Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo (FGA), Professor of Linguistics and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, has raised concerns about a troubling imbalance in global knowledge production, where indigenous knowledge from the Global South must often meet narrow Western standards to gain recognition.
She made these remarks on Thursday, 23rd April 2026, at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) while delivering her inaugural lecture on the theme Reclaiming Voice in the Global Order: Language, Gender and the African Academy. She noted that such unequal power structures continue to marginalize African scholarship and limit its authority in global discourse.
Professor Appiah Amfo explained that Western institutions have long shaped what is considered legitimate scholarly work, often leaving African knowledge undervalued. This, she said, weakens recognition of high-quality research and creates barriers to visibility and influence for African scholars.
She further argued that this dominance is rooted in colonial legacies that imposed foreign languages, education systems, and ways of knowing, while devaluing African knowledge. She pointed to the labelling of African languages as “vernacular” as both dismissive and damaging, undermining their legitimacy in formal and academic spaces.
Addressing gender inequality, she stressed that Africa cannot fully reclaim its voice while women remain underrepresented in academia. African women scholars, she noted, face compounded barriers of race and gender, limiting their visibility, publication, and advancement, with those based on the continent further constrained by limited resources, weaker networks, and low presence in international publishing spaces.
Professor Appiah Amfo also examined how language reinforces gender inequality, noting that it not only reflects social attitudes but actively shapes them. Drawing on Akan proverbs, she explained that language often enforces restrictive norms that portray women as submissive and limit their roles, while discouraging ambition and leadership. She added that these patterns persist today, where women in leadership are judged beyond competence, reflecting a broader system in which language continues to undermine women’s authority and voice.
She concluded with a call for intellectual independence, emphasizing that true power lies not in speaking louder, but in shaping the systems that determine who is heard. She stressed that this requires sustained national investment, stronger institutional funding, and greater support from both government and the private sector to enable African institutions define their own research priorities, strengthen local scholarship, and reduce reliance on external validation.
In her closing remarks, Emerita Professor Isabella Akyinbah Quakyi (FGA), President of the Academy and Chairperson of the lecture, described the address as compelling and uncompromising. She underscored its central message that reclaiming voice is about ensuring voices are recognised, valued, and given authority within global knowledge systems. She also commended the strong and diverse participation at the event.
The well-attended event brought together past presidents and fellows of the Academy, former vice-chancellors of the University of Ghana, government officials, members of the university community, the media, students from Labone Senior High School, Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High School, alumnae of Holy Child Senior High School, and members of the general public.
As a flagship academic programme of GAAS, the inaugural lecture series serves as a vital forum for advancing scholarship and national discourse.
