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Elegy to a Muse
In a cool freezing frigid, silent night
When heels are out of the terrain tarmac
Bei ni naji eje b ↄ nↄ
I gushed out of bed and with captivating mind
Focused the horizons and azure sky above
And there behold
There unfolds, the dancer of words
Atukwei Okai Atukwei Oshaimiaku
I hear in the silent night
The Traditional Talking Drums
The Acoustic sound of Obonu
Randomly rattling, and rhythmically raining
Like pebbles falling and throbbing down
Kpԑtԑ kpԑtԑ kpԑtԑ !
And in transient trance
Behold, the dancer of words in gorgeous, ma jestic movement and strides
And the utterance of audible words
Ravishing on the eardrums
Pouring of an Army or words
‘It is over for the labour ’s beckoned to rest’
Misa su, misa mi naa
Aayalolo, mitsu migbε fan nↄ
Mi shi misεε – Nyεmↄamli koo…
Tswa nni Omanye Aba koo !
The talking drums and sounding cymbals Si lence the night-day !
Oooh! Hush!
SILENCE THE MUSIC !
Let the traffic light show red
And let them show green
Let them amber the Long Bow
Atukwei is gone!
Atukwei has bowed
And our hearts ache
The dance of words are stilled
The rhythm is numbed
Let the gong gong beat lorgoligi logarithm
And search for the Professor, Atukwei Okai
The literary Giant of the Arts.
Whilst we gaze the west
Atukwei passed by the East
And while we looked up,
He slipped in silence
We did not see it coming
You feigned, you feigned, you feigned
While we gazed the East
Atukwei slipped through the West
We did not see it coming
Okεwↄ miifee kwaani-kwaani
Hide and Seek Game.
Oh, Atukwei is gone !
Doff the hats for the Professor, Atukwei Okai.
Who once paced this terrain,
A bosom brother and friend
To the Venerable Ayitey-Adjin Okai
Atukwei, who played his part well
On stage in the Arts – A Literary Giant
At the apex of African Writers Association
President of Ghana Writers Association
A great star has fallen !
A royal scepter is bro-ken !
A regal tower has fallen !
A great tree has been up-rooted
The dancer of words is gone !
Atukwei Okai, Oshaiamiaku
Ogbεi kε sabla ji enε
Son of the land of Gold
Ablade Shika Nshↄnaa fↄ mli bi
Colossus of the Art
At whose inked sticks
Laid an Army of words
Like swarm of bees – in flight
That titled the pendulum of men
Inflame, inspire, and impart to imbibe
My muse and mentor and my friend
Pour out dirges for the Professor, Atukwei Okai – The Literary Giant
Let a thousand words pour out
And a million rhyme a Rosimaya
But let infinite words hold you dear
And keep your undying words
That danced on the pages
And frolicked your grace like Shakespeare in
inky pages
Chronicled for posterity
As memorial edifice to generations yet unborn
Requiescat in pace, professor
To the abyss-beyond where your shadow lingers
And your soul rest after the labour ’s toils
In reminiscence we recall
Redementis de opportutatem
Ars longa, vita Brevis
Dominus Vobiscum Professor.
Wↄ ojobann Tsulↄ kpakpa
Ghana and the world at large
Has lost an icon – a legendary icon
Till we meet in the Heavenly mansion of Oboↄade again.
Kpo – Proff
Rest peace – fully
By: Ebenezer Nii-Bi Ayitey-Adjin Ayi-Bonte
Prince Poet, Son of the late
Nii Okai Pesemaku III, Gbese Mantse
And Adontenhene of the Ga State
(1959 – 1978)
Email: ebenbonte12@gmail.com
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
