GILLBT launches 50th anniversary in Tamale

The Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT), has launched its 50th anniversary in Tamale on Tuesday calling on the government to consider the mother tongue as key to the literal development of the child.

It said children have the right to be taught in their mother tongues since they carry the memories and ideas of their people and help to mould the child qualitatively to fit in society efficiently.

Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah, Executive Director of GILLBT, said the organization was established in 1962 on the basis of a collaborative agreement between the Summer Institute of Linguistics and the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana to among others develop indigenous Ghanaian languages, collection of legends, songs and anthropological data.

He said GILLBT has over the years made significant contributions to Ghana in language development, literacy and bible translation, adding that 34 undeveloped languages in the country had been developed with phonologies, grammars, dictionaries and other anthropological materials in these 34 languages.

Dr. Opoku-Mensah said the organization was in the forefront of mother tongue bible translation in the country and has similarly translated the New Testament of the Bible in 28 languages while five of those languages now have the entire Bible translated and published.

He said the Golden Jubilee of GILLBT is also the platform to reflect on the future to addressing the national ownership around its mission, rethinking and redefining its role to meet changing needs as well as gather national cohesion to promote national agenda.

Dr. Opoku-Mensah also announced that plans were far advanced to establish a museum, documentation and training centre on Ghanaian and African languages and Bible translation to be situated at Adjiriganor, near the University of Ghana to serve as a preservation place for our local languages.

He has therefore appealed to the Government, churches and other institutions to support the ‘ambitious but necessary project’ to create the infrastructure for that purpose, which would also serve as training centre for bible translation.

Mr. Moses Bukari Mabengba, the Northern Regional Minister, who launched the anniversary, observed that true democracy and good governance could not be achieved without education, adding that some cultural believes and practices which were inimical to the development of the nation must be discarded.

He lauded the effort of GILLBT stressing that its contribution to the development of indigenous languages cannot be over emphasized.

Present at the launch were directors from Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and some pioneers, who set up the institute in 1962. Among them was Mary Steele, who gave a brief account of GILLBT, noting that it has come a long way.