MyGhana2027.com · Languages of Ghana · Ewe
Ewe is spoken from the lagoons of Keta to the hills of Ho and across the border deep into Togo. It is a language divided by colonial lines drawn in Europe, and united by a story every Ewe child knows: the night their ancestors walked backwards out of Notsé to escape a cruel king.
Ewe belongs to the Gbe languages, a group within the Kwa branch of Niger-Congo that stretches along the coast from south-eastern Ghana through Togo into Benin. Its closest relatives are Mina in Togo and Fon in Benin, the language of the old kingdom of Dahomey.
The coastal Ewe of Keta, Anloga and the lagoons. Known for fishing, kente weaving and the Hogbetsotso festival, and for the most widely used written form of Ewe.
The "inland Ewe" of the hills: Ho, Kpando, Peki, Hohoe and the many small states of the Volta highlands, each with its own chief and its own accent.
The Ewe along the lower Volta river around Sogakope and Mepe, between the coast and the hills.
In Togo, Ewe is spoken in Lomé, Kpalimé and Notsé itself. Ewe speakers in Ghana and Togo understand each other easily, whatever passport they carry.
Ewe tradition traces the people back to Ketu, in today's Benin and Nigeria, and then to the walled town of Notsé in present-day Togo. There, probably in the 17th century, they lived under a king named Agokoli, remembered as a tyrant.
The story says Agokoli ordered the people to build walls with clay mixed with thorns and broken glass, and punished their elders cruelly. The people decided to leave in secret.
To escape, the women poured water on the wall until it softened, and the people broke through at night. They walked out backwards, so their footprints seemed to lead into the town, not away from it.
The groups split up after the escape. Some went south to the coast and the lagoons and became the Anlo. Others settled in the hills and became the many Ewedome states. That is why Ewe has so many small kingdoms and no single king.
The Anlo remember the exodus every November with Hogbetsotso, the "festival of exodus", with processions, drumming and a re-enactment of the backward walk.
No Ghanaian language was cut up by colonialism quite as sharply as Ewe. Its speakers ended up under three different European powers within a generation.
The coastal Anlo came under the British Gold Coast. Most of the inland Ewe, and Lomé, became part of the German colony of Togo. Families, markets and shrines were split by a line on a map.
After the First World War, German Togo was divided between Britain and France. The Ewe found themselves split again, now between British Togoland, French Togoland and the Gold Coast.
An Ewe unification movement campaigned for one Ewe state. Instead, a United Nations plebiscite in 1956 joined British Togoland to the Gold Coast, which became Ghana in 1957. French Togoland became Togo. The story: German Togoland and the 1956 plebiscite.
As with Twi, it was German Protestants who first wrote Ewe down systematically, this time the North German Mission from Bremen, which began work among the Ewe in 1847.
Its missionaries settled at Peki, Ho, Keta and Amedzofe, built schools and translated scripture. The complete Ewe Bible appeared in 1913, the work of German missionaries and Ewe teachers together.
A Bremen missionary who became one of Germany's leading Africanists. His Ewe grammar and dictionary, published in the early 20th century, set the standard for written Ewe and for the study of African languages in Germany.
Written Ewe uses letters that English does not have, such as ɖ, ƒ, ɣ, ŋ, ʋ, ɛ and ɔ, to capture its sounds. Ewe is also strongly tonal, with pitch changing the meaning of words.
Read more: the German missionaries in the Volta and on the Akuapem ridge: The Basel and Bremen Missions on Ghana-Net.com.
Around 13% of Ghanaians are Ewe, according to the 2021 census, most of them in the Volta Region, in Accra and in Tema. Together with Togo, Ewe is spoken by several million people.
Ewe is one of the eleven Ghanaian languages sponsored by the state in schools, with a strong tradition of Ewe literature, poetry and song.
Ewe weavers at Agotime-Kpetoe and Agbozume produce their own kente, often with pictorial motifs, distinct from Asante kente. See Kente, the cloth that speaks.
Agbadza, borborbor and the war drumming of the Anlo are among the best-known rhythms in Ghana, played at funerals, festivals and church.
The greeting you will hear first in the Volta Region, and the one people love to hear from visitors.
Welcome.
Good morning.
Thank you. Akpe kakaka: thank you very, very much.
Yes.
Updated and fact-checked: 13 October 2026. The Notsé story is oral tradition; its date is usually placed in the 17th century, but estimates vary. Census figures are rounded.