Introducing Nkami: The forgotten Guang language of Ghana

This paper introduces a group of people and an endangered language called Nkami. I discuss issues concerning the historical, geo-political, religious, socio-economic and linguistic backgrounds of the people. Among others, it is shown that Nkami is a SouthGuang language spoken by approximately 400 people in a resettlement community in the Afram Plains of Ghana. The overwhelming factor that preserves the language and holds its speakers together is the traditional institution of Afram (deity). Linguistically, Nkami is distinct from other regional languages. The data for the study were extracted from a large corpus collected from a documentation project on the language and people. In addition to introducing Nkami, this study also provides valuable data for future research as well as deepens our knowledge of other Guang and other regional languages.