The Member of Parliament (MP) for Afigya Kwabre North in the Ashanti Region, Mr. Collins Adomako Mensah is calling for sanctions for publishers and authors of the controversial textbook said to have stereotyped Ewes.
Mr. Adomako Mensah said such publications cannot be tolerated in the country.
According to him, sanctions will serve as a deterrent to other publishers.
“I have friends from all over the country, and I am here as an MP not because I am an Ashanti but because I’ve had contributions and support from all kinds of people. So I got upset when I saw the publication and during our workshop, in the Volta Region I had the opportunity to speak with some colleague MPs and there was some unanimity about our anger towards this publication.”
“So this is condemnable and what needs to be done is that, they have to withdraw the books immediately. I even propose that the publishers must be sanctioned because they (publishers) have been in this system for a very long time and writing a book goes through a long process including proofreading, editing, and all, so you can’t just apologize and say that throughout this process nobody saw this particular thing written in the book.”
Mr. Adomako Mensah made the call on Tuesday, March 16, 2021, when he appeared on Breakfast Daily on Citi TV.
Background
Badu Nkansah Publications, publishers of some textbooks meant for basic school pupils have been widely lambasted over portions of the books said to have denigrated the Ewe ethnic group in Ghana.
The textbooks – History of Ghana, Text Book 3, was authored by Badu Nkansah and Nelly Martinson Anim; while the Golden English Basic 4 was authored by Okyere Baafi Alexander both of which were said to contain bigoted content targeted at Ewes.
The publishers subsequently apologised.
But the apology seems to have not been accepted by the public.
For instance, the Volta Regional House of Chiefs is demanding an immediate withdrawal of the said textbooks.
According to the chiefs, the said publication is “distasteful and a disgrace to the authors and publishers”.
They in a statement 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.”
“We further demand an unqualified apology from the authors and publishers of this base material to be rendered to all Ewe speaking citizens of Ghana. In addition, we urge other ethnic groups in this country, to condemn such divisive publications which only serve as a recipe for chaos and disunity.”