Sunyani, Jan. 23, GNA – A seven-member board to lead campaigners for the indigenous Bono language to be taught in school and recognized nationwide and globally has been inaugurated.
The objective is to ensure the documentation of the Bono dialect officially to be taught in schools and spoken everywhere by Bono indigenes and to “educate children in their culture without feeling shy”.
The board members are Nana Oboaman Bofotia Boamponsem, the Sunyani Krontihene, Mr William Kwasi Sabi, the immediate past Member of Parliament for Dormaa East and Pastor Robert Ransford Yeboah, the Sunyani South District Pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church.
Others are Nana Akosua Kumi, the Adontenhemaa of Aboabo number four in the Dormaa Traditional Area, Nana Asamoa Kumtwie, the Nsesresuhene of Dormaa East, Reverend Isaac Boahen, a member of the Bono Bible translation team of the Bible Society of Ghana and Professor Emmanuel Opuni Frimpong, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Energy and Natural Resources.
Nana Oboaman Bofotia Boamponsem, the Sunyani Krontihene, said Bono had its own language but was gradually losing “our parlance to other people and losing our culture and as a result fading out our identity and ethnicity”.
Mr William Kwasi Sabi, the immediate past Member of Parliament for Dormaa East, said, “We the Bono people are the typical Akans because the Akan family started from Bono Manso, a suburb of Techiman, the Bono East regional Capital.”
“This is to draw the attention of the people of Bono and the general public to promote the Bono dialect as a preferred language and make it recognized and acceptable Worldwide,” he added.
Mr Sabi noted that even on the Bono land, the language was strange to many people and it was affecting the upcoming generation who would take charge of the region in the future.
Therefore, speaking of the dialect should cut across all religions and denominations by creating the awareness and building the capacity of teachers to understand the need to inculcate our identity as Bono people in our children, he said.
GNA