The West Africa Association of Ewes (WAAE), an umbrella body of Ewe-speaking countries in West Africa, has launched its maiden soccer tournament to promote peace and unity in the sub-region through sports.

President of the association and an executive member of the Ghana Boxing Federation (GBF), Foster Enam Dagadu said at the event held in Lome, Togo, that sports can unite Ewes across the four West African nations where Ewe is widely spoken by the natives.

“I believe sports, especially football can be used to bring Ewes together and put priority on the dialect. Many people in West Africa including Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria, don’t know that Ewe is our common language".

"We have over six million Ewes in Ghana, three million in Togo, about six hundred thousand in Benin, and over five hundred thousand in Nigeria," Dagadu told the media at the event.

He said the tournament would be an annual event to bring Ewes together and encourage the people to speak the Ewe language and give Ewe names to their children in a bid to identify with and market the language.

“If you know Ewe is spoken in all these countries, you will be proud to speak it and be identified with it," he said.

The sports journalist appealed to organizations and individuals to support the association for a successful tournament.

The one-week tournament is scheduled to come off in Accra in December.

Divisional Chief of Nogokpo and an executive member of the Association, Torgbi Dikenu II, urged all Ewes in West Africa to embrace their culture and traditions and to continue to propagate it wherever they go.

"We must be proud of our culture and traditions and learn to speak the Ewe language which identifies us as a people, inculcating the same in the younger generation," Torgbi Dikenu said.

He also appealed to all well-meaning individuals and institutions to throw their support behind the association to achieve its set objectives.