Another troublesome content of textbooks authorised by Ghana Education Services (GES) has again revealed content amounting to misinformation about the history of people of the Volta Region.
The latest textbooks on History, Geography and Social Studies attribute certain tribes to the Ewes of the Volta Region who are in actual facts Guans-not Ewes.
In one of the books, students are being taught that “ The Ewe ethnic group consists of tribes such as Tati, Logba, Lolobi, Likpe, Santrokofi”
However, critics have noted how the textbook curiously left out the main tribes of the Ewe ethnicity and mentioned minor ethnicities, most of which as in fact Guan ethnicities.
“The Ewe ethnic group consists of major tribes such as Anlo, Avenor, Wedome, Tongu, etc, and not the Oti region SALL towns mentioned here. The Ewe people even write “Anlo” in schools so why omit the major tribes when speaking of Ewes but mention the major tribes when speaking of Akans,” one commentator wrote on Facebook.
In another of the textbooks, spotted by Whatsup News, the GES repeated the popular stereotyping of people from the Volta Region as addicted to voodoo.
In the textbook teaching basic school students the intricacies of writing, the GES-authorised book cited an example of one “Efo”, a typical generic name given to Ewe men, as preparing “juju” for some football players.
This faux pas in the GES books has drawn widespread anger among the Ghanaian public for its subtle tribal undertones.
This is anger is particularly pertinent given the posture and history of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration that has been widely interpreted as anti-Ewes.
Officials in the NPP have not helped matters, with some of them like K.T Hammond alienating Ewes as non-Ghanaians.