Atta Mortuary Man dies without powdering Rawlings' face

Mr. Atta Kwabena Kumah, an 82-year-old mortuary attendant at the 37 Military Hospital, promised to give a parting gift to his very good friend, ex-President J. J. Rawlings, in case he (Mr. Rawlings) died.

The old man's gift would take the form of a loving and respectful handling of the corpse that would include powdering the face.

Mr. Atta, who became known as 'Atta Mortuary Man', did not live to fulfil his rather strange promise to his better known friend. On the eve of the Congress of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) held at Sunyani from July 7 to July 9, 2011, the old man died while the 60-plus ex-President is very much alive and kicking.

As he himself told the story, Mr. Rawlings did not appear to be angry about this rather ghoulish reminder of his own mortality. On the contrary, it tickled his sense of humour.

At the risk of boring readers who already know the story, let me recount it for the benefit of those who may not know it.

It was at the congress of the NDC held in Tamale last year that Mr. Rawlings told the original story. According to him, one night, Old Man Atta could not go home, so he decided to stay at the mortuary.

It got so cold that he pulled a white sheet off one of the corpses and wrapped himself in it. As someone who had got used to handling corpses, this was normal with him.

When he stepped out to urinate, something happened. A soldier, who saw what to him was an apparition or a ghost, took to his heels. When Old Man Atta saw the soldier running away at top speed, he also ran after the soldier without finding out the cause of the soldier's action.

As the soldier ran towards the safety and security of a guardroom at the hospital, Old Man Atta also ran in the same direction.

A happy ending to the story was that there was no apparition or ghost, and no one was hurt. Mr. Rawlings did not tell his listeners what happened afterwards, for example, the wonder, anger or merriment that must have greeted the story of 'The Soldier and The Mortuary Assistant.'

As Mr. Rawlings finished telling the story, there must have been those at the NDC Congress who wondered what the true import or meaning of the story was. It did not seem to have any bearing on the business of the NDC at the Tamale Congress.

Whatever interpretation was put on the story in the immediate vicinity of the congress, when it came to the turn of President Evans Fiifi Atta Mills to speak, he tried to blunt whatever he thought was the impact of the story by half-jocularly, half-seriously announcing that for the time being, he was deleting 'Atta' from his name.

However, soon, there were those in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and others who were firmly convinced that Mr. Rawlings meant to criticise and ridicule President Mills.

According to these interpreters, President Mills had been lifted from political obscurity into the political limelight by being made the Vice President and, later, the presidential candidate whom he (Mr. Rawlings) had imposed on the NDC at Swedru.

Far from performing to the satisfaction of Mr. Rawlings, his mentor, President Mills had rather proved to be an ineffective shadow, running away from problems.

I saw the story in a psychological and literary light. To me, the story illustrated an aspect of human behaviour. A soldier is trained to defend his country, and he may kill or be killed in the process.

Though he is trained to be brave, the training can never totally erase the instinct of fear, which is ingrained in all human beings. It is this fear instinct that makes a person fight against danger to protect his life, or flee from that danger for the same reason of self-protection.

The soldier was unarmed. In any case, how do you fire at a ghost or an apparition that supposedly has no bodily solidity? They say discretion is the better part of valour, and the soldier exercised his discretion by fleeing from something he could not fight.

Old Man Atta had seen so many dead bodies that he could fearlessly whisk a white sheet off a corpse and wrap himself in it. He was not afraid of corpses. But, what was the brave soldier running away from?

For all his 40 odd years as a Mortuary Assistant, the spectacle of a soldier running away from a danger he (Old Man Atta) could not see, was probably too much even for him. Flight was a better option than waiting to investigate what was pursuing a soldier.

The story was very good fiction with the theme of what fear can do to human beings, except that it was not a piece of fiction.

As stated above, there were those who thought that Mr. Rawlings had made up the story and that there was no Atta the Mortuary Man.

Soon, however, the sharp pens of newspapers, the listening ears of radio, and the sharp eyes of television, proved beyond all reasonable doubt that the mortuary assistant was of flesh and blood.

Through these mediums of communication, we heard and saw an 80-plus old man, who was very much in love with his work as a mortuary attendant. If he had written a book, this mortuary veteran who had worked for over 40 years would have had many stories to tell about his work. He did not.

Indeed, but for the story told by Mr. Rawlings, Old Man Atta and his devotion to his work would have been wrapped up in darkness. Shakespeare wrote that some persons are born great, that others achieve greatness, and that others have greatness thrust upon them.

I cannot tell whether Old Man Atta was born famous or that he was destined to achieve fame. What I know, and believe, is that the story told by Mr. Rawlings thrust fame on him.

There are millions of people like Old Man Atta who go through life and live their lives in near-total obscurity, except for their very close relations.

The difference in Old Man Atta's case is that he struck a close friendship with someone who was socially, politically, and economically way above his own station in life.

In one moment, Old Man Atta got catapulted into fame just with one story told by his better known countryman.

Old Man Atta's name became associated with a film that created needless and shameful panic among the security agencies, and landed the film producers in needless trouble.

Some government spokespersons also shamelessly and blatantly lied about the film and about how the producers or makers had broken the law. They thought the film was about President Mills.

Octogenarian mortuary attendant Mr. Atta Kwabena Kumah is no more. After having handled many corpses, it is now his turn to have his remains handled by other attendants.

Mr. Rawlings has already honoured his friend by making him famous with the story he told. Is there a state posthumous award for the likes of Old Man Atta? May his soul rest in peace.