The depth of his analysis, using popular political slogans such as ‘Dzi wo fie asem’, ‘All Die Be Die’, ‘Kookooase Kuraseni’, ‘Yutong’, among other rhetoric, earned the renowned Professor of Linguistics a standing ovation from an enthusiastic audience who were yearning for more.
Delivering the occasional lecture themed ‘Dzi wo fie Asem: Rhetoric and the politics of expediency’, organized by the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Prof. Yankah said the current state of rhetoric in the public sphere was a cause for alarm.
‘Regardless of the real intent of the prevailing party slogans, I dare say the establishment of a heroes’ fund by one party, and the adoption of an ”all die be die’ slogan by another party, are bad news for peace and democracy.’
Prof Yankah, who is retiring from the University of Ghana next month, explained that the slogans ‘are liable to interpretations as institutional preparations for lawlessness, hooliganism and civil strife in Election 2012.’
He said the current situation was an indictment on state security apparatus, which he said had become ‘partisan and cannot even-handedly discharge their constitutional obligations of protecting life and limb, and a state that appears to lack a reliable mechanism for non partisan celebration of national heroes, leaving this to the capricious designs of individual parties.’
He said the winner-takes all mentality as well as an emerging politics of intolerance, threaten to denigrate social values of communication, leading to a creeping culture of combative discourse and the celebration of verbal abuse and invectives on decent political platforms.
Prof Yankah said the outcome of combative discourse has been the perception that rationality in public debate is diminishing with time, explaining that ‘subject specialists and experts who would have enriched the quality of public discourse appear to have yielded the floor to ubiquitous pseudo experts who seek to standardize noisy argumentation and fiery discourse as cherished values.’
He said the situation had also ‘triggered a swath of ill-prepared spokesmen and communication functionaries who unleash Babel of Tongues at the least opportunity, and end up polluting public space, shedding more heat than light on party as well as national policy.’
‘The perception of spokesmen in traditional society as associated with unanimity of purpose and finesse in communication has been enormously eroded over time.’
He said regardless of  the channel or origin of discourse, public officials might momentarily switch codes and insert a local idiom, sometimes followed by an instant translation where deemed necessary by the speaker, adding, ‘Devices like proverbs, aphorisms, local metaphors, allegories constitute an enormous rhetorical capital available to public officials representing ordinary people.’
Prof Yankah said the emersion of the electorate in the indigenous aesthetics of speaking encourages officials to occasionally allegorize governance in political discourse, or use extended metaphors, or even folktales in discussions where expedient but public life and Ghana’s popular culture are replete with satire, innuendo and allegory.
‘Creeping into the indigenous value system is a culture of vociferous rhetoric, where media heroes are made sometimes on the basis, not of reasoned argumentation, but fiery speech comportment,’ he noted.
By William Yaw Owusu
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