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Bu Me Be: Akan Proverbs
This is the first Akan/English dictionary that engages an African language in dialogue with other world languages. According to Ngugi wa Thiong’o, African languages cannot grow as literary languages unless we develop tools that will enable their effective use in dialogue not only with other European languages but also those of Africa and Asia. This dictionary is an important step in that direction.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 19, 2012
Reviewed by David Owusu-Ansah, Professor of History at James Madison University and author of the Historical Dictionary of Ghana (Scarecrow Press, 2005).
Bu Me Bε: Proverbs of the Akans is a wonderful collection of Akan sayings and proverbial statements that represent the virtues, experiences and traditions of the people. The authors—Peggy Appiah, Kwame Anthony Appiah and Ivor Agyeman-Duah—organised the work in a dictionary format. This 2007 Ayebia Clarke edition was first published in 2001 by the Ghana based Centre for Intellectual Renewal. Entries in this 312-page book is arranged in double columns and organised alphabetically for easy access. However, readers must note the changes that occur in some Akan words in the singular and plural forms. For example, it is expected for a statement that begins with a word such as “Deε” to be searched automatically under the alphabet “D.” But so too must “Adeε,” “Nnεma,” “Me deε,” “Wo deε” and other such usages. This is presented only as an example but it is indication that a number of entries that may appear at first to be inconsistent with the alphabetical arrangement into which they are grouped are indeed linguistically appropriate. Once the reader figures out the logic of organising such entries, the book becomes user friendly.
The first 12 pages of Bu Me Bε tell the story of how the 7,015 proverbs were collected for this project. Even though Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah and Ivor Agyeman-Duah are co-authors of the project, the original story must commence with the late Peggy Appiah. As the eminent Ghanaian journalist Cameron Doudou stated in the 6 March 2006 obituary tribute to Mrs. Appiah in the UK Guardian, this British woman of privilege parentage went “native” upon marrying her Black African suitor in 1953. Indeed, Doudou used “going native” in the best sense of the phrase because as he noted, Peggy Appiah soon applied herself to the study of the Akan language and ultimately wrote books that reflected a deep understanding of her husband’s culture as embedded in its folklore, philosophy, music, customs and everyday expressions. She also nurtured important contacts in Ghana to grant her access to Asante dignitaries and scholars from whom the proverbs were accumulated. In her own 2000 written statement, which is reproduced as the preface to the 2007 publication, Peggy Appiah referred to the project as a composite work of such persons as C. E. Osei, Yaw Adusei-Poku, K. Nsiah and A. C. Denteh from whom several of the entries were collected. Some of these very able linguists and Akan grammarians were recognised as having helped with the initial translation. They also provided commentary on the work that Ivor Agyeman-Duah and Kwame Anthony Appiah expanded upon.
To illustrate the breadth of the collection, the authors compared their 7,015 proverb entries to a similar 1879 publication by J. G. Christaller titled Three Thousand Six Hundred Proverbs From the Asante and Fante Languages. It was from this Christaller collection that the noted British anthropologist R. S. Rattray selected and prefaced with anthropological notes the 1916 publication titled Asante Proverbs: The Primitive Ethics of a Savage People. Notwithstanding the usefulness of such works by Christaller and Rattray as well as Kofi Ron Lange’s 1990 edition under the slightly modified title Three Thousand Six Hundred Ghanaian Proverbs: From the Asante and Fante Languages, I will argue that the original intention of the Christaller/Rattray production was colonial, anthropological and paternalistic. Bu Me Bε is uniquely important because the primary purpose of the authors is to demonstrate in a very positive way that traditional oral based societies are capable of conceptualising and developing values and ethics that are constructed from keen observations and experiences. The work preserves valuable knowledge of the past not for its own sake, but as part of Ghana’s cultural knowledge from which the future must be guided. This is a valuable contribution in its own right. Similar traditional knowledge must be included as content of the Religious and Moral Education.
Bu Me Bε: Proverbs of the Akans is a wonderful collection of Akan sayings and proverbial statements that represent the virtues, experiences and traditions of the people. The authors—Peggy Appiah, Kwame Anthony Appiah and Ivor Agyeman-Duah—organised the work in a dictionary format. This 2007 Ayebia Clarke edition was first published in 2001 by the Ghana based Centre for Intellectual Renewal. Entries in this 312-page book is arranged in double columns and organised alphabetically for easy access. However, readers must note the changes that occur in some Akan words in the singular and plural forms. For example, it is expected for a statement that begins with a word such as “Deε” to be searched automatically under the alphabet “D.” But so too must “Adeε,” “Nnεma,” “Me deε,” “Wo deε” and other such usages. This is presented only as an example but it is indication that a number of entries that may appear at first to be inconsistent with the alphabetical arrangement into which they are grouped are indeed linguistically appropriate. Once the reader figures out the logic of organising such entries, the book becomes user friendly.
The first 12 pages of Bu Me Bε tell the story of how the 7,015 proverbs were collected for this project. Even though Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah and Ivor Agyeman-Duah are co-authors of the project, the original story must commence with the late Peggy Appiah. As the eminent Ghanaian journalist Cameron Doudou stated in the 6 March 2006 obituary tribute to Mrs. Appiah in the UK Guardian, this British woman of privilege parentage went “native” upon marrying her Black African suitor in 1953. Indeed, Doudou used “going native” in the best sense of the phrase because as he noted, Peggy Appiah soon applied herself to the study of the Akan language and ultimately wrote books that reflected a deep understanding of her husband’s culture as embedded in its folklore, philosophy, music, customs and everyday expressions. She also nurtured important contacts in Ghana to grant her access to Asante dignitaries and scholars from whom the proverbs were accumulated. In her own 2000 written statement, which is reproduced as the preface to the 2007 publication, Peggy Appiah referred to the project as a composite work of such persons as C. E. Osei, Yaw Adusei-Poku, K. Nsiah and A. C. Denteh from whom several of the entries were collected. Some of these very able linguists and Akan grammarians were recognised as having helped with the initial translation. They also provided commentary on the work that Ivor Agyeman-Duah and Kwame Anthony Appiah expanded upon.
To illustrate the breadth of the collection, the authors compared their 7,015 proverb entries to a similar 1879 publication by J. G. Christaller titled Three Thousand Six Hundred Proverbs From the Asante and Fante Languages. It was from this Christaller collection that the noted British anthropologist R. S. Rattray selected and prefaced with anthropological notes the 1916 publication titled Asante Proverbs: The Primitive Ethics of a Savage People. Notwithstanding the usefulness of such works by Christaller and Rattray as well as Kofi Ron Lange’s 1990 edition under the slightly modified title Three Thousand Six Hundred Ghanaian Proverbs: From the Asante and Fante Languages, I will argue that the original intention of the Christaller/Rattray production was colonial, anthropological and paternalistic. Bu Me Bε is uniquely important because the primary purpose of the authors is to demonstrate in a very positive way that traditional oral based societies are capable of conceptualising and developing values and ethics that are constructed from keen observations and experiences. The work preserves valuable knowledge of the past not for its own sake, but as part of Ghana’s cultural knowledge from which the future must be guided. This is a valuable contribution in its own right. Similar traditional knowledge must be included as content of the Religious and Moral Education.
June 20, 2008
A hefty collection of wonderful Ghanaian wisdom.
October 5, 2013
it is reavealing
June 3, 2021
I am looking forward to read this amazing book which is full of the Ghanaian wise sayings
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews