Mr Chieminah Abudu Gariba, Founder and Director of Sissala Heritage Foundation, said the increasing adoption of English, Arabic and other foreign names was detrimental to the development
of Ghanaian culture and identity.
He said among the Sissala people in particular, this unfortunate development had led to many identity problems.
Mr Gariba said this on Saturday during the launch of a 164 page book titled "Sissala Names and Meanings" at Tumu in the Sissala East District of the Upper West Region.
He authored the book based on his inspiration and desire to reverse the dwindling trend in the use of indigenous names by Sissalas to preserve their culture and project their unique identity.
The over 4,000 indigenous names and meanings contained in the book had been categorized into spiritual, philosophical, experiential, descriptive, episodic, praise and ancestral names.
Mr Gariba said the objectives of the book was to preserve the rich indigenous names of the Sissalas for current and future generations and to enable them to have access to a repertoire of indigenous Sissala names from which they could adopt.
He added that it was also to provide a model for the documentation of indigenous names that could be replicated widely in Ghana.
According to him, Sissalas had over the years deviated from their culture and went ahead to adopt foreign names which they did not understand and could not pronounce correctly.
Mr Gariba said civilization could not be preserved by material means alone and called on all Sissalas and Ghanaians in general to help preserve part of their civilization by giving indigenous names to their children.
Mr Gariba thanked the government of Ghana for initiating Cultural Initiative Support Programmes (CISP) and the European Development Fund for supporting him to become an author and a publisher.
Mr Daniel Appiah-Adjei, Programmes Officer of CISP commended Mr Gariba for his vision and desire towards projecting the image and beauty of
traditional names amongst the Sissalas and the country as a whole.
He said the collection and documentation of indigenous names had been considerably enlarged to become an important academic resource of worldwide significance.
Mr. Appiah-Adjei said the book was a professional documentation of international standards, what was required was to put in place a proper gallery with media support to spread information for active participation and readership.
Madam Alijata Sulemana, Sissala East District Chief Executive, said the launch of the book had come at the right time when preparations for the teaching of Sissali as a Ghanaian Language were underway.
She said it was her hope that the launch of the book would motivate others to write more books in the Sissali Language to make its teaching easier.
Madam Alijata ordered 50 copies of the book to be distributed to some schools in the district.
Mr Chieminah Abudu Gariba is also the proud author of two other books titled "The Secret of Success in Exams" and "Gogubiee Sissalin Le".