The Member of Parliament for the Sawla- Tuna-Kalba constituency, Hon. Andrew Dari Chiwitey and three other panelists who appeared on Yagbon radio weekly Brifor local program, had called on Ghanaians not to look down on their indigenous languages but hold them in high esteem.
The three other panelists were Mr. Backah Peter, Mr .Dari Peter and Mr Ankaara Issah Hamza.
They described the attitude of Ghanaians especially Birifors towards local language as appalling, stressing that parents need to encourage their children to speak the local language which gives them an identity.
They urged Ghanaians to use their local languages since when you talk to a person in his own language, it is received in his heart.
According to them our local languages should be spoken frequently in order to avoid the extinction of the language.
Touching on naming of children, they said the only way people are able to identify their people is through their names.
They therefore appealed to parents to consider giving their children traditional names stressing that; “we now find a lot of people bearing Christian and Muslim names without local name.
One means by which we can identify our people as Dagaabas, Vaglas, Birifors, Gonjas and all other tribes is the traditional names we give to all of them
So let us to give our kids local names so that we can identify them in accordance with our tradition”, they noted.
They encouraged parents to give children local names as they described them as relevant and a mark of identity.
According to them using Christian or Muslim names alone are not enough to identify an individual or define them.
Source : yagbonradioonline
