What Language?
On 07/18/06, Angel D Batiste, the Library of Congress specialist in West Africa, wrote Todd Harvey, the curator of the Seeger Collection:
"I am sorry to say that I have had no success in identifying the languages spoken by the Ghanian fisherman in the Seeger film. There are more than 100 linguistic and cultural groups recorded in Ghana. Linguists have placed Ghanaian languages in one or the other of only two major linguistic subfamilies of the Niger-Congo language family. These are the Kwa and Gur groups, found to the south and north of the Volta River, respectively. The Kwa group, which comprises about 75 percent of the country's population, includes the Akan, Ga-Adangbe, and Ewe. North of the Volta River are the three subdivisions of the Gur-speaking people. These are the Gurma, Grusi, and Mole-Dagbane. Each group shares a common cultural heritage, history, language, and origin. Traditionally, the Fanti and Ga-speaking people have lived by fishing."
Can anyone help us?
From Bennett Konesni on April 3,2009...
"I spent two months working and singing with fisherman off the coast of Nungua beach, east of Accra. Almost all of the fishermen spoke Ga. The scenery in the shots with buildings in the background looks much like where I was fishing. I spoke to Pete about this and he said he filmed in/around Accra, so my guess is on the Ga language.
"The footage of people pulling in nets on the beach looks much like what is still happening at the mouth of the Volta river a day's drive east of Accra. Take the ferry east from Ada Foah to the barrier islands on the east bank of the Volta."
From Todd Harvey, curator of the Seeger collection in the Library of Congress...
"I found the place-name "Winneba," a town about 20 miles SW of Accra, on one of the cans."
