document | My Missing Tongue

A witty and refreshingly candid account by Abraham Ofori-Henaku (Akan) of growing up in Ghana without knowing his ancestral language — a situation many Indigenous youth find themselves in today. He honestly shares his regrets, but his infectious zest for learning Twi makes us think he will get there someday! This story was published in Terralingua's Langscape Magazine, Vol 8, 2019, as part of the special initiative, the Indigenous Youth Storytellers Circle (IYSC), which was started by Terralingua to provide a venue in which young, Indigenous people from all around the world can share their stories. In tandem with the 2019 UN International Year of Indigenous Languages, Terralingua put out a worldwide call to young Indigenous people to tell us how they are reaffirming their cultural identities; reconnecting to their ancestral languages, traditional knowledge and practices, values, and ways of life; and reclaiming ancestral links with the land.