An Assessment of the Use of Telephones in the Administrative Functions of Sunyani Municipal Directorate of the Ghana Education Service

ABSTRACT

It is difficult to imagine how life would be if we were not receiving or giving out information. Human existence is said to depend on the receiving and giving out of information generally referred to as communication (Sekyi-Baidoo, 2000). Communication could also be defined as the process of transmitting information from a sender to a receiver and the receiver responding appropriately to the message. In inference, communication requires all parties to understand the common language that is exchanged (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). One technology that has been invented to support communication in organisations is the telephone. The first telegraph line in Ghana (formerly Gold Coast) was a 16 kilometre link installed in 1881 between the castle of the colony’s then governor in Cape Coast and Elmina. The line was then extended to Christiansburg near Accra, now the seat of government. In 1886, telegraph lines were extended to the middle and northern parts of Ghana into the territory of the Ashantis. Between 1900 and 1901, this new communication technology was used to subdue the Ashantis in the Yaa Asantewaa war. Ashanti State was one of the strongest states in Africa and this made it difficult for the British to rule them so they used this technology during the war to arrest most of their powerful leaders like the queen 2 mother of Ejisu, Yaa Asantewaa. Ghana’s telegraph lines were often cut down by local people who had superstitious beliefs that the cables were "magic" lines being used by the Europeans to win wars (Allotey & Akorli, n.d)