Journal of Borderlands Studies
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Language Ideology and Practice on the Aflao-Lome
Borderland: The Case of Two Border Schools
Sewoenam Chachu & Tope Omoniyi
To cite this article: Sewoenam Chachu & Tope Omoniyi (2020): Language Ideology and Practice
on the Aflao-Lome Borderland: The Case of Two Border Schools, Journal of Borderlands Studies,
DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2020.1824684
To link to this article:  https://doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2020.1824684
Published online: 14 Oct 2020.
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JOURNAL OF BORDERLANDS STUDIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2020.1824684
Language Ideology and Practice on the Aflao-Lome
Borderland: The Case of Two Border Schools
Sewoenam Chachu a and Tope Omoniyib†
aSchool of Languages, Department of French, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana; bCentre for Research in
English Language and Linguistics, University of Roehampton, London, UK
ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
This paper explores language practices in the school domain in English; French; Ewe; border
Aflao-Lome on the Ghana/Togo border. Here, the boundary line schools; medium of
bisects the Ewe thus creating two contrasting communities: instruction
French-speaking Ewe and English-speaking Ewe. Our study
investigates language practices in two schools located on either
side of the border since the school as a sociolinguistic domain is a
contested site of language practice where tensions abound
between medium of instruction policy, home language practices
and cultural routines. The data analyzed comprised reports and
observations of adherence to state medium of instruction policy
in the classroom by teachers and pupils, and language in activities
outside the classroom when formal “language policing” is
negligible or in fact non-existent. It was discovered that the
English and French languages were viewed differently on either
side of the border and that school policies on language had to
make room, in some cases, for the local language.
Introduction
Against the background of the circumstances surrounding the construction of African
nation-state boundaries, local populations on African borderlands have argued that the
boundaries mark the start and stop of European colonial zones of authority. They claim
that the boundaries do not necessarily separate their communities, especially where the
boundary line bisects one ethnolinguistic community. Omoniyi’s study of the Idiroko/
Igolo twin settlements on the Nigeria-Benin border confirms the existence of such com-
munities (Omoniyi 2004). However, Omoniyi (2004) also reported instances in the every-
day lives of the communities, where locals exploited their divergent multilingual
repertoires, which included English and French as official former colonial languages for
exclusionary purposes as they deemed necessary in communicative interactions. He there-
fore recommended considering African borderlands as zones of continuity rather than dis-
continuity as the communities on both sides of the border share a lot of common spaces in
spite of the arbitrary borders. In this paper, we propose to explore language ideologies and
practices in the school domain in Aflao-Lome on the Ghana/Togo border. Here, the
CONTACT Sewoenam Chachu schachu@ug.edu.gh, sewoenam@gmail.com School of Languages, Department of
French, University of Ghana, P. O. Box LG 207, Legon, Accra, Ghana
†Passed on during the process of working on this paper.
© 2020 Association for Borderlands Studies
2 S. CHACHU AND T. OMONIYI
boundary line bisects the Ewe, thus creating two contrasting communities French-speak-
ing/using Ewe and English-speaking/using Ewe. The study we shall report on investigates
language practices inside and outside the classroom in two schools located on either side of
the border in order to establish what sets these Ewe populations apart and those that define
them as one group. The school as a sociolinguistic domain is a contested site of language
practice where tensions abound between medium of instruction policy and the pupils’
home language practices and cultural routines. The data analyzed will comprise reports
and observations of adherence to state medium of instruction policy in the classroom
by teachers as well as pupils, language presence in books placed in the school libraries,
and finally, interaction outside the classroom especially during recess when formal
“language policing” is negligible or in fact non-existent.
The conceptual framework of this paper is that of language ideologies. This includes not
only the attitudes that individuals have towards their languages and the particular use they
make of their language repertoires but also the values, practices and beliefs that speakers
associate with using a particular language. Finally, there is the dimension of the discourse
that is constructed by these values and beliefs at the state, institutional, national and global
levels (Blackledge 2005; Jaffe 2009). Irvine and Gal (2009) go further to discuss how individ-
uals’ perceptions of borders and differences contribute to language change (Irvine and Gal
2009) though this is outside the scope of this paper.We are basically interested in finding out
how individual students and the school as an institution navigate the use of their linguistic
repertoires in the educational space and the inter-relation with values and beliefs at the insti-
tutional level. Are some languages considered more important in the educational space?
What are the languages-of-education at play in the educational space in Aflao and Lome?
This study on Education in the Borderlands (EIB) is focused on the Aflao-Lome border-
land and the discourse of development in sub-Saharan Africa, which is strongly hinged on
education and educational development. In virtually all of the local communities in the
region, education is highly regarded as an antidote to poverty and general lack as well
as a pathway to success in life. These are couched in various community narratives. For
example, in encouraging the education of both genders instead of just focusing on the edu-
cation of the male child, one of Ghana’s famous statesmen, Kofi Annan, a former UN Sec-
retary General, is quoted as saying that “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating.
Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” Also, most Gha-
naian parents tell their children that the best inheritance they can give them is a good edu-
cation. In light of this perceived importance of education, Ghana has introduced several
policies to encourage education at the basic level including what is famously called Free
Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE). According to UNESCO statistics,
Ghana and Togo committed 6.63% and 5.33% of their national budgets to education in
2015, respectively. This indicates an interest in the development of this sector.
A number of studies have shown that parents’ vision for the future of their children in
borderlands has led to crossing international boundaries to take advantage of an alterna-
tive educational system, especially one conducted in a different medium of instruction.
Marak (Unpublished Paper) presents a study in which Mexican parents sent their
wards across the border to the USA to attend school because they considered that
primary education was better on the other side of the border due to better funding.
Others also put pressure on the Mexican government to offer English classes in order
to enable the children from these border towns to better compete in the bilingual
JOURNAL OF BORDERLANDS STUDIES 3
milieu in which they found themselves. Mookerjee (2019), on his part, presents migration
for education at the India-Bangladesh border in an unpublished thesis while Li and Bray
(2007) examines the motivation of migration from mainland China into Hong Kong and
Macau for higher education.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the choice of crossing the border to study is essentially a choice
to study in either English and French in Anglophone and Francophone countries respect-
ively. However, these languages of Education have to compete with the local languages of
the community in question outside institutional walls. An MPhil thesis by Dorleku (2013),
focusing on teaching and learning in border towns along the Ghana-Togo border, indi-
cates that even though English is the language of education there are other languages
present in the schools including Ewe, French and Kabye. However, Ewe is most widely
spoken even in the schools and both teachers and students widely use this in the learning
process. On cross-border education in West Africa, Omoniyi (2004) reports findings of
children from Igolo in Benin Republic who cross the border to go to school in Idiroko
in Nigeria. Dorleku (2013) also presents data in her Master’s thesis which demonstrates
that in all four schools sampled on the Ghana side of the Ghana-Togo border, at least
25% of those sampled were Togolese. Indeed, Omoniyi (2004) posits that borderlands
are zones of continuity as those who live in border towns freely cross from one border
to the other for trade and commerce, education, and even social reasons. This is also prob-
ably due to the fact that border towns in most of Africa were created arbitrarily by the
colonial powers, sometimes dividing a people who share a common language and a
common lineage. By way of example, the town at the Ghana side of the main Ghana/
Burkina-Faso border is called Hamile Ghana, while the town at the Burkina-Faso side
is called Hamile Burkina. Both communities speak a common local language (Dagaare)
and even though there are dialectal differences, there is mutual comprehension. This
border crossing experience is not peculiar to Africa as the same has been reported from
other borderlands around the world for both basic and higher education, though on a
much broader scale for higher education. See, for example, (Ixa Plata-Potter and de
Guzman 2012; Jørgensen 2009; Li and Bray 2007; Mookerjee 2019). Indeed, these
examples have led to our pre-study expectation that like Idiroko/Igolo, Aflao/Lome
would show such education-driven cross-border movements. Ghana currently has an
upsurge of student immigrants from francophone countries enrolled in the various univer-
sities and pursuing various disciplines. At the University of Ghana, there are annually over
one hundred (100) students who come to the Language Centre of the University for
English Proficiency Courses to enable them to further their education. The Alliance Fran-
çaise in Accra also welcomes hundreds of francophone students each year for proficiency
courses in English or for courses in Bilingual secretaryship, not to talk of the number of
private institutions located in the capital, which offer English proficiency courses for fran-
cophone students to prepare them for higher education in Ghanaian tertiary institutions.
It must be said that the Université de Lomé also welcomes students from Ghana and
neighboring Nigeria to their “Village du Bénin,” a language centre that offers French
courses for a mainly Anglophone clientele. However, it seems there is more interest on
the part of the Francophones to learn English than on the part of the Anglophones to
learn French. Regional institutions like CODESRIA (Dakar) and ECOWAS maintain
bilingual services but it seems to be the case that in actual distribution, there are more
4 S. CHACHU AND T. OMONIYI
resources available in English than in French and therefore there is more attraction to
migrate to Anglophone West Africa by francophone students.
Historical framework
Ewe is part of the gbe language cluster, a Kwa language cluster of the Niger-Congo family
spoken across Ghana, Togo, and Benin. Tsaku et al. present a translation of the history of
the Ewe language and culture in which it is reported that the Ewes are believed to have
spread to these parts after migrating first from different parts of Nigeria and then from
Ketu. (Tsaku et al. 2011). Amenumey (1986), corroborates the account of the initial depar-
ture from Ketu in modern Dahomey (Benin) and attributes their migration to the expan-
sion of the Yorubas who shared the same space with them and therefore pushed them to
migrate westwards. Amenumey (1986) also reports that the migrants split into two main
groups and settled in Tado and Notsie, both in present-day Togo. The group that settled in
Notsie later escaped and spread to various communities due to the ill treatment meted out
to them by the wicked King Agokoli. Laumann (2005) reports that after the exodus, the Ewes
split into three distinct groups. The first group went northwest and founded towns like
Hohoe, Kpando, and Peki – all towns in present-day Ghana and another town in Togo
called Kpalime. The second group migrated westward from Notsie and settled in Ho and
its surrounding towns (in Ghana). The third group moved southwards towards the coast
and settled in towns like Be (Lome, the capital of Togo) and Anlo in Ghana. The establish-
ment of these communities took place in the mid-seventeenth century. However, these com-
munities were later joined by other migrants from west of the Volta River. Some of these
migrants included Ga, Akan, and Guan language speakers (16–17).
According to Laumann (2005, 16), these migrants established settlements near the
Mono river in the late seventeenth century and founded the towns of Anecho and
Glidji. They intermingled with the existing Ewe communities and there were no
borders. The same author further reports that it is with the arrival of the British in
1874 that the first protectorate was formally declared – the Gold Coast colony. This
included the Anlo and Peki areas. That same year saw the signing of the Treaty of Dzelu-
kope in which the Anlo formally recognized British authority in the areas east of the Volta
River. The French, on their part, declared a protectorate over Porto Novo and Cotonou
new Guin or Ge Ewe sub-group, also referred to as the Mina. It must be made clear
that before the colonization of Africa, the land was not divided into countries
until 1882 when the French declared a protectorate over Porto Novo, which was the
other end of Eweland. However, this French colony did not encompass much of Ewe ter-
ritory save for a few Guin communities. The large chunk of Eweland became a German
protectorate in 1884 under the name of the German Togoland colony.
In order to show just how transnational the Ewe language was, Laumann states that
Ewe speakers who found German rule in the Togoland colony too oppressive simply
migrated to the Gold Coast colony which was under British rule (24). In 1914, after a
joint invasion of the Togoland colony by the British and the French, the Germans had
to give up their colony, which was then divided into two and awarded to the British
and the French by the League of Nations. The Ewe were thus dispersed across these
two colonies. He further indicates that in 1955, an Autonomous Republic of Togo was
established by the French. There were attempts to unify the Ewes in British Gold Coast
JOURNAL OF BORDERLANDS STUDIES 5
and those in French Togoland but the Ewes in British Togoland rejected this unification
effort in 1957 during a plebiscite and chose to remain under British protectorate
(Laumann 2005, 26). The Gold Coast colony attained independence in the same year
and became known as Ghana. Togo followed suit three years later. However, the Ewe
remain divided across the three countries – Ghana, Togo, and Benin – to this day with
those in Ghana having English as their official language due to their colonial past while
those in Togo and Benin having French as their countries’ official language.
It is from this background that we want to consider the presence of these three
languages (Ewe, English and French) at the border towns – in the educational system
and the language ideology that accompanies these languages within the linguistic space.
The two main towns concerned with this study are Aflao and Lome. Aflao is located on
the eastern coast of Ghana and is the major border town with neighboring Togo. Apart
from the official border post manned by customs and immigration officials, there are
several footpaths that are used by the townsfolk to go into Togo. These areas are called
“Beats” and given numbers and these pathways and surrounding areas are called Beat 0
to Beat 13. There is frequent movement from the Ghana side into Togo and also from
the Togo side into Ghana. For example, there is a cement factory called the Diamond
Cement factory which is located at Aflao in a suburb called Akpokple. There is a footpath
leading into Togo from this factory and since workers in the factory come from both sides
of the border, the footpath creates an easy access route for the Togolese factory workers to
move between Togo and Ghana.
Lome, the border town from the Togo side, also doubles as the capital and the largest
city of Togo. On the Togo side, the immediate border town after crossing the Ghana-Togo
border post in Aflao is called Kojoviakope. However, there are other border towns such as
Tokoin, which are connected to Aflao by footpaths as they are not official crossing points.
Both Aflao and Lome are coastal towns on the southernmost parts of Ghana and Togo,
respectively, and directly border the Atlantic Ocean.
As previously mentioned, Ghana obtained independence from the British in 1957 and
Togo obtained independence from the French in 1960. Both countries have used the
language of the colonizing countries as official languages and due to their official status,
English and French are also the languages of education in the two countries. The Ewe
language is shared by both the citizens of Aflao (on the Ghana side) and the citizens of
Lome (on the Togo side), and trade and communication across the borders is usually
done in this language. Even though there are dialectal differences, there is no difficulty
in communication among speakers of the two dialects. However, the French and
English languages seem to be more country-specific even though there is more effort to
use English in Lome than there is to use French in Aflao. Indeed, the border guards on
the Aflao side do not seem to speak much French except to mention the amount of
money you have to pay in French. However, at the Lome side, the border guards make
an effort to speak some English. Even though both sides speak Ewe, we cannot talk of a
United Ewe community or kingdom. The Ewe-speaking regions in each country have
autonomous chiefs and their rule does not go across the border to the other country.
The aim of this paper is to consider what happens in the educational space in schools
situated in the border towns. More specifically, we consider language ideology within two
border schools. Using one school on each side of the border, that is, one school in Lome
(Togo) and one school in Aflao (Ghana), we demonstrate how the languages in these two
6 S. CHACHU AND T. OMONIYI
towns interact and intersect especially in the education space, in comparison with what
pertains linguistically in other domains such as in the home and the community. The
main languages of interest are French (spoken in Togo but taught as a subject in
Ghana), English (spoken in Ghana but taught as a subject in Togo) and Ewe which has
a Togo variation and a Ghana variation. The College Protestant de Lomé Tokoin, and
the Border JHS in Aflao were the two schools used in this study.
Language ideology and education
Language ideology encompasses the exploration of the nexus of language, culture and poli-
tics. According to Irvine (2012), not only does this exploration involve how people per-
ceive the role of language in a social and cultural world but also the social positioning
of these perceptions. Language ideology comprises beliefs about languages and their use
in society – taking into consideration the link to broader social and cultural systems.
Key among these belief systems or assumptions include the political, economic and
moral interests of languages and the link between language and power. These assumptions
about the importance or social connotations of language take place within particular cul-
tural settings and therefore there are likely to be different perceptions about a particular
language depending on the cultural setting in which one finds him or herself. For
example, there is great debate about the use of colonial languages as official languages
or languages of education in Africa. While some consider the continued use of colonial
languages as forms of neo-colonialism, others consider that they are necessary for unifi-
cation in the highly multilingual African contexts, in order to aid in development and glo-
balization (Appleby 2010; Harries 2012; Ndhlovu 2008; Plonski, Teferra, and Brady 2013;
Prah 2002). Indeed, some people see these languages as tools for economic development.
For those who hold this latter view, the belief is that mastery of English or French provides
the gateway to “good” employment while mastery of the local languages is only seen as
being necessary for communicating with family members. The colonial languages are
therefore seen as being synonymous with economic power.
Following from this, it is not surprising that in the educational systems of most African
countries, there has been the culture of insisting that learners only communicate in the
official languages – English or French in most instances- within the school setting, to
the detriment of the indigenous languages. This ties in with the explanation of Fairclough
(2001) that power exposes itself in the capacity of imposing a sort of structuring of
domains and demarcating various parts from each other – in this case, various languages
in contact in the school setting. The various languages within the school setting are likely
to be used in different contexts depending on whether communication is of an official or
less formal nature. In this regard, the side of the border from which one originates, and the
choice made in relation to the side which one chooses to receive formal education from, is
intricately tied to language policy not only at the state level but also at the individual level.
This choice also provides invaluable information on the language ideology of the parents
and sometimes of the students themselves as far as the two main languages of education –
English and French – are concerned.
To better understand language ideology and practice in these two border schools, it is
important to expose the language policies in Ghana and Togo. It must be stated that
Ghana has no existing official language policy. Over the years, Ghana has had policy
JOURNAL OF BORDERLANDS STUDIES 7
statements and some of these statements have bordered on language. Ghana however has
some education policy documents in which are embedded statements relative to languages
in Education. The language-in-education policy statements in Ghana have fluctuated over
the years, experiencing modifications by successive governments. To this effect, ruling
governments tend to decide what happens in schools in relation to language, often
based on political expediency. According to Ansah (2014), the current policy has been
in use since September 2007. This policy is essentially a reversion to the 1974–2002
policy statement, which proposes mother tongue education for the first three years of
primary education. There are however some significant modifications to the 1974–2002
policy statement in the new statement. The major modification concerns the fact that
there is an extension of the use of the mother tongue to include the kindergarten –
thus providing the mother tongue as the medium of instruction from the kindergarten
to the end of the lower primary (Class 3). From primary four (Class 4), English
becomes the medium of instruction even though nine local languages are selected to be
taught as subjects in school. Until September 2019, French was not compulsory until
the Junior High school and even that was questionable since many schools did not offer
French due to a lack of teachers for the French language. Since September 2019, French
has been made compulsory from the fourth year of primary school. However, it is optional
at the senior secondary level for now. This implies that success in education, from primary
four to the tertiary level is dependent on mastery of the English Language.
In Togo, French is the official language. Although Ewe and Kabye coexist with the
French language at the kindergarten levels, French dominates from the primary school
to the tertiary level. Ewe and Kabye, at this stage exist as taught subjects but every
other subject is taught in French. However, learning of foreign languages are compulsory
in both junior and senior secondary schools and students are made to choose from among
4 foreign languages: English, Arabic, German and Spanish.
The conclusion of this is that while English is a compulsory subject in Togo for both
Junior and Senior High School levels, French is not compulsory at the Senior High
School level in Ghana. Secondly, English is the second most spoken foreign language in
Togo, so it attracts Togolese to attend Ghana schools more than French attracts Ghanaians
to Togo.
Methodology
In this study, we employed qualitative methods and mainly made use of interviews and
participant observation for data collection. Our preliminary observations and assumption
were that there was a lot of cross-border movement for primary and secondary education
in Aflao and Lome. We also worked with the premise that Ewe, being a common language
on both sides of the border, will be greatly present in the social discourse on both sides of
the border. In order to confirm these assumptions, we carried out observations in two
border schools, one in Aflao and one in Lome. The two schools of interest in this study
are the Border JHS, located in Aflao, about 300 meters from the Border post and the
College Protestant de Lomé, located in Tokoin.
The two major factors influencing the choice of the schools were proximity to the
Aflao-Lome border and access to the schools. We undertook cluster sampling as we
focused on schools in order to interview headteachers, teachers and students. We
8 S. CHACHU AND T. OMONIYI
visited one school on the Ghana side of the border (Aflao) and one school on the Togo side
of the border (Lome). At the Aflao side, the school we visited was the Border Junior
High School, popularly called Border JHS. In this school, we were able to interview
26 students. The sample was obtained by simple random sampling. Indeed, the assist-
ant headmistress selected five students at random from each classroom to meet us for
the interviews. At the Collège Protestant de Lomé, the scenario was different, as we
were not allowed to meet with the students during class periods. It was only during
the two 20-minute recess periods that we could meet them. Once again, simple
random sampling was used. This time however, we relied on students we had been
introduced to during the observation sessions to volunteer to meet with us to
respond to our questions. In each school, we interviewed 19 students to get an
insight into their language use in the school setting and at home. We also tried to
understand their perception of the languages that they spoke and those that were
used in the school depending on whether they could speak French or English.
Secondly, we undertook participant observation during recess in the various schools.
We also observed some lessons to understand language use in the classroom. At the
Border JHS, we were not allowed to enter the classrooms because the rooms were
crowded and there was no place for us to sit. We had to observe through the window.
This made the observation quite challenging. However, at the Collège Protestant de
Lomé, we had less access to the students but more access to classroom observations;
and we were permitted to sit in the classrooms together with the students. Finally, we
interviewed the head teacher and the assistant head teacher at the School in Aflao as
well as the Assistant head teacher and the Head of the English Department of the
School in Lome. We carried out data mop-ups mainly through interviews with contacts
in our Aflao-Lome network – mainly teachers of Border JHS and some former students
of the College Protestant de Lomé.
Schools of the study
The school we visited on the Aflao side was the Border JHS. The terminal examination at
the JHS level is the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), which is needed to
progress to the senior high school level. The Border JHS has the highest population of
Junior High School students in Aflao since many parents like to send their children
there. It has a current population of about four hundred and eighty (480) students.
There are about eighty (80) students in each class from JHS 1 to JHS 3 and there are
two streams for each class (A and B). At the border JHS, school starts at 8:30am and
ends at 3:00pm.
We were told that the Border JHS was so named, not because it was close to the border,
but because the school was started by the Border Guards who were sent to work at the
Border. The Preventive Primary School, on the other hand, was started by staff of the
Customs Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS) who also decided they wanted their
own school to train their wards. Both schools eventually came under government manage-
ment and therefore have the status of public schools that are government funded. The two
schools share the same compound. All the teachers in the school, including the teacher of
the French language, were Ghanaian and are usually sent from the University of Education
in Winneba due to an agreement among the institutions. There was a large presence of
JOURNAL OF BORDERLANDS STUDIES 9
francophone students in the school and evidence of many students crossing the border
from Lome to attend the school.
In this school, data was primarily gathered by the following methods:
i. Classroom observations of language practices in the classroom
ii. Observation and interaction with students during recess
iii. Interviews with the head teacher and assistant head teacher
iv. Interviews with twenty-six (25) students
At the Border JHS, we could not visit the library because they did not have one. They men-
tioned that they only had some books packed in boxes.
The College Protestant de Lomé, Tokoin is a private school founded and managed by the
Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Lome, Togo. It has both a Junior High School and a
Senior High School; and has a student population of about 800 students. Even though
there is a footpath connecting the town to another town in Ghana, there were not
many Ghanaian students coming to school from the Ghana side. A reason for this was
the fact that the school is private and therefore the fees are relatively high. However, we
were notified that in nearby public schools, the situation was similar to the situation at
the Border JHS with many students crossing from Aflao to attend school in Lome. We
were also informed that because rent is cheaper in Aflao than in Lome, some Togolese
families have moved to Aflao but cross the border daily into Lome for school and work.
We had wanted to observe two public schools, one on each side of the border. However,
efforts to get official letters of support from the ministries of Education in Ghana and Togo
proved futile and the embassies were also not able to help. We, therefore, had to rely on
our own contacts, which is why we only had access to a private school in Togo. However,
the information gleaned demonstrates that the language practices in the school environ-
ment are similar. The main difference was the fact that we did not find Ghanaian students
commuting daily from Aflao in the school in Lome.
In this school, data was primarily gathered by the following methods:
i. Classroom observations of language practices in the classroom
ii. Observation and interaction with students during recess
iii. Interview with the assistant head teacher and the English teacher who was assigned
to us.
iv. Interview with nineteen (19) students.
v. Visit to the library
School observations at the border JHS
At the Border JHS, we had the opportunity of observing a staffmeeting and the headmas-
ter was speaking to the staff in English. This was while we were waiting to be officially
introduced to the head teacher and obtain permission for our research. We were seated
too far off to hear the details of the topics discussed. However, we could hear that the
meeting was being carried out in English. Nonetheless, he interrupted the meeting to
respond to a telephone call. He spoke Ewe during the phone call but returned to complete
the staffmeeting in English. The School Management Committee Chairman passed by the
10 S. CHACHU AND T. OMONIYI
staffmeeting to greet them and he spoke Ewe to them, greeting them and asking how they
were doing.
During our interview with the assistant headmistress, some students came to report
about a sick student. We observed that the students spoke to her in Ewe and she responded
and asked them questions in English to clarify the situation. We cannot tell whether our
presence influenced her decision to communicate with the students in English even
though they were speaking Ewe to her, or if she was just respecting the no-Ewe-on-the-
school-premises regulation.
At the Border JHS, the teacher of the French language is Ghanaian, as are all the other
teachers in the school. They are usually from the University of Education, Winneba, as the
University has an agreement with the school. They usually send their students there for
practical attachment. In the form three class that we observed, there were about 80 stu-
dents in the class. It was observed that the French lesson was taught in English. That is
to say that the concepts were explained to the students in English and it was only in
giving examples or illustrations that French was used. Among the students, there was a
lot of communication in Ewe to ask each other what the teacher said or just to talk
with each other. We heard expressions such as: “Ebe nuka?” meaning What did she
say? and “Ese egɔme a?” signifying Do you understand?.
The teacher also asked students questions and gave instructions in English as illustrated
by the following transcribed data:
Teacher: Give a sentence with the favorite food of your best friend.
Some of the students responded giving the name of the food in Ewe. For example:
Mɔlu (Rice)
Dzemkple (a local dish made of roasted corn flour).
While it could have been easy for the students to give the French version of rice, it would
have been difficult for them to render Dzemkple in French, as there exists no particular
lexical equivalent in both French and English (the second language). We also overhead
random conversations in Ewe among the students as demonstrated by the transcriptions
below:
Student A: “Meke gblɔ be mia yi farm?” (Who said that we will go to the farm?)
Student B: “Menye woe gblɔe a?” (Are you not the one who said it?)
It is interesting to note that the fact that the school is at the Border with Togo did not make
any difference in the number of sessions of French the students had. Since the Border JHS
is a public school and answers to the Ghana Education Service, they have the same number
of contact hours as other non-border schools. This is usually two sessions a week of an
hour per session. However, it must be mentioned that currently, French is not a compul-
sory subject at the JHS level and offering it in a school is based on the availability of tea-
chers. Therefore, schools that offer it actually make an effort to get the teachers. For this
reason, it can be premised that French is being offered probably because the authorities
have taken the proximity to the Togo border into account.
In addition to the French class, we also observed a social studies class where the topic
for the lesson was Democracy in Ghana. The class was basically carried out in English with
interaction between the students and the teacher being in English. Students answered
questions using English. However, some students spoke to each other in Ewe during
JOURNAL OF BORDERLANDS STUDIES 11
the class. When talking of certain party slogans, Ga was used in one instance as the slogan
of one political party was in that language. The slogan: Eeshi rado means: It is shaking
heavily (referring to the movement of an elephant, the emblem of the political party in
question)
In Aflao, the school did not have a library even though they had some books in boxes.
However, there are designated library periods on the time table and so during these
periods, the students stay in their classrooms and usually do their assignments. An inter-
view with the assistant headmistress revealed that they do not have French or Ewe story
books. Most of their books are in English. However, there are some French text books
available – these are mostly the books used in class by the teacher of French.
During recess, it was observed that a majority of the students spoke Ewe to each other in
spite of the English-only policy adopted by the school. During recess, the students were
basically in groups chatting, buying snacks or eating. Interestingly, the students speak
Ewe among themselves but switch to English when they see a teacher or a researcher
getting close to them. It will seem that the naturally occurring speech for most of them
was Ewe and that they switch to English as a sign of “being good and obedient students";
french, at least in relation to the languages of the playground, is only a subject in the
classroom.
School observations in the Collège Protestant de Lomé
The Collège Protestant de Lomé is composed of both a Junior High and a Senior High
School with the final exams at the various levels being the BEPC (Le Brevet d’Études du
Premier Cycle du second degré). The certificates obtained after these are slightly higher
than the Basic Education Certificate Examination in Ghana, which is given at the end
of the Junior High School level. However, the BEPC is written at the end of four years
and the Baccalaureate is written at the end of three years of senior secondary education,
thus making it equivalent to the A-Level examinations. These exams are promotion
exams written in France and in all Francophone countries within the sub-region who
adopted these exams from the French educational system. These exams enable successful
candidates to move to the Senior High School after the BEPC and to tertiary institutions
after the Baccalaureate.
The school is a mission school belonging to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in
Lome, Togo, and is, therefore, a private school with relatively higher school fees. It was
explained to us that the reason why we did not see many students coming from Aflao
to that school was probably because they could not afford the fees. However, interviews
with individuals on both sides of the divide indicate that fewer Ghanaians cross the
border from Aflao to attend school in Lome than is the case for Togolese crossing the
border from Lome to Aflao. Indeed, one informant explained to us that rent in Aflao is
relatively cheaper than rent in Lome and so some Togolese families move to Aflao
because the rent is cheaper and they return to work and attend school in Lome from
across the border because that ends up being cheaper for them. In the Togolese school
system, classes start as early at 6:30am and end at 2:00pm.
We visited two language classes, an English class and a German class. In the English
class, the teacher conducted the lesson in English. However, some students talked
among themselves in French and Mina (a variation of Ewe spoken by the Guin or
12 S. CHACHU AND T. OMONIYI
Mina people from Aneho in Togo, and used mainly in Lome as a common local language).
The English lesson we observed was in a first-year senior high class and it was a grammar
class on the use of since and for. The teacher began in English. The teacher conducted the
class in English even though there were a few interjections in French. The students also
answered questions and did the exercises in English with a few interjections, usually
when it was not directly related to the topic being treated. For example, when the
teacher wanted to switch on the lights in the class and could not seem to find the
switch, the students told him, “Non… en bas, en bas” (No… at the bottom, at the
bottom). There was another instance where one student remarked to another when the
teacher distributed their graded copies, “c’est rabaissé loo” (It has come down…), referring
to the fact that he had a lower grade than he had obtained during the previous exercise.
In the German class, the teacher presented the lesson objectives in French but apart
from that, the class was largely conducted in German with few interjections in French.
However, when the teacher asked questions, the students responded in German. The
instructions for the various activities were in German. During class, certain students
spoke French among themselves to explain what the teacher had said in German. They
interpreted what the teacher said to enable their colleagues understand. The students
also spoke a mixture of French and German during a session where they had to work
in groups.
There were a few cases of translation into English for example, Blood for Blut, andMilk
for Milch.
Certain remarks were made in French by the teacher. For example, the teacher asked
them to pick pieces of paper with colors written on them in German and throw them
to another colleague who would make a sentence in German with the color that they even-
tually got. He asked one of the students who did not seem to understand the instruction in
German this question in French, “vous choisissez quelle couleur?” (What color do you
choose?) and the student responded with the color in German. In this class we observed
that French was mainly used for explanation, when the teacher had exhausted other means
in German and also for carrying out conversations that were not directly linked to the
topic being treated.
An example of this is when the students were throwing the papers with the colors, the
teacher told a student: “Mon ami, ça n’a pas atteint son objectif” (My friend, it did not hit
the target). He also interjected when some students seemed to be chatting during the class:
Chers amis, on est là pour apprendre (Dear friends, we are here to learn).
Students also made occasional remarks in French during the German class as illustrated
by the following transcriptions:
Student A (French): « Il ne faut pas dormir »
Don’t sleep
Student B (French): « Comment écrire … ? »
How do you write… ?
Student C (French): silence!
Silence!
Student D (French): la voix là
Such a voice!
He says this when one student answers a question asked by the teacher with a low voice,
suggesting that no one would hear the student if he speaks with such a low voice.
JOURNAL OF BORDERLANDS STUDIES 13
We also recorded one instance of a student speaking Ewe with another student
“Mayɔe”
I will call him.
We observed that the other courses, apart from the two foreign languages (English and
German) and the two local languages (Ewe and Kabye), were taught in French. We
observed a History class and aMathematics class. In the non-language classes, the students
answered questions in French. However, at times they discussed among themselves in
Mina.
It was observed that the students speak Mina (Togo Ewe) during recess even though
they also have a French-only policy in school. During recess, the students principally
spend the time chatting in small groups, buying food, or eating. We did not observe
them playing any games during the recess. Some of them even remained in the classroom.
The main activity was chatting informally with friends and a few of them went to get food.
It was also observed that Teachers speak Ewe outside the class setting. A couple of the
teachers were discussing refreshments for us and this conversation took place in Ewe. We
also overhead one teacher asking another about his health and this conversation was also
in Ewe. From all indications, for informal social interactions, there is recourse to the Ewe
language.
The Collège Protestant de Lomé has a well-equipped library with a whole section of
books in English even though most of them are prescribed text books. There are also
other books such as books in Ewe and in Kabye. The Ewe books were a mixture of
grammar books and short stories for reading for pleasure. Some of the titles of the
books in Ewe include: Xlẽmkpɔ, Nufiameyawo, Xlẽ Eʋe Gbe nyuie, and a French book
on Ewe grammar with the title Grammaire Eʋe. There was also a German book in the
library with the title written in both English and French: German/Allemand. For the
books in Kabye, the one book we saw had Takaya Tlkalay as its title. From our discussions
with the English teacher and the librarian who took us around, the books in English, Ewe,
Kabye, and German are usually prescribed textbooks with very few copies available. They
are, therefore, mostly used in the classroom for the needed lessons.
Interviews at the border JHS
We carried out interviews of twenty-six (26) students at the Border JHS and nineteen (19)
interviews at the Collège Protestant de Lomé. The responses to some of our questions are
presented below.
At the border JHS, of the twenty-six (26) students that we interviewed, eleven (11) were
males and fifteen (15) were females. Eighteen (18) out of the twenty-six (26) students live
in Aflao while eight (8) live in Lome and cross the border daily into Aflao in order to
attend the school. On the other side of the border, all of the students at the Collège Pro-
testant de Lomé live in Lome and we do not, therefore, have the cross-border situation
as we have in Aflao.
Considering nationality, there was much more homogeneity at the Collège Protestant de
Lomé, as all but one of the students was Togolese. The only foreigner was a Beninese. The
situation was different at the Border JHS as the students we interviewed comprised twelve
14 S. CHACHU AND T. OMONIYI
(12) Ghanaians, eight (8) Togolese, four (4) Nigerians and two (2) Beninese. Eighteen (18)
of the students interviewed live in Aflao while eight (8) of them live in Lome and, there-
fore, commute daily across the border to come to school. When asked about how difficult
it was to cross the border, they mentioned that it was relatively easy since they wore their
school uniforms and they were let through easily once they had their uniforms on.
However, it was much more difficult for their parents if they wanted to visit their
schools. The students usually accompanied their parents to facilitate their movement.
Interestingly, all the Nigerians live in Togo but come to school in Aflao, which could
lead us to presume that their parents wanted them to have an education in English con-
sidering their nationality.
At least four (4) of the Togolese also reside in Aflao and some had moved expressly for
the purpose of learning English. For this reason, several of the Togolese were older than
their classmates as they usually had to move to a lower class because the language of
instruction there were used to had changed from French to English. The age range was
between 12 and 19 years for JHS 1–3. The oldest Ghanaian in the group was 17 years
old but the oldest Togolese was 19 years old. Some reported that they had to go three
classes lower when they moved to Aflao for studies. But they did not seem to mind this
because to them, learning English is important.
Language use and perception
In this section, we present the responses to various questions asked about the languages
used by the students within the linguistic spaces of school and home. The three main
languages of interest to us are Ewe, French, and English. We seek to specify that both
the Ewe spoken in Ghana and the Mina (dialect) are interchangeably called Ewe in this
article. This is because, most of the students we interviewed referred to the language
they spoke as Ewe with a few referring to it as Mina (it was observed that they were speak-
ing of same dialect). Some people refer to Mina as Togo Ewe and some cursory research
indicates that Mina and Ewe are used interchangeably in Togo.
Of the number of participants interviewed, fourteen (14) reported Ewe as their1 L1, two
(2) stated Twi and another two stated Ibo as their L1. One (1) participant each reported
Yoruba, Kotokoli, and Hausa as their L1. Interestingly, one student also reported French as
his/her L1. We did not get information on the L1 of four (4) students.
The students at the Border JHS reflected great linguistic diversity with regard to
their languages spoken at home. Thirteen (13) students reported speaking Ewe at
home. Three students reported using Ewe and English while two students each reported
using English or Twi and English respectively. Hausa, Kotokoli, French and Ewe, Ibo
and English, Ibo and Nigerian English, and a combination of French, English and
Ibo each recorded one (1) student respectively. It is interesting to note that one of
the Nigerian students was careful to clarify the fact that at home he spoke Nigerian
Pidgin English.
At the Aflao school, English and Ewe were reported to be the languages used by the
teachers and the students in the classroom. Most of the students stated that English was
the main language used but explanations were given in Ewe. Other students just men-
tioned English and Ewe and stated that French was only used for “French periods.” It
may seem that because of the more heterogeneous nature of the students, teachers have
JOURNAL OF BORDERLANDS STUDIES 15
to resort more to Ewe to explain issues to the francophone students who may be struggling
to understand English.
Below is an excerpt of one interview with a student regarding the language used in the
Aflao classroom2:
Interviewer: What languages do you use in the classroom?
Student: Me, French.
Interviewer: What about with the teachers when they ask you questions?
Student: English
Interviewer: And if you don’t understand?
Student: We ask in Ewe.
Interviewer: … . If you don’t understand, you ask in Ewe and the teacher explains it to you
in which language?
Student: Ewe.
Another student interviewed about language use in the classroom reports that:
Student 2: Sometimes when we are lost (in class), the teachers use Ewe to explain things to us.
Most of the students reported using both English and Ewe during recess. This is con-
sistent with our own observation of many of the students interacting in both languages.
However, they constantly seemed to be on the lookout for an authority figure and
would immediately switch to English only on the approach of a teacher – for fear of
being punished. Six (6) of the students reported using only English because Ewe is forbid-
den. It is interesting to note that one of the Nigerian students living in Togo stated that he
uses Ghanaian English and Ghanaian Ewe during recess, to differentiate these languages
or dialects from Nigerian Pidgin English and Togo Ewe.
Interviews at the Collège Protestant de Lomé
On the Lome side, all but one of the nineteen (19) students we got to interact with were
Togolese. The 19th student we got to interview was Beninese. Of these students, four (4)
were male and fifteen (15) were female. Even though we had originally wanted a sample
size of twenty-five students, like we had at the Border JHS, we only had permission to
interview the students during their recess period and during that time, we had nineteen
students who volunteered to the interviewed. The ages of the students ranged from 11
years to 16 years. It is to be observed that even though this school is both a Junior
High School and a Senior High School, the ages seem to be relatively lower than those
of their counterparts in Aflao. As we have earlier explained, it is likely that we do not
have as many foreigners in the school because it is a private school and quite costly.
What is interesting to note is that the vicinity of the school is actually connected by a foot-
path to the area in Aflao where Diamond Cement is located and so even from the premises
of the school, people can be observed moving to and from the two countries.
Sixteen (16) of the students in Lome reported Ewe as their L1. One (1) student each
reported French, Kabye, and Fon as their L1. Here again, we see the case of a student
citing French as his L1 because that is the language spoken to her at home and that he
acquired first. This issue of mother tongue is not very easy to define in such multilingual
African contexts and there are many like this student who do not speak the language of
their mother (or father). Such children are socialized right from the home in either
16 S. CHACHU AND T. OMONIYI
French or English with the aim of giving them a linguistic edge that will enable them
succeed in future.
Concerning the languages used at home, thirteen (13) of the students reported using
only Ewe and four (4) reported using Ewe and French. Of these four, one specified that
he generally spoke French but spoke Ewe with his grandmother who was living with
them. One (1) student each reported using Fon and Kabye.
All the nineteen (19) students interviewed reported that both teachers and students
used French in the classroom as the main medium of communication. However, the
various language subjects were taught in those languages. For example, English was
taught in English, Ewe in Ewe, etc. One student in the third year of Junior High School
reported the following3:
Ok, when we are having French, the teachers speak to us in French and we respond in French.
During English lessons, the teachers speak to us in English and for Ewe lessons they speak to
us in Ewe, just as they speak German in the German class.
Our observation confirmed that this is largely the case. In the regular subject classes, the
courses are taught in French with very little or no interaction between the teacher and stu-
dents in other languages. This demonstrates the adoption of French as the language of
education in Togo. However, students may be found communicating among themselves
in Ewe during these periods as we have shown in some examples cited earlier. Three stu-
dents also reported that in the language classes, the teachers have recourse to the French
language, usually to explain something to the students when they are having difficulty
understanding it in the language being taught.
When asked about the language used at recess, nine (9) out of the nineteen (19) stu-
dents reported using only French, two reported using only Ewe, while seven reported
using both languages. This ties in with our observation during recess where we could
hear the students speak Ewe among themselves but also French. There was also evidence
of code-mixing especially during recess, as those speaking Ewe freely inserted French
lexicon into their speech.
Apparently, the students at the Border JHS have been given an English-only policy in
School while the students in the Collège Protestant de Lomé also have a French-only policy
in school whenever they are on the school premises, except when they are studying
another language. However, in both schools, we observed that most of the students
spoke Ewe during recess and even among themselves during lessons in class. The teachers
also spoke Ewe among themselves in some cases. Apparently, the English or French only
policy does not exist in any official documentation. It seems to be an unwritten rule that
was developed during the post-colonial era to ensure that pupils and students mastered
English and French in school by not speaking their local languages within the school
premises.
Discussion
What are the implications of our findings as far as research on language ideology is con-
cerned? The official language of education in Aflao at the secondary level is English and
that for Lome is French. In both cases, Ewe is not a language that is expected to be
used in the classrooms except when it is being taught as a subject. However, as
JOURNAL OF BORDERLANDS STUDIES 17
demonstrated by our results, Ewe has a strong presence in the education space in both
schools. This was evidenced in non-academic discussions among staff members on both
sides of the border and also among students both within and outside the classroom.
However, when it comes to the use of Ewe in the classroom, it was more prevalent in
Aflao – the Ghana side – where we had both students and teachers using Ewe either to
gain clarity on what had been said in English or to explain concepts that had been pre-
sented in English, but which some students were having difficulty grasping. This preva-
lence might be due to the fact that there was more linguistic heterogeneity with more
francophone students in the classes.
In this case, whenever there was a challenge in understanding what was being commu-
nicated in English, Ewe became the common language which colleagues and teachers
could use to explain issues to the francophone students. We dare say it was not just for
the benefit of the francophone students but even for some Anglophone students who
have low mastery of the English language. This seeming contradiction between the fact
that Ewe is not seen as a language of Education but is nevertheless used in the classroom
may be due to the fact that the institutional staff recognize the influence of the Ewe
language on the everyday life of the students. With a majority of the students interviewed
reporting Ewe either as one of the languages or the only language used at home, this
language cannot completely be discounted in the classroom especially since for many of
the students it is their first language and therefore their language of conceptualization.
On the Lome side, there was more evidence of students talking among themselves in
Ewe and no record of teachers using Ewe with the students in the classroom. This may
also be explained by the fact that almost all the students were competent speakers of
French and so the language of education (French) did not pose a problem to them per se.
Language ideology seems to be very much at play in this study especially in the lives of
the individual francophone students who either cross the border daily to come to school at
the Border JHS or who have moved from a francophone country to come and study in
Aflao. For them and/or their parents, the English language is very important and a sure
bet of professional and economic success. For this reason, they do not seem to mind
the fact that this movement across the border can derail their educational trajectories.
Indeed, as mentioned in a previous section, some of the students have to go back as
much as four classes lower than their original class when they move to Aflao for an anglo-
phone education.
In the case of the Aflao-Lome study, we posit that the fetishizing of the “colonial”
European languages – English and French – is because it is considered that one needs a
mastery of these languages to have access to higher education or white-collar jobs that
will earn a decent salary. This is actually the reason why some parents go as far as
speaking these languages with their children at home even if they can speak Ewe or
other local languages. In both countries, job interviews are carried out in English or
French (depending on the country), or both if it is a bilingual position. Interestingly,
even between the two European languages (English and French), English seems to be
considered more internationally relevant than French when it comes to getting a
good “international” job; and this was evidenced from the responses both from the
Ghana and Togo sides. One francophone student, who goes to school on the anglo-
phone side of the border reports that4:
18 S. CHACHU AND T. OMONIYI
… since childhood, I’ve always loved English, speaking English because I think that English is
the most widely-spoken language in the world
These “European” language in education policies seem to have been developed post-inde-
pendence as a result of a teaching strategy by educators to reinforce language acquisition.
However, these policies seem to have become entrenched in society as a result of a bias –
where being educated means having a mastery of the English or French language. Most
schools prohibit their pupils or students from communicating in the local languages
which were referred to as vernacular and those caught speaking indigenous languages
were considered unrefined.
Conclusion
When we consider education across borders, our research seems to suggest that parents in
Lome are more likely to send their children across the border to attend school in Aflao, see-
mingly because theywant their children tohave theEnglish advantage.However,what ismore
interesting is the fact that some of the students themselves made the choice to leave their
schools in Lome and other francophone towns like Abidjan to come and enroll in the
school in Aflao because they wanted to learn English. For the students we interacted with,
this usually involved them having to enroll in lower classes – sometimes three or four
grades behind their original grades in their former schools. However, they do not seem to
mind this because they feel that the education inEnglish isworth the sacrifice they aremaking.
French seems to have very little presence outside the classroom in Aflao. Even in the
classroom, the French lesson is conducted in English and proximity to the border does
not seem to affect the desire or the effort to speak French by non-francophone pupils.
Most students seemed to prefer using Ewe. This may be explained by the fact that Ewe
is spoken on both sides of the border and even with the different dialects, there is over
80% intelligibility.
However, in the Lome classroom, French is the main language in use except when other
languages are being taught. There seems to be more linguistic homogeneity in the Lome
school. However, we cannot confirm whether this is because the secondary school in Lome
is a private school and, therefore, not as financially accessible as the Border JHS which is a
public school.
In both schools, Ewe plays a very important role in the social life of both teachers and
students and most non-academic discourse is carried out in Ewe within the school setting.
It is also the main language of communication in most homes and also with friends in the
community.
Notes
1. We use L1 to indicate the language first acquired by an individual.
2.
Interviewer: Vous utilisez quelles langues en salle de classe?
Student: Moi, français.
Interviewer: Mais avec les profs si on vous pose des questions?
Student: Anglais.
Interviewer: Et si vous ne comprenez pas?
Student: On pose en éwé.
JOURNAL OF BORDERLANDS STUDIES 19
Interviewer: … . Si vous ne comprenez pas vous posez en éwé et le prof vous explique
avec quelle langue?
Student: Éwé.
3. Ok lorsqu’on est en français, les profs nous parlent le français, on répond en français. En
anglais, on nous parle l’anglais, en éwé on nous parle éwé, en allemand on parle allemand.
4. … depuis l’enfance j’ai toujours aimé l’anglais, parler l’anglais parce que je crois que l’anglais
est la langue la plus parlé du monde.
5. The information is correct.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
ORCID
Sewoenam Chachu http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1236-5678
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