Requiem for 'King' Onyina

If  I told a young man today, who happens to be in the mode of packing his suitcase to travel to Berlin to study INFORMATICS, to add a couple of Amakye Dede's hits on DVDs to his luggage, I don't even want to imagine what planet he would think I must be from.

But, I am sure he would take another look, if not a third look at me. Even so, exactly forty years ago, I was in that kind of situation. I had managed to pass the requisite exams, and I had been awarded a scholarship to fly to Germany to study something I would only like to keep my readers guessing at.

I was all over the 'music shops' in Accra, with a cousin of mine by my side, who knew his way about in town a lot better. We were looking for records of Ghanaian artistes, and they included E. K. Nyame, Kwabena Onyina, (King Onyina), E. T. Mensah, Akompi, Kakaiku, and Gyasi, (now Dr. Gyasi).

Excuse me, if you happen to be too young to have known most of them, of blessed memories. When you got the record (78 speed, or 45), your next assignment was to sit up whole nights and have them recorded onto magnetic-tapes. You took the tapes along, and you lost in the process, quite a bit of your luggage allocation, which was only 22 kilogrammes then.

I managed to get most of Onyina's records, for I very much liked his way of playing the guitar. It was his being 'the wizard' on the strings, in a way much more appealing than most of his contemporaries that won him in 1961, the accolade, 'King.'  So, the very week I arrived in Germany, I was able to listen to the King singing his 'Hi-life', because I quickly acquired a machine called a Radiogram, at the time, the state of the art technology on the market.

It had a record player, a radio set, and a tape-recorder, all in one cabinet. Two German manufacturers, GRUNDIG, and Blaupunkt, dominated the market world-wide.

It was not quite a year later that I visited London and quickly got to know from some Ghanaian and West Africans studying in England, that there was a music-shop in London where one could obtain most of the records that we hitherto collected from Accra.

Herr Stern was a Jew who escaped from Nazi-Germany just before the outbreak of World War II, and he settled in London. He was a music lover, and he must have quickly found a way to supplement his hobby with earning a livelihood.

Stern Radio at 126 Tottingham Court Road, in London, became a famous music items shop, until one day, about a decade after I had arrived in Europe I drove again to the famous place, only to discover it had turned into a 'Tanduri Indian Restaurant.' Herr Stern was gone to rest in Abraham's bosom, where we all hope to be one day. But, it wasn't any longer necessary to drive to England, or fly back to Accra, to get the recordings of any of the artistes, old and new, or even of those who were no longer alive. The Discothèques would play you music by artistes from your own village in Africa, whom you yourself may not have heard of. That is as much as the world has since changed.

'Taxi Driver' was a very popular hit by King Onyina. I had encountered him live in my District, several years before I left the country for my overseas-engagement. Nkawkaw, Mpraeso, Obo, and Abetifi are townships in the Kwahu district, which were bustling when I was a teenager and a secondary school student as well.

Artistes like Onyina, and others mentioned at the beginning of the script, trooped the Kwahu district, and performed by preference in the four townships mentioned. Easter was the season that brought most of the musicians entertaining in one township per night, and in turn, until in about a week, they had entertained in all the interesting places.

Depending upon how the season might be, they would repeat their 'tour.'  The Kwahus were mostly cocoa farmers and traders, but they were more engaged in cocoa-farming.  Christmas, being the peak-season for harvesting cocoa wasn't the time for their merrymaking.  At Easter, and a couple of months thereabouts, there was money in people's pockets to continue merrymaking.

These were the times I saw King Onyina and his dance band in my district for several years on end. Not long ago, I had a personal encounter with him. His voice, his face (especially the prominent eyes), were so reminiscent.  I tried to start singing some of his favorite songs, other than 'Taxi Driver', hoping that I would entice him to come out and sing along with me.

It did not happen that way, and I was so disappointed, thinking my attempt must have been so off-putting.  We saw each other intermittently for over three years. One day, and all of a sudden, I got him talking, more than I had known him do.

The question to him first was why he did not sing anymore, and whether he had any contact with his group, that comprised about twenty-one boys and a single girl in his hey-days.

'Many have passed away, and those alive are too old', came his reply, and sluggish at that.

I countered by citing the then late Francis Albert Sinatra, as singing and giving life concerts long past his eighties. He gave only a tacit acquiescence. I provocatively repeated a question I had once heard him answer before on a television interview over his life.

What was his most favourite 'hit-song?'  He confirmed it was 'Bebrebe Ye Musuo.'  I think the closest by way of translation should be from the Holy Bible, 'Sufficient unto the day, being the evil thereof.'

For me though, his best was, 'Anamua…' I tried singing it to him, and he looked at my face and smiled. He just joined for a moment, and sang 'a piece' of his own composition', and that was all.

That day, one of his sons and two daughters had accompanied him.  I got to know that, none of his many children developed any interest in music for a career.

Did it bother him? I didn't think so, or let's say he didn't show it.  Before parting, he told me how he started life as a shoemaker.  Born in Agona in the Ashanti Region, he had absolved his apprenticeship in Koforidua in the Eastern Region.  He did not go into any details as to how it all started, but I could guess how. I knew of a competitor group (the EK's Band), in which the leader hailed from my home town.

Members of the EK's band were all accomplished tailors practicing in Accra. As it often happens, artisans sing along whilst working. It was in the process that in the case of the latter, three men discovered they fitted into three nicely tinged voices. The 'Akan Trio' was given birth to.

The phenomenal King Onyina had a unique 'pseudo-soprano.'  It was unmistakable.  He was not a tall man, but he was blessed with this very prominent admiration-invoking voice.

It is in the title 'Bebrebe Ye Musuo' that it comes out best. His guitar was almost as tall as the man himself, but he managed to slant it across his body, and slam the many strings which you hardly could count, and in the process, got the typical Kwabena Onyina guitar-sound.

I never met him in again person after the last encounter with some of his children. He hadn't forgotten me though, because, he sent me a DVD comprising most of his famous renditions. I often get up in the middle of the night, and listen to the 'King Onyina-music', just like my student-days.

It was only about a month ago, when some friends who knew I admired the man's music, paid me a visit, and in the process asked me, whether I had the news of the 'King's passing away.'

Awe-stricken, I asked, 'how old?'  One said 'seventy-eight. He was born in 1932'.  I had in mind to attend the funeral. It is sad it has been fixed on the 31st of July, coinciding with another funeral, where I must be present. May his soul, rest in perfect peace in eternity.

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