SHOULD GHANAIAN THEATRE BE PERFORMED MAINLY IN ENGLISH?

🗣️ English | 🇬🇭 Local Languages | 🔥 Both

There is a question we probably need to ask ourselves more often as Ghanaian theatre practitioners:

What language should Ghanaian theatre speak?

Should our plays be performed mainly in English because it gives us access to a wider audience? Should we return more deliberately to our local languages because theatre is rooted in culture, identity and lived experience? Or should we embrace both?

For me, Ghanaian theatre should exist in both English and our local languages.

And I don't say this simply because English is our official language. I say it because language in theatre does more than communicate words.

Language carries identity.

When an actor speaks Twi, Ga, Ewe, Dagbani, Fante, Nzema, or any of our other Ghanaian languages on stage, something happens that English cannot completely reproduce. There is a familiarity in it. There is belonging. There is rhythm, humour, emotion and cultural meaning.

Sometimes, the way a grandmother scolds a child in Twi cannot be replaced by the same sentence in English. The words may be translated, but something still gets lost along the way.

That is why our local languages must have a place on our stages.

And I have experienced this firsthand.

I remember when Drama Arena GH/Literary Guild presented an informative theatre performance in both English and Twi at the Kumasi launch of the National Virtual Asset Literacy Initiative (NaVALI), an initiative organised by the Bank of Ghana and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The subject matter was not exactly the kind of thing you would expect to be easy to explain through theatre. We were dealing with concepts surrounding virtual assets and financial literacy which were ideas that can sound complicated even when explained in a classroom or a formal presentation.

But through performance, humour, storytelling and, importantly, our local language, we were able to break some of these concepts down for the audience.

The response we received afterwards stayed with me.

People told us that they understood the message because we had explained the concepts in a way that felt familiar and accessible to them. The Twi was not simply there to make the performance sound Ghanaian.

It helped the message land.

That experience reminded me that language is not merely a vessel carrying theatre's message.

Sometimes, the language itself is part of the message.

But then comes the other side of the argument.

English gives Ghanaian theatre a wider reach.

A Ghanaian play performed in English can travel more easily across borders and communicate with audiences who may know little about Ghanaian languages. It can help our stories enter international festivals, universities, theatres and cultural spaces where English is the common language.

So why choose one when we can use both?

I believe we can create theatre that moves comfortably between English and our local languages. A character can speak Twi while another responds in English. A play can move between languages depending on the character, setting, emotion or situation.

That, to me, is a more honest representation of Ghanaian life.

Because Ghana itself is multilingual.

But there is another thought that keeps bothering me.

Do we always have to translate ourselves for the world to understand us?

Perhaps we have become too comfortable believing that for Ghanaian theatre to become "international," it must first become English.

What if we did the opposite?

What if we created powerful Ghanaian theatre entirely in our local languages and took it to international audiences?

What if the audience in London, New York, Johannesburg or Tokyo had to sit in a theatre and experience our stories in Twi, Ga, Ewe or Dagbani, and find their own way into the world we have created?

They could use subtitles. They could learn the language. They could ask questions. They could research the culture.

After all, when we watch a Japanese film, a Korean drama or a French production, we don't demand that the actors abandon their languages before we consider the work international.

Why must internationalisation always mean translation into English?

Perhaps part of taking Ghanaian theatre to the world is not making our theatre less Ghanaian so that the world can consume it, but making it so authentically Ghanaian that the world becomes curious enough to come to us.

Maybe the future is not choosing between English and our local languages.

Maybe it is knowing when to use each, why to use each, and when to be bold enough to use neither English nor the expectations of the international audience.

For me, I want to see Ghanaian theatre in English. I want to see it in our local languages. I want to see productions that deliberately combine both.

But I also want to see the day when a Ghanaian play performed entirely in a local language can stand confidently on an international stage without apologising for the language it speaks.

Because perhaps our languages do not need permission to become international.

So, where do you stand?

Should Ghanaian theatre mainly speak English?

Should we put our local languages at the centre?

Or is the future of Ghanaian theatre found somewhere between the two?

The stage is yours.

— Sylar Bobo-Bee