About the Speaker
PROF. KOFI AGYEKUM, FGA
Professor of Linguistics
A Ghanaian Professor of Linguistics in the University of Ghana, Legon. Prof Kofi Agyekum was born on 21st March 1954. He is married with 3 young adults, one male and two females.
He was the Acting Dean of School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana from 2014-2021, Ag. Director, University of Ghana in 2015, School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana from 2013-2014, Co-coordinator, English-Akan Science Dictionary Project, Head of Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana from 2010-2013 and Co-coordinator, Akan Dictionary Project, University of Ghana from 1997-2007.
His areas of Research are Ethnography of Communication, Linguistic Anthropology, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis, Language and Politics, Mother Tongue Education, Sociolinguistics, Stylistics, Semantics, Cognitive Semantics (Body Part Expressions) Translation, Terminology, Lexicology, Lexicography and Oral Literature.
Prof. Agyekum has published in many renowned international and local journals such as Pragmatics, Pragmatics and Cognition, Journal of Pragmatics Discourse Studies, Language and Dialogue, Journal of Language and Politics, Anthropological Research, Language and Society, International Journal of Language and Culture, International Journal of Language and Communication RASK, Metaphor and the Social World, Cognitive Linguistics Science, etc.
His latest books are Akan Kasadwini and Akan Body Part Expressions. He is an internationally recognised Akan and Ethnography of Communication scholar and has been quoted and consulted by several scholars and institutions at both local and international levels. Prof Agyekum has 87 journal articles and book chapters and 16 books. He has also written 5 modules in linguistics for the Institute of Continuing and Distance Education, University of Ghana, Legon. He has reviewed 5 books and many journal articles.
Prof. Kofi Agyekum taught Akan and Linguistics at the former School of Languages, Ajumako from 1982-1985 and also at the University of Ghana, University of Cape Coast and the University of Education, Winneba. He has been teaching Akan-Twi to American students in Ghana since 1997. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Athens –Ohio in the summer of 2004.
Prof. Agyekum has done a lot of consultancy work on Akan Media and Translation for (CRIA) GIMPA, ISSER, NALAP, UN QUIPS- USAID, DOVVSU, APRM, GPRS II, Ashanti Gold, UNESCO Charter on Culture, UNESCO Ghana, Woman’s Mortality, Panos Institute West Africa, Dakar, Senegal, ASTEP, Ghana RIING Project, CDD, Accra, Attorney General’s Department, Unimax Publishers, Expert facilitator for media and politicians towards peaceful elections in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, organised by ECOWAS.
He has been a member of various Boards and Committees at the University of Ghana and at the National Level. These include National Peace Council, National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI), National Theatre, Ghana Institute of Languages and Presbyterian University College of Ghana. He is a Fellow, Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS), Member International Pragmatics Association IPrA, Member, African Pragmatics Association and Member, Linguistics Association of Ghana (LAG).
Prof. Kofi Agyekum has received Special Awards; Humanitarian Awards Ghana (Honorary Division) in 2020, Kwame Nkrumah Genius Award for the Use of Mother Tongue in the Media in 2017, National Award, the Order of the Volta for Public Education and the Media in 2008 and University of Ghana’s Best Teacher Award for the Humanities in 2007. Apart from these special and national awards, he has received others from churches, institutions, agencies and traditional societies.
Prof. Kofi Agyekum was the first to introduce Newspaper Review in Akan at Radio Univers in April 1997. The programme was titled Afisem and it is still aired on Radio Univers, Legon. He was the host of Afisem and Obiara Nka Bi programmes on Radio Univers and has trained many students’ trainee journalists. He is a regular panelist on Peace FM’s Kookurokoo Show.
Synopsis of Lecture
The presentation examines The Significance of Ephraim Amu’s Defiance of Cultural Imperialism using his profile and what he stood for. I shall operate with Boyd-Barret’s (2018) definition:
“central to the many definitions of the term cultural imperialism is the idea of the culture of one powerful civilization, country, or institution having a great unreciprocated influence on that of another less powerful entity to a degree that one may speak of a measure of cultural domination.”
Dr. Ephraim Amu, the famous pioneering contributor to ethnomusicology in Ghana, embarked on defiance of cultural imperialism in defence of our cultural identity and dignity. Note that whoever has no identity has no dignity and whoever has no dignity has no identity.
Today, unlike the colonial days of Amu, when the European colonizers or their Christian missionaries physically dictated what to wear, what music to play, and what language to speak at public or institutional events; there is a substitute called, cultural globalization, deadlier than physical colonization. The quiet, faceless and seemingly impersonal features of cultural globalization tend to hide its potential for endless social penetration, scope of influence, and erosion of weaker cultures. Our cultural identity and dignity are under a more serious threat now than before. In this tidal onslaught, a lot of vigilance and energy are needed. We must engage in an ideological fight at all material times as Amu did to protect and preserve our cultural identity and dignity.
This presentation is divided into five sections. Section One gives a brief account of Amu’s biography. Section Two teases out of Amu’s biography the scope and meaning of his defiance of cultural imperialism. Section Three takes a brief look at the Post-Amu Age, namely, the Age of Globalization. Section Four examines the pragmatics of Article 39 of the 1992 Constitution and the National Commission on Culture’s policy on culture. In the final section, Section Five, conclusions are drawn and recommendations are made for the way forward.