Buli Series 8 - Money in Buli

Many Bulsa seem to think that when we ask the question, "How do we say this or that in Buli?", it means they have to think back to some deep and incomprehensible Buli to say what it is. Others also believe that "pure" Buli is old-fashioned words or expressions used in a time different from ours. Neither of these ways of thinking is right. The essence of language is communication and in my opinion, language is what it is at any point in time. It can be likened to a living organism and it develops overtime by making new words and phrases, borrowing others, giving new meanings to old words among other strategies. A friend of mine in good humour, once remarked that "if we take away the French, Greek and Latin words from the English Language, it will become German!". 

One of the topics that often trouble many Buli speakers is in relation to counting money or mentioning monetary figures. We therefore, continue our lesson in numerals today by learning about money in Buli. Many people find the currency values confusing and the old currencies are the basis of much of the 'mystery' surrounding this confusion.

The problem is that many of us are still stuck with the old currency and always try to convert the new currency into the old system. For instance, when some of us see two Ghana Cedis and want to refer to it in Buli, we think of it as twenty thousand (old Cedis). Others even relate it to the Pound Sterling used in colonial and the immediate post colonial era. That, I beg to say, is not necessary at all. We can understand the new Ghana currency as it is without the need to relate it to some olden days currency or money system. An example may suffice to clarify this.

I remember that we used to refer to twenty thousand Cedis (20,000) (now 2 Ghana Cedis) as "boosa kook", and to thirty thousand Cedis (30,000) (now 3 Ghana Cedis) as "boosa kook ale pisinu" (literally one hundred and fifty bags!). These monetary values may be a reference to the two hundred cedis (a coin issued in 1998) which was known as boorik. Thus a hundred of the 200 coins would be equal to 20,000. The 200 cedis coin is however too recent to have been so pervasive in its use and analysis of money so I probed further and learnt that the boorik or boosa is a reference to 'bags' of cowries that were used as money in pre-colonial days. 

I was told that when modern currency was introduced into Buluk, it run along side the cowrie money system and so there were some equivalences. Apparently therefore the 'bag' of cowries was equivalent to some amount in the currency in use (The West African and later Ghanaian Pound Sterling from 1958). Many of us might have heard an older woman or man say "ponta" pi ale "sula" pisiye. That is: 10 pounds, 20 shillings. It should be emphasised that the use of the cowrie money was not unique to the Bulsa but common throughout West Africa and beyond. Perhaps the image of cowries on the old and new currencies of Ghana and other countries in the sub-region points to this shared heritage.

Nevertheless, when the old Ghana Cedis was introduced, it was based on the old Ghanaian Pound Sterling on an exchange rate of 1:1 so that 200 pounds was equal to 200 cedis and probably equal to 200 cowries or (bag of cowries). Let me say that the bag of cowries was not a gigantic one like the "Cocoa" or "Fertilizer" bags we use in buying and selling today. Also, I am not sure in 1958, the cowries were still being used as currency but apparently the names (and equivalencies) persisted and has transcended the different currencies used in the country from the West African and later Ghanaian Pound Sterling to the old Cedis and down to the present New Ghana Cedis. However, whereas the Pound Sterling and the old Cedis were exchanged on a 1pound equal to 1Cedi ratio, the New Ghana Cedis is based on an exchange of One Ghana Cedis to 10,000 old Cedis and there, we see the problem of the Bulsa. 

There could be other "theories" about how the boorik and boosa came into the Bulsa money system but there is no doubt that, that system cannot make sense to today's children who understand that "kook" means one hundred. It doesn't even make sense to a lot of older people and so anytime you ask one of them to call a monetary figure in Buli, they'd simply say "ooooh, that's hard, I don't know money in Buli". Interestingly, all of us know numbers and money is numbers! We say we don't know because we think they are asking for history. Most of the time, people are only asking for the numerical value in Buli!

Also, we must not forget that children born in Ghana since 2007 have only known the new currency. So why do we want to go back and forth with a precolonial currency system? We will only succeed in confusing them. The way forward is for us the older generations to forget the old currencies (including the old Cedis!) and the exchange rates and to relearn the new so that we can help our children and the younger generation to learn the language better. We can still teach our children the old money system (if we can understand it ourselves) and help them to relate the current currency to that system. But the language of the old money system need not be the language to be used to understand the new currency.

Jinla taa gum ka ti chiina karungku po a zamsi Gaana lig-paalinga. Bulsa yegyega a butim kama ale lig-paalinga. Alege wonsie nying ligri ngala mingka ka nna molimoliya. Jabui ale soa ate taa butim la ale boa, ti nyiem ayaali ayen ti tagri nga ta cheng ka lig-kpagsanga po ale dipodipo ligra gela po ate ti yaa wi nga ba le jaa wi diila. Aaiya, dila ka tidek namsika. Ku noi yega me, bimbaansa nga yega an poom maa nya lig-kpagsa nga abi ntaam a wi ka dipodipo ligra-nga. Ti dan yen taa cheng ning ale ngaang dila, ti le butim ba me. Dila nying ka tama bai ale seb lig-kpagsanga la ale magsi ti yaa basi nga abe ti zamsi lig-paalinga ate ti yaa maa maari ti yoama ale ti bisanga ate ba zamsi ligra chiina Buli po. 

Gaana Ligra Chiina

Gaana Pesiwa wanyi    -   One Ghana Pesewa
Gaana Pesiwa banu  -   Five Ghana Pesewas
Gaana Pesiwa ba pi   -   Ten Ghana Pesewas
Gaana Pesiwaba pisiye   -  Twenty Ghana Pesewas
Gaana Pesiwaba pisinu    -   Fifty Ghana Pesewas
Gaana Siidi wanyi    -   One Ghana Cedis
Gaana Siidiba baye     -    Two Ghana Cedis
Gaana Siidiba banu    -     Five Ghana Cedis
Gaana Siidiba pi    -   Ten Ghana Cedis
Gaana Siidiba pisiye    -    Twenty Ghana Cedis
Gaana Siidiba pisinu     -   Fifty Ghana Cedis
Gaana Siidiba kook   -    One hundred Ghana Cedis
Gaana Siidiba kobsiye   -   Two hundred Ghana Cedis
Gaana Siidiba kobsinu  -   Five hundred Ghana Cedis

Gaana Siidiba tusidi    -   One Thousand Ghana Cedis

Lig bie (kuta ligra)

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Ghana Pesiwa wanyi 

Ghana Pesiwaba banu

Ghana Pesiwaba pi

Ghana Pesiwaba pisiye

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Ghana Pesiwaba pisinu

Ghana Siidi wanyi (pesiwaba kook)

Ghana Siidiba baye

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 Lig vaata (lig gbangsa)

Ghana Siidi wanyi (Pesiwaba kook)

Ghana Siidi baye

Ghana Siidi banu

                           

Ghana Siidi banu (60th Anniversary Edition)

Gaana Siidiba pi

Gaana Siidiba pisiye

                  

Gaana Siidiba pisinu

Gaana Siidiba kook

Gaana Siidiba kobsiye

Pillimka karungku abo dela

Karung kui ale sai buye la (A-D) bo dela

Karung kui ale sai buta la (E-H) bo dewa

Karung kui ale sai bunaansiwa la (J-L) bo dela 

Karung kui me alaa sai bunu wa la (M -  Ngm) bo dela 

Karung kui alaa sai buyuebi wa la (Ny - P) bo dewa

Ate kui me ale sai buyuepoiwa la (Numerals) bo dela