Tue, 31 Jul 2012 Feature Article

To My Uncle Tarkwa Atta – A Tribute (10)

Uncle,
I think Jato-Patapaa
has lost it,
completely,
or he is in the Scottish State
of Epiphany…
I am not
ruling out
the sobering
after-effects
of the Mary-Jane
he is so widely known
to toque,
the coke-laced
Cuban cigars
he so recklessly
draws and puffs
around
the clock;
see, see,
Uncle Tee,
this is what
he wrote
in the book
of tears
created to trap
memories of you
in frozen
ice-cream
words:
“Fare thee well,
Prof.:
Let's hope
to do better
at keeping
the greedy
[Ahwoi] bastards
at bay…
Help to provide
Chief Shit-Bomber
whatever guidance
you can offer
from wherever
you are,
since you are now
free…
Sogakope, July 27, 2012.”
Ps: Prof.,
I am so ashamed
of myself,
I just presented
Nana Konadu
her divorce papers…
and in a version
of the same tribute
on a clansman's website,
a visitor has tersely
observed:
“This shows,
after all,
that Jato-Patapaa
believes in
the afterlife.”
Maybe he does,
maybe he doesn't –
if he does,
dear countryman,
he is not telling,
though not believing
in the hereafter
seems more like
Jato-Patapaa….
Anyway,
I don't know that
there is a common
Ghanaian mode
of mourning
our dead,
seeing some
Umbrella Clansmen
crawl over
one another
as well as
claw
at each other
for a piece
of the meat
of the elephant
which you have
just slaughtered
for your
funereal
feast…
my apologies,
Uncle Ayi Kwei…
7/30/12

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD, taught Print Journalism at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City, for more than 20 years. He is also a former Book Review Editor of The New York Amsterdam News.. More He holds Bachelor of Arts (Summa Cum Laude) in English, Communications and Africana Studies from The City College of New York of The City University of New York, where he was named a Ford Foundation Undergraduate Fellow and the first recipient of the John J. Reyne Artistic Achievement Award in English Poetry (Creative Writing) in 1988.

The author was part of the "socially revolutionary" team of undergraduate journalists at City College of New York (CCNY) of the City University of New York (CUNY), who won First-Prize certificates for Best Community Reporting from the Columbia University School of Journalism, for three consecutive years, from 1988 to 1990.

Born April 8, 1963, in Ghana; naturalized U.S. citizen; son of Kwame (an educator) and Dorothy (maiden name, Sintim) Okoampa-Ahoofe; children: Abena Aninwaa, Kwame III. Ethnicity: "African." Education: City College of the City University of New York, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1990; Temple University, M.A., 1993, Ph.D., 1998. Politics: Independent. Religion: "Christian—Ecumenist." Hobbies and other interests: Political philosophy.

CAREER: Ghana National Cultural Center, Kumasi, poet, 1979–84; Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, worked as instructor in English; Technical Career Institutes, New York, NY, instructor in English, 1991–94; Indiana State University, Terre Haute, instructor in history, 1994–95; Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY, member of English faculty. Participant in World Bank African "Brain-Gain" pilot project.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association of America, National Council of Teachers of English, African Studies Association, Community College Humanities Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Essay award, Nassau Review, 1999.Column: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

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To My Uncle Tarkwa Atta – A Tribute (10)

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