Use your writing to tell the true African story – Prez. Akufo-Addo to African Writers

• Posted on November 7, 2017
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

President Nana Akufo-Addo urged African writers to use their writings to tell the true African story and change the negative narrative that Africa is a failed continent.

In his estimation, it is time for African writers to inject integrity and truth in their writings and to stop those who seek to discredit the continent through their books, articles and dissertations. Nana Akufo-Addo throw the challenge when he addressed the Pan  African Writers’ Association Continental Colloquium and 24th International African Writers’ Day celebration in Accra Monday.

The event was themed: “Language, Library and the Book Industry: the Urgent Agenda for Africa’s Destiny”. The Pan African Writers’ Association (PAWA), is a leading Pan African cultural institution accorded full diplomatic status by the Government of Ghana in 1992. It is made up of the 52 National Writers Associations on the continent, and seeks to contribute its quota to moral, cultural and intellectual renaissance in Africa.

PAWA has over the years played the role of being an important voice of the African, while seeking to restore to the people, confidence in themselves as Africans and reinforcing the vision for a common African home. Meanwhile, the leadership of PAWA has presented to Nana Akufo-Addo,  the Noble  Patron of the Arts Award. The award, which was made up of a medal, certificate and a citation, was given to the President for his commitment to and love for African writers over the years.

Delivering a lecture on the topic “Which language should be used for African Literature; Language of the Head or Language of the Heart,” Professor Beban Sammy Chumbow of the University of Yaounde, Cameroon, observed that knowledge production the world over determines who is developed, developing and undeveloped. Africa’s under development, he said, is because knowledge production on the continent has mostly been carried out through foreign languages which do not resonate with the majority of the African people.

He underscored the duty and responsibility of Africans to use their mother tongue in developing education on the continent, be said it should be done in tandem with foreign language.

-3news