While History of Ghana Textbook 3 by Badu Nkansah Publications features a song that purported portrays the Ewe identity, Golden English Basic 4 by Golden Publications wrote a sentence which said: ‘Efo agrees to prepare the juju for the players’ on page 17.
In a statement issued by the Regional House of Chiefs and signed by its President, Togbe Tepre Hodo IV on Monday, 15 March 2021, the Volta chiefs noted that their attention has been drawn to the contents of a “book designed for use by lower classes in the current educational structure.”
The house described some of the content of the books which it refers to casting “derogatory allusions and innuendos at Ewes,” as “distasteful and a disgrace to the authors and publishers of the said material intended to educate the younger generation of this country.”
The Regional House of Chiefs said: “We deem it highly reprehensible for those responsible for this offensive publication, to harbour such vile thoughts about their fellow citizens of Ghana in the twenty-first century.”
“We therefore unreservedly condemn this singular demonstration of tribal bigotry and prejudice and call on those responsible for the offensive publication, to withdraw the same from circulation and to destroy every part of the offending material.
The house further demanded “an unqualified apology from the authors and publishers of this base material to be rendered to all Ewe speaking citizens of Ghana”
It urged other “ethnic groups in this country, to condemn such divisive publications which only serve as a recipe for chaos and disunity.”
The house added that: “In the event that this ill-advised publication is discovered anywhere after our demand for the same to be withdrawn from circulation, we hereby serve notice that the Chiefs and people of Ewe ethnic origin, will take appropriate legal measures to ensure that these mischief-makers walk on the right side of the law.”
Meanwhile, Ghanaian-owned publishing company, Badu Nkansah Publications, has apologised to Ghanaians for the circulation of their History of Ghana Textbook 3, which features condescending content of Ewes.
In a statement by the publishing company, Badu Nkansah Publications said: “Following the introduction of the new curriculum by NaCCA, we submitted a textbook application for approval for our book History of Ghana in January last year. We received a response to our application from NaCCA on 25th September (Reference NaCCA /G14).”
It continued that: “The NaCCA raised concerns with portions of the book even though they informed us that the book had satisfied most of the technical and content requirements. They however told us to work on certain aspects of the book further in order for it to meet the expectations of the new curriculum.
“An attached comment which accompanied the report detailed areas of particular concern which we are still in the process of complying with.”
The Publishing Company further continued that: “Unfortunately, while undergoing the review, a limited quantity of the unpublished draft found its way into the market.”
It added: “We apologise to all those affected and we wish to assure all Ghanaians such a thing will never happen again.”
