ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Traditional goldsmithing: an analysis of symbolism in goldsmithing and gold products at Tarkwa

It is not the main aim of this dissertation to present a complete list and account of all the techniques and working procedures of gold work in the traditional society. The plan of the thesis transcends the framework of these techniques and processes into the field of mystery, and symbolism in gold work as a whole. The author seeks to investigate in what form symbolism occurs in gold products at Tarkwa, the basic meaning developed in their uses and the significance of their general acceptance to the Ghanaian traditional community. To analytically demonstrate this in the goldsmith’s art is therefore the main object of this thesis. The choice of illustrations and their interpretation have been guided by this intention. It is a research effort aimed at collecting essential facts about a Ghanaian civilization - goldsmithing - in which rites and rituals combine to play an important role. In recounting and analysing the smith’s craft we have a picture of a well-ordered society, rich in traditional beliefs and custom. In the thesis ‘gold products’ denotes jewelry that have been fabricated and cast by the cuttle-fish bone casting technique. This is the method used by the smith of Tarkwa to the neglect of lost-wax casting technique. Therefore, this technique does not form a subject of discussion in the thesis, although its art forms and symbolism can as well appeal to the society. The thesis introduces the people of Tarkwa and gives a general literature review of gold in Ghana. It also looks at some of the important rituals performed by the native gold seeker and the smith in the course of their work. Here, the reader’s attention is briefly focused on the furnace, workshop and the system of apprenticeship. Efforts have been directed to examining the social background of the smith and the hidden mystery of his art. The smith’s adoption of the society’s style and method of work features prominently in the discussion. Style becomes identical with form and function. Therefore, an indepth analysis of traditional and contemporary forms and function of jewelry and their underlying significance in the society has been made. A closer look at symbolic designs also forms another major area under review. The concluding part of the thesis gives a summary and examines some of the problems facing the smith’s craft. Suggestions and recommendation have also been made towards the advancement and bright prospects of the craft.

Source: KNUST
Traditional Nigerian Costumes

The exact date when man began to clothe himself is not certain. It is most probable, however, that since the primary function of clothes is to provide protection against the inclement weather conditions, clothing must have had and early and “humble” beginning. Its earliest forms consisted of broad leaves, twigs and branches at a time man was essentially a savage. The resort to the use of skins or combinations of leaves was the outcome of the development of the most rudimentary tilling of the soil and taming of beasts for domestic use – a development which is still seen in historic perspectives as representing a remarkable advancement in the onward march to civilized living. Our modern concept of costumes is traceable to the early civilization of China, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete and Greece, some 5000 years B>C. – when spinning and weaving were innovated. In these civilizations costumes gradually transcended the mere necessity of providing protection against the elements and became ornamental, or a means of ornament, and of distinction in class societies. Gradually values and standards were established and in these subsequent civilizations, it became a mark decency to be well clad although what is decent – as this study makes even more evident is – varied and still varies from one society to another. The primary aim of this study is to describe the features of the major traditional costumes of the people of Nigeria and to ascertain and draw conclusions on what factors have helped to mould and shape them. Every people with a past keep some record no matter how rudimentary and, in no other sphere, is the culture of a people more impressed than in her Arts, Architecture and Costumes. Costumes mirror the structure of the society in which they are worn and are therefore very much part of its history. That no branch of the Nigerian National Museum has a record in any form of Nigerian people’s costumes in a fastly Westernizing society makes expedient studies such as this, essentially an academic exercise though they may be. Nigeria is a country of great diversity. In no other facet is this diversity reflected more than in the variety and extremes of costumes found within her borders and amongst her people. These costumes obviously reflect the differing stages of social and cultural development of the different people within Nigeria. It is relevant to record that during the time of this study, Nigeria was experiencing the gravest political crisis inn her history – culminating as it where, in a bloody civil war. This placed a lot of practical difficulties in the way of this enquiry: only limited areas of Nigeria could be visited and people showed little interest in an enquiry which was not aimed at solving a crisis that was threatening their very existence. In consequence, I have – with respect to the traditional costumes of the pagan peoples of Northern Nigeria – drawn extensively from the Ethnographic Surveys of Africa conducted by the international African Institute, London. I thank the Institute for the use made of the surveys.

Source: KNUST
“Traditional pottery at the Senior Secondary School level as a means of promoting the tourism industry in Ghana

Traditional Pottery has the potential of increasing the volume of foreign exchange accrued by the state through the consumption of artefacts by international tourists. The nature of the production techniques of traditional pottery and lack of training in modern technology result in wares that have technical limitations, which ultimately lead to fewer wares being purchased by potential collectors. A new course of operation” is therefore necessary to eliminate these limitations through refinement, innovations and adaptation. The ideal means and place to break such new grounds is through effective teaching and learning of traditional pottery at the Senior Secondary School Level of Ghanaian education. The study identified four main areas as the limitations, which have been affecting the level of patronage in traditional pottery by consumers who are largely international tourists. These limitations are size, durability, weight and poor finishing. Recommendations for the production of miniature samples of existing traditional pottery forms by means of contemporary techniques like slabbing, coiling and throwing to produce less bulky but durable wares for collection were made. Also there had been the expansion in the variety of pottery products for souvenir collection. The belief is that the SSS offers the best point of entry to tackle this problem. The idea is that the SSS Visual Art programme provides a good leverage for training students to adopt new clay forming techniques that will enable them to produce standardised pottery wares to meet the tourist market. This will provide SSS graduate who studied Pottery and Ceramics with employment avenues so that they can help to increase national revenue generation through tourism and invariably impress upon local pottery producers to accept innovations to improve their lot.

Source: KNUST
Traduction Commentée de Ghana Education Strategic Plan 2003 – 2015

Translation brings into contact two distinct languages and for that matter two discrete cultures and also two disparate modes of analysing the same phenomenon. For the purpose of this study, the two language systems in question are English and French. The present work involves the transfer of a message from a source language text to a target language text. The practice is undertaken based on the claims of the two languages in contact. Interpretation is a key element in this practice, in that it enables the analysis of the meaning of the source language text and its subsequent transfer into the target language. The process of interpretation takes cognizance of the extralinguistic context in which the text is immersed; an indispensable factor that attributes meaning to the use of language. Hieaux-Hietzman identifies two fundamental categories of translation namely literary translation and technical translation. This work belongs to the latter classification. According to Kocourek, the major challenge that technical translation poses is the quest for an “appropriate” equivalent. The present work attempts to examine this challenge among others from the terminological and morphosyntactic perspectives. The present work resorts to the descriptive theory, the interpretative approach, various translation procedures and processes in a bid to provide a solution to the challenges encountered. It also makes extensive use of terminological research and also the use of various literatures on translation processes/procedures.

Source: KNUST
Traduction Commentee De “The Trials of Brother Jero” De Wole Soyinka

Africa has been a fertile ground for Christianity, where it is growing faster than anywhere else, except perhaps in the former territories of the communist eastern bloc. Churches multiply and spread wildly, many of them quite unconventional. This play is a satire on a theme familiar to many Americans: the unscrupulous preacher more interested in greed than salvation. It is in the light of curving this menace that Wole Soyinka cries on top of his voice to all. Our research therefore aims at complementing Soyinka’s effort by translating this particular play from English to French to the benefit of those who cannot read this interesting book. Our aim is to comment on all the five scenes that we will translate. Our study comprises three chapters. The first chapter is the “Epistemological approach” which gives account of the theoretical framework and the method of the analysis of the research. The second entitled “The translation activity” is all about translating all the five scenes in the play from English to French through the application of the methodology above mentioned. The third, “Translation analysis” refers to the study of the translation in terms of problems of translation. In the course of this research, it has been noticed that all human languages have common aspects (language universals), though there are linguistic differences between them. Thus, we tried through this research to dissipate the notion of untranslatability of any language.

Source: KNUST
Traduction commentee sur les code des societes du Ghana, loi 179 de 1963

Every translation derives necessarily from two discourse communities: the text source discourse community and the target source discourse community. If we accept that language is culturally determined and also that professional, ethical standards impose further constraints on language use, then much care needs to be exercised in objectively drawing out the real import of a text, what it is actually saying, its target audience, its context and its situation. Certainly, to table a motion in American parliamentary parlance means to put off discussion altogether on the motion, whilst the same term means to actively discuss the motion in British parliamentary procedure. Such situations obviously give rise to what is known as bypassing, when the same expression connotes a different meaning in a different situation. Therefore, in translation activity, one needs to avoid, as much as possible, focusing on only the linguistic underpinnings of a text, when one wants to find out its real message. The present work therefore considers as only «surface structure», (to borrow the term of Nida), the morph-syntactical composition of the text which we have translated, that is, the Companies Code (1963), Act 179 of Ghana. This means that for us to derive the real meaning of the text, a conscious exploration of the central interpretative devices emeshed in it, which serve as contextual clues enacting the intended meaning of the message, was painstakingly pursued. Indeed, the Legal-linguist, Lord Hoffman, reminds us that the fact that the document appears to have a clear meaning on the surface does not prevent or indeed excuse us from looking at the background. Such and other cues have guided us to consciously base the present translation activity on current theoretical positions that inform translation as an exercise in pragma-linguistics.

Source: KNUST
Traduction et analyse critique de mmerehua, Twi folk tales de E. O. Aye

In this research entitled Translation and critical analysis of Mmerehua, Twi Folk tales, our main objective was to translate the twenty folktales which we selected from Mmerehua, Twi Folk tales of E. O. Aye from Akuapim Twi to French; and to do an analysis of our translation. Each folktale in Twi is followed by a translated version in French. We have tried as much as possible to transfer the effects of these folktales on an Akan reader to our French readers as well. By so doing, African values and morals are being shared with our target readers. Although the Akan language and the French language have vast linguistic and cultural differences, our work has revealed that it is always possible to do a translation between any two languages. Mmerehua, Twi Folk tales of E. O Aye is among the few collections of folktales which have been documented. This work will go a long way by helping to preserve this kind of literature and also exposing the folktales to our fellow French speakers and the African people as a whole.

Source: KNUST
Traduction Et Analyse Stylistique De Banking (Amendment) Act, 2007, (Act 738)

This work is a translation and an analysis of the Banking (Amendment) Act, 2007, (Act 738), a legal and financial text. It is an attempt to address pragmatic, cultural, and linguistic difficulties based on the meanings and the understanding of some words and expressions while translating this technical text. We chose to translate due to the current trend of economic needs in Ghana. For the translation of the said document, the Communicative Theory of Susan Sarcevic (1997), the Theory of Meaning of Seleskovitch and Lederer (1984), and the Theories of Equivalent (formal and dynamic) of Nida (1964). They perceive translation as an act of communicating and conveying meaning into the target language by considering the language used. The works of Gemar (1997, 1979, 1980, 1998), Soto-Crespo (2010), Monjean-Decaudin (2010) and Agbo (2008), serve as literature in the thesis. A qualitative method is used. We analyze the style and the content of the said document. In this analysis, we identified and categorized the difficulties faced in the course of the translation. For instance, the use of modal verbs like (shall/shall not, may), the use of passive voice, the level of language used the contextual derivation of some of the expressions. This analysis helped in adopting communicative approach and the method of conveying meaning to solve the various translation difficulties. The study also revealed that in translating a technical text, one method is not enough and there is therefore the need to use varied methods like: Transposition, Modulation, Equivalence, Expansion, and Literal translation. RESUME Ce travail est une traduction et une analyse de The Banking (Amendment) Act, 2007, (Act 738), un texte juridique et financier. Nous avons essayé de résoudre les problèmes pragmatiques, culturels et linguistiques dans ledit document. La nécessité de choisir à traduire le présent document provient des exigences actuelles en domaine économique et financier du Ghana. Lors de la traduction, nous avons fait l’usage de la théorie communicative de Sousan Sarcevic (1997), la théorie interprétative ou théorie de sens de Seleskovitch et Lederer (1984), et les théories d’équivalence (formel et dynamique) de Nida (1964). Nous avons exploré les travaux menés par Gemar (1997, 1979, 1980, 1998), le mémoire par Soto-Crespo (2010), par Monjean-Decaudin (2010) et le mémoire par Agbo (2008). La méthodologie utilisée est la méthode qualitative. Dans ce travail, nous avons analysé le style et le contenu du document choisi. Cette analyse porte sur l’identification et la catégorisation des problèmes de traduction. L’usage des verbes modaux tels que (shall/shall not, may), la forme passive des expressions, le niveau de langue et la polysémie des terminologies: des termes qui dénotent des sens variés selon le domaine. Après l’analyse nous avons adopté l’approche communicative et la dérivation du sens pour résoudre des problèmes rencontrés. Des procédés de traduction tels que: la modulation, la transposition, l’étoffement, l’équivalence et la traduction littérale; sont utilisés.

Source: KNUST
Traduction et Culture: A La Recherche Des Concordeances Paremiologiques en Gonja et en Francais

In this research, our interest was centered on translation and culture. We translated proverbs from Gonja language, a dialect of North Guan spoken in Northern Region of Ghana, into the French language, and then we searched for their equivalents in same language, so as to highlight what the two linguistics culture have in common and how they differ in their respective vision of the world...

Source: KNUST
Traffic Education for Children by Means of Heuristic Learning And Art Therapy

Child traffic fatality has given rise to concerns from different kinds of professionals and bodies seeking to find an antidote to the issue. Accounting for such fatalities among children include the diminutive size of children, occluding vehicles, poor distance judgement, minimal utilisation of peripheral vision, and inattentiveness. Child traffic education has been the prescription for this case. But education has been restricted to the conventional “look left and right before crossing the road”, cautions and precautions. The nature of the child, and child road safety have attracted other expertise besides engineering, into education. Consequently new methods of teaching children traffic lessons have evolved. This study used art therapy to assimilate traffic culture into children. Seventy-one children, aged between five and ten from Ghana and the Republic of Ireland, were studied. The children were carefully observed in a one year longitudinal study. The study population wholly went through 11 therapy sessions. Individually, each child went through at least three and at most four therapy sessions, from which they produced a total of 262 drawings which formed the basis for studying the children‟s behaviour in traffic in a pre-survey and post-survey design. Theories of child development, psychology and art education were applied to the children to aid teaching and learning. It was recommended, inter alia, that road safety authorities in Ghana should shift focus from knowledge-based learning to behaviour-affecting learning in child traffic education. To easily accomplish this, teachers and parents should engage children in art, especially in the use of colours, to prepare and develop children‟s creative and cognitive perceptual abilities, to break their restriction to stereotype thinking.

Source: KNUST
Traffic sequencing with genetic algorithm Case study: La Paz traffic intersection

Managing traffic flow at complex intersections is a challenging task. The intersection under study is situated at La Paz on the N1 highway. One can see wreckages of crushed vehicles at different locations of the highway. Within one month of its commissioning, the road registered fifteen (15) accidents with huge loses to life and property. Between February 2012 and December 2013, 489 accidents had been recorded on the road with 350 people sustaining severe injuries. Two hundred (200) pedestrians had also been knocked down by speeding cars while 70 pedestrians died on the spot. These accidents occur when pedestrians attempt to cross the road. Some identified causes of these accidents are inefficient traffic order sequence, inadequate green time allocation, and non-user friendly traffic installations. The breadth of the highway is about 50 metres with no islands for pedestrians use. There are no overhead footbridge or underground passage at the intersection for pedestrian use. These causes lots of chaos at the intersection and leads to road block and heavy traffic during rush hours. To save lives and properties, and improve traffic flow, the intersection is investigated to propose new ways of improving pedestrian safety and traffic flow sequence. Genetic Algorithm approach was used to find an optimal traffic flow sequence for the intersection. The intersection was simplified into a ’plus’ intersection that has traffic streams moving in fourteen directions. The streams were encoded and put through the genetic algorithm process. The output was evaluated for both computational efficiency and accuracy. The program returned a flow sequence that is very efficient. It gives hope that soon, the chaos and accidents at the intersection will become history.

Source: KNUST
Traduction francaise commentée de ‘RETURN UNTO ME’ par E.O. Abbey

Our research (Traduction française commentée de ‘RETURN UNTO ME’ par E.O. Abbey) is based not only on the translation into French of a religious manual but also a commentary made up of methods used and the analysis of challenges encountered in the course of the task. In the work, we took into consideration the diverse nature of the content and that greatly influenced our choice of translation techniques applied in the research. The manual is composed of biblical references on Stewardship fused with a scientific discourse by Pastor Abbey on the human body, diet and exercises for good health and financial management. The research reveals that stewardship goes beyond returning tithes and offerings; it includes both the spiritual and physical development of human beings. For the biblical texts, we translated literally, applying the Prescriptive theories whereas we used the communicative approach for the non biblical texts. The text was actually translatable but not without challenges. We made analysis of the linguistic and extra linguistic problems posed by the choice of words, sentences and the pragmatic or communicative style of the author. Depending on the situation, we adopted the techniques of transposition, allusion and reformulation, among others, to solve them. However, names of streets are not translatable. We recommend that any researcher in this field (translation of a religious text) should know the Bible and his understanding must go beyond the surface meaning of the text.

Source: KNUST