FUNCTIONAL LITERACY AND THE LANGUAGE QUESTION

This paper examines the issue of language and gender within the context of a national literacy programme. Focusing on the pilot phase of an adult literacy programme in southern Ghana, the paper questions the extent to which a 'mother-tongue' language policy is likely to 'empower' women where languages of wider communication are more ubiquitous in the textual sphere and generally are seen to have a higher status. Anthropological approaches to literacy, which examine the plethora of literacies and how they are perceived within a particular cultural context, it is argued, can help illuminate the hierarchies of literacies and languages and anticipate the consequences of a particular language policy.