Fante Group Kicks Against Twi Generalisation in AI Language Project

• A pressure group, Fante Patriots Alliance, has called out the government for excluding Fante from the list of languages selected for the country's AI language integration project
• The group noted that Fante had made enough contribution to national development, for which reason it should be included in the AI language project
• They argued that the use of Twi to represent all Akan languages was unfair and would not yield the best possible outcome

The Fante Patriots Alliance, a pressure group committed to advancing the collective development of Fante communities in Ghana, has expressed its distaste for what it describes as the generalisation of the Twi language in the Government of Ghana's AI Language Integration Initiative.

The group, in a press statement, expressed its discontent after discovering that the Fante language, a widely spoken indigenous language in the Central and Western regions of the country, was excluded from the list of languages selected as part of an AI language integration project by Google and the Government of Ghana.

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Making a case for itself, the group highlighted the historical contributions of the Fante language to the country’s development. They noted that Fante was among the earliest written Ghanaian languages and played a foundational role in formal education, journalism, and commerce in Ghana.

They, therefore, called it 'unfair' for the government to 'erase a major linguistic pillar' in Ghana's history. The statement read in parts:

"While we commend the Government of Ghana and its partners for prioritising indigenous languages in education and digital innovation, we find it unacceptable and unjustifiable that the Fante language has been excluded from this historic initiative."

"Historically, Fante has played a foundational role in Ghana's development: It was one of the earliest written languages, used extensively by missionaries, educators and early nationalists. Fante communities were central to early formal education, commerce, journalism and governance along the coast."

The group also kicked against the use of Twi as an umbrella language to represent all Akan-speaking groups. They clarified that although Twi is one of the languages within the Akan language family, it was distinct from Fante in many respects. They said:

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"While Fante and Twi both fall under the Akan language family. They are distinct in pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, idioms and cultural context. Treating Twi as a blanket representation of all Akan languages is linguistically inaccurate and culturally dismissive."

"We are Akan, but Twi does not represent us."

They further noted that AI tools trained exclusively on Twi data would not accurately serve Fante speakers in areas such as speech recognition, voice-to-text services, and educational content delivery, among others.

They therefore called on the government to heed their plea.

The Government of Ghana has partnered with Google to integrate AI-driven educational tools in local languages. The languages selected for the project include: Twi, Ewe, Dagbani and Hausa.

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The council further appealed for the Ga and Dangbe languages to be included in modern digital learning tools.

Proofreading by Samuel Gitonga, copy editor at YEN.com.gh.

Source: YEN.com.gh