ABSTRACT
Ewe belongs to the Ewe-Akan sub-group of the Kwa branch of the large Niger-Congo phylum and is spoken by around 4 million people in Ghana and Togo, also in Benin. A literary form of Ewe (based on the Anlo dialect) has been in use since 1853, when the Norddeutsche Missionsgesellschaft started its missionary activity (Togoland was a German colony from 1884 onwards). Ewe was used as the medium of instruction in schools, and was one of the first languages of West Africa to be seriously studied. Under British administration in western Togoland after the First World War, Ewe was one of five African languages selected to take part in the International African Institute competition in 1932. There is now, since independence (1954), a thriving literature in Ewe (Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo, Sam Obianim, S.K. Anika, etc.). The Ewe Club publishes a journal, Togo Gedzedze (‘Light on Togo’).
