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THE USE OF INSULTS IN GHANAIAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
By
EMMANUEL AMO OFORI
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
2015
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Ebenezer, this is how far the Lord has brought me!
I am extremely grateful to the Almighty God for giving me the strength and the
ideas to come out with this dissertation, glory be unto His Holy name, Amen! I want to
express my profound gratitude to my chair and co-chair, Professor Diana Boxer and
Professor Fiona McLaughlin for their immense contribution to the realization of this
dream (dissertation). I am indebted to them for their suggestions, comments,
encouragement, inspiration, motivation and criticism in making this dissertation a reality.
I also want to thank my committee member, Professor James Essegbey for his direction
and guidance from the inception of this work until the end. I am really grateful to him for
his contribution and encouragement in making this dissertation a rewarding learning
experience. God richly bless you. To my external member, Professor Daniel Smith, I
say thank you very much for you comments, directions and feedback.
I am extremely grateful to my wife, Henrietta Gyamaa Ofori and my two children,
Adom Akua Addai Ofori and Aseda Kwadwo Ofori-Atta for their love, sacrifice and
support, without them there was no way this work could have ever been achieved.
To my entire family, thank you for your unwavering support for me from childhood
up to this time, especially my sweet mother, Madam Margaret Adwoa Addai for
financing my education as a single mother, God richly bless you mum, your effort will
never be in vain. To my four sisters, Patricia Ofori Serwaa, Patience Ofori-Atta, Cynthia
Ofori-Atta and Diana Ofori Pokuaa, I thank you all for you assistance, encouragement
and prayers.
I would like to extend a hand of gratitude to Afia Pokuaa (Vim Lady), Adom FM,
Accra, Ghana and Kwasi Boateng for their assistance in the gathering of my data
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without it I couldn’t have come out with this dissertation. They were readily available
whenever I called on them.
Finally, I thank my District Pastor of the Church of Pentecost, USA, INC, Samuel
Koomson, the immediate past District Pastor, Joseph Adarkwa, Elders Karl Badu,
Samuel Odame, Stephen Frimpong, Daniel Abakah, Emmanuel Anaafi, Eric Boateng,
Samuel Mamfo for their prayers and support in my four year stay in Florida.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 9
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 10
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... 11
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 13
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 15
1.1 Motivations and Background of the Study ......................................................... 15 1.2 Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................ 18 1.3 Research Questions ......................................................................................... 19 1.4 The Genre of Insult ........................................................................................... 20 1.5 Literature Review: Ethnography of Insults in Ghana ......................................... 22 1.6 Tracing Political Discourse in the Media; the Road to Freedom of Speech in
Ghana .................................................................................................................. 32 1.7 Political Parties in Ghana .................................................................................. 36
1.7.1 The New Patriotic Party (NPP) ................................................................ 36 1.7.2 The National Democratic Congress (NDC) .............................................. 37
1.8 The Linguistic Situation in Ghana ..................................................................... 38 1.8.1 Akan ........................................................................................................ 38 1.8.2 English ..................................................................................................... 41
1.9 Dissertation Layout ........................................................................................... 41
2 METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ........................................ 45
2.1 Overview ........................................................................................................... 45 2.2 Methodology ..................................................................................................... 45 2.3 Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................... 48
2.3.1 Critical Discourse Analysis ...................................................................... 48 2.3.2 Media Discourse Analysis ....................................................................... 53 2.3.3 Approaches in Critical Discourse Analysis .............................................. 59
2.3.3.1 Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) ............................. 59 2.3.3.2 Van Dijk’s Socio-cognitive Approach ............................................. 61 2.3.3.3 Fairclough’s Social-discoursal Approach ....................................... 64
2.3.4 Model of analysis ..................................................................................... 67 2.3.4.1 Lexicalization and predication ........................................................ 68 2.3.4.2 Presupposition ............................................................................... 70 2.3.4.3 Metaphor/simile .............................................................................. 72
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2.3.4.4 Proverbs ......................................................................................... 74 2.3.4.5 Verbal process ............................................................................... 77 2.3.4.6 Intertextuality .................................................................................. 79 2.3.4.7 Topics ............................................................................................ 82
2.4 Critical Terms in CDA ....................................................................................... 83 2.4.1 Power ...................................................................................................... 83 2.4.2 Ideology ................................................................................................... 85 2.4.3 Voice ....................................................................................................... 87
2.5 Summary .......................................................................................................... 87
3 TEXTUAL ANALYSIS ............................................................................................. 91
3.1 Overview ........................................................................................................... 91 3.2 Lexicalization and Predication .......................................................................... 91
3.2.1 Lexicalization and predication used by ordinary citizens ......................... 91 3.2.1.1 Infantalization of politicians ............................................................ 92 3.2.1.2 Animalization of politicians ............................................................. 99 3.2.1.3 Insanity and mental health of politicians....................................... 105 3.2.1.4 Innocuous insults ......................................................................... 108
3.2.2 Lexicalization and predication used by pro-NPP and NDC newspapers 109 3.3 Presupposition ................................................................................................ 117
3.3.1 Presupposition used by ordinary citizens .............................................. 117 3.3.2 Presuppositions used by pro-NPP and NDC newspapers ..................... 119
3.4 Metaphor/simile .............................................................................................. 123 3.5 Proverbs ......................................................................................................... 127 3.6 Verbal process ................................................................................................ 130 3.7 Summary ........................................................................................................ 131
4 DISCURSIVE PRACTICE ANALYSIS .................................................................. 153
4.1 Overview ......................................................................................................... 153 4.2 Intertextuality .................................................................................................. 153
4.2.1 Ordinary Citizens’ Intertextuality ............................................................ 154 4.2.2 Pro-NPP and NDC newspapers intertextuality ...................................... 160
4.3 Topic ............................................................................................................... 166 4.3.1 The Economy ........................................................................................ 166
4.3.1.1 Ordinary citizens’ metaphors of disorder and the economy ......... 166 4.3.1.2 NPP and NDC newspapers selection of insults targeted at the
economy ............................................................................................... 170 4.3.2 Corruption .............................................................................................. 171
4.3.2.1 Ordinary citizens’ insults on corruption......................................... 171 4.3.2.2 NPP and NDC newspapers report of insults on corruption .......... 175
4.3.3 Ethnic politics ........................................................................................ 176 4.3.4 Drugs ..................................................................................................... 177
4.4 Summary ........................................................................................................ 178
5 DISCUSSION: SOCIAL-PRACTICE ANALYSIS ................................................... 190
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5.1 Overview ......................................................................................................... 190 5.2 Media, Power, Voice and Ordinary Citizens .................................................... 191 5.3 Therapeutic Function of Ordinary Citizens Discourse ..................................... 196 5.4 NPP and NDC Newspapers Polarization at the Textual level ......................... 197 5.5 NPP and NDC Newspapers Polarization at the Discursive Practice Level ..... 201 5.6 Explicit Insults in Spoken and Written Text ..................................................... 205 5.6 Summary ........................................................................................................ 207
6 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION ........................................................................... 209
6.1 Overview ......................................................................................................... 209 6.2 Findings .......................................................................................................... 209 6.3 Theoretical Reflections ................................................................................... 211 6.4 Study Limitations and Implications for Future Research ................................. 213
APPENDIX
A PHONE-INS FROM ORDINARY CITIZENS ......................................................... 215
B ONLINE COMMENTARY FROM ORDINARY CITIZENS ..................................... 221
C ARTICLES FROM NPP NEWSPAPERS .............................................................. 225
D ARTICLES FROM NDC NEWSPAPERS .............................................................. 235
LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 244
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 253
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LIST OF TABLES
Table page 2-1 NPP and NDC newspapers ................................................................................ 89
2-2 Describing/attributing positive actions (van Dijk, 1995: 144) .............................. 89
2-3 Types of presupposition (Wodak, 2002; 2007) ................................................... 89
2-4 Ordinary citizen’s simile ...................................................................................... 90
3-1 Ingroup to outgroup lexicalization and predicational insults .............................. 134
3-2 Outgroup to ingroup lexicalization and predicational insults ............................. 136
3-3 Outgroup to outgroup lexicalization and predicational insults ........................... 138
3-4 Non-politicians to outgroup lexicalization and predicational insults .................. 140
3-5 Newspapers’ lexicalization and predicational insults to the outgroup ............... 141
3-6 Naming ............................................................................................................. 143
3-7 Presupposition .................................................................................................. 144
3-8 Verbal process .................................................................................................. 147
3-9 Caller’s simile ................................................................................................... 152
3-10 Caller’s metaphor ............................................................................................. 152
3-11 Summary of NPP and NDC verbal process ...................................................... 152
4-1 Direct quotes on intertextuality ......................................................................... 180
4-2 Strategic quotation or scare quotes on intertextuality ....................................... 184
4-3 Indirect quotation on intertextuality ................................................................... 186
4-4 Topics on the economy .................................................................................... 187
4-5 Topics on corruption ......................................................................................... 187
4-6 Topics on ethnic politics ................................................................................... 188
4-7 Topics on drugs ................................................................................................ 188
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure page 4-1 Bauman’s implicational relationship of mediational routines ............................. 189
4-2 Citizen’s implicational relationship of mediational routines ............................... 189
C-1 An article on October 5, 2012: The Daily Searchlight ....................................... 225
C-2 An article on July 19, 2012: The Chronicle ....................................................... 226
C-3 An article on October 5, 2012: The Daily Searchlight ....................................... 227
C-4 An article on October 2, 2012: The Daily Searchlight ....................................... 228
C-5 An article on October 2, 2012: The Daily Searchlight ....................................... 229
C-6 An article on November 5, 2012: The Chronicle ............................................... 230
C-7 An article on April 3, 2012: The New Statesman .............................................. 231
C-8 An article on April 3, 2012: The New Statesman .............................................. 232
C-9 An article on April 3, 2012: The New Statesman .............................................. 233
C-10 An article on October 5, 2012: The Daily Searchlight ....................................... 234
D-1 An article on August 16, 2012: The Al-Hajj ....................................................... 235
D-2 An article on February 23, 2012: The Al-Hajj .................................................... 236
D-3 An article on July 20, 2012: Ghana Palaver ..................................................... 237
D-4 An article on September 16, 2012: Ghana Palaver .......................................... 238
D-5 An article on November 20, 2012: Ghana Palaver ........................................... 239
D-6 An article on August 27-28, 2012: Ghana Palaver ............................................ 240
D-7 An article on March 5, 2012: The Al-Hajj .......................................................... 241
D-8 An article on December 6, 2012: The National Democrat ................................ 242
D-9 An article on June 20-21, 2012: Ghana Palaver ............................................... 243
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
TERM: Definition
CAFM
CDA
Christian Action Faith Ministries
Critical Discourse Analysis
CL Critical Linguistics
CRC Constitutional Review Committee
DHA Discourse-Historical Approach
FM Frequency Moderation
GIBA Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association
GSS Ghana Statistical Service
GTV Ghana Television
ICGC International Central Gospel Church
ISA Ideological State Apparatus
MFWA Media Foundation for West Africa
MP Member of Parliament
MTN
NLC
Mobile Telephone Network
National Liberation Council
NDC National Democratic Congress
NMC National Media Commission
NPP New Patriotic Party
PAC Public Accounts Committee
PFP Popular Front Party
PNDC Provisional National Defence Council
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PNP Peoples National Party
PP Progress Party
SC Supreme Court
SFL Systemic Functional Linguistics
SHS Senior High School
TI Transparency International
UAE United Arab Emirates
UGCC United Gold Coast Convention
UP United Party
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Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
THE USE OF INSULTS IN GHANAIAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE:
A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
By
Emmanuel Amo Ofori
August 2015
Chair: Diana Boxer Cochair: Fiona McLaughlin Major: Linguistics
Insult is a verbal behavior that is usually frowned upon in any civilized society.
Many scholars have argued that insults are meant to cause mental pain,
embarrassment, and disgrace (Agyekum, 2004); they are a violation of the principles of
politeness (Leech, 1983); and they are face-threatening acts (Brown and Levinson,
1987). Therefore, they may be considered in many societies as socially unacceptable.
In this study, however, I argue that the use of insults in Ghanaian political discourse is a
means by which ordinary citizens challenge the existing social power, by infantilizing
political authority, and animalizing politicians. I further argue that some of the insults are
innocuous; they merely poke fun at people in authority. That is to say, they are ways of
diffusing tension in the midst of economic hardships and challenges, such as access to
electricity and water. This study therefore addresses the following questions: (1) how do
ordinary citizens use insults to challenge the existing social power? (2) Where do
ordinary citizens derive this power from to insult and challenge political authority? (3)
What are the underlying ideologies in the representation of insults in pro-NPP and NDC
newspapers? (4) How explicit is the use of insults in spoken and written text? To
13
achieve these ends, I adopt Fairclough’s (1989) three-dimensional approach to the
study of discourse, that is, discourse-as-text, discourse-as-discursive-practice and
discourse-as-social practice. Drawing on these three layers of analysis, I link text to
context, and especially employ the sociopolitical and cultural context to link the entire
discourse to the society in general. By studying the sociopolitical and cultural context,
the analysis reveals media empowerment of the powerless in society to make their
voices heard in political discussion to the extent of insulting and challenging the existing
social power. Also by employing van Dijk’s (1998) ideological square, the study reveals
the ideological differences and political spin in the representation of insults in both NPP
and NDC newspapers.
14
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Motivations and Background of the Study
Ghana is a democratic country, and this has earned the West African country an
enviable recognition in the world. Ghana experienced her stable democratic
dispensation in 1992 after a series of military take-overs/coup d’états from the period of
independence until 1992 (4th republic). Democratic practices in Ghana are still at the
infant stages and therefore it could be considered as an emerging democratic state.
Since 1993, political discussions in the country have centered on various topics, such
as the economy, social policies, employment, youth development, education, national
security, and health.
However, in recent years, politics in Ghanaian political discourse has become a
discourse of personal attack, vilification, and insults. There has been an extraordinary
public concern on the recent surge of insults in Ghanaian political discourse. Some of
the concerns are from the media, civil society, academia, leaders of political parties,
chiefs, opinion leaders, the current president and ex-presidents, and the clergy. The
head of the Department of linguistics at the university of Ghana was quoted in the Daily
Graphic (2012) bemoaning the fact that the Ghanaian media have become a platform
where insults between political parties are exchanged. He noted, “The overall effect of
the common practice of political invectives is that we are establishing a political tradition
where insults have taken the place of polite language.” He made this comment at an
inaugural lecture he gave at the University of Ghana on the topic: “Kasapa –
Kasahuam” Polite Language: Towards perfect communication, national cohesion and
peaceful co-existence.” The current President of Ghana, John Mahama, is also reported
15
to have joined the Eastern Region House of Chiefs to condemn the politics of insults
and vilification in the country’s political landscape (www.radiogoldlive.com). The Media
Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) also releases a weekly report to the general public
on shaming politicians who are involved in the politics of insults. The main aim of the
MFWA is “promoting issues-based and decent language campaigning for a peaceful,
free and fair elections in Ghana in 2012,” and beyond. The project basically involves a
comprehensive daily monitoring of campaign language or expressions by politicians and
activists on specific radio programs such as morning shows, and political discussions
across the country. They also assess the conduct of the radio stations that are being
monitored. Politicians and activists found culpable of using insults are put to shame. If a
country can go to the extent of shaming politicians involved in politics of insults, then it
shows how the issue of intemperate language has become entrenched in Ghanaian
political discourse. However, I argue that while insult has its own ramifications on
society, in a broader context it is a means by which ordinary citizens challenge the
existing social power, infantilize politicians, and animalize political authority in Ghanaian
political discourse. I also discuss where ordinary citizens derive this power from to
challenge the existing social power. The argument is broadened to capture the
underlying ideologies in the representation of insults in pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP)
and National Democratic Congress (NDC) newspapers. I further compare and contrast
the use of insults in the newspapers. Finally, I also compare the use of explicit insults in
spoken and written text.
The media in Ghana create the avenue for ordinary citizens to make their voices
heard on radio and Internet. Most of the political programs of the radio stations are
16
structured in such a way that they are broadcast through affiliate FM stations and
communication centers across the country, and thus offer Ghanaian citizens both home
and abroad the opportunity to contribute to political discussions through phone-ins, SMS
messages, and online commentaries. The phone-ins and online commentaries serve as
platforms for ordinary Ghanaians to challenge political authority and power abuse. The
media, therefore, has become an important avenue that gives voice to and empowers
ordinary citizens to participate in political discourse in Ghana.
Many have argued that the surge of insults in Ghanaian political discussions is
due to the liberalization of the media in Ghana (Owusu, 2012; Marfo, 2014). This stems
from the fact that before 1992, Ghana did not have many radio stations, television,
newspapers and online websites. Currently, there are numerous radio stations and
newspapers in Ghana, and most of the insults emanate from politicians through these
media outlets. These outlets have their own interest in promoting certain ideologies and
political positions. This is seen in how they present their audience with “a steady supply
of problems and crises, and it may be in their interest to exaggerate a problem, fostering
the impression that there is a crisis and not just business as usual” (Cameron, 2012:
83). It may seem that they are alerting the public to the surge of intemperate language;
however, it is a subtle way of promoting an ideology or political position. Therefore the
representation of insults from opponents is publicized or foregrounded not to alert the
public to the problem of insults, but to put a political spin on it. The us versus them
dichotomy can be seen in media reportage of insults in pro-NPP and NDC newspapers.
Thus, van Dijk’s (1998) concept of ideological square, which is expressed in terms of
emphasizing the positive actions of what a media institution considers the ingroup and
17
deemphasizing its negative actions, while, on the other hand, deemphasizing the
positive actions of the outgroup, and emphasizing its negative actions is applied in the
analysis of the use of insults in Ghanaian political discourse. The ideological square is
discussed thoroughly in section 2.3.3.2.
In Ghana, politicians own some of the radio stations and newspapers used to
disseminate the ideology and philosophy of their respective political parties. This is an
attempt on the part of the political parties to control the media. The fact is different
groups compete in order to control the media as an “instrument of social power, or an
Ideological State Apparatus (ISA)” in the sense of Althusser (1971), to legitimate and
naturalize their ideologies, beliefs, and values (van Dijk, 1995). Anyone who controls the
media to some extent controls the minds of its listeners. This is because the media is
seen as major source of information.
1.2 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to examine critically how the powerless (ordinary
citizens) in Ghanaian society use insults to challenge and undermine the existing social
power. The analysis is extended to cover underlying ideologies in the representation of
insults in pro-NPP and NDC newspapers in Ghana. Moreover, comparison is made
between spoken and written text to ascertain the explicit use of insults. To achieve
these ends, Fairclough’s three-dimensional approach to the study of discourse is
adopted, that is, discourse-as-text; discourse-as-discursive-practice; and discourse-as-
social practice. Drawing on these three layers of analysis, I link text to context, and
especially employ the sociopolitical and the cultural context to link the entire discourse
to Ghanaian society in general. By studying the sociopolitical and cultural context, the
analysis reveals the trajectory of the use of insults in major festivals and games and
18
their regulatory and restorative functions. It also shows the media empowerment of the
powerless in society to make their voices heard in political discussions by going to the
extent of insulting and challenging politicians, pointing to the fact that Ghanaian society
is changing.
Utilizing van Dijk’s (1998) framework of ideological square, the study seeks to
explain the ideological differences and political spin in the representation of insults in
both NPP and NDC newspapers with regard to the Us/Them representation of ingroup
and outgroup. I further compare and contrast the use of insults in the newspapers to
find out the considerable difference in the use of explicit insults in spoken and written
data.
1.3 Research Questions
The analysis of this study is based on the following questions:
1. How do ordinary citizens use insults to challenge and attempt to undermine the existing social power in Ghanaian political discourse?
2. Where do ordinary citizens derive this power from to challenge the existing social power?
3. What are the underlying ideologies in the representation of insults in pro-NPP and NDC newspapers? a. How are insults represented in pro-NPP newspapers? b. How are insults represented in pro-NDC newspapers?
4. How explicit is the use of insults in spoken and written text?
The following sub-questions are linguistic tools and phenomena that will be used
to answer the above questions:
1. At the textual level, what kind of lexicalizations and predications, presuppositions, metaphors/simile, proverbs and verbal processes are used in the representation of insults in Ghanaian political discourse?
2. At the discursive level, what kind of intertextuality and topics are used in the representation of insults in Ghanaian political discourse?
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1.4 The Genre of Insult
Insult is considered as a special “genre of discourse on purely linguistic grounds”
(Samarin, 1969: 324). This means that it can be listed with proverbs and riddles, and
other linguistic routines such as greetings, expression of gratitude, thanking, apology
and recounting one’s mission. Insults have structure, that is to say they have topic,
form and context of use.
The topic involves speaking ill of not only a person’s physical characteristics, but
also moral intellectual of the target, which at times compels the target to respond with
an equal measure or more offensive words. It also looks at the abusive nature of insults.
Some of the insults are indirect. For example nimdeεfoɔ no nyinaa wɔ New Patriotic
Party which means “All the intelligent people are in New Patriotic Party.” Others may be
spelled out or direct. The latter could be in the form of pejorative terms like bad or dirty.
For example, wo ho fi which means “your dirty body or a dirty person.”
According to Samarin (1969) the form of insults may be relatively short,
consisting of/or it could be two or three sentences or more. It could also be just a word,
phrase or body gesture. The core of insults is a characterization of “some part of the
target’s body or his/her actions; this may be preceded or followed by other utterances
appropriate to the situation” (Samarin, 1969: 325). For example, ‘‘if I am to reveal
Anita’s character in Kumasi, I am not sure she can sit in the studio. My own friend has
slept with her before. Ask her what her real name is…Jemimah Soso used to be her
name, as to what made her change it, let her inform us.’’ This excerpt was an exchange
between New Patriotic Party-Deputy communicator and National Democratic Congress-
women organizer. It portrays the NDC women organizer as promiscuous.
20
Body gesture could be tapping the head with the forefinger to indicate to the
target that he/she is mad. In addition, “the description of the person being abused is
achieved grammatically by the use of descriptive adverbs and similes” (Samarin, 1969:
325). For example, “wo ti te sε ankaa” meaning “your head is like an orange.”
The context in which insults are used varies. Contexts of insults may be face-to-
face where the participants stand in proximity to one another. In political discussions, it
could be on the radio, phone-ins on the radio, on television, in press conferences, in
print media (newspapers or online) and on political platforms. Besides these contexts,
Agyekum (2010) categorizes Akan insults into six (6) types based on various contextual
situation: animal names, types of disease, ethnicity and tribe, personal behavior and
profession, sexual organs, part of the body, and religion.
There are various definitions of insult. According to Aristotle “Insult is
belittlement. For an insult consists of doing or saying such things as involve shame for
the victim, not for some advantage to oneself other than these have been done but for
the fun of it” (Aristotle Rhetoric cited in Yiannis, 1998). Aristotle’s definition of insult
focuses on shame, for the fun of it, and it is a form of belittling the target.
Yiannis (1998: 3) defines insults as “a behavior or discourse, oral or written,
which is perceived, experienced, constructed and at all times intended as slighting,
humiliating, or offensive. Insult can also be verbal, consisting of mocking invective,
cutting remarks, negative stereotypes, rudeness or straight swearing.”
In this dissertation, the working definition adopted is a modification of Yiannis
(1998: 3) social psychology definition of insults. I therefore define insult as:
21
A behavior or discourse, oral or written, direct or indirect, gestural or non-gestural, which is perceived, experienced, constructed and most of the time intended as slighting, humiliating, or offensive, which has the potential of psychologically affecting not only the addressee or target but his/her associates.
This definition should not be taken as a universal one because there is no
universal measure of insults. The yardstick to measure insults differs from society to
society and also from one culture to another.
1.5 Literature Review: Ethnography of Insults in Ghana
Ethnography of speaking is a branch of linguistics that is primarily focused on the
description and analysis of culture. Hymes (1962) proposed a discipline which situated
the patterns of communication behavior as one of the core tenets or systems of culture.
That is to say, the interrelation between language and culture undoubtedly cannot be
underestimated in communication. The two (language and culture) go hand in hand.
The ethnography of speaking, also known as ethnography of communication (Saville-
Troike, 1982) has two foci: particularistic and generalizing. By particularistic, it means
that various attempts are made to describe and understand communicative behavior in
specific cultural settings. Generalization on the other hand, is about developing a global
theory of human communication.
One of the general questions that drives the understanding of ethnography of
communication is: ‘‘what does a speaker need to know to communicate appropriately
within a particular speech community, and how does he or she learn?’’ (Saville-Troike,
1982: 2). Speakers’ communicative competence has been analyzed as one of the key
elements to communicating appropriately within a particular speech community.
Communicative competence therefore “is the requisite knowledge which includes not
only rules for communication (both linguistic and sociolinguistic) and shared rules for
22
interaction, but also cultural rules and knowledge that are the basis for the context and
content of communicative event and interaction processes” (Saville-Troike, 1982: 3).
This concept was proposed by Hymes (1972) to bring into perspective certain facts
which were not accounted for in Chomsky’s definition of communicative competence: “if
we hope to understand human language and the psychological capacities on which it
rests, we must first ask what it is, not how or for what purpose it is used.” Hymes (1972),
in response to this definition, argued that what language is cannot be separated from
how and why it is used, and that considerations of use are often a prerequisite to the
recognition and understanding of much linguistic form. Thus ethnography of
communication takes language first and foremost as a socially situated cultural form,
while recognizing the necessity to analyze the code itself and the cognitive processes of
its speakers and hearers (Hymes, 1972; Saville-Troike, 1982). Similarly, Yankah (1995)
argues that Akan and the broader Ghanaian culture, like, Dell Hymes, do not support
the idea that grammatical knowledge should be the only foundation for language
learning, rather the sociocultural rules governing the use of language are considered
equally significant.
For an ethnographic example in the Akan culture, we can consider the ritual on
the birth of a child (Yankah, 1995), where the Akan child is initiated into the sociocultural
rules and norms of communication of the society. Yankah further states on the eighth
day, after a child is born, the child is taken outdoors for the performance of a naming
ceremony. During this ceremony, the child’s tongue is initiated into “the moral values of
speaking” (Yankah, 1995: 46). Three drops of water and liquor are dropped onto the
tongue of the child. This initiates the child into the essence of “truthful and discrete
23
speech, the need for care, truth, firmness, and social sensitivities in the exercise of the
spoken word” (Yankah, 1995: 46). The child is also supposed to “demonstrate
sensitivities to the vagaries of social experience, and the need to comply with the
cultural rules of communication” (Yankah, 1995: 46). This shows that right from infancy
the Akan child is symbolically initiated into the traditional discourse norms of the society.
The child has access to free speech but with restrictions or checks, which must be in
consonance with the sociocultural norms of the speech community he/she belongs to.
Do not insult an elderly person or people in power, especially in public, is a basic
principle of conduct that is inculcated into every Ghanaian child. Coupled with biblical
teachings, which state “Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the
land your Lord God is giving you” (Exodus 20: 12 New International Version). These
socio-cultural norms of communication are ingrained in Ghanaian society. Thus, insult is
a verbal behavior that is not entertained in Ghanaian society.
Many scholars have argued that insults are meant to cause mental pain,
embarrassment, and disgrace (Agyekum, 2004); they are a violation of the principles of
politeness (Leech, 1983); and they are a face-threatening act (Brown and Levinson,
1987). Therefore, they may be considered in many societies as socially unacceptable.
However, there are festivals and games in some communities in Africa where people
freely use insults. Months, weeks and days are set aside in which social norms are
reversed or suspended, and verbal and non-verbal behaviors that are normally taboo
allowed (Yankah 1998). People have license during those periods to expunge any pent
up feelings they may have harbored for the past year, and openly criticize and insult
24
political deviants. Though insults are considered taboo, at these times people use them
freely without any restrictions.
Agbovi (1987, 1995) puts acceptable insults into two traditional groups:
institutionalized and non-institutionalized. The institutionalized ones can further be
grouped into the occasional and non-occasional; the non-institutionalized is made up of
verbal and non-verbal forms of communication.
The occasional ones are the ones in which people use insults as part of yearly
celebration of the festivals or events. For example, “the Apoɔ festival is a feast of eight
days, which is accompanied with all manner of singing, skipping, dancing, mirth, and
jollity in which time a perfect lampooning of liberty is allowed, and scandal so highly
exalted, that they may freely sing of all the faults, villainies and frauds of their superiors
as well as inferiors without any punishment” (Rattray, 1923: 151). During this festival,
even women and children who are not normally given the opportunity to express
themselves are permitted to openly point to the ills and the scandals of the society.
Agyekum (2010: 140) points to the fact that the festival period is the time when “the
attention of the rulers is drawn to some of the faults of their administration, so that they
start taking corrective measures to rectify the shortcomings of the society after the
festival.” In most cases, there is a creation and recreation of insults depending on the
happenings in the year. If the chief or elders did something abominable or
unprecedented, then a new insult is created. When the issues raised in the course of
the festival are not addressed or heeded by the rulers, they are revisited in the ensuing
year until subjects see change regarding the issue. Thus, this festival marks the
beginning of free speech and democratic governance, which allows the rulers to have
25
full support of their subordinates. It must, however, be mentioned that the “social norms
are frozen within the period of the festival, after which all social norms and courtesies
are restored” (Yankah, 1998: 20-21). Though this festival to some extent empowers the
powerless, it is for a very short period of time in very controlled circumstances. Subjects
have only eight days in a year to review the performances of their leaders.
Similarly, the kundum festival of the Nzemas (ethnic group in Ghana) creates a
platform for the people to openly criticize the deeds of their rulers and elders in songs
and poems. The idea behind this is to critically examine and assess the performances
of the rulers for the general good and aspiration of the people. According to Agbovi
(1995), this festival exhibits the principle of leadership, the uses and abuses of power
and relationship between the ruler and the ruled. These are often evoked in applying the
criteria of good governance. Though this festival also empowers the powerless, it is also
for a specific limited period of time.
In terms of the non-occasional insults, Awoonor (1975) and Anyidoho (1988)
discuss the Halo festival of Anlo Ewes in the Volta region of Ghana, and report how
“rival villages in the past settled their differences annually through the use of poetic
invectives” (Yankah, 1998: 21). This event was earmarked to avert any potentially
undesirable situations, which in normal circumstances could have led to war between
and among the villages. The insults are among rival villages with the core function of
averting any undesirable occurrences, and therefore cannot be used outside the
perimeters of the rival villages. Insults used beyond the restrictive domains have their
socio-cultural repercussions; one can be punished for using them or the ‘insultee’ can
take offense.
26
In addition, there are verbal and speech games in traditional African societies
that allow people to express themselves freely. The Akans have a game called the
aborɔme. It is an invective game played among peers. The general rule of this game is
posing questions to one another for correct answers to some riddles, which are
eventually meant to insult the addressee (Agyekum, 2010). If the addressee is able to
find the right answers, he then poses the riddle to the opponent, and this ensures the
continuity of the game. The expressions are basically used to tease one another.
There is another verbal game called the anyansini (Sekyi Baidoo, 1998;
Agyekum, 2010). This game is normally played among ethnic groups or participants
with mutual historical relationship or affiliation (Agyekum, 2010). A typical example is an
abusive game that exists between Nzemas and Asantes in Ghana. When they meet one
another, they literally engage in insults and counter insults, and this is done irrespective
of the social status or differences (age, sex, rank) of the participants. There is a similar
verbal abuse game between the Gonjas of Northern Ghana and the Kasenas of the
Upper East region of Ghana. Another exists between Frafra and Dargarti of the Upper
East and Upper West regions of Ghana respectively (Agyekum, 2010).
Furthermore, games like dame “drafts” (checkers in American English), ntεtoɔ
“playing marbles,” ludu and oware exist in the Ghanaian society where opponents insult
one another freely without any inhibition. The insult is a diversionary tactic to confuse
the opponent so that “he loses concentration and eventually loses the game” (Agyekum,
2010: 140). Because of the insulting nature of such games, Akan chiefs are not allowed
to play them so that people will not use the game as an opportunity to insult them freely.
It must be mentioned that during these games the norms governing speech behavior
27
are waived, and opponents can insult and use any abusive language without any fear or
favor.
In a similar vein but in another cultural context, Irvine (1993) reports on verbal
abuse in a Wolof village in Senegal where co-wives get the chance to express their
hostility and fear they feel in the form of ritual insults to the newcomer. Such
expressions are seen as a compliment for the newcomer because it implies that she is a
genuine rival for male attention and respect (Irvine, 1993). In all these situations, the
insults have restricted usage, and cannot be used outside the domain of the games.
The non-institutionalized insults, as mentioned above, consist of verbal and non-
verbal forms of communication (Agbovi, 1987; 1995). The non-verbal form of insults is
common among women. This is due to the social constraints in traditional African
societies, which inhibit them from communicating freely. This, however, has led to some
social innovation in that women have created other avenues to express their opinions
and pent up feelings. Akan women, for instance, use garments and waist beads as a
channel for the silent projection of arguments. Some of these garments are used to
insult other women or rivals. Yankah (1995: 81) points to “the use of garments as a
mode of argument by women exists in most African cultures. It is found not only in
Ghana, but also in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zaire (Now Democratic Republic
of Congo) and other African countries.” It is also found in the Caribbean among the
Paramaribo of Surinam (Amory, 1985).
Verbal insults according to Sakyi-Baidoo (2008) are invectives used among
people of equality and intimacy, that is, among friends or colleagues such as politicians,
professors, directors of firms and agencies, headmasters, drivers, traders, soldiers,
28
soccer players, and doctors. Some types of insults are acceptable within these social
networks. The insult is seen as one of the many things that bind them together. It has
become part of their day-to-day interaction and its absence is seen as not normal. This
is because members have consented to insult and be insulted. The main purpose of
these insults within the groups is to maintain “social cohesion and group identity” (Sakyi-
baidoo, 2008: 1). The rules of engagement in the use of insults among members are
tacitly known to all of them; if someone contravenes the rules or applies them to a non-
group member, the appropriate sanctions are applied. That is to say, the insult is meant
to be used among the group members and cannot be extended beyond the borders of
the group.
Similarly, in the U.S, Labov’s (1972) study on ‘playing the dozen’ or ‘sounding’
ritual insults of the African Americans of Harlem shows that traditional insult is a verbal
art which is recognized and evaluated for its artistry. It makes use of couplet,
conventional formulae, and syntactic forms. However, he cautions that this art can
degenerate into pain and fighting in cases where the conventions of the game are not
followed.
Bringing all these permissible insults into perspective, Agbovi (1985) argues that
“these traditions of institutionalized and non-institutionalized insults are some form of
creative tool for defining the moral priorities and the direction of a culture” (cited in
Sakyi-Baidoo, 2008: 5). Yankah (1998) also points out the restorative and regulatory
functions of the tradition of institutionalized insult in Apoɔ festival. He further states that
“the publicization of social flaws through abuse is expected to lead to the reformation of
wayward behavior for the general good” (1998: 23). Brempong and Warren’s (1979; 88)
29
study on Apoɔ festival and Awoonor’s (1975) research in Halo insults arrive at the same
conclusion. According to Sakyi-Baidoo (2008: 6), the non-institutionalized insults are
“inimical to social cohesion whereas the institutionalized ones are permitted but in a well
defined cultural framework which ensures that it is the only way of protesting against
aberrant behavior for the general benefit of society.”
These traditions of institutionalized or non-institutionalized insults show that there
is a limit as to when one is allowed to use insults. Insults have restrictive operational
parameters beyond which socio-cultural norms are imposed. The Apoɔ as well as the
Kudum festivals that license the powerless in society to insult their leaders is for a very
limited period of time. Games that give liberty to people to insult are also operational
within those specific games. Members of a particular social network cannot use their
insults outside the domain of the network. These traditions especially the festivals, to
some extent, point to the power asymmetry in Ghanaian society. Power is invested in
people in authority such as chiefs, elders, politicians and many others. These people
wield a lot of power, and thus for an ordinary citizen to make unsavory comments
about/to them is considered disrespectful and unacceptable. The powerless in society
do not have the right to insult the powerful or people in authority even when they
deserve it; it is only in limited situations, as mentioned above, that the powerless have
the license to do so.
However, Ghanaian society has changed drastically to the extent that through
the power of the media, ordinary citizens in democratic Ghana insult politicians on radio
and on the Internet. Radio stations are spread across the length and breadth of country.
Political discussions are broadcast via affiliate stations to most parts of Ghana, and
30
through Internet radio to those abroad. Ghanaians at home and abroad are able to
contribute to political discourse via phone-ins, SMS, and online commentaries. Various
platforms are created for the powerless in society to contribute to political discussions.
This allows for the participation of ordinary citizens in political life, and transforms the
audience from “passive observers into active participants in the creation of news and
the dissemination of messages” (Owen, 1997: 334). As part of their contribution, some
of them insult politicians for the bad state of the country and abuse of power. There is
no time frame or culturally acceptable or appropriate context for one to insult politicians.
When callers are given the opportunity to call into the program or use any of the online
websites, they could make such comments. It must, however, be mentioned that some
radio stations censor people insulting politicians or using vulgar language. Other online
websites, for instance peacefmonline, also block intemperate language used by
commenters.
These insults do not have a place within the various traditions (institutionalized
and non-institutionalized) because they are unacceptable and not permitted based on
the conservative nature and the cultural priorities of Ghanaian society. Various
stakeholders in politics in Ghana, especially MFWA, frown upon them. Scholars such as
Marfo (2014) have also pointed out the negative ramifications of politics of insults. His
paper on “thinking peace, democracy and politics of insults: the paradox of freedom and
culture of violence,” talks about how the freedom of speech in Ghana is breeding a
culture of violence, which has the potential of robbing Ghanaians of the peace they are
enjoying. He further states that irresponsible freedom of speech has resulted in all forms
of negative verbal expressions peddled in the newspapers and on radio, and “such
31
development has exposed the weakness of the country’s democracy” (Marfo, 2014:
528). His analysis is situated in the context of insults, politics and violence in Ghanaian
political discourse. Agyekum (2004; 2010) discussion on insults hinges on the broader
analysis of the use of “invective language in Ghanaian politics.” He also focuses his
argument on insults as verbal taboos in Akan society. As will be seen in the analysis of
this dissertation, the insults being discussed in this study serve varied functions, such
as (1) challenging the existing social power; (2) infantilizing politicians; (3) animalizing
political authority; (4) showing the mental health of politicians; and (5) some of the
insults are innocuous and have therapeutic functions. Also, the platforms that the media
offer give voice and empower ordinary citizens to participate in political discourse in
Ghana.
1.6 Tracing Political Discourse in the Media; the Road to Freedom of Speech in Ghana
The Ghanaian media has had a checkered history before independence in 1957
and post independence. They have gone through various struggles ranging from
imprisonment without trial of journalists, media house closures and in some cases
facing the ultimate punishment in life, which is death. Therefore, the renewed path
towards democracy and press freedom in 1992 was a breather for journalists.
Jones-Quartey (1974) states that before Ghana gained independence there were
forty (40) newspapers in operation between 1931 and 1956; however, on the day of
independence (March 6, 1957) the number had plummeted to 11. This was due to the
fact that the colonial government passed media law in 1892 as well as the Book and
newspaper Registeration Ordinance in 1897 “to deal with ‘rascals’ in the colony”
(Owusu, 2012: 24).
32
When Ghana gained independence, the then elected first president, Dr. Kwame
Nkrumah did not abolish the book and newspaper registeration laws passed by the
colonial government. He, however, used the law to frustrtate his perceived political
opponents (Owusu, 2012) for publishing libelious comments about him. Nkrumah’s
government further enected laws such as the Criminal Code Act 29, 1960, which
empowered the Minister of Information to block newspaper publication purported to
slight the government of the day (Jones-Quartey, 1974).
After the National Liberation Council (NLM) staged a joint military and police
coup that overthrew Nkrumah in 1966, they pursued newspapers, journalist and media
stations with the same ideological leanings as Convention People’s Party (Owusu,
2012). The NLM did not stay in power for long. They organized elections in 1969, which
brought the Progress Party (PP) to power led by Prof. Kofi Abrefa Busia as the Prime
Minister of the second republic. Busia’s governement was considered to be media
friendly because they reviewed and “repealed various acts of the media laws” passed
by the colonial government and Nkrumah to deter journalists (Owusu, 2012: 28). Busia’s
government, however could not stand the test of time, his own bodyguard, General I. K.
Acheampong in 1972, overthrew him. Acheampong’s government “reinstated strict
media control and chased opposition outlets” (Owusu, 2012: 28).
General W.K. Akuffo overthrew Acheampong in what is described as the
bloodless palace coup in 1978. He reversed some of the strict media laws enacted by
his predecessor and even went to the extent of releasing jailed journalist and opposition
party members. This led to the establishment of two party newspapers in 1978: the star
33
of the Popular Front Party (PFP) and the Gong Gong of the People’s National (PNP) as
a renewed path towards the return to civilian rule (Owusu, 2012).
Akuffo’s government was short lived. The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
(AFRC) led by Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings ousted him. The AFRC reinstated strict
media laws that had been repealed by Akuffo. They, however, supervised the election
of the third republic in 1979, which brought Dr. Hilla Limann and his People’s Natioal
Convention (PNC) to power. Limann was very much committed to media reforms and
went ahead to establish a twelve (12) member Press Commission on July 25, 1980
(Owusu, 2012).
President Hilla Limann was overthrown in 1981 by Flt. Lt. Rawlings in 1981.
Rawlings formed the provision National Defence Council (PNDC). He scrapped liberal
media reforms initiated by President Limann and implemented strict and repressive
media laws (Owusu, 2012). It was also during this period that the “culture of silence”
was in effect (Smith and Temin, 2002: 588). The PNDC regime also introduced the
Preventive Custody Law and Newspaper Licensing Law in 1983. The aim of of the latter
was that anyone who wanted to publish a newspaper or magazine must obtain license
from the Secretary of Information. This law to some extent was a replica of the Book
and newspaper Registeration Ordinance passed by the colonial government in 1897 to
deal with “sturbbon” journalists.
As part of the roadmap towards the return to democracy and civilian rule, the
1983 Newspaper licensing Law was lifted in May 1992 (Owusu, 2012). Immediately
after the repeal, Smith and Temin (2002: 588) record that “three dozens independent
private newspapers opened for business, many of them highly critical of the NDC
34
(successor to the PNDC) during the 1992 elections.” To give more credence to the
pivotal role of the media emerging democracies, the 1992 constitution of the republic of
Ghana has a chapter dedicated to the freedom and the independence of the media. In
addition, the constitution mandated the establishment of the National Media
Commission (NMC) (Article 166) as the “symbol and custodian of these freedoms”
(Owusu, 2012: 32). This, notwithstanding, the Criminal Libel Law was not taken out of
the 1992 constitution. This became a challenge for journalists to express their opinion
without looking over their shoulders.
The Criminal Libel law was repealed when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) won the
election in 2001. The then president, Kufuor and his NPP promised media freedom to
enable journalists to do their work without fear or favor. This respite for journalists led to
the proliferation of media outlets. Currently there are about 400 authorized radio
stations in virtually every district, and communication centers in almost every village in
Ghana. More than 100 newspapers are in operation as well as about 12 television
stations. There are uncountable numbers of websites. This has deepened citizens’
participaption in the day-to-day political discourse in Ghana.
Though the liberalization of the media has led to citizens’ participaption in
governance process and political discussions, some Ghanaians also hold the view that
the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law has “opened the floodgates for irresponsible
journalism” (Owusu, 2012: 12). This is because the media has become a platform for
insults and counter insults among politicians and citizens alike. They have also been
cited for fanning the flames of ethnic tensions in the country. In the present study,
however, we will see that the data show the power the media give to ordinary citizen
35
enable them to contribute to political discourse in Ghana and insult and challenge the
existing social power and question political authority.
1.7 Political Parties in Ghana
The 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana guarantees Ghanaians the right
to form political associations, speak freely, choose who to govern the country, and the
right to participate in the governance of the country in any forms. Recall that in section
1.1 we mentioned that Ghana has experienced series of military takeovers from 1966 to
1982, which led to dictatorship, abuse of fundamental human rights, stifling of freedom
of speech and associations. Thus, the return to democracy and introduction of the 1992
constitution was a renewed path towards the strengthening of fundamental human
rights, freedom of speech and the development of multi-party democracy. Ninsin (2006)
points to the fact that when the ban on political parties was lifted in May 1992, by
November the same year, 13 political parties had been formed and registered.
However, many of these parties did not survive. Rather, only two of them namely the
National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) emerged as
the two dominant parties. The subsequent sections elaborate on these two political
parties in Ghana
1.7.1 The New Patriotic Party (NPP)
The NPP, the current party in opposition, emerged from an old political tradition
dating back to the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) and United Party (UP) of the
Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition. They fought for independence with Dr. Kwame
Nkrumah’s Conventions Peoples Party (CPP). The UGCC and the UP metamorphosed
into NPP in 1992 when the country returned to civilian rule. NPP lost both presidential
and parliamentary elections in 1992 and 1996. They, however, won the 2000 and 2004
36
elections, and lost to the NDC in 2008 and 2012 in one of the most closely contested
presidential elections in Ghana’s history. The NPP lost by a margin of 0.46% in 2008.
The NPP has its major votes in the Akan dominated regions of Ghana namely
Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Eastern, Western, and Central regions. It is, however, not
popular in the Volta, Upper West, Upper East, and the Northern regions. The Greater
Accra region is considered in Ghana’s election as a neutral ground for all the political
parties.
The political ideology of the NPP is that it is a capitalist party and believes in
privitization, rule of law, and democracy. They also believe that micro-economic stability
can be achieved through fiscal prudence, low inflation rate, and low bank interest rates.
Creating an enabling environment for the private sector to flourish is the only way to
encourage the growth of dynamic private sector and create wealth, because it is only
the private sector that can engineer national progress and prosperity (NPP manifesto:
2008). In short, they see the private sector as an engine of growth.
1.7.2 The National Democratic Congress (NDC)
The NDC, the current government in power, “is one of the newest parties in
Ghanaian politics” (Agyekum, 2004: 346). It was formed in 1992 from the Provincial
National Defence Council (PNDC) military regime with Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings as its
leader. The PNDC overthrew a constitutional elected government, Peoples National
Party (PNP) that rule Ghana from 1979 to December 31, 1981 and ruled Ghana from
1981 to 1992. During the return to civilian rule, the PNDC metamorphosed to NDC. The
NDC won both 1992 and 1996 elections. They, however, lost to the NPP in 2000 and
2004, and won the 2008 and 2012 elections.
37
The NDC has majority of its votes from the Volta, Northern, Upper West, and
Upper East regions. It was not popular in the Akan dominated areas, but its gaining
roots in some of the Akan regions such as Brong-Ahafo, Central and Western regions.
The NDC won three out of the five Akan dominated regions in the 2012 presidential
elections.
The political ideology of the NDC is that it is a social democratic party. It believes
in harnessing the power of free market, protecting workers rights, and reducing poverty,
while supporting the rule of law and up-holding basic human rights (NDC manifesto:
2008).
1.8 The Linguistic Situation in Ghana
English and Akan are the predominant languages used in political discussions in
Ghana. Obeng (1997) adds another language, Hausa, to the two as the most important
lingua francas in Ghana. Though the official language of Ghana is English, Akan has
taken a fundamental position when it comes to political discussions, such as debates,
speeches, campaigns, newspaper reviews, on the radio and television. Most political
discussants on the radio and television use both English and Akan to convey their
thoughts and present their ideas to the general public. The reason behind this is that
most Ghanaians can speak and understand the Akan language.
1.8.1 Akan
The Akan language belongs to the Kwa subgroup of the Niger Congo family of
West Africa, spoken in Ghana. It is the largest indigenous language in Ghana and it has
the largest number of speakers (L1 speakers), constituting about 40% of the total
population of Ghana. According to the 2000 population and housing census conducted
by the Ghana Statistical Service, Akan has a total of 7,753,830 speakers (GSS, 2000).
38
In terms of its area of domicile, the Akan population occupy the south and south west
(covering the coastal and the forest zones, between the rivers Tano and Volta) of
Ghana. Ghana has a total of ten regions. Out of these, Akan speakers constitute almost
five of these regions. These are Brong-Ahafo, Ashanti, Western, Central and Eastern
regions. Akan forms part of the central Tano group, which is made up of the Bia and
Akan languages. Languages that belong to the Bia group are Ahanta, Chakosi, Nzema,
Sehwi, Aowin, and Baule. Akan has a number of easily distinguishable dialects. These
are Asante (AS), Akuapem (AK), Fante (FA), Agona, Akyem, Wassa, Bono, Kwahu,
Ahafo, Assin, Akwamu and Denkyira. These dialects have varying degrees of mutual
intelligibility between and among them.
Akan by far is the most widely used indigenous language in Ghana. In schools, it
is taught as a subject from primary to the university level, and in years past it was used
as a language of instruction in pre-schools in native Akan areas. Its use is not restricted
to native Akan areas only. In Accra, students have the option to choose between taking
Akan or Ga as a subject. Similarly, in Guan speaking areas in the Central, Eastern and
parts of the Volta regions, Akan is taught as a subject (Dolphyne 1988; Osam 2004).
Indeed, of all the Ghanaian languages, Akan has the largest amount of written text
including creative literature and is therefore the most widely studied and documented
(Obeng, 1997)
In the area of trade, Akan is used as a language in many businesses. This is
corroborated in the survey conducted by Essegbey (2009) who revealed that most non-
Akan traders in Accra, a Ga speaking land could speak, use and understand Akan for
trading and communication purposes.
39
In the media, Akan is the most dominant language used on some radio and
Television stations. There are about thirty (30) radio stations in Accra, the capital city of
Ghana. Of these, the majority broadcast their programs in both English and Akan. Radio
stations such as Peace FM, Asεmpa FM, Adom FM, Hot FM, Okay FM and others
broadcast their morning shows and political discussions in Akan. Some of these FM
stations have affiliate stations in all the ten (10) regions and communication centers in
various towns and villages across the country. Peace FM, for instance, has about thirty
(30) affiliate stations across the country and seventeen (17) outside the country.
Example, of stations affiliated to peace FM are Fila FM in Tamale, the regional capital of
the Northern region, and Ho, the capital city of the Volta region are non-Akan region.
Regarding television, Akan plays a dominant role in advertisement, comedy,
movies, news, and political discussions. TV Africa, for instance, has political programs
and news broadcast in Akan. Similarly, Adom TV has a political discussion programs-
badwam in Akan, which is aired in the morning. In addition, Ghana Television (GTV),
which is owned by the state, broadcasts news and adult-education programs in five
languages. These are Akan, Ewe, Ga, Dagbani, and Hausa (Essegbey, 2009).
Finally, Akan is frequently used in religious activities both on radio and television
and in mainstream preaching and evangelism. In open spaces like markets, on the
street, at the beaches, lorry stations, men of God minister the word of God in Akan. At
church services in Akan as well as non-Akan regions, especially in Accra, when English
is used there is a translation of some aspects of the preaching/service into Akan. This is
also the norm in Ghanaian churches abroad.
40
In sum, Akan could be said to be a default national language, which is used side
by side with English in Ghana. It is, thus, not surprising that most of the insults
encountered in the course of gathering the data in political discussions are in Akan and
English.
1.8.2 English
English is the official language in Ghana. It is used as the mode of instruction in
schools from the third grade onwards, and in government business and in
communications such as press briefings, press releases, state-of-the-nation addresses
and in parliament. It is used in broadcasting in the state-run radio and television
stations-Ghana Television (GTV), Radio Ghana-as well as some private owned
stations-Joy FM, Radio Gold, Radio Universe, Citi FM, Joy TV, TV 3, Metro TV and
many others. Most of the newspapers in Ghana, both state owned and private, are
written in English. “Almost every literate person who writes, reads and listens to the
radio does so in English more than any other Ghanaian language” (Dakubu, 1988:164).
1.9 Dissertation Layout
Chapter 1 was basically devoted to the motivation and the background of the
study. Research questions that are germane to the study were introduced and the
relevant literatures reviewed with the aim of showing the various studies in the study of
insults in public political discourse in Ghana. Further, information on the two dominant
political parties: NPP and NDC, regarding their political ideologies were spelt out. I
ended the Chapter with the linguistic situation in Ghana, focusing specifically on the two
dominant languages spoken in Ghana as well as their relevance in the data gathering
process.
41
Chapter 2 focuses on the methodology and the theoretical framework as well as
critical terms in CDA. I look at the advantages and disadvantages of various methods,
and explicate what appears to be the most appropriate one with respect to insults in
Ghanaian public political discourse. Concerning the theoretical framework, I adopt
specifically Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework, that is discourse-as-text;
discourse-as-discursive-pracetice; and discourse-as-social-practice, and van Dijk’s
ideological square. Drawing on these three layers of analysis, I link text to context, and
especially employ the sociopolitical and the cultural context to link the entire discourse
to the society in general. I conclude the Chapter with a discussion on of three critical
terms central to CDA studies: power, ideology and voice.
In Chapter 3, I discuss the first dimension of Fairclough’s three dimensional
framework, which is textual analysis. Under this dimension, I analyze five features of
analysis: lexicalization and predication, presupposition, metaphor/simile, proverbs and
verbal process. In the discussion of lexicalization and predication, I look at how ordinary
citizens infantilize and animalize politicians as well as compare them to patients in the
psychiatric hospital. Also, I argue that some of the insults are innocuous. Moreover, I
compare and contrast the negative and positive lexicalizations and predications used by
pro-NPP and NDC papers in the representation of insults.
With regard to presupposition, I discuss how ordinary citizens employ
presupposition to challenge the existing social power. Again, I analyze how pro-NPP
and NDC papers use this feature to present propositions, which if not critically examined
by readers, would be taken for granted. Concerning metaphor/simile and proverbs, I
focus on how citizens use these devices to expose the wrong doings of the exsiting
42
social power. I further look at how citizens use such devices to mitigate the effect of an
otherwise explicit insult, which may have had the potential of affecting the sensibilities of
the addressee. I conclude the Chapter with discussion on how pro-NPP and NDC
papers employ different verbal processes to report insults from those they considered
ingroup positively and those they considered outgroup negatively.
In Chapter 4 I concentrate on the second dimension of Fairclough’s three-
dimensional framework: discourse-as-discursive-practice. Within this dimension, I
analyze two phenomena: Intertextuality and topic. Under Intertextuality, I analyze how
citizens cite the voices of prominent people in Ghanaian society to reiterate their
challenge of the existing social power. In addition, I discuss how pro-NPP and NDC
newspapers report insults or voices they consider newsworthy focusing specifically on
the voices that were given more prominence and the ones marginalized. Employing
direct, strategic and indirect quotation, I show how the various outlets reported insults
from the ingroup, outgroup and non-politicians. Concerning topic, I discuss the main
topics citizens selected to insult and challenge the existing political authority in public
political discourse in Ghana. Using foregrounding and backgrounding, I discuss topics
selected by NPP and NDC newspapers in the representation of insults.
In Chapter 5 I expatiate on both the textual and discursive analysis to explain the
broader sociopolitical and sociocultural context, which is Fairclough’s third dimension of
his three dimensional framework: discourse-as-social-practice. I discuss the power the
media holds in political discourse in Ghana that is transferred to the powerless in
society (i.e. ordinary citizens) who are empowered to challenge the existing social
power (power of politicians) through phone-ins and online commentaries, as well as the
43
voice the media give to the voiceless in society to participate in political discourse. I
further look at the therapeutic function of the use of insults by ordinary citizens.
Also, drawing on van Dijk’s ideological square, I discuss the various ideological
structures utilized by both pro-NPP and NDC newspapers on the textual and discursive
levels to represent ingroup positively and the outgroup negatively (group polarization),
paying particular attention to the sociopolitical context that necessitated this
polarization. I conclude the Chapter by comparing the use of explicit and implicit insults
in spoken and written text.
Chapter 6 concludes the study by highlighting the findings in citizens’ use of
insults as well as the ideological differences and political spin in pro-NPP and NDC
papers in public political discourse in Ghana. Also, I discuss the theoretical implications
of the study. I conclude the Chapter by spelling out the limitation of the study and the
implications for future research.
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CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 Overview
This Chapter provides the method and theoretical framework for this study. It
reviews the advantages and disadvantages of various methods, and explicates what
appears to be the most appropriate one with respect to the study of insults in public
political discourse in Ghana.
2.2 Methodology
Qualitative research deals with in-depth information, discovers meanings, and
reveals the subtlety and complexity of cases or issues (Silverman, 2001). It relies on the
written or spoken word to analyze relatively few participants (Creswell, 1994, 2003).
Qualitative researchers, therefore, are concerned with describing and interpreting a
certain phenomenon happening within the social contexts (Fryer, 1991).
Ting-Toomey (1984) provides three characteristics of qualitative research in
intercultural communication: (1) Qualitative research focuses on description of
conversations; (2) Qualitative research aims at interpreting the principles people use in
activities, such as the norms that people abide by in a specific situation; and (3)
Qualitative research examines contexts relevant to the interpretation of discourse. In
sum, it provides a descriptive analysis of the examined event that cannot be explained
using numbers and statistical analysis. It can however complement quantitative data.
The focus of this study is an analysis of the use of insults in Ghanaian political
discourse, focusing on four broader questions: (1) How do ordinary citizens use insults
to challenge the existing social structures? (2) Where do ordinary citizens derive this
power from to challenge the existing political authority (3) What are the underlying
45
ideologies in the representation of insults in pro-NPP and NDC newspapers? (4) How
explicit is the use of insults in both spoken and written text? Research of this nature
requires the use of qualitative method because it involves a description and
interpretation of public political discourse in an interactive context among ordinary
citizens and politicians of different political backgrounds in Ghana. Thus, qualitative
research methods provide detailed examination and interpretation of the speech event
of insult in public political discussions in Ghana.
In looking at the discourse of ordinary citizens and politicians in interactive
discussions, a methodology that critically provides an in-depth, dynamic, and systematic
analysis of linguistic behaviors in interactive contexts needs to be selected. For these
reasons this study adopts Fairclough’s (1989, 1992a, 1995a,b, 2000, 2003) three-
dimensional model and van Dijk’s (1998) concept of ideological square. The three
dimensional model is: (1) Discourse-as-text; (2) Discourse-as-discursive-practice; and
(3) discourse-as-social-practice. Ideological Square, on the other hand, looks at how
different social groups represent themselves positively and represent others negatively.
This means that the structures of ideologies are represented along the lines of an us
verses them dichotomy. These two approaches provide deeper understanding of culture
and behavior patterns which are in consonant with qualitative research methods.
Therefore, this study adopts a qualitative approach, whose nature is interpretive and
which seeks to analyze the interactive procedures associated with the social practice of
discourse and society.
Data Collection: The data for this study were obtained from recordings of
phone-ins on political discussions on the radio, reports in newspapers, and political
46
commentaries online. They were gathered from 2012 to February 2014. I selected three
radio stations, all in Accra, the national capital: Peace FM, Adom FM, and Happy FM.
The newspapers are Daily Guide, The Daily Searchlight, The New Statesman, and The
Chronicle (pro -NPP newspapers), while The informer, The Democrat, The Palaver, The
Al-Hajj, The National Democrat, The Catalyst, The New Voice, Daily Post, Daily
Heritage, Radio Gold online are all pro-NDC newspapers. In all, a total of 79 news
articles were selected consisting of 38 NPP newspaper articles and 41 NDC newspaper
articles for the analysis. See Table 2-1 for the breakdown of the news articles per every
newspaper.
The online websites are: www.peacefmonline.com; www.myjoyonline.com; and
www.ghanaweb.com. A total of 455 commentaries were gathered of which 356 are
from peacefmonline; 70 from ghanaweb; and 29 from myjoyonline. The radio stations
and the commentaries online served as the base for the collection of the data because
most of their programs (radio stations), especially political discussions and morning
programs, are broadcast in Akan and sometimes in English. These are from Peace
FM’s flagship daily morning show, Kokrookoo; Adom FM’s evening program, Burning
Issues; and Happy FM morning program, Yεpε a Yεbεhu. The radio stations selected
have affiliates and communication centers spread across the length and breadth of the
country. Listeners are able to text and call-in to contribute to political discussions from
every part of the country. 100 phone-ins were randomly recorded, sampled and
transcribed. The use of recorded materials for research is very effective because it
helps in getting data from a natural language setting, and it is also one kind of
spontaneous speech within the speech event of the news media. Particular care was
47
taken to accurately represent features associated with sequential development of talk
that is transitioning from one speaker to the next in that order. The data were first
transcribed by the researcher and checked by a native speaker of Akan for accuracy
and consistency. It must be noted that the online commentaries were exclusively written
in English and unedited. This was done to avoid the situation of changing the meaning
and content of the comments.
2.3 Theoretical Framework
Under theoretical framework, I define and discuss CDA and media discourse. I
follow up with the discussion of the following approaches to the study of critical
discourse analysis: (1) Wodak’s discourse historical approach; (2) van Dijk’s socio-
cognitive approach; and (3) Fairclough’s social-discoursal approach. I adopt Fairclough
and van Dijk’s frameworks for the analysis of this study. This section also discusses the
various models of analysis of the data: lexicalization and predication, presuppositions,
metaphor/simile, proverbs, verbal process, intertextuality and topic. I finally conclude the
section with central terms in CDA: power, ideology and voice.
2.3.1 Critical Discourse Analysis
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a position taken by a group of scholars who
agree on certain principles of analysis and also agree to address similar issues. These
scholars have developed some institutional tools for doing such analysis. Notable
among these scholars are Norman Fairclough, Ruth Wodak, Teun van Dijk, and Paul
Chilton. The origin of this field dates back to the period of classical rhetoric, which is
associated with figures such as Aristotle, who outlined the various structures of
discourse and pointed to their role in the process of persuasion within public context
(van Dijk, 1988: 18). However, the foundation of CDA hinges on the work of Fowler,
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Hodge and Kress (1979) on language, power, ideology, and control, as well as Michael
Halliday’s systemic-functional linguistics (Blommaert, 2005). Norman Fairclough
pioneered the development of CDA in the late 1980s, leading to a three dimensional
framework for the analysis of discourse. This model links analysis of text to discursive
practice, including how the two relate to society, that is, social practice. His theory is
fundamentally built on the works of Trew, Saussure, Halliday, Foucault, and Baktin.
These scholars engineered the development of Critical Linguistics as one of the early
schools of discourse in the 1970s.
The primary focus of Critical Linguistics (CL) as observed by Kress and Hodge
(1979) is the assumption that there is a strong and pervasive connection between
linguistic structure and social structure, meaning discourse cannot exist without social
meaning. That is to say, social context must be incorporated into the study of language
and not focusing only on the scientific study of language, which to some extent isolates
it from its context. CL tries to harmonize the linguistic on one hand, as well as the social,
political, cultural and historical, on the other hand. CL has metamorphosed into CDA,
and in most cases the two are used interchangeably. The fact of the matter is CDA is
“currently preferred and is used to denote the theory formally known as CL” (Wodak,
2001; 2006).
A term very central in CDA is “discourse.” This term is used differently in different
academic fields. Wodak (2006) makes a distinction between the uses of discourse. In
the German and Central European context, a distinction is made between “text” and
“discourse,” relating it to written and spoken language respectively, while in the English
speaking world, “discourse is often used for both spoken and written language” (Wodak,
49
2006: 3). Some researchers make a distinction between different levels of abstractness:
Lemke (1995) defines “text” as concrete realization of abstract forms of knowledge
(“discourse”). Blommaert (2005: 3), following Foucault’s perspective of discourse, sees
it as “comprising all forms of meaningful semiotic human activity seen in connection with
social, cultural, and historical patterns and developments of use.” Weiss and Wodak
(2009) talk about the interdiscursivity of discourse. This means that texts are linked to
each other in various ways. They are not restricted to just one field when addressing a
specific topic. If we envision discourse as topic-related, we will observe that a discourse
on education, for instance, will be made up of topics and sub-topics of other discourses
such as finance or politics. Therefore, discourses are hybrid and open as new sub-
topics are created and embedded into the main topic.
What distinguishes CDA from other kinds of discourse analysis is its critical
nature. It is critical because it does not make use of only one approach; rather, it is an
interdisciplinary approach that draws upon a range of theoretical and methodological
frameworks from the humanities and social sciences. This implies that there is no rigid
or confined way of analyzing a specific critical issue. It also investigates the workings of
power relations by showing how the present social order and relations connect to
power, dominance, discrimination, and ideology. It aims at demystifying ideologies and
power through systematic and retroductable analysis of semiotic data (Wodak and
Mayer, 2009). The critical nature of CDA is summarized as having distance from the
data, embedding the data in the social, taking a political stance explicitly, and focusing
on self-reflection as scholars doing research (Wodak and Mayer, 2001).
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The revolving idea of CDA is power, and it analyzes opaque as well as
transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as
manifested in language (Wodak, 2001: 2). Van Dijk (2001: 96) also postulates that CDA
focuses on social problems, especially on the role of discourse in the production and
reproduction of power abuse or domination. This means that it not only focuses on the
linguistic per se, but also complex social phenomena that have semiotic dimensions
(Wodak and Meyer, 2009). Therefore, the overall aim of CDA is linking linguistic
analysis to social analysis (Woods and Kroger, 2000: 206). CDA aims at making visible
and transparent the instrument of power, which is of increasing importance in the
contemporary world. CDA is very critical on the relationship between language,
discourse, speech, and social structure. As the dimensions of CDA include “the object
of moral and political evaluation, analyzing them should have effect on society by
empowering the powerless, giving voices to the voiceless, exposing power abuse, and
mobilizing people to remedy social wrongs” (Blommaert, 2005: 25). These are the main
concerns in analyzing insults in Ghanaian public political discourse: Who has access to
the media? Who controls the media? What are the ideological standpoints of the media
in Ghana? Whose agenda are they propagating? Who has voice and who does not?
These are some of the questions that CDA tries to uncover in contemporary societies
that relate directly to the present study.
Critical Discourse Analysis is “biased – and proud of it” (van Dijk, 2001: 96). It is
an interdisciplinary approach to text and talk that “aims to investigate critically social
inequality as it is expressed, signaled, constituted and legitimized” (Wodak, 2001: 2). It
insists that “all representation is mediated, molded by the value systems that are
51
ingrained in the medium used for representation; CDA challenges common sense by
pointing out that something could have been represented some other way, with a very
different significance” (Fowler, 1996: 4). Influenced by the functional approach to
language (Halliday, 1985) and the social theory of Western Marxism (Gramsci, 1971;
Foucault, 1972), CDA takes as its basis the idea that there is an imbalance in the
access that members of a society have to social and specifically linguistic resources;
that these resources are controlled by social institutions; and that restricting access to
these resources both produces and maintains patterns of social inequality.
Fairclough and Wodak (1997: 271-80) summarize the main tenets of CDA as
follows: (1) CDA addresses social problems; (2) power relations are discursive; (3)
discourse constitutes society and culture; (4) discourse does ideological work; (5)
discourse is historical; (6) the link between text and society is mediated; (7) discourse is
interpretative and explanatory; and (8) discourse is a form of social action.
The media discourse in Ghana has changed drastically in that before 2001 it was
very difficult for media personnel, let alone an ordinary citizen, to challenge political
authority. During this period, there were very few radio stations, newspapers, and online
websites. This was due to the various laws governing media practices in Ghana. Even
the ones that existed were so polarized that they were “divided into two distinct genres:
state press and private press” (Hasty, 2005: 2). The state press were praise singers of
the government. They published stories that projected the development, inspirational
rhetoric and policies of the government while the private press were sometimes the
opposite of the state press. They revealed the profligate spending, abuse of power, and
social inequality of the government (Hasty, 2005). In analyzing how the powerless in
52
society are given a voice through the media to challenge political authority and
delegitimize hidden ideologies in the comments of politicians, as well as the underlying
ideologies in the representation of insults in pro-NPP and NDC newspapers, these
developments must be taken into consideration.
2.3.2 Media Discourse Analysis
Media discourse refers to interactions that take place through a broadcast
platform, whether spoken or written, in which the discourse is oriented to a non-present
reader, listener or viewer (O’Keeffe, 2001). It is important to note that these recipients,
in most cases, cannot make instantaneous responses to the producer(s) of the
discourse, though this is changing with the advent of media technology. As an object of
study, it is very important in two ways: (1) what it reveals about a society and (2) what it
contributes to the character of the society (Bell, 1998: 65). Researchers in linguistics
dwell much on the second, focusing on issues of ideology and power, which are very
instrumental in media reports. In most societies the media play a major role in shaping
the minds of their readers and listeners.
In analyzing media discourse, researchers should not consider the language
alone; they must also examine the context of communication: who is communicating
with whom and why; in what kind of society and situation, as well as through what
medium; and how different types of communication evolved, and their relationship with
each other (Cooks, 1992: 1). Researchers must be able to piece all these together in
order to come out with a composite analysis of media discourse.
Bell (1991) outlines four major reasons for the study of media discourse. These
are: (1) it is a rich source of constant and readily accessible data for research and
pedagogical activities; (2) it influences and represents people’s use of and attitudes
53
towards language in a speech community; (3) it also reveals a lot about the social
meanings and perceptions of the people that are projected through language and
communication; and (4) the media reflect and influence the formation and expression of
culture, politics and social life. Therefore, media discourse shares great perspectives on
the media itself, media language and the wider society.
Media discourse was not given the needed attention in the 1970s and 80s. Most
of the works during those times were focused on various sociological or socio-
psychological theories of mass media institutions, of audiences or effects, or the
relationship between media, on the one hand, and society and culture, on the other
hand. van Dijk (1985), however, has attributed the lack of both classical and modern
mass media research in the field of linguistics to three reasons: (1) linguistics have little
to offer those interested in the analysis of mass media, since linguistic grammarians
before the 1970s were much more concerned with abstract description, and did not
account for ‘texts’ in their various levels and dimensions. In addition, media discourse
analysis was conducted within disciplines such as stylistics, rhetorics or semiotics; (2)
mass media research emerged primarily in the social sciences, such as political science
and sociology, and focused on macro-phenomena such as institutions, the audience or
public, large-scale processes of effects, or overall functions of media in society; and (3)
because the nature of questions asked in mass communication research needed the
analysis of a large amount of data, only superficial and mostly quantitative methods
were available.
The late 1980s and early 1990s witnessed a lot of studies in media discourse
linking linguistic analysis to society. The focuses of these studies were on relations of
54
power, dominance, race, discrimination, ideology, voice, hegemony, and power abuse
in the media (van Dijk, 1985, 1988a, 1988b; Bell, 1991; Cooks, 1992; Fairclough, 1992,
1995; Matheson 2005; Richardson, 2007; and many more). The core reason for this
interest stems from the fact that, as Richardson (2007) puts it, the media is the domain
where social reality is shaped and where commonsensical ideologies are normalized. It
is one of the major persuasive tools for socio-political and socio-cultural activities of a
people. It shapes their mindset, and therefore, has become the platform for political
argument. Different groups of people are constantly competing to control the media as
an instrument of social power. That is to say, they use the media to surreptitiously churn
out their ideologies and reinforce their dominance.
Fairclough (1995) makes a distinction between three different types of media:
press, radio and television. The difference between the three basically lies in the
channel of communication: the press is written; the radio is oral; and the television is
both visual and oral. Fairclogh notes that the difference in the channel of communication
has potential implications: the press and online commentary are the least personal
because they are written; television is the most personal since it is both visual and oral;
and radio is intermediate of the two. This study focuses on two genres of media
discourse: radio-phone-ins and online commentaries on one side, and press-
newspapers on the other side.
The genre of radio phone-ins in media discourse has been given much attention
by conversational analysts. Jautz (2013) defines radio-phone-ins as an opportunity
given to the general public to voice their opinions about certain topics and to have some
small discussions with the hosts of the program. It is normally a two-way affair between
55
the caller and the host of the program. Hutchby (1996) has identified four typical phases
of radio phone-in conversation: (1) announcement and greetings; (2) caller’s statement;
(3) discussion; and (4) closing. The host(s), the “institutional power role holder(s)”
(O’Keeffe, 2011: 443) of the program is the one who initiates the conversation by
introducing the caller to the audience by providing the caller’s name and stating from
where the person is calling. This becomes possible due to the advance knowledge the
host receives from their switchboard staff who have already inquired about these pieces
of information beforehand. Those who do not have switchboard staff allow their callers
to introduce themselves. In the second phase, the caller provides his/her opinion on the
topic on board, and this is briefly discussed between the caller and the host. Hosts often
challenge the opinions of the callers by asking questions based on the stance of the
caller, and thus constituting the third phase. The final phase of radio phone-in
conversation takes a good host to “process” a caller quickly and ensures that the caller
does not lose face with the audience (Watts, 2003). The closing stage is not a matter of
the two agreeing on the topic on board; rather, it is an end to the debate or touch on the
issue. The hosts do not abruptly end the call; they use verbal means such as
expressing gratitude or time frame expressions to prepare the closing. In cases where
the caller uses vulgar language in phase two and three, the host can decide to end the
call based on the regulatory and monitoring policies of the radio stations.
The language used in phone-in conversation varies depending on the topic of
discussion. Some topics by their nature require civil conversation, while others can be
very contentious. For instance, in the case of political discussions on radio phone-in
programs, callers use all manner of words to refer to politicians in their contribution.
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Radio phone-in conversation has become a major part of news media. It provides
ordinary citizens the opportunity to contribute to cultural, social and political discussions
in their various countries. As Owen (1997: 334) puts it, it allows ordinary citizens to
participate in political life, and transforms audience members from “passive observers
into active participants in the creation of news and the dissemination of messages.”
Katriel (2004) also argues that radio phone-in programs were the main arena in the
media for civic participation in politics before the advent of the Internet. In this study, I
argue that the media (radio phone-ins and online commentary) create the opportunity
for the powerless in society to contribute to political discussions and further challenge
political authority using insults.
This study also makes use of articles from newspapers. Bell (1991) aptly states
that in a newspaper everything other than advertising is called ‘editorial,’ and most of
the editorial content is a written ‘copy.’ He further divides editorial copy into three broad
categories: Service information, opinion, and news. Service information is basically
made up of a list of sections on sports, television programs, share prices, and weather
forecasts. Opinions are statements of the newspaper’s own views on an issue. It is very
difficult to separate opinions from news, since opinions from the standpoint of editors
tend to be the news. Numerous researchers have shown that fact and opinions are by
no means easy to separate (Bell, 1991: 13)
The issue of obtaining objectivity in news reporting is one of the most contentious
issues in journalism. In most cases, it is very difficult for reporters to distance
themselves from the truth claims of the report. Even if they are able to do that, how do
they remove all the value judgments from the report? Richardson (2007) states that
57
value judgments are built into the process of news making at all stages of the
production process, through newsgathering, news writing, story selection, editing and
presentation. In view of this, “columns, editorials, and other forms of news analysis will
never qualify as ‘objective reporting’: the voice of the journalist is either too loud or too
central for them to be objective” (Richardson, 2007: 86).
Some of the private newspapers in Ghana are affiliated to the two dominant
political parties in Ghana: the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic
Congress (NDC). These papers have their own political ideologies and agendas. In
most cases these are manifested in their reportage as well. The construction of a news
report is not the sole decision of the producer/journalist; rather, it involves the
agglomeration of the ideology of the media institution, the media personnel involved, the
owner, and what they consider to be newsworthy. Even linguistic expressions in the text
such as diction, semantics, syntax, imagery and presentational style are carefully
selected to suit the ideological leanings of the newspapers. Therefore, “anything that is
said or written about the world is articulated from a particular ideological position:
language is not a clear window but a refracting, structuring medium” (Fowler, 1991: 10).
Agyekum (2004) in his paper, ‘Invective language in contemporary Ghanaian
politics,’ raises four pertinent questions which are germane to this study. These are: (1)
why should a paper select political invectives and make it newsworthy? (2) Why is it that
at the point of the utterance many newspaper reporters were present but some did not
publish it at all? (3) Why did some publish it as passing news in a small corner at the
back page or some other page? (4) Why did other papers choose it as a news highlight
and include it as a caption in their front pages? The world of news reporting is not
58
simply what happens, but what the newspaper considers newsworthy. Therefore, the
representation of insults from a political opponent is foregrounded or exaggerated not to
alert the public of the problem of insults, but instead to put a political spin on it. The
“tweak” and spin of insults in newspapers in Ghana reveal the ideology and the agenda
of the media outlet.
2.3.3 Approaches in Critical Discourse Analysis
There are multitudes of theoretical approaches or methodologies that have been
developed by critical analysts in the analysis of discourse. CDA provides a diverse
picture in its analysis. The use of systemic-functional grammar features prominently in
CDA. It should also be noted that categories and concepts have been employed in CDA
research from pragmatics, discourse analysis and text linguistics, social semiotics,
social cognition, rhetoric, and conversational analysis. In fact, van Dijk (2001:96) argues
that CDA can be “combined with any approach and sub-discipline in the humanities and
the social sciences.” In this section I discuss the three most prominent CDA theories,
that is, Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), van Dijk’s socio-cognitive
approach and Fairclough’s social-discoursal approach. I follow up with what I consider
the most appropriate approach for the analysis of the use of insults in Ghanaian political
discourse.
2.3.3.1 Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA)
Ruth Wodak (2001) and other scholars developed Discourse-historical approach
(DHA) working in the traditions of Bernsteinian sociolinguistics and the Frankfurt School.
The approach is particularly associated with large programs of research in
interdisciplinary research teams focusing on sexism, anti-Semitism and racism. The
distinctive feature of this approach is that it attempts to integrate systematically all
59
available background information in the analysis and interpretation of many layers of
written and spoken text (Wodak, 2006). It is designed to enable the analysis of implicit
prejudiced utterances by identifying and exposing the codes and allusions contained in
prejudiced discourse.
Concerning power and ideology, Wodak posits that background knowledge is
very important in the interpretation of a discourse. She further discusses that the
ideological struggle between ingroup and outgroup is seen in terms of derogation and
euphemization.
The Discourse Historical Approach follows the practices of socio-philosophical
orientation of critical theory, and thus bases its theory on social critique, which is
composed of three interconnected aspects (Wodak, 2001: 64-65):
1. ‘Text or discourse immanent critique' aims at discovering inconsistencies, (self-) contradictions, paradoxes and dilemmas in the text-internal or discourse-internal structures.
2. In contrast to the ‘immanent critique’, the ‘socio-diagnostic critique’ is concerned with the demystifying exposure of the - manifest or latent - possibly persuasive or ‘manipulative’ character of discursive practices. With socio-diagnostic critique, the analyst exceeds the purely textual or discourse internal sphere. She or he makes use of her or his background and contextual knowledge and embeds the communicative or interactional structures of a discursive event in a wider frame of social and political relations, processes and circumstances.
3. Prognostic critique contributes to the transformation and improvement of communication. This is done by elaborating proposals and guidelines for reducing language barriers in hospitals, schools, courtrooms, public offices and media reporting institutions as well as guidelines for avoiding sexist language use.
This framework suggests that one of the ways critical discourse analysts can
minimize bias is to follow the principles of triangulation. DHA therefore endeavors to
work with different approaches. That is to say, it is multimethodical and applies a variety
of empirical data and background information in its analysis (Wodak, 2001).
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2.3.3.2 Van Dijk’s Socio-cognitive Approach
Van Dijk’s Socio-Cognitive approach is characterized by the interaction between
discourse, cognition and society. This approach began in formal text linguistics and later
incorporated elements of standard psychological models of memory, together with the
idea of frame taken from cognitive science. A greater part of van Dijk’s research
focuses on stereotypes, the reproduction of ethnic prejudices, and power abuse by the
elites and resistance by dominant groups.
This approach is a conceptual triangle that connects society, discourse and
social cognition in the framework of CDA (van Dijk, 2001). Discourse within this
framework is seen as the ‘communicative event,’ which is made up of conversational
interaction, written text, facework, typographical layout, images and any other semiotic
and multimedia dimensions. Cognition involves personal and social cognition, beliefs
and goals, evaluations and emotions, and any other ‘mental’ or ‘memory’ structure,
including representations or processes involved in discourse and interaction. Society
includes “local and global, societal and political structures, group-relations (of
dominance and inequality), movements, institutions, organizations and social
processes” (van Dijk, 2001: 98). The cognition and social dimension of the triangle
provides a relevant context for the discourse. Cognition, the collective mental model, is
the interface between societal and discursive structures (van Dijk, 2009). To fully
appreciate the macro-level social notion of power and dominance as well as the micro-
level of notion of discourse, van Dijk proposes mental representations (socially shared
and personal models that are based on personal experience) that one needs to pay
attention to in order to understand a particular discourse.
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This theory defines power abuse in relation to access to or control over scarce
resources, such as access to the mass media and public discourse, which is often
shared by members of ‘symbolic’ elites-politicians, journalists, scholars, writers and
others (van Dijk, 2006). Therefore, in order to manipulate others, one has to have
access to some form of public discourse such as news, the Internet, opinion articles, TV
shows etc. Thus, public discourse becomes the avenue for reproduction of social
power. For example, political authorities exert their political power and direct the trends
in political discourse, thus confirming and reproducing their political power.
The theory also talks about three main notions of beliefs with regards to social
representation: knowledge, attitudes and ideology. Firstly, knowledge can be personal,
group and cultural. Personal knowledge is represented in terms of mental models about
specific or personal events. Specific social groups share group knowledge, which may
be biased or ideological, and may not be considered as ‘knowledge’ but as beliefs
instead by certain groups of people. Cultural knowledge is a common knowledge shared
by all members of a society, which may be presupposed in discourse and often times
taken for granted. Secondly, attitudes are socially shared opinions that are usually
made up of evaluative propositions (right or wrong) instead of truth-value conditions.
Finally, ideology is the basic “framework for organizing the social cognitions shared by
members of a social group, organizations and institutions” (van Dijk, 1995: 19). Unlike
knowledge and attitudes, this type of belief is fundamental and, to some extent,
unquestionable. It mentally represents the social characteristics of groups such as their
identity, task, norms, goals, values, positions and resources (van Dijk, 1995). People
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hold firmly to ideology to an extent that it sometimes becomes part of the generally
accepted attitudes of an entire community (van Dijk, 2006: 117).
One prominent feature of van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach is the concept of
ideological square. It is about how different social groups project themselves positively
and represent others negatively. The structures of ideologies are represented along the
lines of us verses them dichotomy, in which members of one social group present
themselves in positive terms, and others in negative terms. There is polarization of how
media institutions emphasize the positive actions of ingroup members and deemphasize
its negative action while deemphasizing the positive action of the outgroup and
emphasize its negative actions. The ideological square consists of four moves: (1)
express/emphasize information that is ‘positive’ about us; (2) express/emphasize
information that is ‘negative’ about them; (3) suppress/deemphasize the information that
is ‘positive’ about them; and (4) suppress/deemphasize information that is ‘negative’
about us. Any property of discourse that “expresses, establishes, confirms or
emphasizes a self interested group opinion, perspective or position, especially in a
broader socio-political context of social struggle, is a candidate for special attention in
ideological analysis” (van Dijk, 1998: 23). Table 2-2 summarizes the whole idea of
ideological square (van Dijk, 1995: 144).
The present study utilizes van Dijk’s ideological square to investigate how
positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation manifest themselves in the
representation of insults in both pro-NPP and NDC newspapers. I show how pro-NPP
newspapers represented ingroup insults as well as outgroup insults and compare that to
pro-NDC newspapers’ representation of ingroup and outgroup insults.
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2.3.3.3 Fairclough’s Social-discoursal Approach
Fairclough’s approach has been central to CDA for the past twenty years. The
main idea behind this theory is a “contribution to the general raising of consciousness of
exploitative social relationship, through focusing on language” (Fairclough, 1989: 4). He
provides a dialectical theory of discourse and transdisciplinary approach to social
change (Fairclough, 1992, 2003a, 2004, 2005b, 2006). The theory is situated in
Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and also draws on critical social
theories, such as Foucault’s concept of order of discourse, Gramsci’s concept of
hegemony, Habermas’ concept of colonization of discourses and many others. To fully
understand the interconnectedness between language, social and political thought,
Fairclough proposes a three-dimensional approach to analyzing discourse. These are:
discourse-as-text, discourse-as-discursive-practice and discourse-as-social practice.
Discourse-as-text: involves the analysis of the way propositions are structured
and the way they are combined and sequenced (Fairclough, 1995b). Here, the analyst
examines the text in terms of what is present and what could have been present but is
not. The text, and some aspects of it, is the result of choice, that is, the choice to
describe a person, an action or a process over another; the choice to use one way of
constructing a sentence over an alternative; the choice to include a particular fact or
argument over another. According to Fairclough (1995a: 57) choices in text “covers
traditional forms of linguistic analysis-analysis of vocabulary and semantics, the
grammar of sentences and smaller units, and the sound system (phonology) and writing
system. But it also includes analysis of textual organization above the sentence,
including the ways in which sentences are connected (cohesion) and aspects like the
organization of turn-taking in interviews or the overall structure of a newspaper article.”
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The application of textual analysis in CDA does not mean just focusing on “the linguistic
form and content;” rather, it is the function that such elements play in their use in the
text (Richardson, 2007: 38). Hence, “the traditional forms of linguistic analysis should be
analyzed in relation to their direct or indirect involvement in reproducing or resisting the
systems of ideology and social power” (Richardson, 2007: 39).
Discourse-as-discursive-practice: This level is where the focus of the analysis
is more discourse-based not textual. Here, discourse is seen as something that is
produced, circulated, distributed, and consumed in society. After the textual analysis,
attention is given to speech acts, coherence, and intertextuality, and these three
aspects connect text to its social context. Fairclough (1995) identifies two types of
intertextuality: ‘manifest’ intertextuality and ‘constitutive’ intertextuality. The former refers
to the heterogeneous constitution of texts, which involves how specific other texts are
“overtly drawn upon other texts” (Blommaert, 2005: 29). For example, the use of explicit
signs such as quotation marks to indicate the presence of another text. The latter, on
the other hand, refers to the heterogeneous constitution of the elements in the text such
as generic conventions, discourse types, register and style.
Discourse-as-social-practice: At this stage, Fairclough claims that a critical
analytical work in CDA will have to consider an analysis of the text’s “socio-cultural
practice” or “the social and cultural goings-on which the communicative event is part of”
(Fairclough, 1995a: 57). He further stated that CDA “may be at different levels of
abstraction from the particular event: it may involve its more immediate situational
context, the wider context of institutional practices the event is embedded within, or the
yet wider frame of the society and the culture” (Fairclough, 1995: 62). There are general
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questions that explain these levels of analysis: (1) what does the text say about the
society in which it was produced and the society that it was produced for? (2) What
influence or impact do we think that the text may have on social relations? (3) Will it
help to continue inequalities and other undesirable social practices, or will it help break
them down? (Richardson, 2007: 42). It is at this level (discourse-as-social-practice) that
the issue of social practice, ideological struggles, and power inequalities is crucial in
explaining why a text or stretch of talk is how it is. Hence, every successful discourse
analysis should bring to bear the ideological imbalances and social inequalities that
have shaped a particular text or stretch of talk.
Fairclough (1989) presents the stages of applying such a CDA framework. This is
shown below:
1. Focus on a social problem that has a semiotic aspect.
2. Identify obstacles to it [the problem] being tackled, through analysis of: a) the network of practices it is located withinb) the relationship of semiosis to other elements within the particular practice(s) concernedc) the discourse (the semiosis itself)
3. Consider whether the social order (network of practices) in a sense ‘needs’ the problem.
4. Identify possible ways past the obstacles.
5. Reflect critically on the analysis.
(Fairclough, 1989: 125)
The three CDA approaches discussed above are very much related to each other
and share common features. Fairclough’s three-dimensional approach (discourse-as-
text, discourse-as-discursive-practice, and discourse-as-social practice) is closely
related to van Dijk’s three dimensions of ideology (discourse, socio-cognition, and social
analysis). The main difference between the two is that whereas van Dijk sees social
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cognition and mental models as mediating between discourse and society, Fairclough
believes that this task is performed by discourse practices. Wodak and Fairclough share
the same idea of language manifesting and constituting social practices. The central
idea in both van Dijk and Wodak’s frameworks is the concept of ideology in meaning
construction and the way different groups consume discourse.
The two prominent CDA approaches that I employ in the analysis of the use of
insult in Ghanaian political discourse are Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework and
van Dijk’s ideological square. Fairclough’s model of CDA provides a more accessible
method for this study than the alternative theoretical approaches. This is because to
fully understand what discourse is and how it works, Fairclough argues that analysis
needs to draw out the form and function of the text, the way that this text relates to the
way it is produced and consumed, and the relations of this to the wider society in which
it takes place (Richardson, 2007). More importantly this framework has been applied in
the analysis of media and political discourse to show how power abuse, social
inequalities, hegemony and ideologies are embedded in discourse (Richardson, 2007)
Van Dijk’s ideological square will provide a better understanding of how both pro-NPP
and NDC newspapers represent insults in line with the Us verses Them dichotomy.
2.3.4 Model of analysis
Chapter 3 of the study deals with the textual analysis of the data and the
linguistic tools involved: lexicalization and predication, presupposition, metaphor/simile,
proverbs and verbal process. Chapter 4 focuses on discursive analysis of the data using
intertextuality and topic as the tools for the analysis. I discuss in detail the various
linguistic tools for the analysis of the data below.
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2.3.4.1 Lexicalization and predication
Lexicalization involves the choice or selection and the meanings of words used to
refer to social actors. A typical lexical analysis looks at the denotation (the literal or
primary meaning of words) and connotation (the various senses that a word invokes in
addition to its literal or primary meaning). This analysis is important because “words
convey the imprint of society and of value judgments in particular” (Richardson, 2007:
47). There is a strong relationship between lexicalization and ideology as in the use of
expressions such as ‘terrorist’ versus ‘freedom fighter’ for example. This suggests that
language users have several choices of words to refer to the same persons, groups,
social relations or issues, and in most or all cases carry heavy semantics and
ideological loads. The words in a text that communicate messages about subjects or
themes in newspapers are framed ideologically. Thus “vocabulary encodes ideology,
systems of beliefs about the way the world is organized” (Fowler, 1987: 69).
Closely related to lexicalization is name and reference, and this describes “the
manner in which social actors are named identifies not only the group(s) that they are
associated with (or at least the groups that the speaker/writer wants them to be
associated with) it can also signal the relationship between the namer and the named”
(Richardson, 2007: 49). Blommaert (2005) points to the fact that apart from the
referential meaning, acts of communication produce indexical meaning. That is to say,
members of the ingroup refer to themselves using terms of politeness that elevate them
to a particular social status. For example, he cites the word ‘sir’ as not only referring to a
male individual, but indexing a particular social status and the role relationships of
deference and politeness (Blommaert, 2005: 11). In addition, Reisel and Wodak (2001)
call the use of naming options a text’s “referential strategies” that describe naming
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individuals or groups, and “can serve many different psychological, social or political
purposes … on the side of the speakers or writers” (Reisel and Wodak, 2001: 47).
The way individuals or groups are named is in line with van Dijk’s ideological
square, which emphasizes the use of referential strategies to refer to ingroup and
outgroup members. Recall that this ideological square is seen in terms of positive self-
representation and negative other-representation. The general assumption within this
square is that ingroup members are represented positively while the outgroup members
are represented negatively. This means that referential strategies will show positive
terms used to refer to ‘Us’ while negative terms are used to refer to ‘Them.’
The present study also analyzes predication. Wodak and Mayer (2001: 27)
define predication strategies as terms or phrases that “appear in stereotypical,
evaluative attribution of positive or negative traits and implicit or explicit predicates.”
Resigl and Wodak (2001: 54) also see predicational strategies as “the very basic
process and result of linguistically assigning qualities to persons, animals, objects,
events, actions and social phenomena.” They suggest the various forms by which
predicational strategies are realized. These are: (1) specific forms of reference based
on explicit denotation as well as on more or less implicit connotation; (2) attribution in
the form of adjectives, appositions, prepositional phrases, relative clauses,
conjunctional clauses, infinitive clauses and participial clauses or groups; (3) predicates
or predicative nouns/adjectives/pronouns; (4) collocation; (5) explicit comparisons-
similes, metaphors and other rhetorical figures; and (6) implicit allusions, evocations
and presuppositions/implications.
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Predicational strategies are not used arbitrarily: there are hidden ideologies in the
various forms or phrases. It also reveals the ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’ dichotomy that shows
positive predications for the ingroup and negative predications for the outgroup. Indeed,
“predication is used to criticize, undermine and vilify certain social actors, sometimes
with potential dangerous consequences” (Richardson, 2007: 53).
In this study, I lump the analysis of lexicalization and predication together in three
different ways: (1) how ordinary citizens use lexical items (insults) to challenge
politicians, undermine political authority, infantilize and animalize them; (2) underlying
ideologies in the representation of insults in both pro-NPP and NDC newspapers,
focusing on the positive self representation and negative other representation; and (3)
explicit lexical items (insults) with regards to spoken and written text.
2.3.4.2 Presupposition
Presupposition is a “taken-for-granted, implicit claim embedded within the explicit
meaning of a text or utterance” (Richardson, 2007: 63). Wodak (2007: 214) provides a
broader picture of presupposition: “presupposed content is, under ordinary
circumstances, unless there is a cautious interpretive attitude on the part of the hearer,
accepted without (much) critical attention (whereas the asserted content and evident
implicatures are normally subject to some level of evaluation).” The claims are not
critically evaluated and are generally considered to be true regardless of whether the
sentence is true. It is a useful strategy in political discourse because it makes it difficult
for the audience to identify or reject views communicated in this way; that is, it
persuades people to take for granted something which is actually open to debate
(Bayram, 2010).
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Wodak (2002, 2007), following a survey conducted by Yule (1996), provides six
(6) types of presuppositions. These are summarized in a form of a table in Table 2-3.
Richardson (2007) also discusses four ways in which presuppositions are marked. He
attributes the first three to Reah (2002). Firstly, there are certain words such as change
of state verbs (‘stop,’ ‘begin’) or implicative verbs (‘manage,’ ‘forget’) that invoke
presupposed meaning. ‘Stop’ presupposes a prior movement or an action; ‘forget’
presupposes a great deal, including an attempt to remember. For example, the phrase
“the government has stopped providing funds to the Chiefs” presupposes that the
government had provided funds to the Chiefs in the past.
Secondly, the definite article (‘the---’) and the possessive articles (‘his/her---’)
trigger presupposition. For example, the phrase “The President’s insult” presupposes
that there is an insult of the president that exists or the president has a specific type of
insult that exists.
Thirdly, presuppositions are presented by ‘wh-questions’ such as ‘why,’ ‘when,’
‘who,’ ‘what.’ For example, the sentence “Who is responsible for the poor organization
of Ghana’s elections,” this implies that there is an explicit request to name someone,
and again someone is implicitly responsible for the poor organization of Ghana’s
election. It can further be presupposed that Ghana’s elections were poorly organized.
Finally, nouns and adjectives used to qualify or modify noun phrases trigger
presuppositions-nominal presuppositions. Richardson suggests that sometimes nominal
presuppositions are largely uncontentious. This is because the noun refers to social or
political subjects that make the presupposed meaning more questionable. For example,
in the sentence, “The old evil Dwarfs in the party” presupposes that there are persons or
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group of people in the party who are considered as evil dwarfs and have been in the
party all the while.
2.3.4.3 Metaphor/simile
Metaphor in the most general sense “involves perceiving one thing in terms of
another” (Richardson, 2007: 66). According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 124)
metaphor is “fundamentally concerned with both language and thought, especially, the
patterning of everyday metaphorical expressions in language.” Examples are: love is
journey, life is war, a financial boom, tiger economies, and many more.
Decoding the meaning or the interpretation of metaphor is very important in every
communication. One has to understand the context in which the metaphor is used in
order to decipher the meaning. This is because speakers choose metaphors to achieve
a particular communication goal within a particular context (Charteris-Black, 2004). As
we shall see in the analysis of this study, ordinary citizens make use of metaphors to
covertly insult politicians and question their competence in handling national issues.
Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) theory of ‘conceptual metaphor’ features in the
analysis of this study. Conceptual metaphor is when we understand one thing in terms
of another. Lakoff and Johnson argue that there are two domains in metaphorical
mappings, source and target, and the two are unidirectional; from source to target but
not vice versa. The source is the domain from which concepts originate, while target is
the domain to which concepts are mapped. Metaphorical mapping can be one-to-one,
one-to-many, many-to-one, and many-to-many. Below is an example:
Adom FM (Burning issues) October 21, 2013 [Background: The discussion was focused on how to assist government workers and politicians to achieve a better Ghana. Below is a contribution from an ordinary citizen.]
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Afia: Yεnkɔ Abaana hɔ wɔ Adenta. Bra Abaana, good evening.
Lets go to Abaana in Adenta. Brother Abaana, good evening
Abaana: Meregye wo so, Afia Pokuaa. I respond Afia Pokuaa. Afia: Boss mepaakyεw wo wɔ air, wae. Boss please you are on air. Abaana: Yoo Afia. Na apɔw mu te sεn? Okay, Afia. And how are you? Afia: Bɔkɔɔ. Cool (I’m doing very well). Abaana: Adwuma no deε worebɔ. Obi ara pε w’asεm wɔ Ghana ha. You’re doing a great job everyone likes you in Ghana. Afia: Medaase boss. Thank you boss. Abaana: εmmarima nuabaa baako pε. The only sister of men. Na Afia pokuaa, woahu sε saa kasa wei nyinaa εyε arrogance, woahu. Sεbe o wone wo yere te na sε wo nni sika a wode bɔ ne akonhoma da bi na sε wopea ne hyε dan mu na sε wo korɔkorɔ no sε εnnε deε wogyafo εnyε o εbia kakra a εbɔ w’abosoɔ ano fa yε wild na menkɔpε bi mmra anaa biribi saa ɔnteaseε. Na sε kɔm wɔ fie na sε wo kɔ ka kyerε no sε ɔɔmo complaine na wokɔ ka kyerε ne sε ɔntumi ntena, sesa wo neεma na kɔ a, sesa wo neεma na firi fie ha ɔntumi ntena awareε no ase a, sε ntɔkwa na woakɔfa aba fie. Afia Pokuaa, have you noticed that all these talks are arrogance, have you seen that. Excuse me to say, if you live with your wife and you don’t have house-keeping-money for her, what you do is that you take her to the room and persuade her that today I don’t have money, so if she has some small money she should use it instead, I’m going out to struggle for some money and things like that, won’t she understand. But if there is hunger in the house and you tell her that she is complaining too much, if she cannot continue with the marriage then she should pack bag and baggage and leave, you have created a big fight.
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Table 2-4 shows a one-to-one mapping of source to target. The husband maps
onto the president/the government (employer); wife maps onto the Ghanaian workers
(employee) and house-keeping-money maps onto government coffers. The ordinary
citizen’s simile provides us with the idea of the family system in Ghana where the
husband is the head and the breadwinner of the family. It also shows the social contract
that exists between husband and wife, and the husband’s effective persuasive tool of
convincing the wife when his role of ensuring that there is money to run the affairs of the
house is not met. Relating this simile to the frosty relationship that exists between the
government of Ghana and Ghanaian workers concerning the payment of allowances,
the citizen reveals government inability to convince or persuade workers when the
contract between them is breached (when government does not have money to pay the
workers); rather, resort to infuriating the workers the more. Therefore, the citizens’
simile presents us with the government’s poor communication in terms of the handling
of the workers agitation on their allowance.
2.3.4.4 Proverbs
According to Bryant (1945:3) the word “proverb” comes from a Latin word,
proverbium (pro = for and verbum = word), implying that the proverb is what is used
instead of the plain word. He further states that since the time of Aristotle proverbs have
been depicted as remnant “wrecks and ruins of ancient philosophy by reason of their
consciousness and cleverness” (Bryant, 1945: 4). This assertion is intimated by Whiting
(1935: 278), who describes proverbs as “a short saying of a philosophical nature, of
great antiquity, the product of the masses rather than of the class, constantly applicable,
and appealing because it bears a semblance of universal truth.” Yankah (1989) also
argues that in several African societies there is no one-to-one correlation between the
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indigenous word and its English counterpart. For example, a word like εbε in Akan,
which means proverb, does not refer to short, concise, oft-quoted expressions only; it
may also refer to “illustrative anecdote, parables, or a series of utterances from which a
moral lesson could be drawn” (Yankah, 1989: 327).
In African societies, proverbs are generally considered to be genre of oral
tradition that enjoys a special prestige of being the repository of people’s collective
wisdom, philosophy of life, experience, fears and aspirations (Orwenjo, 2009). Related
to this, Finnegan (1970: 390) aptly states that “in many African cultures, a feeling for
language, for imagery, and for the expression of abstract ideas through compressed
and allusive phraseology comes out particularly clearly in proverbs.” The African
conception of proverbs is expressed in the following literal translation of an Igbo proverb
(spoken in Nigeria): “proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten.” The Zulus
of South African also have a proverb that translates thus: “without them [proverbs]
language would be but a skeleton without flesh, a body without a soul.” All these point to
the fact that people use proverbs in Africa and other parts of the world to increase clarity
and the semantic effect of the message they intend to convey. In addition, proverbs are
used to express ideas that would have been otherwise be difficult or cumbersome to
say using ordinary language.
To understand the meaning of a proverb, the addressee must pay attention to the
context and circumstances of use. The reason is that proverbs in isolation do not have
concrete and tangible meaning; they are so versatile and devoid of inherent meaning
that, depending on the circumstances and context of use, and the skillfulness involved,
they can almost mean anything (Orwenjo, 2009). Kemper (1980) suggests that there
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are two ways to understand the meaning of proverbs: (1) by inference from the literal
meaning of the proverb or (2) with the aid of contextually-based expectations which
makes it unnecessary to establish their literal meaning. The currently study, however, is
interested in the discoursal function of the proverbs: what does the caller want to
achieve with the use of the proverb? More importantly, what function or role is the
proverb performing in that particular communicative event-phone-ins?
The communicative role or function of proverbs has been studied by many
folklorists, ethnographers, and linguists (Herzog, 1936; Arewa and Dundes 1967;
Finnegan, 1970; Seitel 1977; Olatunji, 1984; Yankah, 1989; Okpewho, 1992; Obeng,
1994; and others). Some of the functions of proverbs are: managing social conflict,
summing up a situation, passing judgment, reprimanding, recommending a course of
action, serving as past precedence for present action, praising, cautioning, speaking the
unspeakable, persuading hearers, asserting someone’s status and teaching morals. In
sum, they provide strategies for dealing with a variety of communicative situations
(Obeng, 1994). Thus, the present study looks at how ordinary citizens use proverbs to
challenge political authority in Ghanaian political discourse. Below is an example:
Adom FM (Burning Issues) October 30, 2013 Afia: Yεnkɔ Nana Bonsu hɔ. Nana Bonsu good evening. Lets go to Nana Bonsu. Nana Bonsu good evening. Bonsu: Yee, ɔdehyeε Nana na wo ho te sεn nie? Yes, granddaughter of a royal. How are you? Afia: Nyankopɔn adaworoma, na wo nso ε? By the grace of God (I am fine) and what about you? Bonsu: Agya ayε n’afamu deε. Afia, yεreexpect sε Asiedu Nketia aka akyerε wiase nyinaa sε yεrekɔyi korɔmfo takyiamoa, na wo expect sε deεn na Sir John bεka akyerε no. εmfata! Mpata, ntɔkwa
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denden fiti kuro tia a, yεde gidigidi na εhyia no. Enti sε Asiedu Nketiah a make such a statement, Sir John bεhyia no paa. The Lord has done His part. Afia, Asiedu Nketia told the whole world that we were going to elect an arm robber, so what do you expect Sir John to say. This is not nice! A harsh issue is approach with the same measure or a big problem is approached with all the seriousness it deserves. So, if Asiedu Nketia makes such a statement then Sir John will meet him squarely.
The citizen’s proverb: “ntɔkwa denden fiti kuro tia a, yεde gidigidi na εhyia no” to
wit “a harsh issue is approached with the same measure or a big problem is
approached with all the seriousness it deservers” was a response to the general
secretary of the NDC, Asiedu Nketiah when he referred to the seventeen presidential
aspirants of the NPP contesting for the position of presidential candidate in 2007 as
“armed robbers.” The literal meaning of this proverb is “a fiercely contested fight that
starts from the end of a town is met with the same measure of force.” In the context of
use, this proverb presents us with the idea of insults and counter insults between the
two political parties in Ghana: NPP and NDC. The citizen cautions the NDC scribe that if
he does not desist from making unsavory comments, the NPP Scribe, Sir John will be
forced to make more damaging comment about the NDC.
2.3.4.5 Verbal process
It is important to discuss transitivity in order to explicate the meaning of verbal
process. Transitivity according to Richardson (2007: 54) “describes the relationships
between participants and the roles they play in the process described in reporting.” It is
first concerned with how actions are represented; second, what kind of actions appear
in a text; third, who does them: and finally to whom (Richardson, 2007: 54). Transitivity
to some extent forms the heart of representation, showing the relationship between
participants and the role they play in media reporting.
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Halliday (1985) has identified six categories of process in his system of
transitivity. These are: (1) material processes or ‘process of doing’ such as climb, jump.
For example, “he jumped.” (2) Mental processes or ‘processes of sensing, perceiving or
understanding’ such as thought, understood, for example, “he liked the food.” (3)
Relational process, such as “he is a teacher.” (4) Behavioral processes, which involve
human physiology or psychological behavior such as watching, dreaming, tasting. (5)
Existential processes, for example, “there was a man who lived on the earth some years
ago” which means that some man existed some years ago. (6) Verbal process, or
‘process of saying;’ for example, “he said it was good.” The main concern of this section
is on verbal process.
Verbal process is “any kind of symbolic exchange of meaning” as well as
predicates of communication (Halliday, 1985). This means that they represent the action
of talking, saying and communicating. Journalists use verbal processes to introduce the
speech of people they are reporting on, and this can show the feelings and the attitudes
of the journalists about the people they considered important to report their words or
actions. Such reportage can be used to marginalize others and focus readers’ attention
on the direction of the reporter. Thus, “choosing certain verbal process rather than
others, the producer of a text is able to foreground certain meanings in discourse while
others are suppressed” (Chen, 2005: 34).
Chen (2005), following Halliday’s analysis of verbal process, proposed three sub-
categories of verbal process. First, negative verbal process, which demonstrates a
certain negative feeling on the part of the writer towards the person whose words the
verbal process is used to introduce. Examples of such verbs are insisted, denied,
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claimed, admitted, complained. Second, positive verbal process is used to promote in a
reader the feeling that the person whose words are being reported is wise, authoritative,
benign or in some other sense positive. Examples are pointed out, announced,
explained, declared, indicated, and urged. The last is neutral verbal process; here, the
writer’s choice of verb does not indicate an endorsement or disparagement of what the
person being reported is saying. Examples include said, told, described, asked, and
commented.
In this study, I analyze the different verbal process; negative, positive and
neutral, to analyze how the pro-NPP and NDC represented insults from their opponents.
I further relate the consistency of a particular type of verbal process in the
representation of insults to the ideology of the newspaper.
2.3.4.6 Intertextuality
The general understanding of intertextuality is that “text cannot be viewed or
studied in isolation since texts are not produced or consumed in isolation: all texts exist,
and therefore must be understood, in relation to other texts” (Richardson, 2007:100).
Blommaert (2005:46) reinforces this idea that “whenever we speak we produce the
words of others, we constantly cite and recite expressions and recycle meanings that
are already available.” Fairclough makes a distinction between two types of
intertextuality in the second level (discourse-as-discursive-practice) of his three-
dimensional framework: ‘manifest intertextuality,’ which is overtly drawing upon other
texts, and ‘constitutive intertextuality’ or ‘interdiscursivity’ which are texts made up of
heterogeneous elements such as generic conventions, discourse types, register, and
style (Blommaert, 2005).
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Relating intertextuality to van Dijk’s ideological square, newspapers re-echo and
legitimize the voice of the ingroup by assigning them with authoritative qualities and
titles, credentials that make whatever they say very reliable and at times taken as the
gospel truth without submitting them to any critical evaluation. However, in instances
where the voice of the outgroup members are reported, Rojo (1995: 54) puts it that, is a
means “to criticize them or discredit them.” We shall see in the analysis how the pro-
NPP and NDC newspapers represent insults or the voices of those they consider
outgroup as well as insults or voice from their ingroup members.
The reciting of the voices or utterances of others in news reporting amounts to
reported speech. Fairclough (2003) argues that most news reports sometimes are made
up of elements such as press release, as well as a quote from a source either involved
in the reported action/event (information) or commenting on it (evaluation) or
background information taken from the paper’s cuttings archive, or all three of these text
forms. Reported speech plays a major role in news reporting. Richardson (2007: 102-
06) has identified five ways in which reported speech is made relevant to the study of
news reporting.
Firstly, reported speech may be done through direct quotation. Under this, the
exact words used by the source of the reporting are included in quotation marks, often
with a reporting clause. The interpretation of the reader in terms of the quotation and the
source responsible is framed by the reporting clause that the reporter chooses to
employ.
Secondly, there is reported speech done through strategic quotation. This is
conventionally known as ‘scare quotes.’ In this reported speech, the writing or thoughts
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of others are often placed in quotation marks in order to indicate their contentious
nature. Reporters or editors use scare quotes to distance themselves from such
controversial issues or terms. For example, someone claiming that the ‘the man is a
thief.’ This is the same as the use of expression “so-called,” “so-described” and others.
Thirdly, reported speech done through indirect quotation. In this kind of reporting
the reporter provides a summary of “the content of what was said or written, not the
actual words used” (Fairclough, 2003: 49). The kind of verbal process selected
characterizes reported speech and frames the reader’s understandings of the reported
event and, in some cases, may be ideological.
Fourthly, there is reported speech via transformed indirect quotation. The
difference between simple indirect quotation and transformed indirect quotation is that
the latter drops reporting words such as said, accused, alleged and others, and
replaces them with transitive actions like discovered, revealed or mental state verbs
such as believe.
Finally, there is reported speech done through ostensible direct quotation. The
structure of the clause entails direct speech, but it is different from direct quotation in
terms of its make up. The content of this reported speech is that the view is too direct,
extreme or outlandish to have come from the source involved.
The application of intertextuality in the present study will help us understand how
ordinary people cite the voices of others to reaffirm their challenge of political authority.
It will further unearth what both pro-NPP and NDC consider newsworthy, that is, whose
insult or voice is reported or whose is not. This will show how the ingroup’s insults are
represented in relation to the outgroup.
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2.3.4.7 Topics
Topics are the information in a discourse that speakers/writers find important to
say and/or write. In news reporting, journalists select topics that are interesting and
appealing to their target audience (Richardson, 2007). The fact that they select some
news and leave others raises the question: which criteria are used in the selection of
news articles or what a media station considers newsworthy? There are no clear rules
for media institutions to follow to determine what constitute newsworthiness. Harcup
and O’Neill (2001), however, have outlined ten news values which they suggest events
satisfy in order to be selected as ‘news.’ These are: reference to the power of the elite
(individuals, organizations and nation); reference to celebrity; entertainment (e.g. sex,
human interest or drama); surprise; good news (e.g. rescues or personal triumph); bad
news (e.g. tragedy or accident); magnitude; relevance (cultural proximity or political
importance); follow-up stories; and the newspaper’s agenda (both political and relating
to the structure of genre) (Richardson, 2007: 92).
The way topics are selected confirms the ideologies of media institution. This is
confirmed by Van Dijk (1995) who notes that topicalization is subject to ideological
management. This means that ingroup speakers de-topicalize information that is not
consistent with their interest or positive self image and conversely topicalize information
that emphasizes negative outgroup properties (van Dijk, 1995: 28). Related to this is the
way in which propositions are emphasized through foregrounding, and de-emphasized
through backgrounding. In line with van Dijk’s ideological square, media institutions
foreground the positive actions of those they consider ingroup and background the
positive actions of the outgroup. Similarly, the negative actions of the ingroup are
backgrounded while the negative actions of the outgroup are foregrounded.
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This study investigates the various topics ordinary citizens select to insult and
challenge politicians. Some of the topics ordinary citizens dwell on are: economy and
corruption. More importantly, using foregrounding and backgrounding in the topic
selection of newspapers and online websites, the study shows how insults from
ingroup/outgroup members are foregrounded or backgrounded in pro-NPP newspapers,
and how pro-NDC newspapers also highlight or hide insults from both ingroup/outgroup
members. It is important to note that the use of foregrounding and backgrounding in
newspaper report in most cases is for ideological purposes.
2.4 Critical Terms in CDA
This section looks at some critical terms that are central in the discussion of
social inequalities, that is, power, ideology, hegemony, dominance and voice. I focus on
power, ideology and voice to address how the media create the opportunity for ordinary
citizens (voice given to them) to participate in political discourse by challenging political
authority, infantilizing politicians and animalizing the existing social power. I further
explicate the underlying ideologies in the representation of insults in both pro-NPP and
NDC newspapers. Below I discuss in detail the concepts of power, ideology and voice.
2.4.1 Power
According to Fairclough (1995:1-2), power is seen “both in terms of asymmetries
between participants in discourse events, and in terms of unequal capacity to control
how texts are produced, distributed and consumed...in particular sociocultural contexts.”
Wodak draws her definition from Foucault (1977), Bourdieu (1991) and van Dijk (1985),
interpreting it as “discursive control [including] who has access to the various types of
discourse, who can and cannot talk to whom, in which situations, and about what. The
more powerful the people, the larger their verbal possibilities in discourse become”
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(1996: 66). Van Dijk also sees “power as involving control, namely by (members of) one
group over (those of) other groups. Such control may pertain to action and cognition:
that is a powerful group may limit the freedom of action of others, but also influence
their minds” (1993: 254). In sum, power within CDA research is an illegitimate use of
power leading to power abuse and domination.
There is constant unity between language and other social matters that ensures
that language is knitted in social power in a number of ways: language indexes power,
expresses social power, and is involved where there is contention over and a challenge
to power (Wodak, 2001). This means that “power does not derive from language but
language can be used to challenge power, to subvert it, to alter the distributions of
power in the short or long term” (Wodak, 2001: 11). Ordinary citizens’ use of insults in
Ghanaian political discourse, as we shall see in the analysis of this study, is one of the
ways in which social power is challenged.
The most powerful social groups are always seeking to legitimize their discourse
by controlling the various institutions that generate power, as seen in the media, schools
and religious institutions (Blommaert, 2005). Therefore, members of the more powerful
social groups and institutions have access to and control over one or more types of
public discourse. For example, teachers control educational discourse, lawyers with
legal discourse, journalists with media discourse and politicians with policy and other
public political discourse (van Dijk, 2001). For CDA, language is not powerful on it own;
it gains power by the use that powerful people make of it.
For the current purposes of discussion, power can be seen to operate within the
media and in the hands of politicians. The power that the media holds in political
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discourse in Ghana is transferred to the powerless in society (i.e. ordinary citizens) who
are empowered to challenge the existing social power (power of politicians) through
phone-ins and online commentaries. Recall that politicians, on the other hand, try by
any means possible to control media discourse so that they can put forth their own
ideologies.
2.4.2 Ideology
Ideology is defined as systems of ideas, beliefs, practices, and representations,
which work in the interest of a social class or cultural group. Gramsci sees ideology as
“tied to action, and ideologies are judged in terms of their social effects rather than their
truth-values” (Fairclough, 1995:76). Ideology has the potential to become a way of
creating and maintaining unequal power relations, which is of central concern to
discourse analysts who take a “particular interest in the ways in which language
mediates ideology in a variety of social institutions” (Wodak, 2001: 10). Van Dijk (1998:
3) also defines ideology as political or social systems of ideas, values or prescriptions of
a group that have the function of organizing or legitimating the actions of the group. The
use of language reflects a person’s philosophical, cultural, religious, social, and political
ideology. Hence, ideology affects the way one talks, argues, and reacts.
Blommaert (2005) distinguishes two categories within the concept of ideology.
The first category of ideology is seen in terms of specific sets of symbolic
representations-discourses, terms, arguments, images, stereotypes, and these serve
specific purposes and are operated by a particular group or actors. Under this category,
there are different kinds of -isms, such as socialism, liberalism, fascism, communism
and many more. Others are attributed to certain individuals or schools such as Marxism,
Leninism, Maoism, Rooseveltism, and others. This is reflected in the field of a particular
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political position, where factions are realized, such as conservatives, progressive,
racism, anti-Semitism and others. All these ideologies have origins and patterns of
development but may disappear in some cases.
The second category defines ideology as a general phenomenon characterizing
the totality of a particular social or political system, and is operated by every member or
actor in that system. This kind of ideology permeates the entire fabric of societies or
communities and results in normalized, and naturalized patterns of thought and
behavior. To the members within this concept of ideology, ideology is common sense,
the normal perceptions we have of the world as systems, the naturalized activities that
sustain social relations and power structure and patterns of power that reinforce such
common sense (Blommaert, 2005: 159).
For CDA, ideology is seen as an important aspect of establishing and
maintaining unequal social relations. Its study must critically examine “the ways in which
meaning is constructed and conveyed by symbolic forms of various kind” (Thompson,
1990). To Eagleton (1994), the study of ideology must take into consideration various
theories that have examined the relationship between thought and reality, the reason
being that “there are specific historical reasons why people come to feel, desire, reason
and imagine as they do” (Eagleton, 1994: 15).
This study therefore analyzes the underlying ideologies in the representation of
insult in both pro-NPP and NDC newspapers in Ghana. It takes into consideration how
pro-NPP and NDC newspapers reported insults from the outgroup as well as the
ingroup. Similarly, how pro-NDC newspapers reported insults from those they
considered the outgroup and those they considered to be ingroup members.
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2.4.3 Voice
Voice is one of the central terms in CDA analysis. Following Hymes (1996)
definition of voice, Blommaert (2005: 68) sees voice as “the ways in which people
manage to make themselves understood or fail to do so.” He further posits that it is the
capacity to make oneself understood, to generate an uptake of one’s words as close as
possible to one’s desired contextualization. That is to say, voice is achieved by using
language to accomplish the desired function. For example, if you want money from
someone, you will formulate your request to meet that desired purpose.
Voice in the global world is the ability to “accomplish functions of linguistic
resources translocally across different physical and social spaces” (Blommaert, 2005:
69). Thus, social inequalities in societies in terms of voice are indexed by the inability of
speakers to accurately and effectively perform certain functions on the basis of available
and accessible resources.
Voice in this dissertation is the platform the media offers to the voiceless and
powerless in society to use language in order to challenge the existing social power.
The opportunity ordinary people have to send text messages, make phone calls and
even sit behind their computers to contribute to political discourse, all the while avoiding
proverbially looking over their shoulders, is the voice this study tries to uncover.
2.5 Summary
In this Chapter I have outlined the methodology and the theoretical framework as
well as critical terms in CDA. I looked at the advantages and disadvantages of various
methods, and explicated what appears to be the most appropriate one with respect to
insults in Ghanaian public political discourse. Concerning the theoretical framework, I
adopted specifically Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework, that is discourse-as-text;
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discourse-as-discursive-pracetice; and discourse-as-social-practice, and van Dijk’s
ideological square. Drawing on these three layers of analysis, I linked text to context,
and especially employed the sociopolitical and the cultural context to link the entire
discourse to the society in general. I specifically discussed the various linguistic features
and phenomena used in the analysis of this study: lexicalization and predication,
presupposition, metaphors/similes, proverbs, verbal process, Intertextuality and topic. I
concluded the Chapter with a discussion on the three critical terms central to CDA
studies: power, ideology and voice.
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Table 2-1. NPP and NDC newspapers NPP papers News articles NDC papers News articles Daily Guide 26 Ghana Palaver 12 Daily Searchlight 4 Radio Gold online 9 New Statesman 4 The Al-Hajj 6 The Chronicle 4 The Informer 5 Enquirer 3 The National Democrat 2 The Catalyst 1 The Voice 1 Daily Post 1 Daily Heritage 1 Total 38 41 = 79
Table 2-2. Describing/attributing positive actions (van Dijk, 1995: 144) Ingroup Outgroup Emphasis Deemphasis Assertion Denial Hyperbole Understatement Topicalization De-topicalization Sentential (micro) Textual (macro) High prominent position Low non-prominent position Headline, summarizing Marginalization Detailed description Vague, overall description Attribution to personality Attribution to context Explicit Implicit Direct Indirect Narrative illustration No stereotying Argumentative support No argumentative support Impression management No impression management Table 2-3. Types of presupposition (Wodak, 2002; 2007) Presupposition Types Example Presuppositions Existential ‘The X’ >> X exists Factive ‘I regret having done that’ >> I did it Non-factive ‘He claimed to be a teacher’>> He was not a teacher Lexical ‘She managed to escape’ >> She attempted to escape Structural ‘Who is coming?’ >> Someone is coming Counter-factual ‘If I were not ill…’ >> I am ill
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Table 2-4. Ordinary citizen’s simile Source Target Husband President/the government (employer) Wife Ghanaian workers (employees House-keeping-money Government coffers
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CHAPTER 3 TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
3.1 Overview
This Chapter is primarily focused on the first dimension of Fairclough’s three-
dimensional framework, which is textual analysis. Within this dimension, I analyze five
features of analysis: lexicalization and predication, presuppositions, metaphor/simile,
proverbs, and verbal process. I explain how these features were used by ordinary
citizens to challenge and undermine the existing social power.
In section 2.2.1 we mentioned that the online commentaries are exclusively in
English and unedited. This was done to avoid the situation of changing the meaning and
the content of the comments. In cases where a word is spelt wrongly [sic] is applied.
3.2 Lexicalization and Predication
Recall that in Chapter 2 we defined lexicalization as the choice of words used to
refer to social actors, and these words have denotation and connotation meanings.
Predication, on the other hand, is a form of description used to criticize, undermine and
vilify certain social actors, sometimes with potentially dangerous consequences. To
provide a detailed analysis of these two important textual features, I divide the analysis
of this section into two parts: (1) Lexicalization and predication used by ordinary citizens
and (2) Lexicalization and predication used by pro-NPP and NDC newspapers
3.2.1 Lexicalization and predication used by ordinary citizens
This section concentrates on the various lexicalizations and predications used by
ordinary citizens to challenge political authority. I divide this section into four sub
sections, focusing on different themes: infantalization of politicians, animalization of
politicians, insanity and mental health of politicians, and innocuous insults.
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3.2.1.1 Infantalization of politicians
The analysis of the data reveal that ordinary citizens infantilize political authority
by reducing them to the level of girls and boys, as exemplified in excerpts 1 and 2.
Within the Ghanaian society, the representation of an adult as a girl or a boy is an insult.
The reason is that these terms depict someone who is immature, cannot make his or
her own decisions, is at the mercy of others, and frail. All these qualities are mapped
onto the adult. The representation “rank-shifts” (in the words of Agyekum, 2010:130) the
adult, that is, it lowers his/her status to a lower rank and degrades them. It is the
expectation of society that adults act maturely and not behave as kids. Any adult who
behaves contrary to this is considered as a child. Therefore, this infantalization implicitly
presents the deputy minister of communication, Victoria Hammer and government
communicator, Felix Ofosu-Kwakye as unfit to hold leadership position because they
are behaving like children. That is to say, society wants people who are matured
enough to hold leadership position since governance is not a child’s play, which these
politicians are displaying.
This, notwithstanding, society admires young ones who conduct themselves in
accordance with the standards set by society. A typical example is the Akan proverb,
which states, abɔfra hunu ne nsa hohoro a, ɔne mpaninfoɔ didi to wit “If a child learns to
wash his hands well, he may eat with elders.”
Excerpt 1 [Background: The focus of the discussion was on a Deputy Minister of Communication who was heard on a leaked tape saying that she will not quit politics until she has made one million dollars. After the discussions, the phone lines were opened to solicit the views of the public. Below is a comment from an ordinary citizen.] Adom FM (Burning issues) November 11, 2013
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Afia: Aben wɔ ha wɔ Sunyani. Aben wɔ ha good evening o. Aben wɔ ha in Sunyani. Aben wɔ ha good evening. Aben wɔ ha: Good evening me nuabaa Afia. Mepaakyεw na wo ho yε deε? Good evening my sister Afia. Please are you doing very well? Afia: Bɔkɔɔ, boss kasa ma me. Cool (I’m dong very well) Boss go ahead with your contribution. Aben wɔ ha: Woahu girl no Nyankopɔn na εretete ɔɔmo to saa no. ɔhia one million
dollars na sε ɔnya saa sika no to ne account mu na sε ɔgyae politics a εnyε hwee. Woahu adwene? Ghana ahokyerε sεnea εsi bɔn ha no. Master, bra B/A bra Sunyani bεhwε, 1000 Ghana ntumi nhae dan. Na mmranteε nam desert so kɔ Libya kɔ wu sei a, na nnipa εwia sika, politicians. Nyankopɔn mfa nkyε ɔɔmo o.
Have you seen the girl (Deputy Minister of Communication), God is revealing all their bad deeds. She will not quit politics until she makes one million dollars into her account. Have you seen such mentality? People are suffering everywhere in Ghana. Master, you come to B/A and come and see things for yourself, you cannot rent a room with 1000 Ghana cedis. And young men die on the desert en route to Libya, and politicians are stealing from the state. God should forgive them
Except 2 [Background: The comment from the ordinary citizen below is a response to a government communicator who insulted the running mate of the NPP’s presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.] Name: Kyere Date: 01-06-2013 Source: Myjoyonline Comment to: Dishonest Bawumia has not been fair to his parents who educated him- Kwakye-Ofosu December 28 2012 I think this boy should be sent to psychiatric hospital, he is not normal. Can NDC have such a technocrat in their party even they don’t respect their party founder. Shame unto them GOD will punish them one after the other, o God save mother Ghana.
Similarly, ordinary citizens chide politicians to behave in accordance with their
ages and positions in society. This is seen in “I have always believed that there is
wisdom in old age;” “Yaw Boateng Gyan should humbly grow with his age why?;” and “I
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actually thought age is proportional to wisdom and maturity but it seems my own uncle
Yaw Boateng -Gyan’s is in the contrary” in excerpts 3, 4, and 5 respectively. Ghanaian
and most African cultures equate old age to maturity and wisdom, and this is insisted
upon at every forum and situations. This is because age is a significant cultural
measure, which encompasses the social and cultural conventions, expectations and
perception of the society about the ways in which people should act and behave, as
they get older. Those who do not act in line with their growth and age are infantilized for
behaving like children while those who act above their age are elevated, as in the Akan
expression abɔfra no yε mpaninsεm to wit “the child behaves like an adult.” Thus, the
behavior of some politicians in Ghana are questioned by citizens, revealing that they are
not acting in accordance with their age and positions they hold in society. This portrays
them as not paying attention to the cultural priorities of displaying wisdom in speech and
deeds with regards to their age and positions in society.
A typical example is the implicit infantilization of Allotey Jacobs, a government
communicator, when he insulted the opposition NPP as “very stupid and behaving
stupidly” in excerpt 3. In the same way, Yaw Boateng Gyan, a presidential staffer, is
also infantilized in excerpts 4 and 5 for playing the ethnic card, that is, for claiming that
the opposition, “NPP is tribalistic. They regarded Busia as mushroom germinating from
a shit [sic].” Recall that Busia was a former Prime Minister under the second republic of
Ghana on the ticket of the United Party (UP), a mother party of the NPP. He was a
Bono from the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana, and there is this perceived rift between the
Asantes and the Bonos on the issue of marginalization of the later by the former. Thus,
Mr. Boateng Gyan’s insult seeks to portray that though Busia was the leader of the UP,
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the Asantes marginalized him and did not consider him worthy to lead the party. These
representations show that as mature adults, they should know better not to insult or play
the ethnic card.
Excerpt 3
[Background: This comment was as a result of the barrage of insults rained on the NPP and its Greater Accra regional communicator director, Michael Ampong by Allotey Jacobs, NDC central region communications director. Mr. Allotey claimed that Mr Ampong had described him as a fetish priest. Below is a comment from a citizen in response to Allotey Jacob’s insult.] Name: Sam Date: 04-13-2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Allotey Jacobs: “NPP People Are Very Stupid and Behave Stupidly…They Are Getting Crazy And Mad” I have always believed that there is wisdom in old age. This confirms my believe in the scripture concerning what Apostle Paul said that "when I was a child, I acted and spoke like a child and now that I have grown ... Behavior with characters like Allottey Jacobs make you think that for some it is the reverse. Is the Peace Council alive? Excerpt 4 [Background: The comment below is a response to an NPP MP, Edward Ennin whose comment is borne out of Yaw Boateng Gyan, NDC national organizer and presidential staffer’s assertion that “NPP is neck deep in tribalism.”] Name: Clement Date: 02-24-2014 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Yaw Boateng Gyan Stooped Low…He Should Rather Counsel Mahama On How To Govern Efficiently Yaw Boateng Gyan should humbly grow with his age why? This man always talks about tribal politics in Ghana. They will never learn to solve the economy but will get time and do naughty politics on OKAY FM Shameless talks Excerpt 5 [Background: The comment below is a response to an NPP MP, Edward Ennin whose comment is borne out of Yaw Boateng Gyan, NDC national organizer and presidential staffer’s assertion that “NPP is neck deep in tribalism.”]
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Name: Kwabena Okyere Date: 02-24-2014 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Yaw Boateng Gyan Stooped Low…He Should Rather Counsel Mahama On How To Govern Efficiently I actually taught [sic] (thought) age is proportional to wisdom and maturity but it seems my own uncle Yaw Boateng -Gyan's is in the contrary. An old man like him should reason and sit to counsel the young on such irresponsible statement but he himself is doing this. Who then would correct him. Uncle, please don't lower yourself to that level and maintain your dignity. Your position is assured. No one will add anything by insulting and disgracing yourself.
Closely related to age is the metonymic use of grey hair to represent wisdom.
Ghana like most African societies believes that grey hair is a repository of wisdom. The
general assumption within traditional African societies is that, a leader would only be
respected if he or she looked older than his followers due to believe that wisdom and
skilled leadership are endowed in grey hair. That is why chiefs are called
“Nana/Togbe/Nii in Ghanaian society. This is because the elderly are respected for their
wise advice. They also hold fast to traditional social norms, and are therefore trusted not
to deviate from these norms.
Correlating the metonymic use of grey hair understanding with excerpt 6, former
President Rawlings is challenged by the citizen to act in line with his grey hair when he
insulted former President Kufuor as an “autocratic thief.” Literally speaking, Rawlings
has grown a lot of grey hair, but according to the citizen, he was not showing the
wisdom associated with it. That is to say, he is not exhibiting the characteristics or
dignity of people with grey hair. Therefore, the ordinary citizen infantilizes Rawlings for
not exhibiting the wisdom society attaches to grey hair and old age.
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Excerpt 6
[Background: The citizen’s comment below is in response to an NPP MP, Major (Rtd) Derrick Oduro’s insinuation targeted at former President Rawling who described former President Kufuor as “autocratic thief.”] Name: Lukeman Date: 01-14-2014 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Kufuor Will Not Speak From The “Chamber Pot” As JJ Does... This is the tale of two cities, the city of wisdom and the city of folly. Kufuor rules over the city of wisdom and Rawlings the city of folly. Gray hair is supposed to be the crown of old age in dignity. Rawlings, show me your dignity. You have none.
In addition to the infantalization of politicians, citizens question the cultural
understanding and upbringing of politicians. This is reflected in “this mogul talks like he
was not raised by his parents” and “my 10 years old girl is more cultured than
Hammond” in excerpts 7 and 8 respectively. It is common practice in Ghanaian culture
that children are socialized and trained from a very early age to respect and obey
elders, be humble towards elders, not to insult elders and to take their advice. Gyekye
(1996: 85) aptly states: “Character development is an important aspect of upbringing of
children. In this connection, efforts are constantly made to instruct children in the values
of the society to help them acquire the virtues that a person should possess in order to
live a most satisfactory life.” Juxtaposing this with the behavior of adults, recall that in
the previous discussions on age and grey hair, we mentioned that adults are respected
as repository of knowledge and wisdom. So, an adult who has gone through these
socialization processes but does not pay attention to proper speech behavior, is
infantilized of needing proper training. That is to say, such adults were not properly
trained as kids and therefore needed to go back for another socialization to learn
societal norms governing speech behavior. This is seen in the infantalization of
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Kennedy Agyapong, NPP MP in excerpt 7 when he insulted Afari Gyan, the Electoral
Commissioner of Ghana as “stupid.” To the ordinary citizen, the MP should have paid
attention to societal norms governing proper speech behavior and not insulted people in
authority, especially in public. The writer therefore chides the MP as being someone
who “talks like he was not raised by his parents.”
Similarly, in excerpt 8, another NPP MP, K. T. Hammond, is also infantilized
when he insulted the Majority Leader of the Parliament of Ghana, Benjamin Kumbour as
“foolish, stupid and useless.” For not respecting the highest law making body in the
country, his attitude was compared to a ten (10) year old girl: “my 10 year old is more
cultured than Hammond.” The citizen thus reduced the MP’s knowledge of culture to
that far below that of a ten year old.
Excerpt 7
[Background: The comment was a response from a citizen in reaction to NPP MP, Kennedy Agyapong who described the chairman of Electoral Commission as “stupid.” This insult was as a result of the 2012 election petition spearheaded by the NPP.] Name: Kwame Date: 04-04-2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Ken Agyapong: Afari Gyan Is Stupid And Not Indispensable This mogul talks like he was not raised by his parents. He should open his warmouth and lets the militant patriot go and kill Afari Gyan. God is only giving him time to repent. Please Peace FM do not put such audiotapes one air they are in bad taste. Excerpt 8 [Background: The ordinary citizen’s comment below was a reaction to NPP MP, K.T. Hammond who launched a blistering verbal attack on the Majority Leader of Parliament, Benjamin Kumbour in the house, for making anti-corruption statement that did not go well him (Hammond).] Name: Edward-Kumasi Date: 12-04-213 Source: Peacefmonline
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Comment to: EXPLETIVES GALORE!!!! K.T Hammond Slams Majority Leader For Passing “Foolish, Stupid And Useless Comments” I can’t believe I voted for this thing? My 10 year old girl is more cultured than Hammond. Am not sure Kumbour was trying any mischief here. Clearly, Hammond seems to be running away from shadows. 3.2.1.2 Animalization of politicians
One common theme in the analysis of the data is the use of animal imagery to
represent and describe political authority. The use of animal names to insult people is a
common trait across cultures. The target or the object of such insult is addressed
dysphemistically using animal names, most of which have their own metaphorical
extensions and denotations (Allan and Burridge, 1991). Some unpleasant
characteristics, appearance, behavior or parts of the animals are metaphorically
mapped onto the target human. The traits manifested by some of the animals in the
society carry heavy semantic loads, which in most general sense are negative.
As exemplified in excerpts 9 and 10, citizens describe the behavior of politicians
as mmoasεm (animalistic behavior) and aboa (animal) respectively. Agyekum (2010)
translates “aboa” as “a beast” and considers it to be a generic term used for all animals.
It is often applied to a person, as in woyε aboa “you are a beast.” Aboa is the singular
form of mmoa “animals.” The representation and description of the behavior of
politicians as “animals” is telling, in that, it implicitly presents them as not human beings;
their behaviors are incongruous with society’s acceptable behavior of other human
beings. Indeed, they have broken the social contract of how normal human beings
should behave and do not have to exist alongside humans. That is to say, their
behaviors do not conform to human society and therefore deserve to live in the bush
with animals.
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Excerpt 9 [Background: The discussion was focused on the erratic power supply and the increased electricity tariffs in the country. Below is the conversation that ensued between the host of the program, Afia Pokuaa and the caller, Sam.] Adom FM (Burning issues) October 21 2013 Afia: Sam εwɔ Odokor, Bra Sam good evening. Sam in Odorkor. Brother Sam, good evening. Sam: Merefrε firi Odoona. Vim lady. I am calling from Odoona. Vim Lady. Afia: Boss, kasa ma me wae. Boss go ahead with your contribution. Sam: Woyε bue paa, Vim lady. You are wonderful! Vim Lady. Afia: Medaase Boss. Thank you, Boss. Sam: Yε trust wo; yεgye wo di. Kyerε sε deε President ɔkaa yε yi. Kyerε sε ministers no ɔɔmo pay ne nnoɔma no εso so dodoo, me nuabaa. Ade no yε ɔtεlε, ɔtεlε, abodεe, abodεe, abodεe, abei. Wɔgye gye wei nyinaa wie na ɔwie wɔsan abεkyε agu yεn so, hei yε nyε deεn. Akyεde wɔn nya, mesee ministers akyεde a wɔn nya as ministers akyεde nkorɔfoɔ de ma wɔn, εno deε yεfrε no odwan to ɔnka nam ho, ɔno dwem, bebree kεkε. Na lady, wei bebree na ɔwie nso woabεyε mmoasεm, woabεyε rough akyerε yεn. Abei! We trust you. We’ve confidence in you. What the President said means that the pay and other things for the Ministers are too much, my sister. It is too big, too big, too big! They receive all these and pass them onto us, what do they want us to do? These Ministers receive a lot of gifts from people; those ones are just the tail of a goat. It is not part of the meat. They enjoy them. It is too much! And Lady, after all these many things, they exhibit these animalistic tendencies on us. Why? Excerpt 10 [Background: the comment below is an ordinary citizens’ response to Dr. Tony Aidoo, a Senior Presidential Aide and Head of Policy and Evaluation at the Presidency, for describing the NPP’s 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate as having an “offensive body language.”]
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Name: Abriwa Date: 12-19-2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Akufo Addo Has An 'Offensive Body Language' That Puts People Off - Tony Aidoo Aboa Tony... I sincerely do not think you are in the position of make [sic] (to make) such a comment on Nana Addo. Just leave the man alone and if you do not have anything to say just smoke ok.
In the same way, there are instances where specific domestic animal names
such as dog, sheep, goat, pig, horse, donkey, among others, and the insults associated
with them, are used to insult politicians. An example is excerpt 11, where an NPP MP,
K. T. Hammond was described as a “dog” when he insulted the Majority Leader of
parliament as “foolish, stupid and useless.” Also, in excerpt 12, Rawlings is presented
as a “dog” for his “loud silence over corruption under Mahama.” Akans and most
cultures in Ghana as well as Africa have negative perceptions of “dogs.” According to
Agyekum (2010), a “dog” is considered as a very good pet but it has some negative
characteristics: (1) it is promiscuous, especially the males; (2) it steals; (3) it is
quarrelsome; and (4) greedy. Some of these characteristics are ascribed to the
politicians in question. More importantly, in excerpt 11, the most suitable characteristic
mapped on the NPP MP is “stealing,” since the discussion that resulted into the insult
was about the selling of a drill ship and the inability of the state to trace the proceedings
from the sale which the MP was involved. Related to the negative connotations
associated with the use of dogs to insult people is Leach’s (1979) research which
focused on Kadin, a Tibeto-Burmese language spoken by the hill tribesmen in Eastern
Burma. To them, calling a man a dog is an obscenity; it is a verbal taboo. It is also
important to note that in some contexts, the behavior of dogs in terms of sexual
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relations is affinal. That is to say, dogs can have relation with their own children. This,
among Akans, is an act that is considered to be incestuous and abominable.
In excerpt 12, the suitable attribute of dogs extended to former President
Rawlings is “greediness,” because according to the ordinary citizen, he was now
enjoying under President Mahama and that he is too busy with his “bones” (reference is
made to the enjoyment with dogs’ attention and steadiness with respect to bones) and
does not have the time to criticize the administration over corruption. The “bones”
represents the supposed “goodies” given to Rawlings. Recall that Rawlings has
criticized all presidents who came after him, including his own vice president, John
Evans Mills of blessed memory, who was elected in 2008. His unusual silence of not
doing same under the current administration baffles the ordinary citizen who therefore
compares his attitude metaphorically to that of a dog with a bone.
Similarly, the “sheep” is also used to represent politicians. In excerpt 13, the
ordinary citizen describes some politicians and the Electoral commissioner as “sheep”
by adding odwan “sheep” to their names. Agyekum (2010) mentions the characteristics
Akans associate with sheep as “foolish.” Therefore these attributes are attributed to
Yaw Boateng Gyana, a presidential staffer; Kwadow Afari Gyan, the Electoral
Commissioner; and Boakye Gyan, a former military leader, an instrumental figure in the
1979 military take over in Ghana. That is to say, these people are “greedy” and are only
interested in their well being just like the sheep.
Excerpt 11 [Background: The ordinary citizen’s comment below was a reaction to NPP MP, K.T. Hammond who launched a blistering verbal attack on the Majority Leader of Parliament, Benjamin Kumbour in the house, for making an anti-corruption statement that did not go well him (Hammond).]
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Name: Nana Kwasi Date: 12-04-2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: EXPLETIVES GALORE!!! K.T Hammond Slams Majority Leader For Passing “Foolish, Stupid And Useless Comments” This dog is fighting hard to win back the confidence of his mother. He says his mother does not believe his tale about the $3.5m. Excerpt 12 [Background: The comment below is in response to NPP MP, Derek Oduro who was surprised at the sudden loud silence of former President Rawlings over corrupt practices in the Mahama-led NDC government. Recall that Rawlings has criticized almost every government after him, including his own party.] Name: Kofi Date: 01-11-2014 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Rawlings’ Conscience Has Been Bought…Why The Loud Silence Over Corruption Under Mahama? If you give meat to a dog it finishes it fast and starts barking again. But if you give it a bone it does not come back. Mills gave Rawlings meat and he quickly finishes it. Excerpt 13 [The background of this excerpt is the same as excerpt 12.] Name: King Bright (USA) Date: 01-11-2014 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Rawlings’ Conscience Has Been Bought…Why The Loud Silence Over Corruption Under Mahama? Too many Odwan (sheep) in Ghana and they are bent on plunging Ghana into chaos. Just name them: Yaw Boateng dwan, Afari dwan, Boakye dwan, and the list is endless.
Ordinary citizens also describe the behavior of politicians as mythical creatures
or demons, which make them physically unfit to live among human beings. In excerpt
14, David Annan, one of the lawyers of the NDC government, is described as a
“vampire” when he insulted the chief of Essikado as an “indecent vandal.” Also in
excerpt 15, Tony Aidoo, a presidential staffer is presented as an “old monster,” when he
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said that the NPP presidential candidate for 2008 and 2012, Nana Akuffo-Addo, “has an
offensive body that puts people off.” Further, in excerpt 16, Kennedy Agyapong, an NPP
MP is described as “devilished” when he insulted the EC as “stupid.”
These descriptions reveal a society that believes in mythical creatures and
supernatural beings whose behavior and operations are considered very scary and
dangerous. Thus, the behaviors and dispositions of these politicians are considered as
metaphysical or associated with some ‘crazy’ creatures because they are beyond
human comprehension, and therefore not fit to mingle with humans. Theirs is the
“spiritual” world.
The use of the description “a bunch of vampires,” “monsters,” and “devilish” in
excerpt 14, 15 and 16 respectively can be analyzed as metaphors. Emphasis is placed
on “vampires” to illustrate the behavior of politicians in Ghanaian political discourse. The
physical appearance of “vampires,” as illustrated in European folklore, as some
creatures who leave their grave at night to suck blood of the living by biting their neck
with long pointed canine teeth is correlated to the corrupt practices of Ghanaian
politicians of siphoning money from the coffers of government without any
accountability.
Excerpt 14 [Background: This is an insult from an ordinary citizen to all politicians, especially NDC type. His comment is in response to one of the lawyers of the governing NDC that called the Chief of Essikado an indecent vandal, following the latter’s description of politicians as a “band of rats and vampires feeding fat” on Ghanaians.] Author: Photosy. Date: 2013-11-02 05:45:55 Source: Ghanaweb Comment to: Nana Nketsia is an indecent Vandal – David Annan
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It's so sad to read in between the lines and conclude that the NDC are really feeling the pinch from Nana Nketsia's words. Politicians are fools but NDC politicians are not only fools; they have heads full of mash and trash. Nana, you are right, you and I are more intelligent than them and yet they think they can Lord it over us. My God, I am now convinced from the little Nana said, and all the dirty noises coming from only the guilty ones how guilty they really are. What a disgraceful bunch of vampires. Excerpt 15 [Background: the comment below is an ordinary citizens’ response to Dr. Tony Aidoo, a Senior Presidential Aide and Head of Policy and Evaluation at the Presidency, for describing the NPP’s 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate as having an “offensive body language.”] Name: Ama Date: 12-19-2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Akufo Addo Has An 'Offensive Body Language' That Puts People Off - Tony Aidoo Look at this birch [sic] (bitch) and wee-smoker old man talking, you are nowhere near Nana Akuffo Addo, don't compare yourself to Nana, Nana is winning 2016 whether you like it or not, Mahama with his body appearance look at the way Ghana is suffering, do we govern with appearance or by sense. You old monster! Excerpt 16 [Background: The comment was a response from a citizen in reaction to NPP MP, Kennedy Agyapong who described the chairman of Electoral Commission as “stupid.” This insult was as a result of the 2012 election petition spearheaded by the NPP.] Name: Mubarak Date: 04-04 2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Ken Agyapong: Afari Gyan Is Stupid And Not Indispensable I am sad for my country. How can people in their right frame of mind commend this devilish and uncivilized speech by no mean person, but a member of parliament? No wonder our development is at a standstill. All these garbage are paraded in our august house of parliament. Do we as country really understand the essence of democracy? 3.2.1.3 Insanity and mental health of politicians
The behavior of some politicians in Ghana is compared to that of patients in the
mental homes and those suffering from some form of schizophrenia needing psychiatric
help. In excerpt 17, P.C. Appiah Ofori, an NPP MP is described as “insane/mad he
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needs a psychiatrist to help him” when he insulted Konadu Apraku, a presidential
aspirant of the NPP as “stupid” for contesting the 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate
of the NPP, Nana Akuffo-Addo. Again, in excerpt 18, Victoria Hammah, the deputy
minister of communication mentioned in excerpt 1 is described as “gyimifoɔ” (foolish
person). The citizen continues to insult the minister as “woabɔ dam” (you are mad)
because she claimed that the media assault on her was “chauvinistic” and
“misogynistic.”
The use of these expressions to describe politicians is of interest, in that, in the
Ghanaian way of thinking, patients in the psychiatric hospital are regarded as mad.
There is a dysfunction and improper utilization of their intellect and therefore need some
sort of psychiatric help. More importantly, according to Agyekum (2010), the use of the
word “madness” is considered to be the highest point of foolishness and its use is more
offensive and derogatory than other insults related to the intellect. It even becomes
more insulting when the target himself is not mad, but the word is used to describe his
behavior as someone whose behavior is not in tandem with normal human beings.
Interestingly, certified mad men even become furious and oppose to the tag of
madness. They would rather refer to the “insulter” as the one who is really mad and not
them.
It is also important to note that, in Ghanaian society, those treated with mental
problems have difficulties integrating and reuniting with their families because of the
believe that mental illness is a chronic disease and cannot be cured outright. This is
reflected in the Akan expression bɔdamni see ne dam kɔ koraa no, nyε deε ɔde
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hunahuna nkɔdaa to wit “if a madman says he has been cured of madness, there is
some little left to scare kids.”
Thus, the presentation of politicians as people who need to be at the mental
hospital, mad and foolish people, reveals the understanding that those politicians have
serious problems with their line of thinking and therefore deserve to be in the psychiatric
hospital, since their behavior is incompatible with that of normal human beings. The
country needs people with the right frame of mind and intellect to govern the nation and
“not mad people.”
Excerpt 17 [Background: This comment from the ordinary citizen is in response to former NPP MP, P.C. Appiah Ofori’s insult targeted at another NPP presidential aspirant, Kofi Konadu Apraku describing him as “stupid.”] Name: Nana Nketia Date: 12-11-2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: P.C Appiah Descends On Apraku: Any NPP Member Against Nana Addo As Flagbearer Is “Stupid” P.C Appiah Ofori is insane/mad he needs a psychiatrist to help him. Is NPP for Nana Addo alone? Since 2008 we have consistently lost our hold from 7 decreasing to only 2 regions and yet crazy old foxes like PC and his sycophants will not give us a break. Free education is not the issue but an appealing candidate. Please stop your unguided visionless commentary. Excerpt 18 [Background: This is a comment directed at Deputy Minister of Communication, Victoria Hammar who said the media assult on her was purely chauvinistic and misogynistic after publicly looking for her edited speech. Her action incurred the wrath of most citizens who claimed that she had disgraced the country in the eyes of the international community. This necessitated the reaction below.] Author: Adwoa Date: 2013-08-12 12:38:33 Source: Ghanaweb Comment to: “Media assault” on me “chauvinistic", “misogynistic” – Victoria Hammah
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You are incompetent and you lack morals. Gyimifoɔ (foolish person); woabɔ dam (You’re mad). 3.2.1.4 Innocuous insults
The data for this study shows that some of the insults from the ordinary citizens
are at times innocuous. They are ways of diffusing tension in the midst of economic
hardships and challenges, such as access to electricity and water. A typical example of
this is in excerpt 19. The ordinary citizen describes the pre-paid meters in Ghana as
“John wahala meters.” The President’s name Mahama is replaced with the Hausa word
wahala meaning “suffering.” The import of the renaming is that the President is an
epitome of suffering; he is responsible for the increased in electricity tariffs and the fast
consumption rate of the unit. This is seen in his accusation that the unit he bought did
not last long. The ordinary citizen’s description of the president is an insult, but very
harmless; it merely pokes fun at the president.
Similarly, during President Kufuor’s administration, residents of Adenta and
Teshie in Accra came up with the term “Kufuor gallons” for shortages in water supply.
“Kufuor gallons” were yellow gallons that were used by residents of Accra to fetch water
in times of acute water shortage. In the same way, the current president, Mahama, has
an entire greeting associated with his name Mema wo dumsɔ oo “I give you power cut”
Yaa Mahama “Response Mahama” due to the erratic power supply which the country
experienced in 2012. Therefore some of the insults are just for comic relief; they are not
offensive. It must, however, be pointed out that the use of humor, especially situational
humor or conversational joking, is a double-edged sword, that is, it can “diffuse” and
“control conflict,” depending on the relationship and the social distance between the
speaker and the addressee (Boxer and Cortés-Conde, 1997: 275).
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Excerpt 19
[Background: The discussion was focused on the erratic power supply and the increased electricity tariffs in the country. Below is the conversation that ensued between the host of the program, Afia Pokuaa and the caller, Sammy.] Adom FM (Burning issues) FM November 13, 2013 Afia: Yenkɔ Bra Alita. Bra Alita, good evening. Lets go to brother Alita. Brother Alita, good evening. Alita Good evening sister Afia.
Afia: Alita wowɔ air kasa ma me. Alita you are on air go ahead with your contribution. Alita: Ma menka about John wahala meter no a yεde abεbɔ hɔ ama yεn no.
Yεsee yεareduce by 25% hwε εyε ntorɔ oo. Last Saturday yεakɔtɔ unit εnnε unit no asa.
Let me talk about the John ‘Wahala’ meter which has been fixed for us. They said they have reduced it by 25%. Look it is full of lies. We bought unit last Saturday, but today it is finished.
3.2.2 Lexicalization and predication used by pro-NPP and NDC newspapers
Pro-NPP newspapers reported insults with lexicalization and predication from
those they considered as ingroup members targeted at the outgroup members. In Table
3-1 examples 1 and 2:
1. Specialist in lies and propaganda shouldn’t be managing our economy-Bawumiah. Daily searchlight, October 2, 2012
2. J.J. tainted with blood. Daily Guide, January 10, 2014
The insult in (1) is a quote from Dr. Bawumia, a running mate of the main
opposition party. He has a PhD in economics and believes that the NPP has the experts
to manage the economy. He however believes that those managing the economy do not
have the requisite expertise to manage it; they rely only on lies and propaganda,
meaning they are not being truthful with the true state of the economy. Looking at the
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background of Dr. Bawumia, it will be difficult for the public to interrogate his comment
and it may not be possible for readers to understand that this is an attempt to convince
the electorate that if the NPP is voted into power they will make the economy better.
The underlying idea behind the report of this insult is that the ingroup has the experts to
manage the economy better than the outgroup. Therefore, the newspaper reports the
insults from the ingroup member seeking to negatively portray the outgroup as people
who do not have the technical know-how to manage the economy.
Example (2) is a predication that projects the founder of the NDC (an outgroup
member) as a killer. J.J. Rawlings has been accused several times of being responsible
for the killing of the three Heads of State and three Supreme Court judges. Therefore,
the report of this insult from the NPP newspaper is a way to remind the public that the
founder of the NDC is a known killer. Thus, the underlying idea behind the report of this
insult is to negatively project the outgroup member as a killer and not worth listening to.
Similarly, pro-NDC newspapers reported insults from the ingroup members
targeted at the outgroup members. Various forms of lexicalization and predication of
insults were reported from the ingroup in Table 3-1 examples 1’ and 2’:
1’. No ‘patapaa’ President Mahama warn losers in December election. Ghana Palaver, September 14-16, 2012
2’. Arrogant Kan Dapaah running a one man show. Ghana Palaver, July 20, 2012
The word patapaa in example (1’) was uttered by the current president of Ghana,
John Mahama to advise all losers of the 2012 election, and reported by the Ghana
Palaver newspaper. Patapaa is an Akan word, which means “a person who is violent or
a violent behavior.” It is used to describe losers in the December elections. Though the
word is used to advise all losers, knowing that Ghana’s election is a contest between
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the NDC and NPP, this insult is directed at the doorsteps of the main opposition and
most importantly to the 2012 presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Akuffo-Addo.
Because he is alleged to have said prior to the 2012 elections that the elections would
be “all die be die.” He was criticized for warmongering. Thus, the report of the
president’s insult is to negatively present the outgroup member, NPP presidential
candidate, as a violent person who would not accept the 2012 election results and
would plunge the country into chaos if he lost; by extension, it is implied he is not even
qualified to be a president.
In (2’), the newspaper reports insults from NDC members of the Public Accounts
Committee (PAC) of Parliament that were tasked to investigate financial malfeasance in
the public service. Parliamentary regulations provide the opportunity for an MP from the
opposition party to chair the PAC so that there is a fair investigation of government
officials. The NDC members accused the chairman of the committee, Albert Kan
Dapaah, an outgroup member, of being “arrogant” and “running a one-man show”
because he threatened to cause the arrest of an ingroup member, Alfred Agbesi
Woyome. The newspaper reports this predicational insult from the NDC members of the
committee to negatively portray the outgroup member as someone who does not
consult them before making decisions, and has therefore taken an arrogant posture.
The publication of the insult is clearly meant to discredit the outgroup member.
Pro-NPP newspapers reported insults from outgroup members directed toward
members of the ingroup. Examples 7 to 10 in Table 3-2:
1. You’re bush guys, stupid, Sorogho storms Oman FM. Daily Guide, September 13, 2012
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2. Hanna Bissiw NDC MP and Deputy Minister for Agriculture referred to Minority in Parliament as abrɔ meaning agents of retrogression. Daily Guide, November 28, 2013
3. Rawlings referred to Kufour as “autocratic thief.” Daily Guide, December 10, 2013
These insults were reported by pro-NPP newspapers to project to both readers
and the public the kind of invectives coming from members of the outgroup to the
ingroup members. Therefore, members of the outgroup are projected negatively as the
ones spurring the insults, citing insults from NDC MPs, Minister Sorogho and Hannah
Bissiw, and the founder of the NDC, former President Rawlings, in 1, 2, and 3
respectively. The spin is that pro-NPP newspapers accused the outgroup members of
insulting the ingroup members. Pro-NDC newspapers, however, did not report insults
from the outgroup members towards the ingroup. There was nowhere in the data that I
encountered pro-NDC newspapers reporting insults from the outgroup to the ingroup
members.
Furthermore, both pro-NPP and NDC newspapers reported insults from outgroup
members targeted at the outgroup members. Outgroup members used various
lexicalizations and predications to insult people in the same outgroup. These were
reported to show that there were confusion in the camp of the outgroup. In examples (1)
to (4) in Table 3-3, pro-NPP newspapers reported insults from members of the outgroup
to the outgroup:
1. Greedy bastards and babies with sharp teeth-Rawlings. The New Statesman, April 3, 2012
2. Wayome is a crass criminal. Daily Guide, June 5, 2012 3. You’re an idiot. Daily Guide, August 29, 2012 4. NDC is filthy corrupt. The Chronicle, October 2, 2012
All these predicational insults were reported to negatively present the outgroup.
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The predicational insult in (1) “greedy bastards and babies with sharp teeth” was
a comment made by the former President Rawlings to his own party members who
were vilifying him. This insult can be analyzed in two ways: first, it is used to describe
the activities of the NDC with regards to corruption. Secondly, the second part of the
insult “babies with sharp teeth,” is a metaphor used to describe the behavior of the
young ones in the NDC. Rawlings made this comment at the time when most of the
youth in the NDC were insulting him. So, his metaphor “babies with sharp teeth” refers
to their penchant toward behavior of vilifying and insulting people. Within the Ghanaian
culture, kids or children are not supposed to engage in adult communication, let alone to
insult adults. This metaphor portrays that the young ones within NDC have outgrown
wings and are vilifying the adults in the party. Therefore, pro-NPP newspapers reported
this insult to expose the confusion within the camp of the outgroup, and to show that
they are not the only ones saying the outgroup members are corrupt; the founder of
their party and members of their party concur with them.
Pro-NDC newspapers also reported predicational insults of the outgroup
members to the outgroup. Example (1’) to (4’) in Table 3-3:
1’. NPP national executives are thieves. Daily Post, December 3, 2013 2’. NPP is full of thieves. The Informer, December 18, 2013 3’. Wereko Brobbey is a non-entity. www.myradiogoldlive.com, May 31, 2013 4’. Kufour’s 30 constituencies senseless. Ghana Palaver, August 27-28, 2012
All these were reported to show the misunderstanding in the outgroup. The way
in which these insults were reported signals the underlying ideology behind the report.
For example, the use of predicates “revelation” and “vindicates” in both examples (1’)
and (2’) in Table 3-3 shows how the pro-NDC newspapers exposed the thievery and
confusion in the camp of the outgroup.
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Moreover, both pro-NPP and NDC newspapers reported insults from non-
politicians targeted at the outgroup. Non-politicians refer to the clergy, citizens, chiefs,
civil society, experts, think tanks as well as others. Pro-NPP newspapers reported most
of the non-politician insults aimed at the outgroup whereas the NDC newspapers only
reported one, which was from a non-politician reporting an insult from the outgroup
targeted at the ingroup as in example (1’) in Table 3-4: “Tε ni can’t govern us.”
Predicational insults from renowned pastors such as Mensa Otabil; spokesperson for
Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Emmanuel Osei Akyeampong; and energy economist
(by trade), Mohammed Ameen Adams were reported on NPP newspapers, shown in
example (1) to (2) in Table 3-4. Those insults were reported to promote the agenda or
ideology of the ingroup and marginalize the outgroup.
For example in Table 3-4, the Al-Hajj newspaper reported the insult in (1’) from a
taxi driver who claimed to have heard some Akans using the lexical item “tε ni” to insult
the president. This word needs elaboration. The correct spelling of the word is “tani,” an
Akan term use to insult those from the Northern part of Ghana. Recall that the NDC
presidential candidate, John Mahama is a Northerner, and the NPP is perceived as an
Akan dominated party. So, for this term to surface on the front page of an NDC paper is
a way of turning people from the North against the NPP. The paper portrays to readers
that the outgroup is presenting the ingroup presidential candidate as someone who is
ethnically unfit to lead the country. This portrays the outgroup negatively for using tribal
and ethnic sentiments against the ingroup candidate, while the ingroup is implicitly
presented positively for not whipping up ethnic sentiments.
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Coupled with the above, both pro-NPP and NDC newspapers used their platform
to insult those they considered to be the outgroup. To insult the outgroup, the
newspapers used negative lexicalization and predicational forms to describe them. As
shown in examples (1) to (3) in Table 3-5, pro-NPP newspapers used negative
descriptions such as:
1. Thieving Mahama caught. Daily Searchlight, October 2, 2012 2. Leading the verbal onslaught on the clergy. Daily Guide, September 10, 2012
In (1), the Daily Seachlight paper describes President John Mahama as a “thief”
for stealing the 2012 presidential election which the NPP contested in court and lost.
Calling the president a thief was meant to bring to the attention of the NPP supporters
that the party won the 2012 elections, a typical case of a stolen verdict. Therefore, the
insult is aimed at satisfying the aggrieved ingroup members and portraying the outgroup
as thieves.
In (2) outgroup members are presented as the front-runners in insulting the
clergy. The clergy in Ghana and most part of the world are held in high esteem, so for a
newspaper to report that some politicians are fond of insulting them creates friction
between Christians and the outgroup. In Ghana, where majority of the population are
Christians, such tensions could cause the electoral defeat of the outgroup. Thus, the
negative description of the outgroup is meant to present them negatively and to
ultimately lose the next election.
Similarly, pro-NDC newspapers describe the outgroup members with negative
lexicalization and predications. Examples (1’) to (3’) in Table 3-5 support this claim:
1’. Akuffo-Addo is wicked and not worth dying for. Ghana Palaver, June 20, 2012 2’. Rascal Akuffo-Addo and his marauding Akyem tribal mafia. The Informer, May
29-30, 2013
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3’. NPP’s hypocrisy knows no bound Ghana. Palaver, August 27-28, 2012
The Ghana Palaver’s predicational insult in (1’) is targeted at Nana Akuffo-Addo,
the NPP presidential candidate for 2008 and 2012 elections when he continued with his
campaign at a time when the late former Vice President, Aliu Mahama, was admitted at
the hospital. He is accused of not showing enough compassion and abandoning the
former Vice President to die. The ingroup candidate is reported to have asked for
prayers for the late vice president from Ghanaians. Therefore, the paper described
Akuffo-Addo negatively as “wicked” and not qualified to be president of Ghana. The
ingroup candidate is preferred over the outgroup, revealing a group polarization
between NPP and NDC newspapers.
The analysis of naming revealed that both pro-NDC and NPP newspapers used
negative lexicalization and predications to describe members of the outgroup. For
example in (1) and (2) in Table 3-6, pro-NPP newspapers named some deputy
ministers and members of the NDC government as “acid tongues,” meaning they are
fond of putting forth vitriolic attacks on their opponents. Others were also referred to as
“castle boys,” for their consistent dependence and stays at the Castle, the seat of
government in Ghana. Hajia Boya, a Deputy Minister of Women and Children’s affair,
was referred to as “De La Hoya” (the former boxing heavyweight champion) for her
quarrelsome behavior. These names were assigned to the outgroup members to
present them negatively.
Pro-NDC newspapers employed the same strategy to refer to members of the
outgroup. In example (1’) in Table 3-6, Dr. Bawumia’s consistent criticism of the
economy earned him the name “Bawumianomics.” Any bad analysis of the economy
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was referred to as “Bawumianomics.” In (2’) and (3’) the editor of the Daily Searchlight
newspaper, a pro-NPP newspaper, Ken Kurankye was referred to as “ɔpεtε” meaning
“vulture,” and Dr. Bawumia was also referred to as “Lying Scavenging Vulture.” Vultures
in Akan and elsewhere are considered as unclean as they feed on dead carcasses.
These characteristics are ascribed onto the outgroup members to present them
negatively.
3.3 Presupposition
This section is divided into two parts: first, I analyze the presuppositions used by
ordinary citizens to challenge the existing social power, and second I explicate
underlying ideologies in the presuppositions employed by both pro-NPP and NDC
newspapers.
3.3.1 Presupposition used by ordinary citizens
Some of the online websites, such as peacefmonline, block intemperate and
insulting comments or words posted by ordinary citizens. In view of this, contributors
have devised other means of posting their comments to achieve the same effect, and
presupposition is one of the ways. Surprisingly, I did not encounter the use of
presuppositions in the phone-in data. The examples shown below are from online
commentaries. This is exemplified in excerpts 20, 21 and 22.
In excerpt 20, the ordinary citizen uses the presupposition “Ghanaians are now in
slavery” to challenge political authority. The use of the word “now” presupposes that
Ghanaians were free and independent before the current political power, and
management of the country was better than now. This is seen in his use of the word
“slavery,” which evokes senses such as bondage, hard labor, and servitude, serving to
emphasize the hardship in the country. He reinforced this idea by describing those in
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authority as “greedy bastards,” a description which, as I pointed out earlier had been
used by former President Rawlings to refer to the ministers and government appointees
of the late President Mills. Therefore this ordinary citizen accuses the current
government of being responsible for the present predicament of Ghanaians. The
ordinary citizens’ presupposition is a challenge to political authority to do something
about the sufferings of Ghanaians.
Similarly in excerpt 21, the citizen tries to undermine Tony Aidoo, a political
authority, by using the presupposition “which varsity gave Tony Aidoo his PhD?” The
sentence has two implicit meanings: (1) the credibility of the university that awarded Dr.
Tony Aidoo a PhD is questioned, and (2) his academic credential is undermined. It can
further be presupposed that Dr. Tony Aidoo is not qualified for the award of a PhD. The
citizen does not understand how a PhD holder would make such a comment about the
presidential candidate of the NPP. Thus, the comment admonishes those in political
authority to be circumspect in the description of their political opponents.
In addition, the citizen uses the presupposition “the criminals are ruling us” to
challenge political authority in excerpt 22. Reah (2002) states that the use of the definite
article “the” triggers presupposition. This is in line with Yule’s (1996) existential
presupposition, for example, “the X,” presupposes that “X” exists. The noun phrase “the
criminals” presupposes that “criminals” exist and are in charge of the administration of
the country. He further accuses “the criminals” of destroying the future of Ghanaians.
The citizen’s presupposition throws a challenge to political authority to be mindful of “the
criminal” elements in government and also be more concerned about the future of the
country.
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Excerpt 20 [Background: The insult below is borne out of an NPP Member of Parliament’s comment that associated the President of Ghana’s incompetence to that of a woman.] Author: ranger Date: 2013-11-03 13:50:05 Source: Ghanaweb Comment to: David Annan is evil!!! Nana, say it a thousand times please! Ghanaians are now in slavery, with greedy bastards in control. Excerpt 21 [Background: the comment below is an ordinary citizens’ response to Dr. Tony Aidoo, a Senior Presidential Aide and Head of Policy and Evaluation at the Presidency, for describing the NPP’s 2008 and 2012 presidential candidate as someone who has an “offensive body language.”] Name: Somebody tell me Date: 12-19-2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Akuffo-Addo Has An 'Offensive Body Language' That Puts People Off - Tony Aidoo Which varsity gave Tony Aidoo his PhD? It must be some wretched varsity. Excerpt 22 [Background: This is an insult from an ordinary citizen to all politicians, especially the ones in NDC. His comment is in response to one of the lawyers of the governing NDC who that called the Chief of Essikado an indecent vandal, because the latter described politicians as a “band of rats and vampires feeding fat” on Ghanaians.] Author: THE GERMAN FACT Date: 2013-11-02 05:30:47 Source: Ghanaweb Comment to: Nana Nketsia is an indecent Vandal – David Annan Nana say it again the criminals are ruling us. They are destroying our future. 3.3.2 Presuppositions used by pro-NPP and NDC newspapers
In this section, I show how pro-NPP and NDC newspapers used presuppositions
to report insults from either the ingroup or the outgroup, other sources and the authorial
voice. In the following I discuss pro-NPP newspapers use of presupposition first, and
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then explicate how pro-NDC newspapers utilized a similar strategy to describe those
they considered to be outgroup members.
In Tables 3-7 pro-NPP newspapers presuppositions include:
1. In his usual propaganda style. The Chronicle, July 19, 2012 2. Send people who can make intellectual debate. daily Daily Guide, December 12, 2013 3. Elvis, a notorious loose talker and a deputy minister. Daily Guide, November 10, 2010 4. Former President Jerry John Rawlings has suddenly found his voice. Daily
Guide, December 10, 2010
The Chronicle paper used the presupposition in (1) to report an insult hurled at
one of their reporters by Deputy Minister of Information, James Agyenim Boateng when
he asked a question on whether the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) was
considering putting a clause in the constitution about health status of presidents and
presidential candidates. This occurred during a time that the late President Mills was
alleged to have been taken ill. The paper therefore presented members of the outgroup
as people fond of using propaganda. Employing the lexical item “usual” by the Chronicle
paper indicates that the outgroup member is noted for his habitual propaganda style.
In (2) the presupposition was reported from a source meant to present the
outgroup negatively. Fiifi Banson, a broadcast journalist with peace FM, a radio station
in Accra, is reported by the Daily Guide paper to have uttered that presupposition. He is
presented as “an award winning Ghanaian broadcaster” to portray the genuineness of
the presupposition. The meaning behind the presupposition is that the crop of panelists
sent by the NDC to peace FM are not astute enough to present the agenda of the party.
The Daily Guide newspaper made this report when Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, deputer
minister for Local governance and rural development compared the crumbling down of
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the Melcom store, which killed about ten people and injured several others to how the
NPP will fall in the December 7, 2012 elections. The use of the word “notorious” in (3)
presupposes that Elvis is well-known for passing unguided comments. Just like the
word “usual,” he is noted for talking loosely.
The former President Rawlings is also presented in the Daily Guide paper in (4)
as suddenly finding his voice when he insulted former president Kufuor as an “autocratic
thief.” The use of “sudden” presupposes that Rawlings has been quiet for sometime and
was now speaking. His sudden voice, however, is directed at an ingroup member, not
the outgroup, which the paper believes are noted for corruption. Therefore, the use of
this presupposition is to negatively present the former president, an outgroup member,
as directing his attention towards the wrong person. In sum, pro-NPP newspapers
presented the outgroup members negatively using presupposition from both the
authorial voice and (depicting the ideology of the papers).
Pro-NDC newspapers also employed presupposition to present the outgroup
negatively. They used presuppositions from the authorial voice and members of the
ingroup. Some of the presuppositions in Table 3-7 include:
1’. Loose-talking ‘Genocide’ MP on the loose again. The Catalyst, September 7, 2011 2’. The rotten NPP judgment debt baggage. Ghana Palaver, July 20, 2012 3’. NPP turned Ghana into a cocaine country. www.radiogoldlive.com, June 7, 2013 4’. True NPP old evil Dwarfs at work. Ghana Palaver, July 20, 2012
The Catalyst paper reported the presupposition in (1’) using the authorial voice to
represent the outgroup MP, Kennedy Agyapong negatively for insulting the President,
John Mahama, the entire membership of NDC and the police service. The use of the
lexical item “again” in the report presupposes that the MP’s loose talking is not the first
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time; that is, the MP is known for that. He is even described as a “genocide MP,” a term
which negatively portrays the MP. Thus, the presupposition and the description are
used to negatively present the outgroup member.
In (2’), the definite article “the” utilized by The Palaver newspaper presupposes
that NPP has a rotten judgment debt that exists. Judgment debt is one of the
contentious issues discussed in Ghana, and the two dominant parties continue blaming
each other as to who has paid most of the judgment debts. Thus, the use of the
presupposition seeks to portray to readers that there exists a “rotten” judgment debt in
the NPP.
Radiogold.com reported the presupposition in (3’) from a deputy minster of
information, Felix Ofosu Kwakye who described as unfortunate attempts by the NPP to
link the arrest of the Managing Director of SOHIN Security in the United States for drug
trafficking to the Mahama administration. The word turned presupposes that before the
NPP came to power there was nothing like cocaine in Ghana and, therefore the NPP
are responsible for turning Ghana into cocaine country. The ingroup’s administration is
implicitly presented positively for not being responsible for the cocaine business in the
country.
The Ghana Palaver paper employed the presupposition in (4’) to insult the
outgroup. The former President Rawlings was the first person to utter the description
“old evil dwarfs” to refer to some members of the NDC. For an NDC newspaper to use
this same description with the adjective “true” to refer to the outgroup is interesting. The
adjective “true” is used to qualify the noun phrase “NPP old evil dwarfs.” Richardson
(2007) indicates that the use of nouns and adjectives to modify noun phrases trigger
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presupposition he calls nominal presuppositions. So, “true NPP old evil dwarfs,” is a
nominal presupposition meant to present the outgroup negatively. “True” presupposes
that NPP are indeed the real or actual “old evil dwarfs” not the NDC. Therefore, the
nominal presupposition was used to present the outgroup negatively. In sum, pro-NDC
newspapers employed presuppositions using authorial voice and the ingroup to present
the outgroup negatively.
3.4 Metaphor/simile
This section focuses on how ordinary citizens used metaphor/simile to challenge
the existing social power. Employing metaphors/simile, ordinary citizens insulted and
exposed the wrongdoings of political authority. The data for the analysis in this section
are exclusively derived from phone-ins.
Excerpt 23 [Background: The discussion was focused on the accountability of government. Below is a contribution from an ordinary citizen.] Burning issues-Adom FM October 14 2013
Me nuabaa, me deε, nneεma bi wɔ kurom ha seesei a wo hwε sεnea Ghana mpaninfoɔ bu man no a, akɔyε sε baakofoɔ ɔate n’asɔre na ɔgye collection no a na kaa V8 na ɔakɔtɔ. Control board sεe koraa na ɔasan aba asɔredan mu hɔ na ɔabεhyε nkɔm na ɔagye sika atɔ control board. ‘My sister, as for me, now there are things happening in this country, currently if you look at the way Ghanaian leaders are governing the country it’s like a sole owner of church who takes his/her own collection/offering and buys a V8. When the control board is not working, he prophesies to the church for money to buy a control board.’ (Burning issues-Adom FM October 14 2013)
Table 3-9 shows one-to-one mapping of source to target. The sole owner of the
church/prophet maps onto the domain of leaders in government and the church
members maps to all Ghanaians. The caller’s simile indicates the way the country is
being run by the leaders who consistently increase taxes with the aim of salvaging the
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ailing economy. When those taxes are misused or misapplied they come back and
introduce more taxes. The use of the word baakofoɔ “one man” and expression hyε
nkɔm “prophecy,” which maps to the leaders interestingly could be used to explicate
insults in a culturally insightful way because Ghana is experiencing an era of one-man
churches (sole owner of a church), who give all sorts of prophecies to extort money
from gullible church members. The prophets live in mansions, drive the most expensive
cars (not forgetting the caller’s mention of V8), wear expensive clothes, and eat the best
food while their members live in abject poverty. The picture being presented here is that
Ghanaian leaders are cunning cheats, who have no regard for tax-paying citizens. The
physical experience of a church-prophet and members provide us with the way
Ghanaian leaders are governing the country and how ordinary citizens respond to it. It is
important to mention that the caller insults Ghanaian leaders, but this is presented
nicely in a form of simile, which exposes the deceitful nature of those on the helm of
affairs in the country.
Excerpt 24 [Background: The discussion was focused on how to assist government workers and politicians to achieve a better Ghana. Below is a contribution from an ordinary citizen] Adom FM (Burning issues) October 23, 2013
Yoo. Sister Afia meda wo ase. Sister Afia, time no a yεsua no, yε taa kɔ wia obi akɔmfem ɔto wɔ nwuram a, εbi a motetε a ɔto baako na moakɔfa; ɔto baako a na moakɔfa. Na yεtaa wiawia. εbi na John Mahama amammuo no ayε. Okay Sister Afia. Sister Afia, when we were young, we used to steal the eggs of someone’s guinea fowl in the bush. We hide in the bush, when it lays an egg we go and take it; it lays an egg we go and take it. We were stealing them. That is what John Mahama’s government is doing.
I employ Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphor in this analysis.
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Table 3-10 shows a one-to-one mapping of source to target. The young people
map onto politicians; the guinea fowl maps onto the Ghanaian people; and the egg of
the guinea fowl maps onto government coffers. The caller’s metaphor implicitly shows
the manner in which politicians are stealing from the coffers of the country. The idea of
young people hiding and stealing every egg the guinea fowl lays is interesting because
it relates to how politicians steal every cedi that goes into government coffers. It
insinuates that politicians generate a lot of money by taxing the people of Ghana, and
later turn around and steal those monies. Therefore, the caller presents politicians as
thieves, stealing from the coffers of Ghanaians. The caller insults politicians but in a
presentable way captured in a form metaphor that exposes their thievery. The caller’s
metaphor poses a challenge to political authority to desist from stealing the people’s
money.
Excerpt 25 [Background: On January 7, 2014 the President of the Republic of Ghana met the Press to answer questions on his first term in office. After the meeting, Happy FM had a discussion on it during which callers were asked to contribute to the program. Below is an exchange between the host of the program and an ordinary citizen.] Happy FM (Yεpε a yεbεhu)
εmrε aso sε NDCfoɔ ɔɔmo bεdi akonwa ɔɔmo nka nokware na Ghana ntu mpɔn na sε Ghana bεtu mpɔn a εyε mpanin papa na εbεma Ghana atu mpɔn. εsan sε ɔpanin, ɔntumi mmεgye tax, εnye road toll, εnye biribiara na ɔmmεka nkyerε Ghanafoɔ sε yεnni sika. Yεnni sika a yεde bεbɔ ɔman no ho bra. Enti court case nti na woantumi ammu man. Meanwhile radio stationfoɔ moantua tax? Ne nyinaa ɔgye yε. Woteaseε? NDCfoɔ aban εnyε aban ɔɔmo bεka nokware akyerε Ghanafoɔ efiri sε ɔɔmo deε ɔɔmo bεwia, bεkum yεn na ɔɔmo bεsεe; korɔnoo nkoaa na ɔɔmo bεbɔɔ yε, ɔɔmo amma sε ɔɔmo bεyε Ghana yie. It is time for the ruling NDC government to be truthful to Ghanaians. The progress of Ghana depends on good leaders. The reason being that the leaders cannot take taxes, road tolls and others and tell Ghanaians that there is no
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money. We don’t have money to govern the country. So you could not govern the country because of the court case. Meanwhile radio stations, didn’t you pay taxes? They took all the taxes. Do you understand? NDC government will never be truthful to Ghanaians because as for them they’ve come to steal, to kill and to destroy. They ascended the throne only to steal from us. They did not come to power to develop Ghana.
The ordinary citizen uses a metaphor similar to the Bible’s description of a “thief”
to refer to NDC government. The Bible’s description is found in John 10: 10a, which
states, “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy” (New International Version). The
ordinary citizen portrays the NDC government as thieves, who are only in power to
steal, kill and destroy. The NDC government is not only presented as thieves, but is
considered something more, as in the Bible, “the thief” refers to “Satan,” the devil,” as
well as an “enemy of progress.” The use of the word “steal” may literally mean stealing
from the coffers of government. However, “kill” and “destroy” involve depriving
Ghanaians of the better life they want to enjoy. If there is no money in the coffers of
government, it will affect the economy and the final consequence will be on the
Ghanaian people.
The caller’s relation of this metaphor to the Bible is very instructive because
Ghana is a country where majority are Christians. Making such a relation will likely
resonate with a lot of people who will take his comments as sacrosanct. Again, the host
of the program will not chide the caller for an unsavory comment but will treat it as a
quotation from the Bible. In sum, the ordinary citizen insults political authority, but this is
done religiously to challenge political authority to be truthful and develop the country for
the benefit of all Ghanaians.
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3.5 Proverbs
Proverbs are used extensively in Ghanaian political discourse. In the present
study, ordinary citizens used proverbs to “soften” or mitigate the effect of an otherwise
plain insult, which may affect the sensibilities of the addressee or eventually lead to the
abrupt end of their calls. More importantly, the discoursal function of the proverbs is
basically to challenge the existing social power. Below are excerpts to support this
claim.
Excerpt 26 [Background: On January 7, 2014 the President of the Republic of Ghana met the Press to answer questions on his first term in office. After the meeting, Happy FM had a discussion on it during which callers were asked to contribute to the program. Below is an exchange between the host of the program and an ordinary citizen.] Happy FM (Yεpε a yεbεhu) BB: Hello good evening. Kwabena Nifa: Hi BB na apɔw mu te sεn? Hi BB, how are you? BB: Nyame ahyira me. Mepaakyεw hwan nie? God has blessed me. Please who is on the line? Kwabena Nifa: Mepaakyεw Kwabena Nifa nie. Please this is Kwabena Nifa. BB: Kwabena Nifa yεnkɔe. Kwabena Nifa, go ahead with your submission. Kwabena Nifa: Nana Addo kaa asεm bi: Nana Addo see nnipa baabiara wobεtu wo nan asi biara gya din pa εwɔ hɔ ama sε wofiri hɔ anaa sε daakye worekɔ a obi ba a ɔse asomasi εbεgyaa saa din wei wɔ ha. Nana Addo said something: Nana Addo said as humans wherever we find ourselves we should leave a good name so that when we are no more your predecessor can recognize your good name.
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The full form of the proverb in Akan is “din pa yε sεn ahonya” meaning “good
name is better than riches.” The literal meaning of this proverb is that one’s reputation is
worth more than money. In the context of use, this proverb paints a picture of political
authorities who are only interested in amassing wealth, stealing, engaging in corrupt
activities, are visionless, and are unable to govern well at the detriment of their own
reputation. For sometime now, Ghana has been bedeviled with reports of corruption and
abuse of political office, involving members of the top political echelons. Politicians are
more interested in making money for themselves instead of leaving a lasting legacy for
the next generation or something monumental that they would be remembered for.
An understanding of this proverb requires an understanding of Akan sociocultural
concept of naming a child. In Akan culture, children are named after people with good
character who have done something monumental in the society or family. The reason
behind this is that the child will take the good character of the good people (good
names) they are associated with. The reverse in Akan tradition is true, in that, naming a
child after a person with bad behavior will resort to having a child with similar behavior.
The general understanding here is that every Akan must ascribe to leave behind a good
name so that their relatives or other people can name their children after them.
The ordinary citizen’s proverb is a softener of an otherwise insult, which may
have termed politicians as corrupt, visionless or thieves. Most importantly, the
communicative role or the discoursal function of the proverb is to challenge political
authority to concentrate more on leaving a lasting legacy than to amassing wealth for
themselves so that their predecessors, Ghanaians or the next generation, will recognize
their good legacy they left behind.
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Excerpt 27 [The proverb below is a response to the host of the program insinuating that some politicians do not like her.] Adom FM (Burning issues) October 21 2013 Afia: Yεnkɔ Abaana hɔ wɔ Adenta. Bra Abaana, good evening. Lets go to Abaana in Adenta. Brother Abaana, good evening. Abaana: Meregye wo soo Afia Pokuaa. I respond Afia Pokuaa. Afia: Boss mepaakyεw wowɔ air, wae. Boss, please you are on air. Abaana: Yoo Afia. Na apɔw mu te sεn? Okay, Afia. How are you? Afia: Bɔkɔɔ. Cool (I’m doing very well) Abaana: Adwuma no deε worebɔ obi ara pε w’asεm wɔ Ghana ha. You’re doing a great job; everyone likes you in Ghana. Afia: Medaase boss. Thank you boss. Abaana: εmmarima nuabaa baako pε. The only sister of men. Afia: Anha, except politicians, ɔɔmo deε ɔɔmo mpε m’asεm saa ɔɔmo nya me a ɔɔmo bεdi me awu. No, except politicians, they don’t like me. If they get hold of me they will kill me. Abaana: Nnipa bɔneni na ɔhu sε nyame baa na ɔredwane. Saa na εteε It is only an evil person who sees God and runs away. That is how it is.
This Akan proverb means that evil people cannot stand the sight of God. It can
further be understood as those who do the right thing are not afraid of accountability.
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Akans believe that God is holy, pure, good, and that all are accountable to him, and
cannot stand the sight of evil people (i.e. that what is light cannot stand darkness). The
ordinary citizen represents the host of the program as God who asks probing questions
to reveal the wrong deeds of her addresses. The evil people represent political authority
or politicians. In the context of use, this proverb presents a picture of politicians as evil
people who do not want to account for their stewardship to the citizenry by facing
journalists who will probe them.
This proverb, therefore, mitigates the effect of an insult, which may have referred
to political authority as evil people and as people who do not want to be accountable for
their bad or corrupt deeds. The discoursal function of the proverb, however, challenges
those in the helm of the existing social power to be accountable to the Ghanaian people
and also avail themselves for the public to scrutinize their activities.
3.6 Verbal process
This section focuses on how pro-NPP and NDC newspapers employed different
verbal processes to report insults from those they considered ingroup positively and
those they considered outgroup negatively. The analysis of the data showed that pro-
NPP newspapers employed negative and neutral verbs to report insults directed at the
outgroup. However, NDC newspapers adopted positive, negative and neutral verbs to
report insults directed at the outgroup.
Table 3-8 shows examples of negative verbs utilized by NPP newspapers: (1)
“lashed out;” (2) “jabbed;” and (3) “accused.” The neutral ones included (4) “describe”
and (5) “challenge.” The neutral verb, “say,” was used to report insults from the ingroup
targeted at the outgroup, in examples (9) and (11). Negative verbs were used to
emphasize the effect of a particular insult from the ingroup member. In example (8) “An
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energy Economist, Mohammed Ameen Adams has accused a deputy minister of
energy, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini of being economical with the truth concerning power
generation expansion projects across the country” (Daily Searchlight, October 2, 2012).
Similarly, negative or neutral verbs were used to report insults from outgroup members
to ingroup members, as well as from others not considered ingroup or outgroup such as
pastors, experts to outgroup members.
Pro-NDC newspapers, on the other hand, utilized positive, negative and neutral
verbs to report insults directed at the outgroup. Positive verbs used by the newspapers
were particularly used to justify the need for such insults. In example (1’) “explained”
was used to justify the description of the outgroup member as arrogant. Other examples
included the newspapers’ report of authorial voice as in (2’) “confirm.” The negative
verbs utilized include (10) “exposed” and (12) “lashed out.” The newspapers, however,
employed either negative or neutral verbs to report insults from outgroup to outgroup as
well as ingroup to outgroup, examples are (3’) “say;” (4’) “warn;” (8’) “blast” among
others. Table 3-11 shows how the both pro-NPP and NDC newspapers utilized verbal
process.
In sum, positive verbal processes were not very common; they only appeared in
the reports of pro-NDC newspapers, showing that positive ingroup representation was
more common in pro-NDC newspapers compared to NPP newspapers. However,
negative other-representation manifested in both NPP and NDC newspapers.
3.7 Summary
The textual analysis reveals how ordinary citizens use insults to challenge the
existing social power in Ghanaian political discourse. It also shows the underlying
ideologies in the representation of insults in pro-NPP and NDC newspapers. That is to
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say, there is a clear dichotomy in terms of Us vs. Them in the representation of insults
from the outgroup and the ingroup.
In the first place, the analysis of lexicalization and predication shows how citizens
infantalize politicians by reducing them to the level of girls and boys, as well as asking
them to behave in accordance with the age and position in society. They infantilize
some politicians to exihibit the wisdom attached to the growing of grey hair and question
their cultural understanding and upbringing. Also, citizens challenge the exiting social
power by linking their behavior and attitudes to that of animals such as mmoasεm
(animalistic behavior), “dogs” and “sheep” as well as some mythical creatures and
demons like “vampires.” In addition, citizens question the behavior of politicians by
linking them to patients in mental homes needing psychiatric help. Finally, I made the
point that some of the insults are innocuous; they merely poke fun at people in power.
They are ways of diffusion tension in the midst of difficult times.
Regarding pro-NPP and NDC newpaper, both reported negative lexicalizations
and predications that sort to present those they considered outgroup negatively while
presenting the actions of the ingroup positively. This was exemplied in NPP papers
report on lexical items: lies, propaganda, greedy bastards, and predications: babies with
sharp teeth, thieving Mahama caught. NDC papers also reported lexical items: patapaa,
tani, and negative predications: arrogant Kan Dapaah running a one man show, NPP
national excutives are thieves. Concerning naming, NPP and NDC papers employ this
strategy to describe the action of outgroup members negatively as seen in the NPP
papers’ negative description of some deputy ministers and members of the NDC
government as acid tongues, castle boys, and De La Hoya. NDC papers refer to the
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economic analysis of Bawumia as “Bawumianomics” and also negatively described the
editor of The Searchlight newspaper as ɔpεtε “vulture.”
Secondly, the discussion on presupposition reveals that citizens employ this
strategy to avoid censorship with regard to online websites by implicitly insulting and
challenging the existing social power. Again, pro-NPP and NDC papers used this
strategy to present those they considered ingroup positively and the outgroup
negatively.
In addition, ordinary citizens use metaphors, similes and proverbs to “soften” or
mitigate the effect of an otherwise plain insult, which may affect the sensibilities of the
addressee or eventually lead to the abrupt end of their calls. More importantly, the
discoursal function of these devises is basically to challenge the existing social power.
Finally, the analysis of verbal processes shows that pro-NPP and NDC papers
utilized different verbs in the representation of insults. While NDC papers employed
positive, negative and neutral verbs, NPP papers used negative and neutral verbs.
Therefore, positive ingroup representation was more common in pro-NDC newspapers
compared to NPP newspapers. However, negative other-representation manifested in
both NPP and NDC newspapers.
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Table 3-1. Ingroup to outgroup lexicalization and predicational insults NPP Newspapers NDC Newspapers 1. Specialist in lies and propaganda shouldn’t be managing our economy-Bawumia. Dr. Bawumia has bemoaned the current government’s focus on gaining propaganda value in the management of the economy instead of taking real steps to fix the economy and make life better for the ordinary Ghanaian. You need serious people to manage the economy. We don’t need people whose specialty is lies and propaganda in managing our economy. (Daily Searchlight October 2, 2012)
1’. No ‘Patapaa’ President Mahama warns losers in Dec polls. President John Dramanai Mahama on Wednesday warned all losers of the December general elections not to resort to violence but strive to help maintain peace and stability of the nation. (Ghana Palaver, September 14-16, 2012)
2. JJ Tainted With Blood. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has put former President Jerry John Rawlings on the firing line, describing him as a man tainted with the blood of Ghanaians whose death he masterminded. (Daily Guide January 10, 2014)
2’. Arrogant Kan-Dapaah Running A ‘One Man Show. Some NDC Members of Parliament on the Public Account Committee have explained that they boycotted Wednesday’s sitting because the Chairman is trying to run a ‘one man show’ (Ghana Palaver, July 20, 2012)
3. KT Hammond Explodes; Stupid, Useless, Foolish. This was after the MP for Adansi Asokwa and Ranking Member on Energy and Petroleum, K.T. Hammond had taken strong exception to a comment made by the Majority Leader, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, to the effect that the Woyome scandal was no different from the drill ship saga when it comes to the issue of corruption. Unpalatable words such as “stupid, foolish, useless and nonsensical” were hurled by K.T. Hammond at Dr. Kunbuor amidst confusion in the House. (Daily Guide, December 5, 2013)
3’. You pay masters are crooks (Daily Post, December 17, 2013)
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Table 3-1. Continued. NPP Newspapers NDC Newspapers 4. Wayo is a liar. The office of the former President John Agyekum Kufour has taken note of a wickedly concocted allegation attributed to him by Mr. Kofi Wayo, leader of the United Renaissance Party at a trumped meeting between the two sometime ago. (Daily Searchlight, October 2, 2012)
4’. NDC forum for setting the records straight exposes NPP’s Gargantuan lies on the economy (THE Al-Hajji, March 3, 2012)
5’ The NPP is becoming a “comic relief” to Ghanaians (www.myradiogoldlive.com December 19, 2012)
6’. Addison’s Address is Infantile, Lacks Intellectual Depth-Dr. Tony Aidoo. A stalwart of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Tony Aidoo has described as infantile the petitioners’ address as espoused by Lawyer Philip Addison. (www.myradiogoldlive.com August 10, 2013)
7’. K.T Hammond is Suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder (www.myradiogoldlive.com November 30, 2013)
8’. Jake is Ignorant about Mahama. Hon. Hamza Abugri, the Bantama Constituency Organizer for the ruling Nation Democratic Congress has offered his party’s stiffest defense about the mud that has been thrown at its yet to be confirmed candidate and the incumbent President of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama. He has consequently called the bluff of the New Patriotic Party’s Chairman Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, and described him as somebody who is ignorant about the true person of the president. (The New Voice, August 22, 2012)
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Table 3-2. Outgroup to ingroup lexicalization and predicational insults NPP papers NDC papers 1. You’re bush guys, stupid Sorogho storms Oman FM. He screamed at the top of his voice: “you are bush guys, you are stupid” among other invectives as he entered the premises of the radio station in a manner which suggested he was definitely going to hurl a blow at the host of an ongoing program he had a bone to pick with. (Daily Guide, September 13, 2012)
2. Abro. The Second day of the debate on the government’s 2014 financial policy and budget statement yesterday degenerated into chaos and emotional reactions when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Tano South, Dr. Hannah Louisa Bissiw, who is also the deputy minister for Food and Agriculture, referred to the Minority in Parliament as ‘abro’ meaning members of the opposition are agents of retrogression. She said for the opposition in Parliament not to see anything good in the budget is like the proverbial mouse who because of ‘abro’ decides to eat bits of pepper on the farm of its archival even though pepper is not a delicacy of a mouse. (Daily Guide, November 28, 2013)
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Table 3-2. Continued. NPP papers NDC papers 3. ‘‘Autocratic thief’’ (Daily Guide, December 10, 2013)
4. Dr. Bissiw went to the extreme when she described Ursula Owusu, an aspiring parliamentary candidate for Ablekuma Central in Accra, as a “disgrace to womanhood”. (Daily Guide, March 23, 2011)
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Table 3-3. Outgroup to outgroup lexicalization and predicational insults NPP papers NDC papers 1. ‘‘Greedy bastards, babies with sharp teeth” - Rawlings (The New Statesman, April 3, 2012)
1’ NPP National Executives Are Thieves - Agyepong A revelation by a leading member of the opposition New Patriotic Party yesterday evening should see Ghanaians congratulating themselves and thanking God that they did not elect the party during the 2012 polls to governor Ghana. (Dailypost, December 18, 2013)
2. Woyome Is Crass Criminal. Former President Jerry John Rawlings has described businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome as a “crass criminal” who was allowed to dupe the country by the Atta Mills-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) (The Daily Guide, June 5, 2012)
2’ NPP Is Full Of Thieves - Kennedy Agyepong Vindicates Asiedu Nketia! When the General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Asiedu Nketia, once spoke about 17 thieves vying to lead the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), he was insulted heavily and called all kinds of name. Time has run by and today, no less a person than Kennedy Agyapong, has vindicated General Mosquito via his public outburst that Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey and his National Executives are just a bunch of thieves. (The Informer December 18, 2013)
3. You’re an Idiot. Joshua Akamba, who was fuming with rage and panting for breath, without mincing words described Dr. Opuni as an idiot among other unprintable words. (Daily Guide August 29, 2012)
3’ Wireko Brobbey is a Non-Entity- P.C Appiah Ofori. A senior member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Paul Collins Appiah Ofori, has condemned his colleague, Charles Wireko-Brobbey, for releasing a statement which analyzes the performance and exposes the ignorance of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumiah, the second petitioner in the ongoing election petition trial. (www.myradiogoldlive.com May 31, 2013
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Table 3-3. Continued. NPP papers NDC papers 4. NDC is Filthy corrupt. Mr. Martin Amidu has challenged President John Dramani Mahama to clean up the massive corruption in the government and the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), and stop fooling Ghanaians about the ability of a state institution to investigate a sitting executive Head of State. (The Chronicle, October, 2, 2012)
4’ KUFUOR’S 30 CONSTITUENCIES SENSELESS. Former Attorney General under the John Agyekum Kufour administration has said the creation of 30 constituencies in 2004 was illegal and by extension senseless (Ghana Palaver, August 27-28, 2012)
5. ‘‘Babies with hard teeth’’ (The New Statesman, April 3, 2012)
6. Ablokwa is stupid (The New Statesman, April 3, 2012)
7. Asiedu Nketiah is loose talker. Former regional chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Brong Ahafo region has fired a salvo at the party General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, describing him as a “loose talker” (Daily Guide, November 12, 2012)
8. Watch evil dwarfs in NDC! (The New Statesman, April 3, 2012)
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Table 3-4. Non-politicians to outgroup lexicalization and predicational insults NPP papers NDC papers 1. You are evil! Pastor Otabil (The New Statesman, April 3, 2012)
1’. ‘Tε Ni’ can’t govern us. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) sharp propaganda machine an elaborate strategy of dirty campaign laced with tribal and ethnic sentiments against President John Dramani Mahama in order to portray him as someone who is ethnically unfit to lead this nation (THE Al-Hajj, August 16, 2012).
2. Mosquito is drunk. Shocked at the conduct of the NDC leaders, Public Relations Manager of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), Emmanuel Osei Akyeampong, was last Saturday quoted by Asempa FM as saying that he believed that Asiedu Nketia was likely speaking under the influence alcohol when he blasted the church leaders. (Daily Guide, September 10, 2012)
4. ‘LYING’ MINISTER Exposed! (Naming) An Energy Economist, Mohammed Ameen Adams has accused a Deputy Energy Minister, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini of being economical with the truth concerning power generation expansion projects across the country. (Daily searchlight, October 2, 2012).
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Table 3-5. Newspapers’ lexicalization and predicational insults to the outgroup NPP papers NDC papers 1. THIEVING MAHAMA caught! President John Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) have committed a great crime against the nation and the people of Ghana. They have committed what can only be described as a high treason and a coup d’etat with the active help and connivance of the Electoral Commission! It is a grant larceny of politicking! (Daily Searchlight October 2, 2012)
1’. Akuffo-Addo is Wicked and not worth dying for as he abandoned Aliu to death (Ghana Palaver, June 20, 2012)
2. Leading the NDC verbal onslaught on the clergy were party General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia and the NDC Central Regional Propaganda Secretary, Allotey Jacobs, as the President observed in silence. (The Daily Guide, September 10, 2012)
2’. The well-educated and man that Bawumiah is, he certainly was living a confortable and clean private life before allowed himself to be moved onto the center stage of Ghana’s politics by rascal Akuffo Addo and his marauding Akyem tribal mafia (The Informer, May 29-30, 2013)
3. Allotey Jacobs-Greedy, Sycophantic bastard! You know one of the most deadly diseases that affect leaders are sycophants, and the likes of Allotey are the most deadly sycophants. Mills may have been a poor leader from the beginning, but the praise from nitwits like Allotey, who depend on praise singing to keep their bread buttered, is what would eventually put the NDC back into opposition. (Daily Searchlight, October 2, 2012)
3’. NPP’s hypocrisy knows no bound. Gradually, the hypocrisy, treachery, and foolery that under the NPP’s political agenda are emerging to confirm the opinion that the party doesn’t have what it takes to undo any of the governments, especially the incumbent, that it has continued to waste its resources condemning. (Ghana Palaver, August 27-28, 2012)
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Table 3-5. Continued. NPP papers NDC papers 4. Minister goes loose on Chronicle ‘‘You are also sick’’ A genuine attempt by The Chronicle to seek clarification on the some aspects of the report of the Constitution Review Commission (CRC), took an unfortunate turn, when a Deputy Minister of Information, James Agyenim Boateng, verbally abused a reporter of the paper, attacking him of posing a question on the health status of the presidents and presidential candidates. (The Chronicle, July 19, 2012)
4’. Dr. Bawumiah, the nice innocent dove; has succeeded in metamorphosing into a very dirty scavenging vulture eating from stinking ‘‘borla’’ on Ghana political landscape (The Informer, May 29-30, 2013)
5. The fight between President Mahama and Asiedu Nketia has pitched many factions against the so-called Gonja Mafia or Octopus that is dedicated to advancing the cause of the President. (The New statesman, January 7, 2014)
5’. Dr. Bawumiah, the nice innocent dove; has succeeded in metamorphosing into a very dirty scavenging vulture eating from stinking ‘‘borla’’ on Ghana political landscape (The Informer, May 29-30, 2013)
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Table 3-6. Naming NPP papers NDC papers 1. Acid tongues like Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Information; Kojo Twum Boafo, Executive Director of Ghana Free Zones Board, who operates his official duties from Radio stations; Castle boy Nii Lantey Vanderpuye; Peter Boamah Otukunor; Kwesi Pratt Jnr of pro-NDC CJA fame; and Iddrisu Bature of NDC Al-Hajj rag tag (Daily Guide, August 31, 2012)
1’. When Nana Akuffo-Addo unleashed Bawumiah to claim that inflation was galloping in Ghana because some few commodities had high prices, his goof, which was christened ‘‘Bawumianomics’’ by NPP, was pardonable because it was obvious he was not good at lying (Enquirer, August 13, 2013)
2. Hajia Boya, now nicknamed ‘‘De La Hoya’’ and ‘‘No 10’’ for her alleged quarrelsome behavior and garnering only 10 votes in the constituency primaries, allegedly attacked 54-year-old Rahinatu Zakaria alias Mma Kande, a banku seller in Tamale, on Sunday afternoon. (Daily Guide, August 28, 2012)
2’. SHUT UP!!! Mills’ Mourners Tell Ken Opete Kuranchie (Ghana Palaver, August 15, 2012)
3. Sir John is kokoase kuraseni-Kobby Acheampong. The former journalism lecturer at African University College of Communication, did not only describe ‘Sir John’ as ignoramus but a typical ‘kokoo ase kuraseni’, to wit a typical villager from a cocoa-growing area. (Daily Guide, October 21, 2010)
3’. When A Dove Like Bawumia Becomes A Lying Scavenging Vulture!!! (The Informer, May 29-30, 2013)
4’. KENNEDY AGYAPONG TURNS GUNS ON MAHAMA ...Loose-Talking ‘Genocide’ MP On The Loose Again (The catalyst Newspaper, September 7, 2012)
5’. Hon. Hamza Abugri, the Bantama Constituency Organizer for the ruling National Democratic Congress (The New Voice, August 22, 2012)
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Table 3-7. Presupposition NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 1. An obviously incensed Agyenim Boateng took the microphone, and in his usual propaganda style, unleashed verbal terrorism on the reporter. (The Chronicle, July 19, 2012)
1’. KENNEDY AGYAPONG TURNS GUNS ON MAHAMA ...Loose-Talking ‘Genocide’ MP On The Loose Again. That Kennedy Ohene Agyapong still talks on public platforms for, and on behalf of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is shocking. But this is attributable to one reason. The Akufo-Addo-led party endorses the nation wrecking conduct of the Assin North Member of Parliament (MP). Notorious for making dangerously explosive statements with well anticipated impunity, the NPP MP has now turned his guns on President John Dramani Mahama, after the death of President John Evans Atta Mills who was the main target of the loose-talking MP's insults, carved in the most despicable foul language. (The catalyst Newspaper, September 7, 2012)
2. Fiifi Banson Advices NDC…Send People Who Can Make Intellectual Debate Daily. Deputy Minister of Information, Felix Ofosu Kwakye and the Communication team of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been advised to ‘carefully’ select the party’s communicators especially those who appear on Peace FM’s Morning show programme‘Kokrokoo’. Award winning Ghanaian broadcaster and host of ‘Ekwanso Brebre’, a late afternoon drive show on PEACE FM, Fiifi Banson , is of the view that most of the NDC communication members are doing a great disservice to the party and the country with the way they talk on air. (Daily Guide 12, December 2013)
2’. The Rotten NPP Judgment Debt Baggage Ghana (Ghana Palaver, July 20, 2012)
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Table 3-7. Continued. NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 3. Elvis, a notorious loose talker and a deputy minister of Local Government and Rural Development, in an effort to rubbish the New Patriotic Part (NPP) free SHS policy, used the collapsed Melcom building to explain why the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would win the December 7 elections. (Daily Guide, November 12, 2012)
3’. NPP turned Ghana into a Cocaine Country - Felix Ofosu Kwakye. A Deputy Minister of Information, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, describes as unfortunate an attempt by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to link the arrest of the Managing Director of SOHIN Security in the United States for drug trafficking to the Mahama administration. (www.myradiogoldlive.com June 7, 2013)
4. Former President Jerry John Rawlings has suddenly found his voice. Former President Jerry John Rawlings has suddenly found his voice in the raging corruption scandals that have rocked the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Administration. However, he rather directed his arsenal in the wrong direction, firing at his successor John Agyekum Kufuor’s administration, which spanned 2001 to 2009. (Daily Guide December 10, 2013)
4’. True NPP Old Evil Dwarfs At Work
5. Nana Akufo Addo is a ‘Sexy old fool’. The Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Dr. Hannah Louisa Bissiw, has lashed out at Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential candidate for the 2012 elections, describing him as a “sexy old fool”. (Daily Guide, March 23, 2011)
5’. Sekou Who? (Ghana Palaver, August 15, 2012)
6. JJ Blasts Kufuor Over Corruption SEE NO EVIL! Jerry John Rawlings (Daily Guide December 10, 2013)
6’. Ghanaians are looking for a leader who will be clean, because we all know what narcotic drugs can do to a society-Richard Quashigah lamented (THE Al-Hajj, February 23, 2012)
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Table 3-7. Continued. NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 7. Old evil dwarfs (The New Statesman, April 3, 2012)
7’. The loose-tongued New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong is at it again; turning his unrestrained tongue to the President, the entire membership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Police Service. (National Democrat, April 25, 2013)
8. The “worst public speaker” Ghana has ever had as a leader. “John Mahama is the worst Ghanaian President when it comes to public speaking because his ideas are totally bankrupt and uninspiring,” he said. (Daily Guide December 19, 2013)
8’. The stupid fool Police (National Democrat, April 25, 2013)
9. Rawlings is at it again. On Monday he returned to his old devil-may-care rhetoric self after a lull, when he descended on former President John Agyekum Kufuor during his visit to the South African High Commission- obviously ignoring the good counsel of his family to stop the silly and incoherent remarks. (Daily Guide December 11, 2013)
9’. The NPP flagbearer is visionless and too old for President says Ade Cocker. The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Ade Coker, has said the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Akufo Addo is too old and lacks the vision to lead the country if given the opportunity. (www.myradiogoldlive.com November 21, 2012)
10’. CONTINUE TO EDUCATE ‘‘SPOILT CHILD’’ ADDISON ON ETHICS OF THE LAW PROFESSION (The Informer, May 29-30, 2013)
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Table 3-8. Verbal process NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 1. The Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Dr. Hannah Louisa Bissiw, has lashed out at Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential candidate for the 2012 elections, describing him as a “sexy old fool”. (Daily Guide, March 23, 2011)
1’. Arrogant Kan-Dapaah Running A ‘One Man Show. Some NDC Members of Parliament on the Public Account Committee have explained that they boycotted Wednesday’s sitting because the Chairman is trying to run a ‘one man show’ (Ghana Palaver, July 20, 2012)
2. The founder of the ruling National Democratic Congress, Jerry John Rawlings, has once again jabbed his party in an indirect manner, that will be subject to various interpretations by social commentators.
2’. Gradually, the hypocrisy, treachery, and foolery that under the NPP’s political agenda are emerging to confirm the opinion that the party doesn’t have what it takes to undo any of the governments, especially the incumbent, that it has continued to waste its resources condemning. (Ghana Palaver, August 27-28, 2012)
3. Rawlings accused the Kufuor administration of being so corrupt that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) warned him of a potential coup d’état.
3’. Former Attorney General under the John Agyekum Kufour administration has said the creation of 30 constituencies in 2004 was illegal and by extension senseless (Ghana Palaver, August 27-28, 2012)
4. Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has been described by President Mills’ appointee to the Energy Commission, ‘‘Chucks’’ Kofi Wayo, as ‘‘sometimes stupid’’ in the discharge of his duties, and has asked President Mills to fire him since he is becoming a liability (The New Statesman, April 3, 2012)
4’. President John Dramanai Mahama on Wednesday warned all losers of the December general elections not to resort to violence but strive to help maintain peace and stability of the nation. (Ghana Palaver, September 14-16, 2012)
5. Mr. Martin Amidu has challenged President John Dramani Mahama to clean up the massive corruption in the government and the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), and stop fooling Ghanaians about the ability of a state institution to investigate a sitting executive Head of State. (The Chronicle, October 2, 2012)
5’. Other propaganda tags the NPP have planned to put out on the President in the run up to the December elections include homosexual, womanizing and corruption (THE Al-Hajj, August 16, 2012).
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Table 3-8. Continued. NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 6. He (Otabil) described as defamatory, unethical, criminal, malicious and evil the doctoring and manipulation of his sermon by members of the NDC to give them a political twist (The New Statesman, April 3, 2012)
6’. The Coordinator for the Human Security Project in the Office of The President, Brig-Gen Joseph Nunoo-Menasha says Egbert Faibille, Editor-In-Chief of the ‘Ghanaian Observer’ continues to drag his name in the mud and soil his otherwise impeccable reputation at every opportunity only because his paymasters see him as the greatest obstacle to their political ambition of regaining power by hook or by crook to continue with their diabolical agenda of looting state coffers and impoverishing the people. (Daily Post, December 17, 2013)
7. Mosquito is drunk. Shocked at the conduct of the NDC leaders, Public Relations Manager of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG), Emmanuel Osei Akyeampong, was last Saturday quoted by Asempa FM as saying that he believed that Asiedu Nketia was likely speaking under the influence alcohol when he blasted the church leaders. (Daily Guide, September 10, 2012)
7’. A member of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) communication team Mr. Samuel Nartey George believes Mr. K.T Hammond is suffering from what he describes as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD). (www.myradiogold.com
8. An Energy Economist, Mohammed Ameen Adams has accused a Deputy Energy Minister, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini of being economical with the truth concerning power generation expansion projects across the country. (Daily searchlight, October 2, 2012).
8’. NPP Youth Blasts Jake and Co. A youth activist of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has condemned the purported attempts by the current party leadership and its fanatics to create an unfettered situation for the re-election of the twice-defeated Presidential candidate, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo. (The Informer October 11, 2013)
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Table 3-8. Continued. NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 9. President John Agyekum Kufour says that it has taken note of a wickedly concocted allegation attributed to him by Mr. Kofi Wayo, leader of the United Renaissance Party at a trumped meeting between the two sometime ago. (Daily Searchlight
9’. Angry Kufuor Descends on Sir John. The ever-deepening crisis prevailing in the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) does not seem to be ending anytime soon. At its last week Thursday’s crisis meeting in Accra, former President J. A. Kufuor had to fix a ‘Fatwa’ on the head of the General Secretary of the Party, Mr. Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie. (The Informer October 7, 2013)
10. General secretary of the NPP descended heavily on the MCE of Ejisu/Juaben, Afrifa Yamoah Ponkoh, describing him as a “blatant liar.” (Daily Guide, November 12, 2012)
10’. Gabby’s Lies, Mischief Fall Flat The attempt by the all knowing Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, Gabriel Kwabena Asare Otchere-Darko, to make his voice heard in the ongoing discourse concerning the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) affair, has exposed him as a pure mischievous person and peddler of untruth. (The Enquirer, August 13, 2013)
11. Abu Jinapor, an aide to Nana Addo, says the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party is incorruptible, stressing that corruption related issues will take center stage in the party’s campaign to capture power in the December polls. (Daily Guide, October 1, 2012)
11’. A stalwart of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Tony Aidoo has described as infantile the petitioners address as espoused by Lawyer Philip Addison. (www.myradiogoldlive.com August 10, 2013)
12. Former regional chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Brong Ahafo region has fired a salvo at the party General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, describing him as a “loose talker” (Daily Guide, November 12, 2012)
12’. Leader and Founder of the United Renaissance Party (URP), Charles Kofi Wayo, has lashed out at Mr. Yaw Osafo Marfo, a former Finance Minister under ex-President Kufuor’s administration, describing him as a “character” who lacks the economic intellect and prowess to access the economic management of the Mahama-led administration. (The Al-Hajj July 17, 2013)
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Table 3-8. Continued. NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 13. Kufour blasts Kofi Wayo (Daily Guide, October 5, 2012)
13’. A Deputy Minister of Information, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, describes as unfortunate an attempt by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to link the arrest of the Managing Director of SOHIN Security in the United States for drug trafficking to the Mahama administration. (www.radiogoldlive.com June 7, 2013)
14. Chase out Evil Dwarfs. Former President Jerry Rawlings stormed the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) manifesto launch at the Ho Jubilee Park yesterday with a challenge to President John Mahama to exorcise what he described as “old evil dwarfs” in the party
14’. A senior member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Paul Collins Appiah Ofori, has condemned his colleague, Charles Wireko-Brobbey, for releasing a statement which analyzes the performance and exposes the ignorance of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumiah, the second petitioner in the ongoing election petition trial. (www.myradiogoldlive.com May 31, 2013)
14. Chase out Evil Dwarfs. Former President Jerry Rawlings stormed the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) manifesto launch at the Ho Jubilee Park yesterday with a challenge to President John Mahama to exorcise what he described as “old evil dwarfs” in the party
14’. A senior member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Paul Collins Appiah Ofori, has condemned his colleague, Charles Wireko-Brobbey, for releasing a statement which analyzes the performance and exposes the ignorance of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumiah, the second petitioner in the ongoing election petition trial. (www.myradiogoldlive.com May 31, 2013)
15. Joshua Akamba, who was fuming with rage and panting for breath, without mincing words described Dr. Opuni as an idiot among other unprintable words. (Daily Guide August 29, 2012)
15’. Deputy Minority leader Dominic Nitiwul has lashed out at a leading member of the NPP Kwame Pianim over comments about the minority in Parliament’s decision to boycott the state of the Nation Address. (www.myradiogoldlive.com February 26, 2013)
16. Former President Jerry John Rawlings has described businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome as a “crass criminal” who was allowed to dupe the country by the Atta Mills-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) (The Daily Guide, June 5, 2012)
16’. General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Aseidu Nketiah has lashed out at the minority in Parliament for walking out on the President. (www.myradiogoldlive.com February 21, 2013)
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Table 3-8. Continued. NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 17. Dr. Bissiw went to the extreme when she described Ursula Owusu, an aspiring parliamentary candidate for Ablekuma Central in Accra, as a “disgrace to womanhood”. (Daily Guide, March 23, 2011)
17’. Anti-corruption Campaigner and former New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa, PC Appiah Ofori has descended heavily on his fellow party member, Kennedy Agyepong, for a behavior of the latter’s which he describes as insanity. (www.myradiogoldlive.com February 5, 2013)
18. Rawlings accused the Kufuor administration of being so corrupt that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) warned him of a potential coup d’état.
18’. The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Ade Coker, has said the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Akufo Addo is too old and lacks the vision to lead the country if given the opportunity. (www.myradiogoldlive.com November 21, 2012)
19. Political activist Dr Sekou Nkrumah has described President John Mahama as the “worst public speaker” Ghana has ever had as a leader. (Daily Guide, December 19, 2013)
20. The Presidency has described political activist Dr Sekou Nkrumah as a “perpetual cynic” and an “anarchist” who has lost touch with reality (Daily Guide January 9, 2014)
21. Mps Punch Speaker The Minority in Parliament has accused the Speaker, Rt Hon Edward Doe Adjaho, of being biased and not serving the interest of the people of Ghana.
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Table 3-9. Caller’s simile Source Target Sole owner of church/prophet Ghanaian leaders/leaders in government Church members Ghanaian people Table 3-10. Caller’s metaphor Source Target Young People Politicians Guinea fowl Ghanaian people Egg of guinea fowl Government resources Table 3-11. Summary of NPP and NDC verbal process Newspapers Positive Negative Neutral NPP Lashed out Describe Jabbed Say Blasted Challenge Accused NDC Explain Warned Describe Confirm Blasted Say Lashed-out Condemned Exposed
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CHAPTER 4 DISCURSIVE PRACTICE ANALYSIS
4.1 Overview
This Chapter concentrates on the second dimension of Fairclough’s three
dimensional framework: discourse-as-discursive-practice. In this section, I focus on how
ordinary citizens cite the voices of others to reiterate their challenge of the existing
social power. I further analyze the underlying ideologies in the report of insults by pro-
NPP and NDC newspapers, that is, whose insult or voice is reported and whose is not.
The latter focuses more on the institutional practices and organizational routines of text
production. That is to say, in the production of text, journalists take into account various
factors such as the editorial policy or procedure, guidelines of the media outlet, the
targeted audience as well as the ideological leanings of the newspaper.
Moreover, I investigate the various topics which ordinary citizens selected to
insult and challenge political authority. Some of the topics they dwell on are: the
economy and corruption. Using foregrounding and backgrounding in the topic selection
of newspapers, I show how insults from the ingroup/outgroup members are
foregrounded or backgrounded in pro-NPP newspapers, and how pro-NDC newspapers
also highlight or hide insults from both ingroup/outgroup members. Both pro-NPP and
NDC papers reported selected topics similar to the ones by ordinary citizens. The
linguistic phenomena analyzed to unpack discursive practice are intertextuality and
topic.
4.2 Intertextuality
As explained in Chapter 2, intertextuality refers to the citing and reciting of an
already existing text. In speaking and writing, we contextualize and recontextualize the
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words and expressions of others. In his definition of Intertextuality Bakhtin (1986: 1)
writes “the text lives only by coming into contact with another text (with context). Only at
this point of contact between texts does a light flash, illuminating both the posterior and
anterior, joining a given text to a dialogue. We emphasize that this contact is dialogic
contact between text … Behind this contact is a contact of personalities and not of
things.” This definition presents the view of how a current text is linked to previous one
and even to-be-said text as “ubiquitous and foundational, comprehending all of the ways
that utterances can resonante with other utterances and constitutive of consciousness,
society and culture” (Bauman, 2004: 5). This provides us with the idea of how citizens
include the voices of prominent people in society to emphasize their challenge of
political authority. I begin the analysis of this section by looking at citizens’
intertextuality. I follow up with the analysis of pro-NPP and NDC newspapers’ report of
voices they considered newsworthy.
4.2.1 Ordinary Citizens’ Intertextuality
The analysis of citizens’ intertextuality is based on four pertinent issues: the
patterns in citizens’ intertextuality; the kinds of people they cited; the part of their
discourse cited; and what citizens sought to achieve by linking their text to that of
others’ text. Utilizing Bauman’s (2004) framework on implicational relationship of
mediational routines with respect to intertextuality, I analyze the patterns found in
citizens’ phone-ins and online commentaries to challenge the existing social power.
The traditional understanding of spoken and written text is that they are
unmediated, consitituting speaker and hearer in a face-to-face interaction, and writing
and electronic media distance the sender from the receiver. However, the data on
intertextuality reveal that there is some form of spoken or written mediation in the citing
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of others’ voices in the comments of citizens to challenge political authority. There is a
mediation of “utterance from a source to an ultimate targeted receiver, with the relay
message framed and understood by the participants as a replication of the original”
(Bauman, 2004: 129). This is diagrammatically represented in Figure 4-1, taken from
(Bauman, 2004: 133).
The main understanding in this meditational routines is that, it is made up of two
mutually implicated sets of participant roles: the receiver in the first set, who is the main
organizer of the source dialogue. He intends become the sender of the second
dialogue, leading to the target dialogue. It is important to note that the first speaker is
the originator or source of the message, while the second is the mediator or relayer of
the source utterance. A typical example is seen in the Akan chieftancy discourse where
the ɔkyeame (refer to as the “linguist” in Ghanaian English) relays the Chief’s message
to his subject. That is to say, the ɔkyeame serves a mediator between the Chief and his
subjects (see Yankah, 1995 for detail discussion on this subject matter).
Ordinary citizens’ citation of the voices of prominent people in society to
emphasis their challenge of the existing social power is reminiscent of Bauman’s
implicational relationship of meditational routines. Unlike the traditional institutional
discourse where there is a clear triadic transmission of information in the same context,
for example the discourse of the ɔkyeame: the Chief speaks to his subjects through a
mediator (ɔkyeame), the situation or the context in which citizens cite the text of others
is different. That is to say, the context of the source message is different from the
context of the citizen’s message (message1). Citizens borrow, quote or make reference
to the source message to support their challenge of the existing social power.
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Relating this to citizens’ intertextuality exemplied in excerpts 28, 29, and 30,
citizens acting as mediators cited the texts and comments of the following people: a
renowned Archbishop in Ghana, Duncan Williams, the founder of Christian Action Faith
Chapel (CAFM), who is recorded to have said: “we don’t need amateurs in leadership,
we need seasoned people;” an NPP MP, Sheik I. C. Quaye, who called the NDC
government as “stealers;” and the General Secretary of the NDC, Asiedu Nketiah who
described the former President Rawlings as an “old barking dog” respectively. In
addition to these people, citizens also cited the voices of religious leaders, former
Presidents, traditional rulers and among others to challenge political authority. I use
excerpt 29 in Figure 4-2 as an illustration based on Bauman’s (2004) implicational
relationship of meditational routines.
The first speaker Sheik I.C. Quaye is the architect or source of the word “stealer,”
which was used in a different context, while the citizen mediates the source word with
his own comments in message1 targeted at political authority. It is interesting to note
that the citizen employs strategic quotation or scare quotes to distance himself from the
contentious nature of the word “stealer.” However, a critical look at his comment shows
that he supports the idea that the NDC government is full of thieves. This is seen in his
portrayal of politicians as a “disgraceful bunch of vampires.” Recall in Chapter 3 we
mentioned that the word “vampire” connotes the sense of sucking blood from the living.
Relating this to his perceived actions of politicians indicates that the politicians are
siphoning money from the coffers of government. Therefore, the ordinary citizen cites
the word “stealers” used by of a former MP to reaffirm his challenge to the existing
social power to stop stealing from the state’s coffers.
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Moreover, citizens cited or made reference to portions of the voices of the
discourse of prominent people in society that seek to denegrade, criticize and question
the leadership style of the existing social power. Some of the texts cited in the
comments of citizens are lexical in nature. For example, the use of the word “stealer” in
excerpt 29. Others are descriptions such as the one in excerpt 28, “we don’t need
amateurs in leaders,” which presupposes that the current crop of leaders or those in the
helm of affairs in Ghana do not have the requisite skills and experience to govern the
nation. During the presidency of the late Professor Mills, he appointed a lot of young
people as ministers and deputies, a trend continued by the current president, John
Mahama. Many have questioned the competence of such people since a majority of
them had just graduated from the university and have never worked and, therefore,
lacked the necessary experience to be ministers and deputy ministers.
Idioms were also cited from prominent people to challenge political authority. In
excerpt 30, the idiom “old barking dog” was used by the General Secretary of the NDC
to refer to former President Rawlings. The English idiom “barking dogs never bite”
means “someone who makes a lot of noise but takes no action.” The adjective “old”
which is used to modify “barking dog” presents us with the idea that the former present
is noted for making empty noises or claims. It could also mean that the former president
is indeed old and frail and cannot do anything serious. Therefore, the ordinary citizen
cites the insult of General Secretary of the NDC to reiterate the point that the former
president is not worth listening to because he is just a barking dog; his claims do not
have any basis and people should not take him seriously. That is to say he makes
claims without substantiating them.
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The generalizations drawn from the analysis of the intertextuality are that all the
meditational routines (references made to the others text) were firmly situated in the
texts of either politicians or religious authority aimed at challenging the existing social
power. That is to say, all the texts are taken not from mere people but rather from
people with authority who are revered in society. This, in general, is reflected in the
relationship that existed between citizens’ texts and other texts, which was largely due
to the discursive practices through which citizens accomplished their challenge of
political authority. Political authority and the general public as targets show that
mediational routines are public enactments. The constitution of the public as audience is
a critical factor in determining the political, social and cultural capacities of mediational
routines (Bauman, 2004) because such configuration resonates with the general public
to continue with their challenge of the existing social power.
More importantly, considering the daily monitoring of the use of intemperate
language by politicians and activists on radio stations by Media Foundation for West
Africa (MFWA), Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) and National
Media Commission (NMC), we can infer that the citizens citation of texts of politicians or
religious authority in phone-ins was one of the ways to avoid being censored. Because
the host(s) of the program may consider citizens’ comments citing the texts of prominent
people in society as insults or comments not coming from the citizen, but from the
originators of the source texts.
Excerpt 28 [Background: The focus of the discussion was on a Deputy Minister of Communication who claimed on a leaked tape that she will not quit politics until she makes one million dollars. After the discussions the phone lines were opened to solicit the views of the public. Below is a comment from an ordinary citizen.]
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Adom FM (Burning issues) November 11, 2013 Afia: Yenkɔ Bra George hɔ wɔ Zongo Junction. Bra George, good evening. Lets go to brother George in Zongo junction. Brother George, good evening. George: Fine evening. Afia: Mepaakyεw bɔkɔɔ deε. Please, I hope it is cool (all is well). George: Oh Vim Lady bɔkɔɔ na mo nso ε? Oh Vim Lady all is well how about you all? Afia: Mepaakyεw bɔkɔɔ, mepaakyεw kasa ma me. Please, all is well. Please go ahead with your contribution. George: Me deε asεm a mepε sε meka ne sε εyε Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo meda no ase. Mato no ɔbour papapapa! Because ɔkaa sε the battle is the Lords. Na Bible see εnyε deε εhinti dua no bεba na deε εnam ne so no ɔndue. εyε deεn pε, saa ade a εwɔ sε εba bεba. Because Nana Addo Dankwa see the battle is the Lords. Enti me deε mereka akyerε NPP prayer group network sε ɔɔmo mmɔ mpae paa afi ansa na εmu akεseε bεba no. Hwε NDC εna nea ɔsɔfo no kae no ɔɔmo yε immature. Kyerε sε ɔɔmo nnyinieε. Na sε ɔɔmo bε appoint ministers ɔɔmo a ɔɔmo ano yεya. NDC wokɔ mu a, ɔɔmo a ɔɔmo ano yεya. Hwε saa Ama Benyiwa Doe. As for me, all that I want to say is that I’m grateful to Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo. I’ve given him his due. Because he said the battle is the Lords. The Bible says temptation to sin will surely come, but woe to the one through whom they come. Because Nana Addo said the battle is the Lord’s. So I will like to admonish NPP prayer group network that they should keep on praying more revelations will come. Look, NDC, this is what the Pastor said: they are immature. This means that they are amateurs. If they will appoint Ministers, they appoint those with acid tongue. NDC is full of those with acid tongue. Look at that Ama Benyiwa Doe. Excerpt 29 [Background: This is an insult from an ordinary citizen to all politicians, particularly from the NDC. His comment is in response to one of the lawyers of the governing NDC that
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called the Chief of Essikado an indecent Vandal, following the latter’s description of politicians as a “band of rats and vampires feeding fat” on Ghanaians.] Author: Photosy. Date: 2013-11-02 05:45:55 Source: Ghanaweb Comment to: Nana Nketsia is an indecent Vandal – David Annan It's so sad to read in between the lines and conclude that the NDC are really feeling the pinch from Nana Nketsia’s words. Politicians are fools but NDC politicians are not only fools; they have heads full of mash and trash. Nana, you are right, you and I are more intelligent than them and yet they think they can Lord it over us. Yes we do need a bloody revolution now, no, democracy breeds thieves and perhaps let me borrow Sheiks word ‘STEALERS.’ My God, I am now convinced from the little Nana said, and all the dirty noises coming from only the guilty ones how guilty they really are. What a disgraceful bunch of vampires. Excerpt 30 [Background: This is a comment of an ordinary citizen in response to former President Jerry John Rawlings’ assertion that corruption did not start with Mahama, and that Kufour was an “autocratic thief.”] Name: Kwame Date: 01-09-2014 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Corruption Did Not Start With Mahama...Kufuor Was An “Autocratic Thief” - Rawlings Rawlings is always attacking Kufuor and Mills because they didn't steal money to share with him. Mahama is stealing and sharing the booty with him, no wonder he keeps shielding the well-noted and famous corrupt man Mahama. Least I forget, who respects, regards and takes him serious? No wonder Asiedu Nketiah called him old barking dog. He needs a psychiatrist. 4.2.2 Pro-NPP and NDC newspapers intertextuality
In this section, I analyze how both pro NPP and NDC newspapers reported
insults or voices they considered newsworthy, focusing specifically on the voices that
were given more prominence and the ones that were marginalized. I show how the
various outlets used direct, strategic and indirect quotation to report insults from the
ingroup, outgroup and non-politicians. NPP newspapers included voices ranging from
religious leaders, former president Rawlings (from the outgroup), journalists, supporters
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or members of the NDC and NPP, and NDC and NPP members of parliament. NDC
newspapers, on the other hand, included voices from citizens, the President, NDC
leaders, NPP Youth, and NPP MPs; however, they excluded the voice of Rawlings, the
founder of the NDC party.
Both pro-NPP and NDC newspapers used direct quotation to report insults from
voices they considered newsworthy. NPP newspapers, for instance, included the voices
of the Rawlingses (outgroup members). Examples (1), (4) and (5) in Table 4-1 show the
various insults from Rawlings and his wife. In (1) Mr. Rawlings is quoted when he
insulted the NDC, a political party he founded, for not following the ideals of the political
party, that is, upholding the principles of “probity and accountability.” Rather, “they have
lost the moral high ground.” The newspaper employed a neutral verb “stated” to report
the insult from the outgroup member. The negative and neutral verbs “quiz” and “told”
are used in (4) and (5) respectively to report the voices of the Rawlingses. Richardson
(2007: 102) states “readers’ interpretation of the quotation and the source responsible is
inevitably framed by the reporting clause that the reporter chooses to employ.” The
verbal processes employed in most cases reveal the “Us” versus “Them” dichotomy. In
broader context, the inclusion of the voices of the Rawlingses shows that the NPP
newspapers considered insults from them targeted at the outgroup members as
newsworthy. The voices were also reported to show confusion at the camp of the
outgroup to present them negatively. NPP newspapers also reported insults from former
ministers of the outgroup using direct quotation, as in (2). The newspaper employed a
negative reported verb, “claimed,” to report an insult from the former attorney general,
Martin Amidu all in an attempt to portray the outgroup negatively to readers. Voices of
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the spokesperson for the moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana in (3), a
journalist (7) and ingroup members were also cited to present the outgroup negatively.
In sum, NPP newspapers included different voices targeted at the outgroup members in
their report of insults. They also employed negative and neutral verbal reporting clauses
to quote insults from the voices cited.
Like the pro-NPP newspapers, pro-NDC newspapers employed direct quotation
to include the voices of different people to report insults. The majority of the voices
included in the report of insults were from ingroup members targeted at the outgroup
members. In (1’) for instance, an NDC “kingpin” is directly quoted relating the analysis of
Dr. Bawumia, the running mate of the NPP presidential candidate for 2008 and 2012
presidential elections, to that of a Senior High School economic student. The
newspaper used a neutral verbal reporting clause, “ask,” to report the voice of the
ingroup member. The voice of the NDC kingpin was included to discredit the economic
analysis of the outgroup member. In (2’), the voice of a taxi driver was also quoted to
portray the outgroup negatively for playing the ethnic card to win elections. In example
(3’) the voice of the NDC propaganda secretary is reported to revisit the issue of
narcotic drugs. This is one of the most contentious issues in Ghanaian politics of which
the two dominant parties, NPP and NDC continue to play the blame game. For an NDC
newspaper to report this insult targeted at the opposition presupposes that the NPP’s
presidential candidate is perceived as someone who uses narcotic drugs and therefore
is not qualified to lead the nation. It is important to recall that in Chapter 3, we
mentioned that the NPP presidential candidate has been given a lot of negative tags by
the NDC party, of which narcotic drugs is one. The newspaper employed a negative
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verbal reporting clause, “lamented,” to show a passionate appeal to readers not to vote
for anyone who is engaged in narcotic drug use. The NDC newspapers also included
the voices of the outgroup members targeted at the outgroup in example (4’), (7’), (9),
and (11’) in attempt to present the outgroup negatively. However, the NDC newspapers
did not directly include the voices of non-politicians in their report of insults. Therefore,
the voices, as well as the reporting clauses included in the report of the pro-NDC
newspaper, were an attempt to present the outgroup negatively.
NPP and NDC newspapers utilized strategic or scare quotes to report insults
from the voices they included in Table 4-2. Both employed this strategy to distance
themselves from the contentious nature of the words or phrases involved. For example
in (1) NPP newspapers used scare quotes to show a possible contention towards the
phrases and words used by former President Rawlings to insult the outgroup members:
“greedy bastards,” “babies with sharp teeth” and “old evil dwarfs.” In (2) an outgroup
member, Kofi Wayo is reported to have described a deputy information minister as
“sometimes stupid.” (3) also shows how NPP newspapers utilized this same strategy to
report an insult from an outgroup member towards an outgroup member as “loose
talker.”
NDC newspapers employed the same strategy to distance themselves from
contentious issues, phrases or words. For example, in (1’), the president’s warning to all
losers of the December poll is put in scare quotes as “patapaa” to distance themselves
from such controversial terms. Similarly, in (2’) NDC newspapers used scare quotes to
report insult from an outgroup member targeted at another outgroup calling him “non-
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entity.” In (3’), an insult from a deputy minister of information targeted at the outgroup is
put in scare quote as “a comic relief to Ghanaians.”
According to van Ginnekin (2002), the use of scare quotes indirectly questions
the content of the reported speech, that is, it distances the reporter or the editor from
the implications, the factualness or the truth-claims of certain words or expressions.
The use of scare quotes is similar to expressions such as “so-called,” “the so
described,” what they describe,” “according to him” and “what they call.” Both pro-NPP
and NDC utilized this strategy to distance themselves from the claims of the reported
speech; however, it is one of the means to present the outgroup negatively, reporting
that they are not the ones insulting the opposing group or presenting them negatively.
NPP and NDC newspapers also employed indirect quotation to report insults
from voices they considered newsworthy in Table 4-3. In the representation of different
voices, it is very difficult to maintain the boundaries between the representing discourse
and the represented discourse, that is to say, maintaining a strict boundary between the
voice of the reporter and the voice of the person being reported. Fairclough (1995: 81)
aptly states that one of the prominent features of indirect speech is that “although it is
expected to be accurate about the propositional content of what was said, it is
ambivalent about the actual words that were used - it may simply reproduce them, or it
may transform and translate them into discourses which fit more easily with the
reporter’s voice.” An example is shown in (1) where the NPP newspaper indirectly
quotes the voice of a renowned pastor in Ghana, Pastor Mensa Otabil, founder of the
International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), calling the outgroup “evil” and “criminal.” It
is not clear from the text whether the pastor used such words to refer to the outgroup, or
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it is the reporter’s own voice embedded in the reported speech purposely for ideological
expediency. Similarly, in (2) the voice of the deputy organizer of the NDC is indirectly
quoted for insulting an outgroup as an “idiot.” The voice of the reporter is seen in the
use of expressions “fuming with rage,” “panting for breath” and “without mincing words.”
It would be difficult to separate the voice of the reporter and that of the person being
reported, in that, we cannot ascertain the validity of these expressions as the mood of
the outgroup member when he made that comment. This provides us with the idea of
ideologically-loaded words or expressions employed by reporters to serve group
interest. The use of such expressions is to portray the misunderstanding between
outgroup members as chaotic and thus present them negatively.
NDC newspapers also utilized indirect quotation to report speech. They included
voices of the outgroup as well as the ingroup. In (1’), the voice of an NPP MP, Kennedy
Agyapong is indirectly quoted when he insulted the outgroup national executives as
“corrupt” and “thieves.” We cannot say for certain whether Kennedy Agyapong used
those words or expressions in the text, or it is the reporter’s own voice inserted into the
reported speech. Indeed, if these were his words there is a possibility that it has been
spun by the reporter or editor to suit the group interest. In (2’) and (3’), voices of ingroup
members targeted at the outgroup were indirectly quoted to present them negatively. In
this case too it is difficult to judge the accuracy of the indirect quote from the ingroup
members targeted at the outgroup. The possibility exists that the reported speech can
be spun to satisfy group interest and denigrate the outgroup.
In sum, NPP newspapers included voices from religious leaders, media
personnel, ex-presidents, supporter/members of NDC/NPP, NDC/NPP MPs, and at
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times excluded the voices of the ingroup. NDC newspapers, on the other hand, included
voices (insults from opponents) citizens, president, NDC leaders, NPP youth, NPP MPs;
however, they excluded the voice of Rawlings, the founder of the NDC party.
4.3 Topic
Recall from Chapter 2 that topics are basically the information in a discourse that
speakers or writers find important to foci. Citizens selected various topics to insult and
challenge the existing political authority. Similarly, I discuss how both NPP and NDC
newspapers’ used foregrounding and backgrounding to select topics. The analysis in
this section is in four themes: the economy, corruption, ethnic politics, and drugs.
4.3.1 The Economy
This subsection is divided into two, that is, ordinary citizens’ metaphor of disorder
and the economy, and pro-NPP and NDC newspapers selection of insults targeted at
the economy.
4.3.1.1 Ordinary citizens’ metaphors of disorder and the economy
The economy of every country is the pivot around which other things such as
health, education, security and others revolve. When the economy is not doing well, it is
natural for citizens to express their frustration because it directly affects their daily living.
In view of this, citizens in Ghana use metaphors of disorder to challenge the existing
political authority to fix the ailing economy as exemplified in excerpts 31 and 32.
In excerpt 31, the ordinary citizen uses two figurative expressions to describe the
economy. The first one is a simile that relates the economy to a parked car with a
novice driver: the parked car mapped onto the economy, the driver mapped onto the
president and the children mapped onto Ghanaian people. His simile provides us with a
picture of a president who does not know how to manage the economy, and therefore
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leads the whole country into a ditch. He compares the rate of the Ghanaian cedi to other
currencies to show the bad state of the economy. What really bothers him is how the
CFA is outperforming the cedi.
The second figurative expression is metaphor in which the citizen mirrors the
economy to a patient who is on admission at Korle Bu hospital (the biggest teaching
hospital in Ghana). It is interesting to note that “Korle Bu” is a referral hospital (a
hospital that provides tertiary care, which is health care from specialists in a large
hospital after referral from primary or secondary care), so if an economy is on admission
at a referral center, it tells the severity of the “ailment” of the economy. Meaning all the
other hospitals, being primary or secondary care facilities (i.e. economic experts) in
Ghana could not heal or offer the best cure for the ailing economy. The ordinary citizen
further points to the fact that the economy will soon be sent to the morgue, indicating
how fragile the economy is. If the economy will soon land at the morgue then it is
metaphorically presented that it is on the verge of dying or collapsing.
Thus, the ordinary citizen’s simile and metaphor on the economy is a challenge
to the president to fix the economy because Ghanaians are suffering. His comment also
questions the president’s handling of the economy; that is to say, the president is not
managing the economy to the satisfaction of the citizen.
Similarly, in excerpt 32, the metaphor “Ghana’s economy is out of control”
presents us with idea of the current state of the economy. To the ordinary citizen,
everything is completely out of gear in the country since state institutions are arbitrarily
doing what they want. This is captured in his chronicle of some institutions collecting
tolls and others increasing tariffs and bills at will without consulting the presidency, thus
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pointing to the fact that the president is not in control of the administration of the
country. Therefore, this metaphor shows the disorder in the country; nothing seems to
be working.
In general these metaphors of disorder show the kind of choices citizens make in
their discourse by comparing the economy and political leadership to parked cars and
novice drivers, and, most importantly, linking the ailing economy to a patient on
admission at a referral hospital (Korle Bu hospital) waiting to be conveyed to the
morgue. Also, the economy is represented as completely out of control. These
representations to some extent present us with the understanding of a country whose
economy is totally in a mess, needing redemption or in the economic world requires a
“bail out.” Further, political leadership and economic experts are represented as inept in
terms of mapping out proper strategies to salvage the ailing economy. Some of the
citizens comments present a gloomy picture of a country where nothing seems to be
working; and everyone seems to be doing what he or she wants, showing the confusion
and how things are disorganized in the country. There is no leadership in the country as
presented in the citizen’s simile in excerpt 31; the president does not even have the
leadership abilities to manage the economy.
Excerpt 31 [Background: The host of the program opens the phone lines after every morning political discussion to solicit the views of the citizens on the economy. Below is a comment from a citizen.] Kokrooko (peacefm) September 20 2013 Kwame: Abacha wɔ ahoma no so. Abacha yεma wo akye. Abacha is on the line. Abacha, good morning. Abacha: Yaa Bra Kwame, εte sεn?
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I respond, Brother Kwame. How are you? Kwame: Nyame wɔ hɔ God exists. Na bra Kwame, mεsan akɔ m’asεm no so bio. Seesei Ghana yεrehu amane papapaa. Yεbεsrε ɔmanpanin, Bro Kwame, economy εte sε kaa a εsi fie na akɔyε sε sεbe, sεbe wo papa ɔnnim kaa ka na woakɔ foro, ɔbεkɔ akɔkum mo. Seesei yεhwε baabi a dɔla, euro, seesei koraa cefa koraa a yε ne no te Africa ha no koraa ɔno ɔte kaa no front εna ɔde yεn korɔ. Enti yεbεsrε ɔmanpanin sε seesei yε economy no na εda Korle Bu a seesei εyε aduru mokyere. ɔnhwε na ɔnyε biribi mfa ho mma yεn because Ghanafoɔ yεrebrε. Brother Kwame, I’ll revisit my issue again. Currently, Ghanaians are suffering. We would like to plead with the president, brother Kwame; economy is like a parked car in a house, excuse me to say, your father does not know how to drive and jumps into the car; he’ll go and kill all of you. Currently, if you look at the rate of the dollar, euro and even the CFA in Africa is seated at the front of the car driving. So, we want to plead with the president to tell us if our economy is on admission at Korle Bu and it will soon be sent to the morgue. He should do something about it for us because Ghanaians are suffering. Excerpt 32 [Background: The comment below is a response to an article written by Professor Lord Amoah of Ashesi University, accusing politician of thinking of the masses as “idiots” and “fools.”] Author: Just being curious!! Date: 2014-02-09 05:10:08 Source: Ghanaweb Comment to: Our leaders think us ‘idiots’, ‘fools’ – Ghana’s economy is completely out of control, with everybody doing his or her own thing. President Mahama is simply useless. Mahama cannot control anything or anybody in corporate Ghana, even including his family members, because he knows his corrupt lazy visionless ways. Yesterday, it was university of Ghana authorities introducing toll charges for use of the university roads. Another time, it was Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) increasing electricity tariffs. Another time, it was Water Company introducing water meters and increasing water consumption bills. Another time, it was petroleum companies increasing fuel retail prices.
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4.3.1.2 NPP and NDC newspapers selection of insults targeted at the economy
Both NPP and NDC newspapers reported insults from ingroup members targeted
at the economy. The economy is one of the main topical issues political parties include
in their manifestoes on as well as their campaigns. In the manifesto, they present
comprehensive measures and solutions to address the economic challenges of the
country. Thus, it is one of the hotly debated topics in any democratic country.
In the report of insults (Table 4-4), NPP newspapers reported an insult from the
NPP 2012 running mate, Dr. Bawumia describing the managers of the economy as (1)
“specialists in lies and propaganda” in reference to the outgroup members. As an
opposition party, their job is to punch holes in the economic policies of government to
instill hope in the electorate that they will be better managers of the economy if elected
into office. Therefore, this insult was selected to negatively present the outgroup as bad
managers of the economy (as has been explained in detail in Chapter 3.)
NDC newspapers also selected insults from the ingroup targeted at the economy.
However, most of the insults reported were in response to accusations from the
outgroup which presented them as bad handlers of the economy. For example in (1’)
“NDC kingpin blasts Bawumia on the economy.” This insult from the ingroup was
purposely selected and reported to rebut Bawumia’s comment in (1). The kingpin
compares Bawumia’s understanding of the economy to that of Senior High School
(SHS) economic student to portray him as unfit to comment on the economy. Recall that
in Chapter 3 any economic analysis from Bawumia was described as “Bawumianomics.”
In example (2’) “NDC forum for setting the records straight exposes NPP’s gargantuan
lies on the economy,” it can be inferred from this insult that the NDC newspaper
selected and reported this insult to present the outgroup negatively for lying about the
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economy. Also, it points to the fact that the insult is a response to a comment made by
the outgroup concerning the economy. A former minister of finance, Osafo Marfo a
member of the outgroup, in example (3’) is described as a “disgrace to economics.” This
insult and among others are all in attempt to present the outgroup negatively.
4.3.2 Corruption
The issue of corruption is very complex and difficult to define. I resort to
Transparency International’s (TI) definition of corruption, which states that “corruption
and bribery are complex transactions that involve both someone who offers a benefit,
often a bribe, and someone who accepts, as well as a variety of specialists and
intermediaries to facilitate the transaction” (Bribe payers index 2008). They further state
that both the payer and the taker cause damage in a number of ways. Corruption is also
a fraudulent or dishonest conduct by those in power of which the ultimate sufferers are
ordinary citizens. Therefore, citizens insulted and challenged political authority on
corrupt practices in Ghana. This subsection is divided into two parts: ordinary citizens’
insults focused on corruption and pro-NPP and NDC newspapers reporting of insults on
corruption.
4.3.2.1 Ordinary citizens’ insults on corruption
Corruption is also one of the important issues that affect the daily lives of citizens
in a country. If political leaders are engaged in corruption, then there is a high tendency
that the development of the country will be stalled. Monies that are supposed to be used
for development are stocked in the pockets of some politicians. In view of this, citizens
insulted and challenged political authority involved in corrupt practices by using
idiomatic expressions and word play to expose such practices as exemplied in excerpts
33, 34 and 35 respectively.
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In excerpt 33, a citizen challenged the government of Ghana on corruption by
comparing the Supreme Court (SC) judgment on the 2012 election petition to the
ISOFOTON judgment. A brief information of this institution: in 2011 the government of
Ghana paid ISOFOTON, a Spanish company, a judgment debt of $325,472.00. A
former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Martin Amidu sent the case to court
arguing that the payment of the judgment debt was wrong because the company had no
basis to make the claims against the government since it had no contract with the
government. He won the case and the company was asked to pay the money back to
the government of Ghana. According to this citizen, the government conspired with
ISOTOFON to “create,” “loot” and “share” the nation. Therefore the president is not
ready to retrieve the money. His accusation of the president is seen in the usage of the
idiom ɔabu nnua agu n’asom to wit “he has turned a deaf ear (to the issue).” This
means that the president has ignored the court ruling and he is not making any earnest
effort to retrieve the money from ISOFOTON. To the ordinary citizen, the government,
and, by extension, the president is an accomplice in the saga. Thus, the citizen’s idiom
is a challenge to political authority to be proactive in the fight against corruption and also
not to connive with private companies to dupe the nation.
Similarly, in excerpt 34, the citizen tries to reveal the double standards in former
president Rawlings’ assertion that “Kufuor was an autocratic thief” with the idiom “a pot
calling the kettle black” to wit “he is guilty of the very thing which he is accusing Kufour.”
This idiom reveals the double standard and hypocrisy in the comment of former
President Rawlings. To the commenter, Rawlings is more corrupt than the man he is
accusing of being an “autocratic thief.” In sum, the citizen’s idiom is a challenge to
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former president Rawlings to stop accusing others of corruption since he is also guilty of
that very accusation.
Moreover, the citizen’s comment in excerpt 35 is in support of the NPP activist’s
claim that the president is an “insensitive” father of the nation for travelling to the UAE
for Christmas holidays. He insults the president as “commander in thief of create, loot
and share brigade” to indicate that the president is the leader of the corrupt activities in
the country. His use of the word play “commander in thief” provides us with a picture of
a president superintending over corrupt practices; he is the leader of corruption in the
country. This claim also points to the fact that the president is corrupt, because to the
ordinary citizen, the president is treated as a “King” and “Emperor” in the UAE due to his
corrupt deals that benefit the UAE. Thus, the citizen’s insult is a challenge specifically to
the president to stop his corrupt practices.
Excerpt 33 [Background: The host of the program opens the phone lines after every morning political discussion to solicit the views of the citizens on the economy. Below is a comment from a citizen.] Peace FM (Kokrooko) September 20, 2013 Kwame: ɔdehyeε medaase. Yεnkɔ Sweduro, Appiah kɔtɔkɔ maakye. Royal good morning. Lets go to Sweduro, Appiah Kɔtɔkɔ good morning. Appiah: Me nua panin Kwame Sefa Kai. My senior brother Kwame Sefa Kai. Kwame: Yaa agya. I respond. Appiah: ɔdehyeε kronkron wo ho te sεn? Holy royal how are you? Kwame: Nyame adom nti.
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By the grace of God (I’m doing very well) Appiah: Na NPPfoɔ na εkɔɔ supreme court kɔdii fo. εbaa ne sεn na the same Supreme Court no abua asεm εde atia aban a ɔte so a εno deε ɔno see aban tenase create, create, loot and share a ɔɔmo fa kwan bɔne faa ɔman no sika. Enti ISOFOTON εne saa nkorɔfoɔ no εnsan ntua saa sika no mmra. President Mahama ɔabu nnua agu n’asom saa sika no. ɔnyε n’adwene sε ɔregye saa sika no ama yεn. It was NPP people who sent their case to Supreme Court and lost. How come the same Supreme Court that ruled against the ruling government that the government connived with others to create, loot and share to steal from the coffers of the state. They used dubious means to take the state’s money. So ISOFOTON and others should pay back the money. President Mahama has turned deaf ears on that money. He is not ready to retrieve that money for us. Excerpt 34 [Background: This is a comment of an ordinary citizen in response to former President Jerry John Rawlings’ assertion that corruption did not start with Mahama, and that Kufour was an “autocratic thief.”] Name: James Date: January 9 2014 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Corruption Did Not Start With Mahama...Kufuor Was An “Autocratic Thief” – Rawlings Lol, a pot calling kettle black. Who was more corrupt than this man? I think he is sick upstairs no wonder he is talking too much these days. Excerpt 35 [Background: The comment below is as a result of an activist of the NPP, Richard Asante Yeboah, who criticized the President for being “an insensitive father of the nation” for taking an annual leave with his family to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the 2013 Christmas celebration.] Name: Aduse Poku Date: December 25 2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: President Mahama Is An “Insensitive” Father Of The Nation There is a booming real estate business in that part of the world where Rich people go to buy holiday homes and resorts. As COMMANDER IN THIIEF of Create, Loot and Share brigade whose family and cronies are so rich to buy a bank, John Mahama is a
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caliber of person who are treated like Kings and Emperors. Have we paused to find out where all the oil go? Poor Ghana. Only God knows how many gold bars and cash he is sending there. 4.3.2.2 NPP and NDC newspapers report of insults on corruption
Pro-NPP and NDC newspapers selected and reported insults targeted at the
outgroup on corruption. Most of the newspapers foregrounded such insults to present
the outgroup negatively. Van Dijk (1998) aptly states that the media foreground
important stories and background the least important ones. Van Dijk’s ideological
square states that outgroup negative actions are foregrounded in the form of lead
stories and headlines while ingroup negative actions are backgrounded, and vice versa.
In Table 4-5, example (1), an NPP newspaper reported or twisted and changed the
slogan: “it dey bee kεkε” a pidgin phrase which means “it is exciting, fun or good to be
part of (it or them)” which was used by the current president, John Mahama during the
2012 election to the Akan phrase “yεbεdii bi kεkε!” to wit “we came to squander some of
your (money).” Though the paper does not explicitly insult the outgroup as corrupt, we
can infer from the phrase that they are in power to perpetuate acts of corruption.
Therefore, the newspaper foregrounded and spun this slogan to present to readers that
the outgroup are in power to engage in corrupt activities. In (2), the outgroup is
presented as “filthy corrupt” and in (3) a member of the outgroup is described as
“greedy, sycophantic and a bastard.” All these insults were given front-page coverage to
present to the reading public that the outgroup and its members are corrupt.
Similarly, NDC newspapers employed the same strategy of foregrounding insults
on corruption targeted at the outgroup. However, most of the insults reported were
comments from the outgroup members calling the outgroup as “thieves.” In (1’) and (2’)
for example, an NPP MP, Kennedy Agyapong, an outgroup member, is reported for
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insulting the outgroup, stating that the “NPP is full of thieves” and that “NPP National
executives are thieves” respectively. These insults were selected and foregrounded to
present the outgroup negatively and most importantly to reveal to readers that even
outgroup members attest to the fact that the NPP is corrupt and therefore not qualified
to lead the nation. This point to the fact that the criteria used for the selection of news
report provides us with a partial view of the world (Fowler, 1991) since this is carefully
done for ideological purposes.
4.3.3 Ethnic politics
Ghana is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. There are
about 146 ethnic groups in Ghana. According to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS)
2010 report on population and housing census, Akans are the predominant ethnic group
in Ghana with 47.5%, followed by Mole Dagbani 16.6%, Ewe 13.9% and Ga-dangme
7.4%. It is common knowledge in Ghana that the two dominant political parties, NPP
and NDC, are affiliated to one or two of the predominant ethnic groups. The NPP
receives massive support from Akan dominated areas while NDC has majority of its
votes from Mole Dagbani and Ewe areas. In the report of insults, therefore, newspapers
aligned to these political parties selected and reported insults from the out-group and
used authorial voice that sought to marginalize the strongholds of the ingroup. This
section is exclusively focused on pro-NPP and NDC report of insults on ethnic politics.
Pro-NDC newspapers reported insults targeted at ethnic groups, which they
considered to be part of the ingroup. In Table 4-6, example (1’), “tani can’t govern us,”
was given front-page coverage for ideological purposes. Recall that in Chapter 3, it was
shown that “tani” is a derogatory term used to insult those from the northern part of
Ghana. Thus for an NDC newspaper to select and report this insult from a supposedly
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ordinary citizen claiming that he heard some Akans discussing this issue is a typical
political strategy to win the votes of those from the North. In (2’) the NPP presidential
candidate’s tribe, Akyem, is presented as “marauding Akyem mafia within the NPP.” A
“mafia” according to the Oxford dictionary is “an organized international body of
criminals, operating originally in Sicily and now in Italy and US and having a complex
and ruthless behavioral code.” This description is mapped onto the Akuffo-Addo’s tribe
to portray them negatively and by extension to present him as not qualified to be
president of Ghana since he belongs to a tribe who are “mafias.” The NPP newspapers,
however, did not report insults on ethnic politics.
4.3.4 Drugs
The issue of drugs is one of the most contentious topics discussed in Ghanaian
political discourse. This topic has become very polarized between the two dominant
political parties in Ghana: the NPP and NDC. Both parties continue to play politics with
drugs, depending on who is in power. For example, an NPP member of parliament was
arrested in the United States for the possession of cocaine. Subsequently, the MP was
prosecuted and jailed in the US. The then opposition National Democratic Congress
(NDC) mischievously changed the abbreviation of the NPP to “Narcotic Peddlers Party.”
A similar incident happened to the NDC when they came to power in 2008, and the NPP
also changed their initials to “Narcotic Drug Cartels.”
In Table 4-7 for example, pro-NDC newspapers reported insults and insinuations
about drugs targeted at the outgroup. An example is (1’) “Ghanaians are looking for a
leader who will be very clean, because we all know what narcotic drugs can do to a
society.” This was a comment from a deputy propaganda secretary of the NDC, Richard
Quashigah insinuating that the leader of the NPP, Nana Akuffo-Addo is involved in
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narcotic drugs. His comment is presented in such a way that it speaks to the conscience
of Ghanaians to be careful and select leaders who are not engaged in narcotics. Thus,
this comment was given a front-page headline to portray the outgroup negatively for
dealing in narcotic drugs. Again in (2’), Nana Akuffo-Addo is reported in The National
Democrat as “Akuffo-Addo was indeed caught with Marijuana in the US,” to show that
indeed the outgroup presidential candidate is noted for drugs.
In (3’), a member of the government communication team, Felix Kwakye-Ofosu
also accuses the NPP of turning Ghana into a cocaine country. The impression this
comment creates is that during the tenure of the NDC there was nothing like cocaine,
and NPP is responsible for the cocaine business in Ghana. This comment was selected
and reported to present the outgroup negatively for turning Ghana into a cocaine
country. Therefore, NDC newspapers foregrounded the topic of drugs to present the
outgroup negatively.
However, pro-NPP newspapers did not select and report insults on drugs. The
only comment recorded in pro-NPP newspapers was on the “Narcotic Drug Cartels” by
the Daily Guide newspaper.
4.4 Summary
The analysis of discursive practices revealed findings that are consistent with
those arrived at the textual level. With respect to Intertextuality, citizens mediated or
made reference to the comments of prominent people in society to emphasize their
challenge of political authority based on Bauman’s implicational relationship of
mediational routines. Citizens also employed intertextuality in their discourse to avoid
censorship.
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Pro-NPP and NDC papers employed direct, strategic and indirect quotations to
report insults or voices they considered newsworthy. That is, the papers gave more
prominence to voices they considered newsworthy and marginalized others. NPP
newspapers included voices ranging from religious leaders, former president Rawlings
(from the outgroup), journalists, supporters or members of the NDC and NPP, and NDC
and NPP members of parliament. NDC newspapers, on the other hand, included voices
from citizens, the President, NDC leaders, NPP Youth, and NPP MPs; however, they
excluded the voice of Rawlings, the founder of the NDC party.
On topic selection, ordinary citizens selected topics that impact their daily lives
such as the economy and corruption. Concerning the economy, citizens employed
metaphors of disorder which showed the kind of choices citizens make in their
discourse that revealed the ineptitude and dereliction of the existing social power with
regard to the administration of the country. As to corruption, citizens used idiomatic
expressions and word play to insult and expose political authority involved in corrupt
practices.
Both NPP and NDC papers selected topics similar to the ones used by citizens.
The study showed that NPP papers foregrounded insults and topics on the economy
and corruption that presented the outgroup negatively. They however backgrounded
topics on ethnic politics and drugs. NDC papers, on other hand, foregrounded insults on
economy, corruption, ethnic politics and drugs to project the outgroup negatively.
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Table 4-1. Direct quotes on intertextuality NPP Newspapers NDC newspapers 1. ‘‘They have lost so much morale high ground, and now one of the most truthful, forceful, logically-minded personalities of integrity in the party leadership is being treated like an outcast to serve a parochial and unpatriotic interest,’’ Mr. Rawlings stated (The Chronicle, March 27, 2012)
1’. ‘‘This is unbelievable, even Senior High School Economics students know that low inflation does not mean price stagnation, but that even though prices are increasing, they are at a comparatively low rate.’’ NDC Kingpin Stephen Ashitey Adjei asks (Enquirer, June 12, 2012)
2. ‘‘Corruption, or perception of corruption in this government is endemic and systematic and was not personal to my late friend, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills. The people infecting this government with the endemic corruption and abuse of office for private gains are alive and in President Mahama’s government’’, the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice claimed (The Chronicle, October 2, 2012)
2’. ‘‘Master, where is this country going to, the NPP people have begun something which can be dangerous for this country… ‘‘I was at a spot at Dansoman and I heard them saying in Twi, ‘Yendiye yen pini ma tε ni bia embedi yesu oh! to wit; we won’t allow any person of northern descent rule over us. Mr. Charles Ahwireng, a taxi driver (THE Al-Hajj, August 16, 2012)
3. ‘‘Any normal person cannot speak like that … I don’t know whether Asiedu Nketia was speaking under the influence of alcohol, because how can any normal person without taking in anything speak that way? This is uncalled for …The President must call them to order because these (insults) have been going on for far too long.’’ Mr. Osei Akyeampong was reported by the station as saying (Daily Guide, September 10, 2012)
3’. ‘‘Ghanaians are looking for a leader who will be very clean, because we all know what narcotic drugs can do to a society’’ Richard Quashigah lamentated (THE Al-Hajj, February 23 2012)
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Table 4-1. Continued. NPP Newspapers NDC newspapers 4. ‘‘You have left crass criminals like Woyome and those who supported him in government and you expect to win an election?’’ he quizzed, adding, “what is your moral stand? I have a right of saying so, that you have lost the moral high ground.’’ Mr. Rawlings described businessman Wayome. (Daily Guide, June 5, 2012)
4’. ‘‘It was not questioned, nobody question it. The creation was done somewhere in January-10 clear months to elections. Once issues are raised then the Supreme Court can look into it,’’ Ayikwei Otoo (Ghana Palaver, August 27-28, 2012)
5. Mrs. Rawlings told reporters in Accra yesterday, ‘‘If the man is your founder, there should be a certain level of decorum where you don’t cross that lies, insults and putting things on his head that he has not said at all. In a party where you have a founder who is permanently being pummeled with things that are not true is totally not acceptable.’’ (Daily Guide, November 27, 2012)
5’. MP for Salaga Constituency, Ibrahim Dey Abubakari in an interview with XYZ News, said they will return to continue with the committee’s sittings when their request has been granted. He added that the Chairman, Albert Kan-Dapaah must also change his attitude and cooperate with members of the committee to make their work transparent. ‘‘A committee work is not a one man show and if the chairman is trying to have a one show, fine, then let him go ahead ‘‘This attitude can make the report bias. We want to maintain the integrity of the committee. Once the public is divided with PAC then you can imagine that the report will also be divided.’’ (Ghana Palaver, July 20, 2012)
6. “Mr. Speaker, this is the most disgraceful statement that has ever been made by any member in this house; it is insulting, it is foolish and should never be allowed in this house,” Mr. Hammond said. H for the statement to be withdrawn immediately…Mr. Speaker, I ask for the stupid and useless and foolish statement to be withdrawn immediately…it is palpable nonsense,” K.T. Hammond fumed. (Daily Guide, December 5, 2013)
6’. “I would like to make it very clear to you and your paymasters that no one is going to stop me from serving our people. I will do it as long as I live and God Almighty gives me the strength to do so. It is my sacred duty and I will continue with it till the very end” General Nunoo-Mensah said (Daily Post, December 17, 2013)
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Table 4-1. Continued. NPP Newspapers NDC newspapers 7. “I know we have intelligent people in the NDC and some of them even happen to be my friends and so when I hear some of these people talking it saddens me but…” Fiifi Banson (Daily Guide, December 12, 2013)
7’. “Many of the polling station executives are complaining that they have not received their responsibility allowance. of people who have been denigrated and accused of being responsible for the party’s defeat”. M r. S Alhassan Atakpo said (The Informer October 11, 2013)
8. “John Mahama is the worst Ghanaian President when it comes to public speaking because his ideas are totally bankrupt and uninspiring,” he said. Comparing the President to his late predecessor, Prof John Mills, Dr Nkrumah said, “The late Prof Mills might not have been so inspiring but I think he had some intellectual depth, but unfortunately with Mahama, he doesn’t seem to have anything.” Dr. Sekou Nkrumah (Daily Guide December 19, 2013)
8’. “If he doesn’t take time and he talks like that and he is not careful, he will be giving the perception that he is a tin god,” he said. (www.myradiogoldlive.com August 19, 2013)
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Table 4-1. Continued. NPP Newspapers NDC newspapers 9. The NPP “finds it highly unbecoming, mischievous and provocative that Mr. Rawlings, a former military leader, later head of state, who should naturally be wearing the shoes of statesmanship, is deliberately and unruly casting unjustified insinuations and insults on his colleague.” (Daily Guide January 10, 2014)
9’. “You NDC people don’t know how serious these things are; when they make false statement against you in the presence of the whole world. How do I go back to correct this impression about me? You Nkhyira FM, always you want to disgrace me, saying as for Kenny Agyepong he is a violent person. What kind of nonsense is that? These NDC people are fools. What can they do to me? Let them come and cut my head off if they are not fools. Always saying foolish things about people thinking nobody will respond to them. Everyday Kennedy Agyepong, Kennedy Agyepong, Kennedy Agyepong. No amount of money can repair my damaged imaged and so I will also have to insult them. If a sitting to himself will come out to say that…Their brains are not working. These NDC people are fools. Then the stupid fool Police too will come and say they are…what kind of bullshit is that?” Kennedy Agyapong said on Nhyira FM (National Democrat, April 25, 2013)
10’. “It is double standard because the NPP on one breadth are saying that the EC is not credible and they will have nothing to do with them; on another breadth you see them going against their own orders.” Joseph Yamin
11’. Mr. Dominic Nitiwul said “people like him (Kwame Pianim) are ridiculing themselves thinking that they are ridiculing the party. (www.myradiogoldlive.com 26, February 2013)
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Table 4-2. Strategic quotation or scare quotes on intertextuality NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 1. To the former President those “greedy bastards” in connivance with “babies with sharp teeth” have now developed into “old evil dwarfs” (The New Statesman, April 3, 2012) 2. Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has been described by President Mills’ appointee to the Energy Commission, “Chucks” Kofi Wayo, as “sometimes stupid” in the discharge of his duties, and has asked President Mills to fire him since he is becoming a liability (The New Statesman, April 3, 2012)
1’. NO ‘Patapaa’! President Mahama Warns Losers In Dec Polls (Ghana Palaver, September 14-16, 2012) 2’. But P.C Appiah Ofori disagrees with him noting that Dr Charles Wireko-Brobbey is a “non-entity” and so “I don’t comment on the statement of non-entities”. (www.myradiogoldlive.com May 31, 2013)
3. FORMER REGIONAL Chairman of the Nationa Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Brong-Ahafo region has fired a salvo at the party’s General Secretary, Johnson Nketia describing him as a ‘‘loose talker.’’ Alhaji Abdullah said the NDC scribe’s growing notoriety for having a sharp tongue could ruin the party’s chance in the December polls. (Daily Guide, November 12, 2012)
3’. 16. A Deputy Minister for Information and Member of Parliament (MP) elect for the North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa describes the protest for justice by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and its supporters over electoral fraud as “a comic of relief to Ghanaians.” He says “the NPP is becoming a comedy of contradictions and a laughing stock in Ghana”. (www.myradiogoldlive.com December 19, 2012)
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Table 4-2. Continued. NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 4. THE MEMBER of Parliament for Madina/Abokobi constituency who is also the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Alhaji Amadu Sorogho last Tuesday created a scene at the premises of Oman FM. He screamed at the top of his voice: ‘‘you are bush guys, you are stupid’’ among other invectives as he entered the premises of the radio station in a manner which suggested he was definitely going to hurl a blow at the host of an ongoing programme he had a bone to pick with. (Daily Guide, September 13, 2012)
5. Dr. Bissiw went to the extreme when she described Ursula Owusu, an aspiring parliamentary candidate for Ablekuma Central in Accra, as a “disgrace to womanhood.” (Daily Guide, March 23, 2011)
6. I Pray Subsequent Presidents Do Not Inherit Mahama’s “Visionless” Mantle – Sekou (Daily Guide December 19, 2013)
7. The man he handed power to, he said, was “an autocratic thief” who endorsed corruption in all its forms. (Daily Guide December 10, 2013)
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Table 4-3. Indirect quotation on intertextuality NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 1. The General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church, Pastor Mensah Otabil, has taken President John Dramani Mahama to task over what he calls the evil and criminal attempts by members of his National Democratic Congress to tarnish his reputation by piecing together comments he had made in the past to create the false impression that he is against the proposed free senior high school policy being espoused by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (The New Statesman, April 3, 2012) 2. Joshua Akamba, who was fuming with rage and panting for breathe, without mincing words, describe Dr. Opuni as an idiot among other unprintable words. (Daily Guide, August 29, 2012)
1’. When it came to the turn of Kennedy Agyepong, a leading member of the NPP and owner of the radio station, he went straight for the jugular, declaring that all the National Executives of the NPP are not only corrupt and but thieves as well. According to Kennedy Agyepong, the National Executive members stole motorbikes he bought on credit from China for them to campaign with in the run up to the December 2012 polls. He accused them of using it now to campaign for themselves to be elected back into the office. (The Informer December 18, 2013) 2’. A stalwart of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Tony Aidoo has described as infantile the petitioners address as espoused by Lawyer Philip Addison. (www.myradiogoldlive.com August 10, 2013)
3’. The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Ade Coker, has said the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Akufo Addo is too old and lacks the vision to lead the country if given the opportunity. (www.myradiogoldlive.com November 21, 2012)
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Table 4-4. Topics on the economy NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 1. Specialist in lies and propaganda shouldn’t be managing our economy-Bawumia (Daily Searchlight October 2, 2012)
1’. NDC Kingpin Blasts Bawumia on economy. (Equirer, June 12, 2012)
2’. NDC forum for setting the record straight Exposes NPP’s gargantuan lies on the economy (The Al-Hajj, July 17 2013)
3’. Osafo Marfo is a disgrace to economics-Kofi Wayo (The Al-Hajj, July 17, 2013)
4’. NPP has no credible track record-NDC (The-Alhajj, September 27, 2012)
Table 4-5. Topics on corruption NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 1. ‘Yεbεdii bi kεkε! (The Chronicle, November 5, 2012)
1’. NPP Is Full Of Thieves - Kennedy Agyepong Vindicates Asiedu Nketia!The Rotten NPP Judgment Debt Baggage (Ghana Palaver, July 20, 2012)
2. NDC is filthy corrupt (The Chronicle, October 2, 2012)
2’. NPP National Executives Are Thieves - Agyepong (Ghana Palaver, July 20 2012)
3. Allotey Jacobs- A Greedy, Sycophantic Bastard (Daily Searchlight October 2, 2012)
3’. The Rotten NPP Judgment Debt Baggage (Ghana Palaver, July 20, 2012)
4. THIEVING MAHAMA CAUGHT! (Daily Searchlight October 2, 2012)
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Table 4-6. Topics on ethnic politics NPP newspapers NDC newspapers NPP avoided ethnic politics 1’. Tε Ni’ Can’t Govern Us
‘Yendiye yen pini ma tε ni bia embedi yesu oh! to wit; we won’t allow any person of northern descent rule over us (THE Al-Hajj, August 16, 2012)
2’. Rascal Akuffo Addo and marauding Akyem tribal mafia within the NPP. (The Informer, May 29-30, 2013)
Table 4-7. Topics on drugs NPP newspapers NDC newspapers 1. Narcotic Drug Cartel (NDC) 1. ‘‘Ghanaians are looking for a leader who
will be very clean, because we all know what narcotic drugs can do to a society’’ Richard Quashigah lamentated (The Al-Hajj, February 23, 2012)
2. Akufo-Addo was indeed caught with Marijuana in the US-Steve Mallory (The National Democrat December 6, 2012)
3. NPP turned Ghana into a Cocaine Country - Felix Ofosu Kwakye (www.myradiogoldlive.com 7 June 2013)
4. Narcotic Peddlers Party (NPP)
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Source − (message) Mediator − (message1) Target
Source utterance Target utterance
Source dialogue Ι Target dialogue
Implicational relationship Figure 4-1 Bauman’s implicational relationship of mediational routines
Source − (Message) Mediator − (Message1) Target
(I.C. Quaye) (“Stealers”) (citizen) (Stealers (Political
cited in authority
citizen’s and public)
comment)
Implicational Relationship Figure 4-2. Citizen’s implicational relationship of mediational routines
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CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION: SOCIAL-PRACTICE ANALYSIS
5.1 Overview
In this Chapter, I expatiate on both the textual and discursive analysis to show
the broader sociopolitical and sociocultural context, which is the third dimension of
Fairclough’s three dimensional framework. According to Fairclough (1995: 78), a
“sociocultural analysis needs to address such issues as the relation of power that
underlie the emergence and continuity of particular discourse types, ideological effects
that might be associated with them, ways in which they construct social identities,
cultural values that they project, and so forth.” Thus, “critical” issues of power, ideology
and voice are analyzed in the present Chapter.
I analyze that the power the media holds in political discourse in Ghana that is
transferred to the powerless in society (i.e. ordinary citizens) who are empowered to
challenge the existing social power (of politicians) through phone-ins and online
commentaries, as well as the voice that the media give to the voiceless in society to
participate in political discourse.
Drawing on van Dijk’s (1995) ideological square, I discuss the various ideological
structures utilized by both pro-NPP and NDC newspapers on the textual and discursive
levels to represent ingroup positively and the outgroup negatively (group polarization),
paying particular attention to the sociopolitical context that necessitated this
polarization.
Finally, I analyze the explicit use of insults in spoken and written text. As I have
already noted throughout the dissertation, the Media Foundation of West Africa (MFWA)
regulated and monitored the radio stations with the results that most of the outlets would
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not allow citizens to use intemperate language on their airwaves. Instead, they would
censure people who make such comments. Online websites, however, in most cases,
are a free-for-all insult. Thus, the use of explicit insults was very limited on radio as
compared to the online commentaries.
5.2 Media, Power, Voice and Ordinary Citizens
Throughout the analysis of the data in Chapters 3 and 4, we have observed that
ordinary citizens challenged the existing social power via phone-ins and online
commentaries, an avenues created by the media. We saw that citizens used insults to
infantilize politicians, animalize them, and question their mental health. I also showed
that some of the insults are innocuous. The broader question I discuss in this section is
where do ordinary citizens derive this power from to challenge the existing social power,
taking into the consideration the conservative nature of Ghanaian society?
Recall also that in the literature review in section 1.5, the Apoɔ and Kundum
festivals and Halo poetry all of which empower the powerless in society to review the
performance of their leaders, are done within a very short period of time in a controlled
circumstance. Similarly, the various speech games that give people the license to insult
are operational within the parameters of the game. Further, members of a particular
social network cannot use “group insults” outside the domain of the network.
The moral priorities and direction of culture as well as the restorative and
regulatory functions of the tradition of institutionalized insults, particularly the festivals,
point to the power imbalances in traditional Ghanaian society. Juxtaposing the power
asymmetry in Ghanaian traditional and cultural set up to the current democratic context,
the right to vote is a basic fundamental right of every citizen in a democratic state to
elect political leaders. For example, article 42 of the constitution of the republic of
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Ghana states that “Every citizen of Ghana of eighteen years of age or above and of
sound mind has the right to vote and is entitled to be registered as a voter for the
purposes of public elections and referenda.” After exercising this fundamental right and
power to vote, how do ordinary citizens contribute to political discourse or challenge the
people they have elected into office? What are the avenues created for the ordinary
citizens to make their voices heard in political discussions? How do citizens see
themselves as partners and not observers in the governing process?
As I have argued and continue to argue, the power in Ghanaian political
discourse operates within the media, in that, it is the main medium for the dissemination
of political information, ideological enactment, and a persuasive tool for socio-political
and cultural activities of people. They also provide opportunity for citizens to participate
in political discourse.
Communication researchers see the media as the place where politics occurs
(Rose, 2004) as well as the institution whose function is to mediate politics in
democratic society (Blumler and Kavanagh, 1999). These views are in line with political
radio program and online commentary, because they are avenues that empower the
powerless in society to contribute to political life. Listeners on radio, for instance, feel a
strong sense of civic duty, which makes them call into a political program, send text
messages or send comments online to contribute to political discussions. Indeed, it
offers ordinary citizens a communication outlet that conforms to their desire to
participate in politics, yet allows them to take an outsider stance (Owen, 2010).
The power the media holds in political discourse in Ghana is transferred to the
powerless in society (i.e. ordinary citizens) leading to their empowerment to challenge
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the existing social power (power of politicians) and also contribute meaningfully to the
day-to-day political discourse via phone-ins, SMS messages and online commentary.
By observing the actions of political authority, ordinary citizens use the power given to
them to insult and challenge the existing social power. As observed by Wodak (2001:
11), “power does not derive from language but language can be used to challenge
power, to subvert it, to alter the distributions of power in the short or long term.” The use
of insults in Ghanaian political discourse, as has been explained, therefore, is one of the
ways in which the existing social power is challenged.
The power citizens have to use lexicalizations and predicational insults to
infantilize politicians by reducing them to “girls” and “boys;” challenging them to behave
in accordance with their age, position in society; display the wisdom associated with
grey; and conduct themselves as culturally raised adults and not to behave as
uncultured people, is due to the empowerment of the media.
In the same way, the opportunity that citizens have to use animal imagery such
as “dog,” “sheep,” and “swine” to represent and describe political authority; the ability to
even go to the extent of referring to their behavior as “mmoasεm” (animalistic behavior)
or some mythical creatures who have broken the social contract of how normal human
beings should behave and therefore deserve to live in the bush with animals, is a further
testament of the power that the media hand down to ordinary citizens.
In addition, the avenue created for citizens to link the behavior of political
authority to patients in the psychiatric hospital and needing psychiatric help and those
suffering from some form schizophrenia, and thus presenting them as people using their
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intellect improperly, is as a result of the power the media provide to the powerless and
voiceless in society.
Finally, the medium that the media offer to ordinary citizens helps them to
release or diffuse any pent up feelings or tension in the midst of economic hardship and
challenges by allowing citizens for the use of predicational insults that are sometimes
innocuous such as John wahala meters, Kufuor gallons and mema wo dumsɔ oo ‘I give
you power cut;’ yaa Mahama, ‘response Mahama,’ show the power the media gives to
ordinary citizens. (See section 5.3 for detailed discussion on the therapeutic function of
free speech.)
Recall that the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) monitors the conduct
of radio stations, especially those that allow people to use intemperate language on
their airwaves. In light of this, many of the radio stations do censor the comments of
ordinary citizens. To avoid censorship, as mentioned in Chapter 3, citizens resort to
presuppositions such as “Ghanaians are now in slavery,” “which varsity gave Tony
Aidoo his PhD?” and “the criminals are ruling us” to achieve their goal of challenging the
existing social power.
Similarly, metaphors/similes and proverbs are employed to avoid censorship as
discussed in Chapter 3. The main point drawn here is that in spite of censorship, the
avenue still exists (i.e. the power that the media give to the powerless and voiceless in
society) for those who are able to use witty and artistic ways of speaking to covertly or
implicitly insult and challenge political authority without being censored. Chilton and Ilyin
(1993) point to the fact that with metaphor, a speaker is able to avoid direct reference to
a face-threatening phenomenon because it leaves the addressee to make his/her own
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inferences from the intended knowledge being communicated. They further emphasize
that metaphor creates a common ground by paying particular attention to cultural frame.
That is to say, citizens use metaphors/similes and proverbs to mitigate the effect of an
otherwise explicit insult, which may have had the potential of affecting the sensibilities of
the addressee or possibly lead to an abrupt end of their calls.
Intertextuality was also one of the ways in which ordinary citizens avoided
censorship to challenge political authority. This was seen in the citing of the voices of
prominent individuals such as religious leaders, presidents, MPs and others to reaffirm
their challenge of the existing social power. For example, the citing of the voice of
Archbishop Duncan Williams “we don’t need amateurs in leadership, we need seasoned
people,” NPP MP Sheik I. C. Quaye “stealers,” and Asiedu Nketia “old barking dog”
show the voice and power the media provide ordinary citizens to cite the voice of people
in power to first avoid censorship, and second to challenge political authority.
The avenue that the media offer creates the opportunity for citizens to contribute
to the selected topics that the media put forth for discussion. They emphasize on the
areas that affect their daily lives to insult and challenge political authority. Majority of the
insults from citizens were targeted at the ailing economy and corruption. These two
topics, to some extent, directly or indirectly affect the daily lives of citizens. In cases
where the economy is not doing well, it is natural for people to direct or express their
frustration to the handlers of the economy.
In sum, the platform the media offers to the powerless and voiceless in society to
use language to challenge their political authority is the power the media gives to
ordinary citizens. The opportunity to send text messages, make phone calls and even
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sit behind a computer to contribute to political discourse without being intimidated is the
voice the media give to ordinary citizens.
5.3 Therapeutic Function of Ordinary Citizens Discourse
Yankah (1998) discusses the significance of speech as a therapy in African
societies. He mentions that the suppression of speech in certain situation has the high
tendency of causing ill-health. This is exemplified in the Akan saying paepae mu ka ma
ahomka, to wit “candid speech produces relief.” In some of these situations such as the
apoɔ and Kundum festivals, “speech or social interaction may be frank, or bald on
record, and speakers may be shockingly candid, believing that uninhibited venting of
one’s thoughts is therapeutic” (Yankah, 1998: 20). Therefore, the main purpose of the
abuse is to drive away evil and ill-health. Akans believe that those who continually
harbor evil and grudge normally get sick, and if they do not release them, then the gods
will afflict them with diseases.
Relating this to countries where citizens do not have the democratic right to
express themselves freely, they normally experience all kinds of political unrest. This is
due to the fact that people may have harbored ill-feelings for a very long time and would
want to expunge them so that they will be free. The question is why the political stability
in Ghana in spite of the economic hardship, ethnic tensions, political invectives among
politicians, and highly fixed ideological and power struggles between the two major
political parties: New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress?
There are many factors that answer this question such as the fundamentals of
democracy that are realized in other ways of freedom of speech. One important factor is
the platform which the media offer citizens to experience and vent the wide range of
feelings and emotions while considering the actions of political actors, issues, and
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events. That is to say, in the midst of tension and economic hardships, the ordinary
citizens are able to express any pent-up feelings or emotions and challenge political
authority and power abuse on radio and online commentaries. The expression “it is
better to jaw jaw than to war war” in Ngugi wa Thiongo’s novel “Weep Not, Child,” is
instrumental in the avenue that the media offer to citizens in Ghanaian public political
discourse. Instead of resorting to arms that will lead to destabilization of the nation,
citizens prefer to vent their frustration and anger by calling into radio programs to
express their feelings, or send text messages or go online to do same.
Therefore the contribution of the media to multi-party democracy and citizens’
participation in the daily political processes and discussions is revealing. The media
have also been analyzed as the fourth arm of government adding to three organs of
government: executive, legislature and judiciary in the sphere of politics, due to their
watchdog role of keeping governments on their toes.
5.4 NPP and NDC Newspapers Polarization at the Textual level
Recall that in Chapter 2 we discussed in detail van Dijk’s (1995) ideological
square, which points to the fact that ideologies manifest in a form of polarized opinion,
thought, action, or discourse. That is to say, any property of discourse that expresses,
establishes, confirms or emphasizes a self interest opinion, perspective or position,
especially in a broader socio-political context of social struggle, is a strong candidate for
ideological analysis (van Dijk, 1998). Therefore, ideological structures are represented
along the lines of Us verses Them dichotomy, in which members of one social group
present themselves in positive terms, and others in negative terms. This leads to
polarization whereby the media emphasize the positive actions of the ingroup members
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and deemphasize its negative actions on one hand, and deemphasize the positive
action of the outgroup and emphasize its negative actions on the other hand.
Textual analysis of pro-NPP and NDC newspaper reports of insults in Chapter 3
revealed that there is clear group polarization dividing these two dominant political
parties into ingroup and outgroup. In the subsequent paragraphs, I provide explanations
for this polarization at the textual level, focusing specifically on the two ideological
structures: negative lexicalization and predications and detailed description employed
by both pro-NPP and NDC newspapers. These revealed group polarization between the
two dominant political parties in Ghana.
In the first place, the lexical forms that are used to describe the political
opponents show Us verses Them dichotomy. Pro-NPP newspapers for example
employed the lexical item “propaganda” from Dr. Bawumia to refer to the managers of
the economy. According to United States Institute for Propaganda Analysis (USIPA)
(2001), the word propaganda “is an expression of opinion or action by an individuals or
groups deliberately designed to influence opinions or actions of individuals with
reference to predetermined ends.” The NPP newspaper, therefore, published the word
“propaganda” for ideological purposes, that is, to present the outgroup as: (1) not giving
the true state of the economy and (2) bad handlers of the economy. However, they
portray to the reader that the NPP would be transparent and have the expertise to
manage the economy better than the outgroup. This reveals group polarization, in that,
the ingroup is presented positively as transparent and good mangers of the economy
while the out-group is presented negatively as liars and bad handlers of the economy.
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Pro-NDC newspapers also employed lexical items “patapaa” and “tani.” The
current president of Ghana, John Mahama prior to 2012 general elections used the
word “patapaa”. It means “a violent person or violent behavior or a thug”. The meaning
can be extended to “someone who uses force to claim what does not belong to
him/her.” This word was used to advise all losers of 2012 elections. However, this was
an insult directed at the presidential candidate for the NPP describing him as violent,
adopting a “patapaa” stance to win the elections. NDC newspapers reported this
negative lexicalization from the president to present the presidential candidate of the
outgroup as violent while maintaining that the ingroup candidate is peaceful and not
violent.
NDC newspapers employed the term “tani” an Akan word that is used to insult
those from the Northern part of Ghana. There is no consensus as to meaning of this
word. While Agyekum (2010) argues that it is a derogatory term for people who move in
pairs (ntafoɔ [ntaafoɔ]-twins and tani [ata/ataa]-one of the twin), reference is made to
immigrants from the Northern part of Ghana; others have the understanding that it is an
insult which makes reference to those from the northern part of Ghana as “dirty people.”
The common idea out of the two meanings is that it is not a good term to use for
Northerners. Interestingly, this term surfaced on the front page of an NDC newspaper
“tani can’t govern us.” It must be mentioned that the 2012 presidential candidate of the
NDC and the current President is a Northerner, which gives credence to this insult.
Also, it is important to recall that the NPP has long been perceived as an Akan or
Ashanti dominated party, and historically Northerners were considered as servants of
the Akans. Putting all these facts in context, the pro-NDC newspaper pitches an old
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ideological battle between the ingroup and the outgroup. The outgroup is presented
negatively as insulting and marginalizing those from the North. This, therefore, raises an
ethnic tension between those from the North and the outgroup. That is to say, it turns
the people from the North against the NPP. According to van Dijk (2001), ethnic
prejudice and ideologies are not innate; rather, they are acquired and learned through
communication, that is, through text and talk.
Secondly, with regard to detailed description, NPP newspapers employed
detailed positive descriptions to describe ingroup members as well as non-politicians
insulting the outgroup. For example, the Daily Searchlight paper described Mr.
Mohammed Ameen Adams who accused the deputy energy minster, Alhaji Inusah
Fuseini of being economical with truth concerning the energy crisis in the country as “an
energy expert or economist.” Similarly, the Daily Guide paper described a broadcast
journalist, Fiifi Banson as “an award winning Ghanaian broadcaster” when he criticized
the outgroup for not sending people who can make an intellectual debate. The paper
also referred to former President Rawlings as “founder of the ruling NDC” when he
insulted the party he founded. Negative descriptions were also used to refer to outgroup
members for insulting the ingroup. For example, the former President Rawlings was
described by the Daily Guide paper as “see no evil” for calling former President Kufour
an “autocratic thief.”
NDC newspapers, on the other hand, employed honorifics and official titles to
describe ingroup members insulting the outgroup. For example, the Voice newspaper
described Hamza Abugri, the Bantama constituency organizer for the NDC as
“honorable” for insulting the chairman of the NPP as “ignorant.” This is very interesting
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because “honorable” is a title given to Ministers of state, MPs, Metropolitan, Municipal
and District Chief executives (MMDCE), and assembly members but not leaders of
political parties. Members of the outgroup who insulted the outgroup were given more
detailed descriptions such as “leading member of NPP” Daily Post paper, “senior
member of NPP” radiogold.com, and “a stalwart of the opposition,” the Informer paper,
to report such insults as credible. Negative descriptions were also used to refer to
outgroup members’ insults targeted at the in-group. For example, “genocide MP” and
“loose talking MP,” by the Catalyst paper.
Van Dijk (1995) aptly states that one of the structures used to present the
ingroup positively is detailed description. This is supported by Blommaert (2005) who
points to the fact that members of the ingroup employ indexical meaning such as terms
of politeness to elevate them to a particular social status. It is however important to note
that, in this study, it has been revealed that positive descriptions were used to describe
the outgroup members insulting their own party to portray to readers that the source of
the insult or information is credible and authentic. Though the opposing group members
are presented positively, it gives an impression to readers that there is confusion at the
camp of the outgroup, which eventually presents them negatively.
In sum, the two important ideological structures used were negative lexicalization
and predication as well as detailed description. A detailed analysis of these structures
revealed group polarization between the pro-NPP and NDC newspapers.
5.5 NPP and NDC Newspapers Polarization at the Discursive Practice Level
Van Dijk’s concept of ideological square was also utilized in discursive practice
analysis. This included features such as intertextuality and topics. Recall in Chapter 2
that intertextuality is the citing and reciting of expressions that are already available.
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Topics, on the other hand, are the information in discourse that speakers or writers find
more important to say and/or write. A strategy used by media institutions of citing and
giving more prominence as well as selecting some news and leaving others confirm
ideologies of media institutions. Therefore, the analysis of the report of insults at the
discursive practice level showed group polarization between NPP and NDC papers in
terms of the ideologies of the two dominant political parties in Ghana.
NPP papers included voices of the ingroup, outgroup, religious leaders,
journalists, among others. An outgroup member whose voice was given more
prominence and foregrounded was for President Rawlings. They considered insults
from him targeted at his own party newsworthy because it presented the opposing
group negatively.
NDC papers, however, excluded the voice of Rawlings, the founder of the NDC
party. A plausible explanation for the exclusion of the voice of Rawlings is that in the run
up to the 2012 election, he was not happy with the governance style of the late
Professor Mills and his appointees. He criticized Mills for selecting “mediocre” ministers
to govern the nation. Subsequently, his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, formed
her own party, the National Democratic Party (NDP) after losing the NDC’s presidential
candidate race to Mills. The perceived bloodbath between the NDC and former
President Rawlings may have resulted in the exclusion of his voice from the report of
insults. It is also possible to say that per the data gathered, majority of the insults
reported from Rawlings were targeted at the ingroup (i.e. NDC party and its members)
and thus NDC newspapers were not interested in reporting such insults since those
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insults were denting the image of the party. The NPP newspapers, however, gave more
prominence to the voice of Rawlings while the NDC newspapers marginalized his voice.
Thus, criteria for news selection and newsworthiness as well as identification of
worthy and unworthy victims are knitted to ideological and institutional practices, which
are determined by the media outlet (Herman and Chomsky, 1988). The inclusion and
exclusion of the voice of Rawlings revealed a group polarization between NPP and NDC
papers showing a clear difference between the two.
Both pro-NPP and NDC papers employed direct, strategic and indirect quotes to
report insults from ingroup, outgroup and non-politicians. NPP papers directly quoted
the voices and insults of non-politicians targeted at the outgroup. However, NDC papers
did not directly cite the voices of such people.
Concerning strategic quotes, both utilized this strategy to distance themselves
from contentious insults emanating from the ingroup, outgroup as well as the non-
politicians. A critical analysis of this strategy in Chapter 4 revealed that the papers
utilized it to present the outgroup negatively, showing a polarization between the NPP
and NDC papers.
In like manner, the papers employed indirect quotes using the authorial voice
embedded in the reported speech for ideological purposes. That is to say, in the
representation of different voices, it is very difficult to separate the voice of the reporter
and the person being reported. Therefore, both NPP and NDC papers utilized this
strategy to surreptitiously churn out their ideologies resulting into group polarization
between the outlets.
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With regard to topic, the analysis showed some contrast between NPP and NDC
newspapers. While both papers selected and foregrounded insults on topics such as the
economy and corruption, insults on ethnic politics and drugs were backgrounded by the
NPP papers. NDC papers, however, foregrounded such insults directed at the
doorsteps of the outgroup.
The manner in which topics are selected reveals the ideological leanings of the
media institution in question. Van Dijk (1995) postulates that topicalization is subject to
ideological management. This was reflected in how NPP papers de-topicalized and
backgrounded information or insults (ethnic politics and drugs) that were not consistent
with their interest and positive self image.
A possible explanation for this is that NPP seems to be losing the ethnic politics
war. This is because in the 2008 and 2012 elections, the NDC won three out of the five
dominated Akan areas namely Brong-Ahafo, Central and Western regions, which
eventually led to the defeat of the NPP in the 2008 elections. The issues of ethnic
politics do not favor them and thus might have accounted for not selecting and reporting
insults on ethnic politics.
Also, NPP papers did not report insults on drugs because their 2008 and 2012
presidential candidate, Nana Akuffo-Addo was portrayed by the outgroup as a someone
who has strong connections with drug barons and therefore deals in narcotic drugs.
That, coupled with the arrest of an NPP MP in the United States for possession of
cocaine, this situated them in very weak position to comment on the issue of drugs.
Thus, these might have accounted for backgrounding of the topic of drugs in NPP
newspapers. It is typical of newspapers with ideological stands to select certain events
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and leave out others because it helps them in “legitimizing the existing power structure
and the existing ways of seeing and doing things” (Dunlevy, 1998: 129).
In contrast, NDC papers topicalized and foregrounded the negative actions or
insults targeted at the opposing group ranging from economy, corruption, ethic politics
and drugs. While insults on these topics placed the outgroup in a bad light, it was
consistent with the ingroup’s ideology of presenting their opponents negatively. They
therefore gave prominence to various voices that insulted the ingroup as Narcotic
Peddlers Party.
5.6 Explicit Insults in Spoken and Written Text
Recall in Chapter 1 that we mentioned how the Media Foundation for West Africa
(MFWA) publishes a weekly report to the general public on shaming politicians who
engage in politics of insults. Also, we stated that this ‘shaming politicians project’
involves a comprehensive daily monitoring of campaign language or expressions by
politicians and activists on specific radio programs, such as morning shows and political
discussions across the length and breadth of the country. More importantly, they assess
the conduct of the radio stations that are being monitored.
In addition, the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) has a code
of conduct for private radio stations with respect to political discussions on their
respective radio stations. The article 10 of the code of conduct talks about hate,
incitement and insulting speech, and admonishes members “not to fan and not to
inflame by broadcast of programs; language, passions and activities that may lead to
violence, disrupt the electoral process, compromise the integrity of the vote of
individuals.” This is further explained in article 11, which urges members to “create
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space for voters to express their views and opinions freely and responsibly without fear
and with decorum.”
In view of these developments, as mentioned above, most of the radio stations
do not allow citizens and politicians alike to use vulgar or intemperate language on their
phone-ins during political discussions, for the fear of being sanctioned by the GIBA and
the NMC. There is also the fear of being cited and shamed by MFWA as one of the
stations offering their platforms for fanning the flames of political invectives. A critical
observation of the data, therefore, reveals a considerable difference in the use of
explicit insults in spoken and written data.
With regard to the spoken data, citizens used fewer explicit insults during phone-
ins compared to the online websites. This was due to the fact that those who used
insults in their submissions or contributions were either cautioned to withdraw the insult
and apologize to the target or have their conversations cut. Indeed, some hosts of the
political programs in most cases throw a note of caution to callers that insults will not be
entertained and therefore people should desist from using them to avoid any
embarrassment. To avoid censorship, citizens resort to witty and aesthetic ways of
speaking by employing figurative expressions such as metaphors, similes, proverbs and
intertextuality as analyzed in Chapters 3 and 4.
Concerning the online websites, in most cases, it is a free-for-all insult. The
commentary sections of peacefmonline, ghanaweb and myjoyonline are flooded with all
kinds of vulgar language and insults, some of them unprintable. It must however be
mentioned that some of websites such a peacefmonline do block some of the
intemperate language used by citzens, yet some still filter through their website.
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Therefore, there were more explicit insults in the online websites data compared to the
phone-ins, and the reasons as discussed are quite obvious, since there is no body or
agency that monitors the comments trending on the websites like the GIBA, NMC and
MFWA do for the radio stations.
5.6 Summary
The main idea behind this Chapter was to link the findings on textual and
discursive practices analysis to the sociopolitical and cultural context and the entire
discourse to the society in general. On both the textual and discursive levels, it became
evident that ordinary citizens are able to insult and challenge political authority based on
the platform the media provide to the powerless and voices in society to contribute to-
day-to-day governing process in Ghana. That is to say, the power that the media hold in
political discourse in Ghana is transferred to the powerless in society (i.e. ordinary
citizens) leading to their empowerment to challenge the existing social power (power of
politicians) and also contribute meaningful to the day-to-day political discourse via
phone-ins, SMS and online commentary. We also came to the conclusion that the
discourse of citizens is therapeutic since it helps them to vent on a wide range of
feelings and emotions while considering the actions of political actors, issues, and
event.
Utilizing Fairclough’s textual analysis and van Dijk’s concept of ideological
square, this study revealed the Us/Them representation of insults between the NPP and
NDC newspapers. That is to say, the action of the ingroup was presented positively
while that of the outgroup were presented negatively. The ideological differences and
political spin in the representation of insults, showed a clear group polarization between
NPP and NDC newspapers on the textual level. The negative lexicalizations and
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predications employed by both NPP and NDC newspapers revealed the Us/Them
dichotomy between these two dominant political parties in Ghana. Concerning detailed
descriptions, NPP newspapers employed detailed positive descriptions to describe
ingroup members as well as non-politicians insulting the out-group. NDC newspapers,
on the other hand, employed honorifics and official titles to describe ingroup members
insulting the outgroup.
At the discursive practice level, NPP and NDC newspapers employed direct,
strategic and indirect quotational strategies in the inclusion and exclusion of voices they
considered newsworthy. NPP papers included voices of the ingroup, outgroup, religious
leaders, journalist and among others. Rawlings, an outgroup member’s voice was given
more prominence because they regarded insults from him targeted at his own party as
newsworthy in the sense that it presented the opposing group negatively. NDC papers,
however, excluded the voice of Rawlings, the founder of the NDC party due to the fact
most of his insults were targeted at them.
Concerning topic selection, there were differences in both NPP and NDC papers.
While both papers selected and foregrounded insults on topics such as economy and
corruption, insults on ethnic politics and drugs were backgrounded by the NPP papers.
NDC papers, however, foregrounded such insults directed at the doorsteps of the
outgroup.
I concluded the Chapter with an analysis on the comparison of explicit insults in
spoken and written text. The discussion showed that there were more explicit insults in
the online websites data compared to the phone-ins. This was due to the regulation and
monitoring of radio stations by MFWA, GIBA and NMC.
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CHAPTER 6 FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION
6.1 Overview
This Chapter spells out the findings and conclusion of the study, taking into
consideration the various results revealed in the analysis. I further look at theoretical
reflections and show why the CDA approach is the most appropriate theoretical
framework for the analysis of this study, focusing on the two CDA frameworks:
Faiclough’s three dimensional approach and van Dijk’s ideological square. I end the
Chapter with the study’s limitations and implications for future research.
6.2 Findings
Utilizing Fairclough’s three dimensional approach to the study of discourse, that
is, discourse-as-text; discourse-as-discursive-practice; and discourse-as-social-practice,
and, further, drawing on these three layers of analysis, I link text to context, and
especially employ the sociopolitical and the cultural context to link the entire discourse
to the society in general.
In the first place, by studying the sociopolitical and cultural context, the analysis
reveals the trajectory of the use of insults in major festivals and games and their
regulatory and restorative functions for the general good of society. Particularly, the
festivals showed the deep-seated power asymmetry in traditional Ghanaian society, and
the current drastic change spearheaded by the media that allow ordinary citizens to
challenge and insult the existing social power through their outlet.
The second finding is closely linked to the above, that is, the media empower the
powerless in society to make their voices heard in political discussions by going to the
extent of insulting and challenging politicians, pointing to the fact that the Ghanaian
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society is changing. Taking into consideration the Apoɔ and Kundum festivals that
allowed citizens to insult and challenge traditional rulers were very controlled. This
finding is in line with Owen’s (1997) study on “Talk radio and evaluation of President
Clinton,” in which she points to the fact that the platform which the media provide to
ordinary citizens allows them to participate in political life, and transforms them from
“passive observers into active participants in the creation of news and dissemination of
messages” (Owen, 1997: 334). Likewise, the media empower and give voice to citizens
to fully participate in political discourse in Ghana.
In addition, the study reveals that due to MFWA, GIBA and NMC monitoring of
radio stations with regard to the use of intemperate language during phone-ins, citizens
avoid censorship by employing witty and aesthetic ways of speaking such as
metaphors, similes, proverbs, presuppositions and intertextuality to achieve the same
purpose of implicitly or covertly insulting and challenging the existing social power.
Similarly, citizens use such devices to mitigate the effect of an otherwise explicit insult,
which may have had the potential of affecting the sensibilities of the addressee, but still
with the intention of drawing the attention of the general public and politicians alike to
the social wrongs perpetuated by those in power.
Furthermore, the analysis showed the therapeutic function of citizens’ insults.
That is to say, it became clear that some of the insults are innocuous; they merely poke
fun at people in authority. In the midst of economic challenges, citizens use insults to
release or diffuse any pent up feelings, emotions and tension. Instead of resorting to
arms that may destabilize the country, they prefer to release their frustration and anger
by calling into radio station, sending SMS messages or going online to express them.
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This emphasizes the instrumental role the media play in making citizens part of political
processes and discussions in Ghana.
Coupled with the above, utilizing Fairclough’s textual analysis and van Dijk’s
concept of ideological square, this study showed the Us vs Them dichotomy in the
representation of insults between the NPP and NDC newspapers. That is to say, the
action of the ingroup was presented positively while that of the outgroup were presented
negatively. The ideological differences and political spin in the representation of insults,
revealed a clear group polarization between NPP and NDC newspapers.
Finally, the comparison of the explicit use of insults in spoken and written text
shows the regulatory and monitoring of the comments of ordinary citizens and
politicians alike. We discussed in Chapter 4 that most radio stations do not allow
ordinary citizens to use intemperate language on their radio. So they use
presuppositions, metaphors, similes, proverbs, presuppositions and intertextuality to
make their comments. With regard to the online websites, most at times, it is a free-for-
all insult. The commentary section is flooded with all kinds of insults, some of them
unprintable. However, some of the websites such as peacefmonline block intemperate
language used by commenters. Thus, the use of explicit insults was very limited on
radio as compared to online websites.
6.3 Theoretical Reflections
The present study utilized CDA and critical terms within it, i.e., power, ideology
and voice. It specifically employed two prominent approaches in CDA: Fairclough’s
three dimensional framework and van Dijk’s ideological square. Drawing on these three
layers of analysis, I took the text and discursive practices and linked them to the cultural
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and sociopolitical practices to give a broader explanation on the discourse of ordinary
citizens and how they used insults to challenge the existing social power.
Using van Dijk’s ideological square, I discussed ideological structures such as
negative lexicalizations and predications as well as detailed descriptions employed by
pro-NPP and NDC newspapers in the representation of insults from those they
considered as ingroup members and outgroup members. The structures of ideologies
are represented along the lines of Us vs Them dichotomy, in which the NPP/NDC
papers present themselves in positive terms, and others in negative terms. This shows
polarization of how media institutions emphasize the positive actions of ingroup
members and deemphasize its negative actions on one hand, and deemphasize the
positive actions of the outgroup while emphasizing its negative actions. Therefore,
positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation is manifested in the
representation of insults in NPP and NDC papers.
The primary objective of CDA is “The object of moral and political evaluation, and
analyzing them should have effect on society by empowering the powerless, giving
voice to the voiceless, exposing power abuse, and mobilizing people to remedy social
wrongs” (Blommaert, 2005: 25). Based on this core tenet of CDA, I have argued and
analyzed how the media empower and give voice to the powerless and voiceless in
society to challenge the existing social power. To understand the discourse of citizens, I
brought together “linguistically-oriented discourse analysis and social and political
thought relevant to discourse and language” (Fairclough, 1992: 92). Questions 1 and 3
were focused on Fairclough’s textual and discursive practices. To offer critical answers
to these questions, I employed linguistic features such as lexicalization and predication,
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presupposition, metaphors/similes, proverbs and verbal processes at the textual level.
At the discursive level, I utilized linguistic phenomena such as intertextuality and topic
selection. Questions 2 and 4 expatiated on the cultural and sociopolitical level on how
the media empower citizens to challenge the existing social power, as well as how pro-
NPP and NDC used ideological structures in the representation of insults in public
political discourse in Ghana.
Generally speaking, the findings of this study point to the conclusion that the
combination of Fairclough’s three dimensional framework, and van Dijk’s ideological
square has given a broader insight into the understanding of how the media empower
ordinary citizens to challenge the existing social power by going to the extent of insulting
them. It further revealed the underlying ideologies in the representation of insults in pro-
NPP and NDC newspapers. That is to say, the ideological differences and political spin
in the representation of insults showed a clear group polarization between NPP and
NDC newspapers.
6.4 Study Limitations and Implications for Future Research
The analysis and findings of the present study are limited by three factors. Firstly,
it discussed the use of insults by powerless and voiceless (ordinary citizens) to
challenge the existing social power in Ghana (politicians). The voices and comments
selected for the study may not necessarily represent the position of the majority of
ordinary Ghanaians. It is possible that some of the comments may have been uttered or
written based on the political leanings of the various commenters. Therefore, the
conclusions may not be generalized to represent the powerless in Ghanaian society
based on the dynamics of Ghanaian politics. Secondly, insults that emanated from
citizens were skewed towards the NDC party. The reason for this skewedness is the
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fact that the period under which the data were gathered was the time the NDC party
was in power. In my future research, I plan to replicate this study when the NPP or any
party comes into power in Ghana to find out if the level of insults and challenges will be
same or otherwise. Finally, it investigated the underlying ideologies in the
representation of insults in pro-NPP and NDC newspapers, which consisted of private
and independent papers in Ghana. The ideological differences and political spin in the
representation of insults in NPP and NDC papers cannot be extended to other private
and independent newspapers in Ghana.
The present study adds to the growing body of CDA research on the nexus
between language and society, focusing on language on one hand, and power, ideology
and voice, on the other hand. Using, citizens’ participation in governance process as
background, future studies might be interested in finding out whether those in power
heed the call of citizens. This will provide a broader understanding on language and
voice. Also, other studies may compare and contrast the representation of insults in pro-
NPP and NDC papers and independent private newspapers, or compare and contrast
state owned newspapers and pro-NPP and NDC papers. These studies would give
clearer picture in the underlying ideologies in the representations of insults in
newspapers in Ghana.
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APPENDIX A PHONE-INS FROM ORDINARY CITIZENS
Afia: Yεnkɔ Aggudey hɔ wɔ Lapaz. Bra Aggudey good evening. Aggudey: Afia. Afia: Agya, mepaakyεw ɔwɔ air kasa ma me. Agudey: Nyankopɔn nhyira wo. Afia da biara meba wo afidie so meka sε εmaa nyinaa te sε wo a nka nyε ne sε yεrebrε yi. Journalist wɔ Ghana nyinaa te sε wo a, nka Ghana εnyε sei o. εna Aban wei ahyεda εrebɔ yε anidaho korɔnoo. Afia, woreka sε journalist bi ama ɔɔmo ho kwan ama aban wei atɔ ɔɔmo it’s perfectly correct. Mesee deε journalistfoɔ bi yε wɔ Ghana ha εyε nwanwa. εsan sε journalist bi ahyεda ama ɔɔmo kwan ama government of the day; NDC aban ahyεda use ɔɔmo. Hwε Afia NDC aban yε aban bi a, menhu aban bi te sε NDC da in any where of the world. Afia, yεsee yεate sika de ama journalist, yεsee sε yεde bεma mo ama mo adwuma moreyε akɔ mo anim. Afia hwε adwuma nkorɔfoɔ yi ayε sε yεakɔtɔ RLG laptop de abrε mo, a yεreka Ghana ha journalist yεrebobɔ din a, baako koraa ni hɔ a woanya bi. A maako maako a yεde akɔ ma government communicators ne ayi, o awurade! Hwε mesee Afia, NDC amammuo woahu, mesee ɔɔmo ayε anidaho bɔne, sε ɔɔmo di Ghanafoɔ abrɔ. Phone-in-1. AdomFM (Burning Issues) December 18, 2013 Afia: Sammy wɔ Suhum, Bra Sammy good evening. Sammy: Megye wo so me nua Afia εte sεn? Afia: Mepaakyεw bɔkɔɔ. Mepaakyεw kasa ma me wae. Sammy: Na wotumi hu sε Ghana yεmɔbɔ papa. Mεsrε Oko Vanderpuye, Afia me ne wo kasa yi meda light off mu. Na yεtena hɔ na yεdi Ghanafoɔ abrɔ sei. Hwε sika a woakukuru de ama Ghana blackstarsfoɔ sε ɔɔmo kɔ ballo baako 90 minutes. Afia: Daabi, daabi boss, εyε ɔɔmo talent. Hwε minister ɔnyε talent biara. Ma ɔɔmo nnye ɔɔmo sika nni. ɔɔmo deε εmfa w’asεm nkɔ ɔɔmo so. Sammy: Maakɔtena obroni kurom. Afia, ma menka nkyerε maakɔtena obroni kurom, sεbe Ghanafoɔ ministers no ɔyε nnipa bɔne. Mento sebe, hwε hɔ na ɔɔmo kɔsua nyansa na ɔde abεpue wɔ Ghana ha na ɔde abεbu Ghanafoɔ kɔn mu. Afia Mεsrε, Ghana yεyε nnipa bɔne
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papapapa. Mesee nka mewɔ tumi paa εwɔ sε nka me kye Oko Vanderpuye na me jail no. Phone-in-2. Adom FM (Burning issues) October 14, 2013 Afia: Yεnkɔ Abaana hɔ wɔ Adenta. Bra Abaana, good evening. Abaana: Meregye wo so o, Afia Pokuaa. Afia: Boss mepaakyεw ɔwɔ air, wae. Abaana: Yoo Afia. Na apɔw mu te sεn? Afia: Bɔkɔɔ. Abaana: Adwuma no deε worebɔ obi ara pε w’asεm wɔ Ghana ha. Afia: Medaase boss. Abaana: εmmarima nuabaa baako pε. To be honest saa arrogance talk wei εyε a ɔɔmo bu yε sε sεbe Ghanafoɔ no a yεretua tax no yεyε nkwaseafoɔ. Saa na recently yεfrε no sεn Murtala εbεkaa sε ayi port hɔfoɔ, importers wɔɔnom a ɔɔmo firi sε ɔɔmo ntumi nyi neεma wɔ ha ɔɔmo mfa ɔɔmo neεma mfa Togo a yε revenue so ate bεsi εnnε. The same talk na ɔɔmo kasa yi. Sεbe Doctors yi ɔɔmo wei na ɔɔmo reka. Nkorofoɔ akorɔkorɔ ɔɔmo sε ɔɔmo ntena na sε nkorofoɔ εrekum ɔɔmo ho wɔ Ghana ha εyε adwuma sεbe sεbe me kakrawa me nso me pɔdwe na sε mo apea ahyε baabi na yεreka ho asεm a εyε akorɔkorɔ, εyε kasa kasa deε keke. Na sε a whole security ayi wobεka saa kasa wei kyerε yεn Afia he na yε korɔ. Phone-in-3. Adom FM (Burning issues) October 21, 2013 BB: Hello good evening. Kwabena Nifa: Hi BB na apɔw mu te sεn? BB: Nyame ahyira me. Mepaakyεw hwan nie? Kwabena Nifa: Mepaakyεw Kwabena Nifa nie. BB: Kwabena Nifa yεnkɔe. Kwabena Nifa: ɔpanin, ma me nka biribi nkyerε NDC government bεtena akonwa so deε na ɔɔmo de ɔɔmo nsa bεsi ɔɔmo bo sε deεn na ɔɔmo ayε ama Ghanafoɔ ama Ghana atu mpon. Woteaseε? Hwε korɔnoo
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biara ɔɔmo supporto, ASOFOTON ɔɔmo supporto, CP sika ɔɔmo supporto. korɔnoo biara ɔɔmo supporto. NDC aban mo nsesa mo suban na korɔnoo no adɔɔso. Me bra medaase. Phone-in-4. Happy FM (Yεpε a yεbεhu) Kwame: Abacha wɔ ahoma no so. Abacha yεma wo akye. Abacha: Yaa Bra Kwame, εte sεn? Kwame: Nyame wɔ hɔ. Abacha: Seesei deε aka adom ne ahwε yie na yεde nam. Bra Kwame anɔpa yi mεkɔ m’asεm so kakra ma menkyea Honorable Fiifi Kwetey because Ayawaso central mmrahyεbεdwani because papa no ɔberε ne ho ase papa. Bra Kwame, seesei deε, deε akɔ duro no, akɔ duru deε εden ankasa. Wei deε mεfa Supreme Court mfikiyire hɔ kakra. Bra Kwame, electoral reforms a ɔɔmo see yεnyε yi, me neεma bi wɔ hɔ a menteaseε. 2008 yεkɔto aba, aba no a yεkɔto yεte ballot paper ma wo a, yεsee yεanstampo akyire na yεansign akyire ansa na ɔde akɔwura ballot box mu. Sε stamp amma akyire a na yεansign a kyerε sε yεnkan nka ho. Na sε yεakɔ to aba na sε presiding officer ansign na akɔ court na menim sε asεm no mpo a yεde kɔ court no εbɔ bɔ so ama Ghanafoɔ ahyε den anaa sε yε electoral process no εkɔ n’anim. Yεde y’asεm akɔ court na sε ankɔsi hwee na sε afei ɔɔmo see electoral reforms a, na mepε sε mebusa sε Dr. Afari Gyan, ɔkɔgyinaa witness box no mu seesei woatɔre mu anaa? Papa no εwɔ sε ɔba abonten bεka sε εbia election no yεyεε no ne kotodwe anaa ne sisi na εyε ne ya na yεahu sε yεrepε ano aduro a, εde asa no a, na yεahu sε yεde asa no. Enti no seesei no deε εrekɔ no εwɔ sε peace councilfoɔ εnsɔre na yε electoral reforms no yεhwε yε no yie nyε saa seesei deε 2016 obiara de ne supreme court εbεkɔ polling station. abε de da mu too much. Because signature woka sε signature εho nhia εno εkɔ si sεn? Phone-in-5. Peace FM (Kokrooko) September 20, 2013 Afia: Salamatu good evening; hello Salamatu, good evening oo. Salamatu: Good evening oo Afia, εte sεn Afia? Afia: Mepaakyεw bɔkɔɔ. Mepaakyεw wowɔ air kasa ma me. Salamatu: Yoo medaase. Sε wobεkae, Kufour mmre so a na tax yε low yi, Malifoɔ bεyi ɔɔmo nneεma wɔ Ghana ha. Time biara wobεhu sε
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Nsawam kwan yi so na Atekulatorfoɔ εretwa mu, na ɔɔmo yi nnoɔma wɔ ha, na ɔman yi yε nya sika. εnnε yεgye tax no εmu dɔ nti no amanfoɔ ntumi mfa nneεma no mba. εna aban no nso, nkorɔfoɔ no gye tax no nso, εbεkɔ akɔduru aban no coffers mu na sika no εyε five cedis a na aka one cedi. Nti saa sika wei no nyinaa aban no nnya. Nti woyε no kakra kakra no wo meete wo revenue εyε sεn sε wode tax bebree bεto so at the end of the day no wo nnya sika no. Na John Mahama εnyε ɔnoa ɔyε visionless woahu?. Sεnea yεbu man no ɔnim man no bu. Ghanafoɔ ma mo nto aba mma NDC mosee mobεto, ɔɔmo ayε propaganda saa εbεduru 2016 na yεwerε afi. Phone-in-6. Adom FM (Burning Issues) October 07, 2013 Afia: Agudey wɔ La Pas, Bra Agudey good evening. Agudey: Afia. Afia: Yes Boss, mepaakyεw wowɔ air oo. Agudey: Afia nyankopɔn nhyira wo. Afia yεdaase; worebɔ adwuma. Da biara meba mesee maa nyinaa te sε wo a nka Ghana nyε ne sε yεrebrε yi. Afia, sε woahu sε deε Ghana teε. Hwε, wei na mahu sε NDC yεka arrogance a, hwε wei na obroni bεka no arrogance of power, Afia. Nkorɔfoɔ yi ba sε yεnto aba ma wɔɔnom hwε sε nea ɔɔmo gugu fam. Yεn deε yεyε socialist o, socialist o. εnnε hwε nsεm a NDCfoɔ ka kyerε Ghanafoɔ εsε wo a wontumi ntena John Mahama amammuo mu no fa wo passport na kɔ. Yε nyinaa na yεwɔ passport a nka ɔɔmo gyedi sε nka Ghana yε nyinaa yεte ha. εnnε Ghana ayε hyehyehye sεn boronsam gyam, nka ɔɔmo dwene sε nka yεda so te ha. Passport no na yεnni bi nti na yεda so te ha no. NDCfoɔ deε εbuo baako a yεde ma ordinary Ghanaian deε NDCfoɔ nni bi mma Ghanaians. Phone-in-7. Adom FM (Burning issues) October 21, 2013 Afia: Ma menkɔ Bra Kofi Bray hɔ. Bra Kofi good evening. Kofi Bray: Afia, good evening. Afia: Mepaakyεw ɔwɔ air kasa ma me wae. Kofi Bray: Yoo, megye di sε εmmrε a worekasa no wofrεε Hon. Bray, Kwasi Bray womaa no bεkasae. Nokware ne nyame anim nea ɔka no nyinaa ntorɔ nkotoo na ɔredi. Sister, baabi a ɔte koraa εkwan no nyinaa εnyε. ɔpε a frε no na ɔnkyerε baabi woreyε εkwan no aduru.
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Phone-in-8. Adom FM (Burning Issues) November 04, 2013 Kwame: Yεnkɔ Sweduro, Appiah kɔtɔkɔ maakye. Appiah: Me nua panin Kwame Sefa Kai. Kwame: Yaa agya. Appiah: ɔdehyeε kronkron wo ho te sεn? Kwame: Nyame adom nti. Appiah: Yoo. Kwame, w’adwuma yε deε εho te papapapa na Ghanafoɔ εrebɔ woaba so. Kwame sε anɔpa yi mawura peacefm deε a Ghanafoɔ nyinaa εretie me. Me mfa nkyea kεseε εma me MP baako a ɔwɔ mfimfini mantan mu a yεfrε no Alex Afenyo Markins, Winneba MP. Abranteε no, Kwame, ɔbɔ adwuma papapa. εyε a mεsrε na da koro woainvite no εwɔ studio ama me wae. Kwame, me nsεm a mereka εfa mmra sε Ghanafoɔ bεdi mmra so. Na Kwame, medi organization bebree ho yaw. One peace council εna Christian council, Moslem community εna organization bebree a εwɔ Ghana ha medi bebree ho yaw papapapa. Kwame, yεwɔ Ghana ha εna supreme courtfoɔ a Justice Baffoe Bonnie εka ho bi εbua case sε Jake Obetsebe Lamptey dan a ɔtɔɔ yε wo manpanin Kufuor aberε so no ɔfaa kwan papa so na ɔtɔɔ yε. Enti aban εnsan mfa Jake dan εmfa ma no. Up to date a merekasa yi deputy minister te dan no mu a εno deε supreme court εnkɔ kyee saa minister contempt. Supreme court oo na εbua sε εdan no ɔde kwan papa na εtɔɔ yε. εno nti mo mfa Jake dan mma no. A duputy minister εnyε minister mpo, deputy minister. ɔde te dan no mu sε ɔntu nnε ɔntu kyina. Na merebisa sε peace councilfoɔ e, Christian councilfoɔ e, civil societyfoɔ e, Moslem community a mo see morepε asomdwie ama ɔman a yε nyinaa pε asomdwie no, εno monte sε εno no εtiatia ɔman no fawohodie so anaa? Because εnnε Jake so ne n’abusuafoɔ sɔre na ɔɔmo see ɔmo nteaseε na supreme court aka ama no nti deε εbεsi bεsi a na yεrekɔ ne sεn. Phone-in-9. Peace FM (Kokrooko) September 20, 2013 BB: Good evening. Yaw Barima: BB: Mepaakyεw yεfrε wo sεn? Afenyia pa so. Yaw Barima: Afe nkɔ mεto yεn. BB Yaw Barima nie Taxi Driver, mepaakyε wo nso wo ho yε deε.
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BB: Nyame ahyira me oo me nua. Kasa. Yaw Barima: Yεbεsrε yε Ghana ɔmanpanin sε ɔnoa ɔhwε ne ho one year sε ɔsee adwuma woayε εsom bo ma no a Ghanafoɔ see yεda no ase. BB deε nti a mereka saa yi ɔmanpanin bεka kyerε Ghanafoɔ sε court no nti εna nnε mammuo atwe kɔ akyere. BB, mesrε na mabusa sε time a court no kɔ so no na ɔnnye nnye tax wɔ kurom ha? Na Taxi drivers yε twa income tax six cedis. Busa wo ho sε ɔnto mu nkɔ twelve cedis anaa? εno na ɔde saa sika no yε deεn? Journalistfoɔ kɔ busa no sε nti court nsεm yi εha no anaa, wosee ɔno deε εmfa ne ho koraa ɔrebu ne man. ɔreyi ne DCEs, ɔreyi ne Ministers de yε adwuma. εnnε ɔbεka kyerε me sε court nsεm no εde nneεma akɔ akyere. Deε yεreka ne sε 2014 Ghana obiara ani da hɔ seesei nti, ɔntumi mεtu mfuturo ngu obiara ani. ɔnhwε so na ɔnyε adwuma. Adwuma no a Ghanafoɔ see ɔnyε no ɔnhwε so nyε. Phone-in-10. Happy FM (Yεpε a yεbεhu)
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APPENDIX B ONLINE COMMENTARY FROM ORDINARY CITIZENS
Name: Cle Date: 02-24-2014 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Yaw Boateng Gyan Stooped Low…He Should Rather Counsel Mahama On How To Govern Efficiently Yaw boateng gyan should humbly grow with his age. Why does this man always talks about tribal politics in Ghana including drosmani, tweeeeeeeee. They will never learn to solve the economy but will get time and do naughty politics on OKAY FM shameless talks. Name: Eric Date: 01-11-2014 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Rawlings’ Conscience Has Been Bought…Why The Loud Silence Over Corruption Under Mahama? It is because Kufour after his rule has not time to rest or was not allowed to rest by the UN. Today he is appointed this, tomorrow he is appointed that. What about the wicked killer? Why won't there be ENVY? SAD! Name: Mallam Tula Date: 10-21-2014 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: President Mahama Is A Woman If He Does Not Sack FDA Management What in Adams name is this NPP man attempting to associate this John Mahama’s incompetence to WOMEN; has he met some women with intelligence and their ability to manage things better than men; personally I wish a woman was in Charge of Ghana today because this poor portrayal of women in such manner detest me. This NPP man an IDIOT of a character should apologize to all women. Has he got a wife or a mother because this is an insult to our dear women? Besides if some members of the NPP have no respect for women then they should not attempt to attract women at the next elections because this very bad. Frankly we are all fed with the NDC and their CROOKISH MONSTERS and to throw in this statement is rather a SHAME UNTO NPP PARTY. Name: Agya Duah Date: 12-19-2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: Akufo Addo Has An 'Offensive Body Language' That Puts People Off It is only on the platform of Alhaji and Alhaji that this foul-mouthed Dr will parade with his insinuations and suggestions. If he doesn't know I want to tell him that any diplomatic appointment is to get rid of him. What were the effects of his monitoring and evaluation to the average Ghanaian and how can this wasteful man represent a country like Ghana. We need to be serious and stop putting square pegs in round holes. Name: Shiffman4real
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Date: 12-15-2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: President Mahama Is An “Insensitive” Father Of The Nation This man is very vindictive and wicked to be a leader, but this is what some few Ghanians want and his gross incompetence is affecting all of us. I am sorry. Author: Yaw Adu Date: 2013-11-02 06:14:02 Source: Ghanaweb Comment to: David Annan is evil! Nana Nketsia is no more a Chief he now qualifies to be called a King in Ghana. He has spoken well for the ordinary man in Ghana. This is what is expected of our Chiefs, intellectuals (PHDs, Drs, MScs etc), professionals and so on. Unless we wake up and speak against the corrupt politician, we will all collapse this nation, Ghana. Politics has now become a game for the loud mouth, who can insult, lie, do the most propaganda and these sorts of politicians abound in the NDC. It is no longer about competence but lies and the standard in the NDC now is if you want to be a Deputy Minister then the qualification is clear, lie to defend whatever wrong the NDC does and that is how the likes of Baba Jamal, Ama Benyiwa Doe, Fiifi Kwetey, Okudzetto Ablakwa, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, etc became Ministers and Deputy Ministers. When you promote such things in politics then the consequences is corruption, everybody will steal because all you need is to lie to defend yourself. This was not the politics we saw in the 60's and 70's, this kind of politics was brought into Ghana by the NDC and therefore created a propaganda secretary position, and it is becoming unbecoming for Ghanaians, we need to wake-up. Date: 2013-08-12 10:50:19 Source: Ghanaweb Comment to: “Media assault” on me “chauvinistic", “misogynistic” – Victoria Hammah She was immature and incompetent on the occasion. She is thoroughly unqualified for the job she is holding. Her excuse was lame and her demeanor after the public embarrassment she caused indicated that she is unfit to be a runner let alone the deputy minister of communications. Her childish response to the fiasco by blaming the media and calling names even seals it as one big square peg in a round role. Author: Oppong London Date: 2014-02-09 05:33:19 Source: Ghanaweb Comment to: Our leaders think us ‘idiots’, ‘fools’ – More Arab style of demonstrations can do the work. The masses are really suffering while every idiot in politics is rich and enjoying. They are on lavish living, better education, good health care even outside the country and some Ghanaians or many are struggling to get yoko gari per day to eat. NPP gave free maternal care, National Health Insurance Scheme for all but NDC is always of propaganda ideas. Author: SGT ANANI FIADZOE Date: 2013-11-02 05:56:38
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Source: Ghanaweb Comment to: Nana Nketiah should say it again David Stupid Annan, so are you happy to see the state of our country under corrupt and thievery NDC administration which you a the most criminal among them? Now Monkey Annan, if indeed the present condition our nation were to be under NPP Government, will you praise them? Why you NDC selfish idiots don't want yourselves to be criticized when you are stealing from the people of this donation for your own selfish interest? Monkey Annan, God will punish you and your family, parents and any of your relatives. Author: Mr Bond Date: 2014-02-09 05:29:57 Source: Ghanaweb Comment to: Our leaders think us ‘idiots’, ‘fools’ – Compare that to the leaders today who think they are smart--too smart to think Ghanaians are fools. Ghanaians are rather cowards. The wise leader Ghana has ever had is Rawlings who killed innocent people on the pretext of corruption but became more corrupt than those he killed. He was able to educate his children abroad. None of those he killed did that. Today he boasts of that and Ghanaians still applaud for him. Name: James Date: 07-10-2013 Source: Myjoyonline Comment to: Dishonest Bawumia has not been fair to his parents who educated him- Kwakye-Ofosu I don't think Felix has something doing that's why he is saying this. May the Good Lord forgive him for no saying the truth. Repent for the kingdom of God is coming. Find something better to do. Name: Naa Date: 07-08-2013 Source: Myjoyonline Comment to: Dishonest Bawumia has not been fair to his parents who educated him- Kwakye-Ofosu Good people of Ghana. Please let not give this sponsored guy our good time.i believe that's what he's good at.he's not cultured.how can u say that to out Dr Bawumia, he just like his leaders. Kwakye u will one day grow and the youth will also speak ill about you. Name: Obed Date: 01-4-2013 Source: myjoyonline Comment to: Dishonest Bawumia has not been fair to his parents who educated him- Kwakye-Ofosu December 28 2012 Who are you? Rawlings will get you. Babies with sharp teeth; by their deeds we shall see them. Go for your national service and stop fooling about.
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Name: Nana Nketia Date: 12-11-2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: P.C Appiah Descends On Apraku: Any NPP Member Against Nana Addo As Flagbearer Is “Stupid” P.C Appiah Ofori is insane/mad he needs psychiatrist help indeed. Is NPP for nana addo alone? Since 2008 we has consistently lost our hold from 7 decreasing to only 2 regions and yet crazy old foxes like PC and his sycophants will not give us a break. Free education is not the issue but an appealing candidate. Please stop your unguided visionless commentary. Name: KM B Date: 12-04-2013 Source: Peacefmonline Comment to: EXPLETIVES GALORE!!!! K.T Hammond Slams Majority Leader For Passing “Foolish, Stupid And Useless Comments” Ghana paa. People can pass stupid talk everywhere. What is Ben Kumbour doing there in parliament? No wonder we have a president similar to him. What else can we expect?
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APPENDIX C ARTICLES FROM NPP NEWSPAPERS
Figure C-1. An article on October 5, 2012: The Daily Searchlight
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Emmanuel Amo Ofori is a lecturer in linguist at the University of Cape Coast,
Cape Coast, Ghana. Ofori holds a Master of Philosophy in Linguistics from Norwegian
University of Science and Technology, Trondhein, Norway and a bachelor’s degree in
linguistics and psychology from University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana in 2008 and 2005
respectively. In 2011 he joined the Department of Linguistic at the University of Florida
and earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the summer 2015. His dissertation,
The Use of Insults in Ghanaian Political Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis, was
supervised by Dr. Diana Boxer and Dr. Fiona McLaughlin. His areas of research are
Critical Discourse Analysis (Politics of Insults in Ghana), pragmatics and syntax of
Akan.
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