Not " 'Fair' Thee Well," Of Course!

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Once, he acted as my big brother at St. Peter's Secondary School (PERSCO), Okwawu-Nkwatia. He also edited several of the early poems that I composed and performed on GBC-2's "Variety Ahoy!" hosted by Mr. Godwin Avenorgbo. This was in the late 1970s. But I have, recently, gingerly avoided making any direct references to Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah as my old-time buddy because, not very long ago, one of the Kyerematen cousins, resident in Worcester, Massachusetts, happened to be visiting in Ghana and had occasion to mention yours truly to his dear good, old friend. To Mr. Kyerematen's surprise, however, Ken claimed he did not remember me, not even faintly.

When Mr. Kyerematen, to whom Prof. Attafuah had once served as a tutor, while the latter was a teaching assistant at the University of Ghana, Legon, informed me that Ken did not even faintly remember me, I naturally flushed up with a tad of embarrassment. I was quite a bit embarrassed because during my PERSCO days, I was perhaps the most popular student on campus. Other than my own classmates and close associates, most PERSCOBAS (or Perscodians) did not know my official name. Instead, I was known by my nickname which was "Africa." It was the title of one of the poems that I had recited on "Variety Ahoy!"

Once, my elder sister visited PERSCO and had a hard time locating me because she had forgotten to ask for "Africa." It took a passerby classmate of mine to direct her to Augustine House. Actually, Augustine was not a house or hall, at all, in the traditional sense of the term. It was only one of four Catholic saint names which designated sections of the main campus dormitory block. Later on, Father Josef Glatzel, our headmaster, would add another two-story block to the existing one with two additional house names, namely, Kizito and Luanga.

What inspired me to write this piece, however, has little to do with PERSCO; it has everything to do with Prof. Attafuah's quite moving tribute to the memory of the recently deceased Mr. Komla Afeke Dumor, arguably the most celebrated Ghanaian journalist in recent memory. After my article commending the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for announcing the establishment of a scholarship fund, to be named after Mr. Dumor, in support of talented young continental African journalists, a reader-critic of my article disdainfully and cynically demanded to know what the distinguished Mr. Dumor had done to further the cause and/or development of both Ghanaian and African humanity, other than the patently pedestrian fact of the late Mr. Dumor's having been fortunate enough to secure a plum job with the global media flagship as a private Ghanaian citizen.

Well, my most eloquent riposte, by proxy, is inimitably encapsulated in Prof. Attafuah's tribute to Mr. Dumor, captioned "Komla Dumor Conquered The World - Prof. Ken Attafuah" Adomonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 1/24/14). If "Lord" Kenneth Attafuah's compelling testimonial tribute to Mr. Dumor is unworthy of the aforesaid critic's appreciation and admiration, then, of course, her motive for posing her question may be best known to the critic herself.

Anyway, regarding the Tennyson- and Wordsworth-loving Prof. Attafuah's amnesia, as Mr. Kyerematen told me, it was Mr. Paul Nyarko, son of the famous record producer, Mr. D. K. Nyarko, my senior at PERSCO, who vindicated my claim of intimate familiarity with the locally renowned criminologist, lawyer and human rights activist by backing up my assertion. Not that it matters anyhow; not by any stretch of the imagination, at least. Just that the world can be a little strange and bizarre sometimes. Only sometimes, not always.

I also hope that Ken would not take umbrage at my purely jovial decision to use a typographical error - actually several uncharacteristic typos appear - in his tribute to Mr. Dumor as the caption of my article. One good turn deserves another, isn't it how the maxim goes? The man used to edit my poetry for me. And so I guess it is about time I also returned the favor. So long, briliant and benevolent soul!

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Department of English
Nassau Community College of SUNY
Garden City, New York
Jan. 24, 2014
E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net
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