu, klalo, banku, kwashiorkor, ablode, atuu, keche, taflatse, agbo , ashawo, and many others, used freely in, fanti, twi, eʋe and other indigenous languages, belong to the ga people.
Anytime you use any of these words in your mother tongue, please, save a thought of gratitude for the ga people. The ga language did not only lend words to other native languages, but a Ga blacksmith by name Tettey Quarshie, in an unusual show of patriotism, succeeded in smuggling cocoa seeds from the Island of Ferdinand do Po, to the then Gold Coast, now Ghana.
This simple act of Tettey Quashie formed the genesis of Ghana’s political economy which benefited, not so much the Ga people, as others. Ga people, generally, do not grow cocoa. Ghanaians must be grateful and thankful that ga people form part of Ghana. Gamei, ayi koo.
By WG.CDR. Kwaku Kekrebesi (Rtd)
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
