‘Jɔɔgye Kumpala, Maame Container’: Conceptual metaphors and ideologies in Oyerepa Afutuo, Oyerepa Radio/TV, Kumasi, Ghana

Esther Serwaah Afreh ORCID iD, Obed Atta-Asamoah ORCID iD & Emmanuel Kyei ORCID iD 

Issue: Vol. 7 No.6  2026 Article 22 pp. 1731 – 1750
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20267622 Published online 31st July 2026

© 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Views: 65
12 Downloads

DOWNLOAD PDF

This study examined the conceptual metaphors used by Auntie Naa (a Ghanaian radio presenter) to introduce her programme and engage her audience. Specifically, the study explored the types of metaphors she employs, their cultural grounding, the communicative purposes they serve, and the ideologies they construct. Guided primarily by Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), and complemented by insights from Critical Discourse Analysis, the study analysed fifteen transcriptions of Auntie Naa’s introductory remarks drawn from programmes broadcast in January and February 2024. The analysis identified four primary metaphors – Life Is A Journey, Authority Is Up, High Status Is Up/Low Status Is Down, and Ideas Are Food—which motivated several complex conceptual and image metaphors, including Auntie Naa Is A Container of Knowledge, Auntie Naa Is A Judge, Oyerepa Afutuo Is A Flight, Auntie Naa Is A Pilot, Problem-Solving Is A Journey, Ideas Are Objects, and Joining The Programme Is Staying With Her. These metaphors were found to be deeply embedded in Akan cultural knowledge, communal values, and embodied experiences. Beyond their cognitive functions, the metaphors were also shown to reproduce five dominant ideological constructions. The findings demonstrate that metaphors function equally as ideological resources through which social beliefs, identities, and power relations are reproduced.  The study advances research in African media discourse, cognitive linguistics, and cultural linguistics by examining the interplay of language, cognition, and culture in the construction of ideologies in Ghanaian radio discourse.

Keywords: Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Cognitive Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Ideology, Akan, Ghanaian Media Discourse.

Afreh, Esther Serwaah. “A Cognitive Linguistic Study of Metaphors in Selected Advertisements by Some Financial Institutions in Ghana.” In Online Proceedings of UK-CLA Meetings, 4:293–312, 2017.

———. “Metaphors Otumfoɔ Lives by: A Cognitive Linguistic Study of Metaphors in Some Addresses by Otumfoɔ Osei Tutu II, Asantehene.” Cognitive Semantics 4, no. 1 (March 10, 2018): 76–103. https://doi.org/10.1163/23526416-00401004.

———. “Metaphors President John Dramani Mahama Lives by: A Cognitive Linguistic Study of Some Speeches of His Excellency Mr. John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana.” International Journal of English Language, Literature and Humanities 4, no. XI (2016): 11–22.

———. “Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo’s Inaugural Address: Conceptual Metaphors, Metonymies and Values to Celebrate a Presidency.” Journal for Research Scholars and Professionals of English Language Teaching 6, no. 34 (November 24, 2022). https://doi.org/10.54850/jrspelt.6.34.006.

______. “The Metonymic and Metaphoric Conceptualisations of the Heart in Akan and English.” Legon Journal of the Humanities 26 (2015): 38–57.

Afreh, Esther Serwaah, Obed Atta-Asamoah, and Emmanuel Kyei. “Syntactic Complexity and Ideologies.” Legon Journal of the Humanities 37, no. 1 (2026): 93–131.

Agyekum, Kofi. Akan Cultural Semantics: An Introduction. Accra: Adwinsa Publications, 2015.

———. Akan Language and Culture.  Accra:  Adwinsa Publications, 2019.

Agyekum, Kofi. “Polysemy and Metaphorical Extensions of Hunu ‘Vision’Verb of Perception in Akan.” Studies in the Languages of the Volta Basin 3 (2005): 147–62.

Amo Ofori, Emmanuel, Charlotte Ogbedee Laryea, Benjamin Kubi, and Vera Yayrah Fiawornu. “The Use of Metaphors and Similes in Political Discourse in Ghana.” International Journal of Language and Linguistics 9, no. 4 (2021): 180. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.16.

Anim-Ayeko, Joyce. “Metaphor in Politics: A Verbal and Non-Verbal Analysis of Selected Political Advertisements in the Ghanaian Print Media.” Unpublished MPhil Thesis, University of Ghana, Legon, 2012.

Ansah, Gladys Nyarko. “Culture in Embodied Cognition: Metaphorical/Metonymic Conceptualizations of FEAR in Akan and English.” Metaphor and Symbol 29, no. 1 (2014):44–58.

———. Metaphor and Bilingual Cognition: The Case of Akan and English in Ghana. Lancaster University (United Kingdom), 2011.

———. “The Cultural Basis of Conceptual Metaphors: The Case of Emotions in Akan and English.” In Conference in Linguistics & Language Teaching, Lancaster University, 2010.

Barnden, John A. “Deceived by Metaphor.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 20, no.1 (1997): 105–6.

Dąbrowski, Jarosław. “Metaphors in Advertising Texts: A Cognitive Grammar Analysis.” The Evidence of Literature: Interrogating Text in English Studies, 2000, 295–313.

Deignan, Alice. “Metaphor and Corpus Linguistics,” 2005.

Dijk, Teun A Van. “Critical Discourse Analysis.” The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, 2015, 466–85.

Fairclough, Norman.  Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London:  Longman, 1995.

_____. “Language and Power. 2nd Edn. London and New York.” Routledge, 2001.

Folitse, Benjamin Y, Simon K Osei, Lucy P Dzandu, and Grace Obeng-Koranteng. “Impact of Agricultural Radio Programmes on Livelihoods of Farmers: The Case of Royal FM in Brong-Ahafo Region, Ghana,” 2016.

Forceville, Charles. Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising. Routledge, 2002.

Gibbs, Raymond W. The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language, and Understanding. Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Goatly, Andrew. The Language of Metaphors. Routledge, 1997.

Kövecses, Zoltán. “Conceptual Metaphor Theory.” In The Routledge Handbook of Metaphor and Language, 31–45. Routledge, 2016.

———. Metaphor in Culture: Universality and Variation. Cambridge University Press, 2005.

———. Metaphor in Culture. Cambridge University Press, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614408.

Kyei, Emmanuel, Thomas Oduro Kwarteng, Wilson Awiah Jujugenia, Salomey Horsu, Dora Essah-Ntiful, and Michael Kwame Appiah. “‘Money Doesn’t Like Noise’: Akufo Addo’s Pathos from A Metadiscoursal Perspective.” Linguistics Initiative 3, no. 1 (2023): 49–65.

Kyeremeh, Yaw Sarkodie, Benjamin Henry Taylor, Rauf Abudulai, Irene Forson, and Emmanuel Agyakwa Akoto. “Analysis of Communicative Functions of Metaphors in Selected Political Speeches.” Universal Journal of Literature and Linguistics 3, no. 1 (2023): 16–28.

Kyeremeh, Harriet Appiah, and Esther Serwaah Afreh. “Metaphoric Conceptualisations of Knowledge among Students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana.” Perspectives 22 (2008): 205.

Lakoff, George. “Metaphor and War. The Metaphor System Used to Justify War in the Gulf,” 1992.

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson.  Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

_______. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western

         Thought. New York: Basic Books, 1999.

Lakoff, George, and Mark Turner. More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Mohammed, Mashoud, Hadi Ibrahim, and Muhammed Abdulai. “The Role of Radio in Setting the Agenda for the Electorate and Creating an Atmosphere of Aggression during Elections in the Northern Region of Ghana.” Athens Journal of Mass Media and Communications, 2020.

Nartey, Mark. “A Critical Metaphor Analysis of Heroic Myth in the Discourse of Kwame Nkrumah.” Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines 12, no. 1 (2020): 37–53.

———. “‘I Shall Prosecute a Ruthless War on These Monsters…’: A Critical Metaphor Analysis of Discourse of Resistance in the Rhetoric of Kwame Nkrumah.” Critical Discourse Studies 16, no. 2 (2019): 113–30.

———. “Metaphor and Kwame Nkrumah’s Construction of the Unite or Perish Myth: A Discourse-Mythological Analysis.” Social Semiotics 30, no. 5 (2020): 646–64.

Ntiamoah, Patrick, Abdulai Akuamah, and Faustina Kusi. “Examining the Metaphorical Extensions of Hyɛ (a Dress Verb) in the Akan Language.” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, September 15, 2023, 1110–25. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2023498.

Opuni-Frimpong, Kwabena. “Akan Indigenous Knowledge Systems and the Christian Faith in Ghana: A Review of the Major Works of Robert Rattray.” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies, August 17, 2021, 107–19. https://doi.org/10.38159/erats.2021781.

Owiredu, Charles. “Metaphoric and Metonymic Conceptualization of the Nose in Hebrew and Twi.” Conspectus 31 (2021): 36–53.

Scannell, Paddy. Radio, Television and Modern Life. Oxford: Blackwell. Serwornoo, Michael Yao Wodui. 2016. . The Changing College Radio Model of Broadcasting In Ghana,1996.

Ungerer, Friedrich. “Muted Metaphors and the Activation of Metonymies In.” Metaphor and Metonymy at the Crossroads: A Cognitive Perspective 30 (2000): 321.

Wiredu, Sandra Addo. “Rhetorical Analysis of the Use of Metaphor in Ghana’s First and Former President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s Political Speeches.” Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics 3, no. 10 (September 30, 2021): 09–15. https://doi.org/10.32996/jeltal.2021.3.10.2.

Zoltán, Kövecses. Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2010.

Prof. Esther Serwaah Afreh is an Associate Professor of English at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. She holds a PhD in Linguistics, an MPhil in English (Language), an MA in Cognitive Linguistics, a BA in English and a Diploma in Education. Her research interests span syntax, semantics and cognitive semantics, with a particular focus on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Her recent works explore how conceptual metaphors are embedded in cultural values and how they contribute to the construction and reproduction of ideologies in discourse.

Obed Atta-Asamoah is affiliated with the Department of Languages at St. Ambrose College of Education, Ghana, as an Assistant Lecturer. He is also a PhD candidate in English Language at the University of Cape Coast. As an interdisciplinary scholar, his research interests span discourse analysis, gender linguistics and institutional discourse, with an expanding interest in education and (design) cognition. His recent publications include an article on metaphors in football online commentary and ideological inferences in a concession speech. His interdisciplinary engagements in education and design cognition complement his core research by deepening his interest in meaning-making, interpretation, and the social construction of knowledge across contexts.

Dr. Emmanuel Kyei is a lecturer in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (USTED) in Mampong, Ghana. He earned his PhD in English from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and also holds an MPhil and an MA in English Language, along with a B.Ed. in English from the University of Cape Coast. His research interests include applied linguistics, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), genre studies, and language education. Currently, he is especially focused on academic discourse, language and identity, and language use within a Ghanaian context.

Afreh, Esther Serwaah, Obed Atta-Asamoah, and Emmanuel Kyei. “‘‘Jɔɔgye Kumpala, Maame Container’: Conceptual metaphors and ideologies in Oyerepa Afutuo, Oyerepa Radio/TV, Kumasi, Ghana.” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 7, no.6 (2026): 1731 – 1750 https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20267622

© 2026 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Articles in this Issue

About Journal