Abstract:
This thesis is a literary analysis of fourteen Gonja dirges using descriptive theory as an
analytical tool. The Gonja people are the speakers of Ngbanyato, a Kwa language spoken
by about 500,000 people in the newly created Savannah regionand other regions of
Ghana. The data used for this study was taken from a collection of dirges recorded on
funeral grounds from Busunu in the West Gonja district of the Savannah region. Some
dirges were also taken from Amidu (2013) (lecture notes). A total of fifteen participants
were involved which comprised ten females and five males using the purposive sampling
technique.The study established that, the Gonja dirge is an integral aspect of funeral rites
that must be performed on the loss of some elderly person in the Gonja community. The
study also found out that, the Gonja dirge can be classified into two based on who is
performing the dirge, and that includesKenanawↄbawhich is performed by grand children
and Ngbanyachewↄba, which on the other hand, is performed by Gonja women. With
regard to the structure of the dirge, it came to light that the songs are generally short in
nature. Themes such as advice, consolation, anger, regret and grief were also found to
form part of the Gonja dirge. The study also examined literary devices such as
personification, simile, ideophone, assonance, alliteration, rhetorical questions, repetition,
metaphor and symbolism as the major figures of speech constituting the Gonja dirge.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Gur-Gonja Education, Faculty of Ghanaian Languages
Education, submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, University of Education,
Winneba in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Master of
Philosophy (M.Phill) degree in Ghanaian Language Studies (GONJA), in the University
of Education, Winneba.
2020