LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 12 : 8 August 2012
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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The Quest for Climatic Sanity: Re-Reading of Akan Creation Myth

Samuel Kwesi Nkansah

Abstract

The process of creation with its attendant questions of understanding the world has been the bane of the quest for knowledge to understand natural hazards. The recent climatic hazards confronting mankind are blamed on climate change. One literary genre that seeks to explain the causes of natural hazards, including climate change, is the creation myth. All cultures of humankind have specific myths they harness as basic answers to mind-boggling questions on natural occurrences.

This paper sets out to examine how the Akan creation myth is employed to address issues of climate change as well as the direction given to ensure the sustainability of development. In achieving this, five Akan creation myths are analysed through the lens of the formalistic approach to literary appreciation. The study reveals that Akan creation myths provide meaning to basic issues in natural occurrences and also provide means to protect the climate against unhealthy practices, failure of which spells doom in offsetting developmental agenda. The research has implications for the scholarship of both oral literature and climate change.

Introduction

Most natural occurrences are explained scientifically, without recourse to the indigenous knowledge base of the people. One such occurrence is climate change. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change defines it as “a change in climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time period” (UNFCCC, 2005). Climate change has assumed such a serious and global attention; it has taken a centre stage in local, national and international discourses. Since this became a global issue, all approaches to it have been scientific. One of such projects is Verlag et al’s. (1992) Climate Change - A Threat to Global Development: Acting Now to Safeguard the Future - First Report submitted by the 12th German Bundestag’s Enquete Commission on Protecting the Earth’s Atmosphere. In this project, the commission identifies causes of climate change as, among others, deforestation, agriculture and emission of gases into the atmosphere. Watson, et al. (1998), in a report on a UN commissioned project on Climatic Change, spells out the extent to which the various regional locations of the world would be adversely affected by climate change. The report indicates that Africa is prone to recurrent drought, high population growth and pressure on the forest reserve. In addition, Africa is particularly threatened to suffer in human health, tourism and wildlife, agriculture and, water and food supply, among others, as fallout of the climate change (pp. 18-21).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Samuel Kwesi Nkansah
Lecturer in Literature
Department of English
University
University of Cape
Ghana
nkansah.kwesi@gmail.com
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