The Most Rev. Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast has called on Africans particularly Ghanaian parents and teachers to desist from disconnecting children from their roots by instructing them in the English language instead of the mother tongues or Ghanaian languages.
He was worried that African children speak the English language fluently but do not understand nor speak their mother tongues, stressing that this has created a disconnect between them and their culture.
He said this at a durbar to climax the 10th anniversary celebration of the Christ the King Catholic Church at Kasoa C.P in the Cape Coast Archdiocese.
Archbishop Palmer-Buckle said this phenomenon creates a pedagogical disconnect in the minds of the children. He added that the criticism of everything African and Ghanaian has led to a new generation who do not think of Africa as a heritage but a place to run away from.
He bemoaned the fact that sometimes children who speak their local dialect in Ghanaian Schools are punished making the children grow up with the mindset that their language is not good to be used and so wish to live abroad or become White people. “No wonder a lot of our children are running away from Ghana as if God made a mistake creating them here in our country. So I will beg you, it is good to use English as our language of communication but don’t forget to make sure you teach the younger ones their language and culture”, he said.
He said children must not be delinked from their roots but must be taught to accept and appreciate their language, culture and heritage as a gift given to them by God.
The Archbishop was happy that parents were naming their children in the Ghanaian language, stating that they should add teaching of their local dialect to it to make them complete.
He advised Parishioners to use their diversity in culture to create a community but not ethnic islands in the Church.
