Tribute To Etwieba Barima Boakye Nhyira Ofori Atta ('yaw Fraser')

Oh what would I not give to have been able to be present at Kyebi during the weekend of 2- 4 October 2015, to pay my respects to Etwieba Barima Boakye Nhyira, known to most people as Fraser Ofori Atta, or (to his friends and family) Yaw Fraser, whose mortal remains were being deposited in a royal mausoleum even as I was writing this.

He was the former Abontendomhene of Kyebi: the Abontemdomhene is a always a “son of the Stool”; he commands the Abontemdom (literally, the “people's army” or the forces drawn from the streets) and is thus a person of great influence. That is why the position is given to an absolute 'loyalist' – a 'son' of the reigning monarch, in the sense that in Akan custom a chief – and indeed any prosperous man – inherits all the children of his deceased predecessors.

The Abontendomhene is selected carefully; although a “prince”, he must be personable enough to enjoy the goodwill of the huge army of plebeians whom he has to interact with. I have known three of them and they were all men who commanded great respect. When I was going to school at Kyebi, the Abontendomhene of the time was a noble figure called Papa Younge. He was very quiet, and his affability passed to two of his sons, who befriended me, a stranger from nearby Asiakwa, who was going to school in their town.

One was a soft-spoken, handsome guy with dark, woolly hair called Kwaa 'Mane (who later, as Mr Younge, became the Ghana Airways representative in London and later its Commercial Manager, I think). He was extremely generous to me, managing always to leave me an ample portion of his evening meal. The other was Kwaku Fori 'Dei, who was the nearest thing to an elder brother I had at Kyebi. He, in turn, introduced me to his cousins and other relatives – chaps who all bore evocative historical names like Amoako Atta, Atta Fori and so on.

Now, once one was accepted by people like that, one became an honorary citizen (so to speak); so much so that in the three years I spent at Kyebi, I never had any reason to entertain any fears that – as people who were not brought up in the Akyem Abuakwa capital wrongly believed – I would literally ''lose my head'' by being “beheaded”, if a potentate was “sent to his village”; i.e. died, while I lived amongst the people.

I didn't have much to do with Fraser Ofori Atta, though I lived in his house when I first arrived at Kyebi in 1951 to go to Kyebi Government Senior School. But unknown to me, we were from the same Oyoko clan. In later life, apart from becoming Abontendomhene of Kyebi, he was also the Ayokohene of both Akakom and Kyebi. Having been brought up to see at first-hand, the regimes of at least five occupants of the Oforipanin Stool, he was a consummate diplomat, as the following story will illustrate.

In June 2003, the current Okyenhene, Osagyefuor Amoatia Foripanin, visited London with a large entourage of Chiefs. Among them was the Chief of Asiakwa, the Nifahene of Akyem Abuakwa, Osabarima Agyemang The Third. I was chairman of the Asiakwaman Association and also a member iof Akyem Abuakwa Susubribi Association, but I only heard at a very late stage that the Asiakwahene was not to stay with the Okyenhene at the latter's official residence but was to be the guest of Fraser Ofori Atta.

Now, I did not know that Fraser was an Oyokoni like myself and the Asiakwahene. What I knew was that the Asiakwahene was no less than 92 years old at the time. It occurred to me that, as chair of the Asiakwaman Association in London, as well as the Nifahene's nephew (I had, together with other young family members, slept in the sitting room of his post office residence, when he was the Postal Agent of our town!) I would have hell to pay for if (speaking with my mouth “inside a rubbish-heap” as we say, that is, wishing that no such abomination should ever occur!) “anything” untoward were to happen to a man of such a great age during his short sojourn in ”our city”. The people of Asiakwa would have the right to ask us (that is me, as chairman of the Asiakwaman Association), “But why place such an imposition on strangers? Didn't you realise that a man of 92 would have particular needs of a delicate nature? Why expose his weaknesses to strangers?”

Of course, at the time, I wasn't aware that far from being a stranger to the Nifahene, Fraser was, like myself, an Oyoko kinsman of the Nifahene. Such personal inter-relationships are what gives our traditional societies the elasticity which helps us to survive many difficult situations, to the amazement of those who do not understand our traditions.)

Anyway, unaware that I was speaking to my Oyoko kinsman, I approached Fraser and “begged” him to “release” the Nifahene to our Association to host him. Fraser was reticent, but he agreed to my request. However, the issue rankled with his partner, and the lady addressed me somewhat harshly when we encountered each other at a meeting of the Akyem Abuakwa Susubribi Association. Fortunately, when you are brought up in a palace, as I had been, you allow a lot of things to sail by you. “My Okyeame father would have dismissed the lady's ejaculations as "emmaasem” (typical feminine pettifogging!)

However, I called Fraser and indicated to him that I had not meant to upstage him when I'd asked him to release the Nifahene to my Association. He grunted something that gave me the impression that he had brushed the matter aside.

Such was the nature of Fraser Ofori Atta, who was sadly gathered unto his fathers on 1st June , 2015, at the age of 81. He knew me well, which probably explains why he never took issue with me over a matter which could have poisoned relationships between us. He was editor of The Evening News and the Star newspaper in the late 1960s. Before Fraser became its editor, the Evening News had been a political rag, noted for its excessive sycophancy towards the President of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, to whom it devoted, on a daily basis, a page of praise-singing, addressed to “His High Dedication”.

Fraser became the paper's editor in the reorganisation of the state-owned media that followed the overthrow of Dr Nkrumah, and tried to make the paper respectable. He succeeded in this to the extent that when I was going to the United States on a trip sponsored by the State Department in 1968 , I arranged with him to publish my impressions of the US.

When later, he became editor of the Star newspaper during the election campaign of 1969, I joined him, on an unpaid, voluntary basis, to make the paper more incisive than the mere Progress Party propaganda sheet it was in danger of becoming. In a column I wrote using the pseudonym, “Psephologist”, I followed the election campaign closely, and correctly forecast the overwhelming Progress Party victory.

The reason why I was able to get on so well with Etwieba (son of the “Leopard”, as the King of Akyem Abuakwa is known to his people) Yaw Fraser was that, as I have implied, we went back a long time, In fact, I lived in his family home in 1951, when I first arrived at Kyebi from nearby Asiakwa to attend the Kyebi Government Senior School. The house was by the roadside, just beneath the hill on which the Government Junior School was set, and opposite the residence of the redoubtable Dr J B Danquah.

Luckily for me, Yaw was the Senior Prefect of Government Senior School, and so I was spared quite a bit of the bullying that the “Standard Seven” boys routinely administered to junior boys like me. (I was in Standard Five). Yaw wasn't a bully like the others, anyway – as the son of the late Okyenhene, Nana Sir Ofori Atta The First, he exuded what might be called an air of “natural authority” and didn't need to say anything twice to any boy before he was obeyed.

Yaw also had two other natural attributes that helped him to keep order in the school: he had a soft, husky voice with a little lilt of passion in it that warned you that you wouldn't like it raised at you! And then he was also good-looking – well-built and noble of mien; you just had to accord the guy respect automatically. But instead of exploiting these natural gifts to his own advantage, he behaved like a perfect gentleman; as if he wanted to make a statement – silently – that he had been very well brought up indeed. And well brought up he was – for he was virtually an okra (soul) of his father's, who was equipped with the ancient tools of royalty that enabled him to “sit at the feet of the Mighty King, Nana Sir Ofori Atta The First, ” observing silently, and absorbing, absorbing and absorbing..

Yaw's constant attendance at official functions, when the full genealogical canon of Akyem Abuakwa was unveiled to the public by the Fontomfrom drummers, horn-blowers and praise-singers (with their quaint language sourced from a bygone age and which is almost incomprehensible to modern Twi speakers) enabled Yaw to assimilate the poetry associated with court proceedings seamlessly. I once heard him pour libation at the celebration of the Ohum Festival by the Susubribi Association in London. His voice and words sounded as if they emanated from an echo-chamber through which the ancients of our land were trying to re-emerge and make themselves heard once more.

And that was what he gave those fortunate enough to have heard him: immutable versification that was heavy in content and even heavier to articulate; words crafted by unknown word-smiths whose work can never be improved! This untranslatable Akyem poetry passed smoothly through his lips like someone merely saying “Good morning!” Verses such as this one below – a beautiful admixture of alliteration, assonance, simile,onomatopoia and imagery -- all vying with each other to say profound things with an economy of words:

Kurotwiamansa
Nam sesseaase
Ma seseaase woso
Biribiribiribiri!...
Ofori Atta a
Odi sika atomprada!...
Woho baabi yƐ onyina
Wo ho baabi 'Ɛ odum;
Baabi 'Ɛ brƆfrƐ;
Baabi nso 'Ɛ fƐtƐfrƐ!
(The Leopard who passes through the thickets unseen

And makes the leaves shake mysteriously: 'bribribribiri'!...

Ofori Atta who spends gold in its raw state!
The arboreal stem part of which is odum;
Part pawpaw;
And part the forest bush sterile pawpaw
That yields no fruit – all at the same time!)

I was once privileged to visit the palace at Kyebi when the late Osagyefuor Kuntunkununku was on the Ofori Panin stool. Out of excitement, I forgot to bend the upper part of my body when I was shaking the Okyenhene's hand. (The fact that I'd known the Okyenhene as a young Asiakwa lad must also have played a subliminal part!)

Soft-voiced as ever, Yaw Fraser, who was sitting next to Kuntunkununku, whispered to me, “Bo wo mu ase!” (Bend your upper body!)

I did so, and was thus saved from a gaffe for which my Grandmother, the late Nana Afia Boatemaa, who reigned both as Chief and Queen Mother of Asiakwa – who brought the Nifahenene Osabarima Agyemang to Asiakwa from Barekese in Asante, where some members of our family once sought refuge – would have upbraided me, were she to have ever heard of it.

I am so glad to hear that Yaw has left some of these things behind. Because it would be such a shame if he is allowed to take it with him back to the elders who taught him and whom he has now gone to join. In one respect, we the succeeding generation are lucky, for Fraser has left behind, at the University of Ghana, Legon, an unpublished B.A dissertation entitled The Amantormmiensa In The Political Administrative Setup of Akyem Abuakwa (unpublished B.A. thesis, Legon 1978). This paper is mentioned by Dr Ado Fenning, the utmost authority on Akyem Abuakwa history. It shows the sort of work Yaw could have produced had conditions allowed him to do so.

Fraser was also able to collect a great deal of material about other institutions and practices in the Okyenhene's palace. Once, I actually saw Yaw being taught how to play the fontomfrom drums by the Okyenhene's drummers. It was a fascinating sight: the drummer would place his drum-stick on Yaw's left or right shoulder, and Yaw would beat the drum on the side where the drum-stick had been placed – right shoulder = right drum; left shoulder = left drum, and so on. Magnificent tutoring, which easily bore fruit for him, inasmuch as drumming was “in his genes”, he being the nephew of one of the Okyenhene's pricipal drummers. That he became a proficient drummer is acknowledged in the tribute paid to him by his [current] father, Osagyefuor Amoatia Oforipanin, who wrote that:

“Yaw Frazer was an ace drummer, a perfect reincarnation of his grandfather, Emmanuel Yaw Boakye of blessed memory.”

As Yaw was being taught to play the sounds on the drums, the drummer's lips would be whispering into his ears, the words that he was being taught to say on the ”talking drums”; words like:

ObrƐmpƆng nante brƐbrƐ;
ObrƐmpƆng ma ne homene so!
Ɔkwan tware asuo,
Asuo Tware kwan,
Ɔpanin ne hwan?...
YƐbƆƆ kwan kƆtoo asuo;
Asuo firi tete
Ɔdomankoma bƆƆ adeƐ!)
(The mighty One steps softly on the ground!
The mighty One raises himself up in smooth movements!

The path crosses the River
The River crosses the Path;
Which is the Elder?
We cut the Path to meet The River
The River is from long long ago,
When the Creator created things!)
I am gladdened to learn from Mr Atta Akyea, MP, that Yaw left behind a number of video recordings in which he reproduces some of the traditional processes and historical accounts that he had absorbed about Akyem Abuakwa. These include expositions on Akyem customs and festivals, laws and religion. It is of utmost importance that those who are in possession of this invaluable material provide easy access to it, in order to honour the pedagogic instinct in Yaw and further enrich the written and electronic sources that can help enshrine Akyem Abuakwa's cultural heritage.

Yaw himself was ever ready to provide access to the data stored in his brain: he was constantly in touch with the University of Ghana's Institute of African Studies, (where he was a Visiting Scholar between 1980 and 1984). The Institute has paid glowing tribute to his readiness to take part in seminars, symposia, lectures and other academic events. It is a shame that Legon was unable to award him an honorary doctorate before he died. There will no doubt be a posthumous award to him one day, though – so highly do our institutions prize our sages (once they are safely dead and cannot benefit from such honours which, in other countries, are bestowed liberally on the living for them to enjoy, not to the dead to.... do what with it?)

Yaw was elected president of the Ghana Journalists Association in 1969 and held that post until 1972. Members of his family did the customary thing and officially informed the Association of his passing. I am glad that the Association gave him an “honorary award” in 2009.

May the Entire Family be consoled, and me too (!) – as we say when we lose a member of the Oyoko Abusua: “Due na me nso mennue!”.

FRASER OFORI ATTA (Yaw Fraser) Journalist and Chieftain

Born at Kyebi 7 March 1934
Father: Nana Sir Ofori-Atta I, Okyenhene,
Mother: Awo Akosua Ahyia Boakyewaa Kofoni
Named after: Nana Boakye Nkyira II, the 7th Okyenhene

and,Rev A B Fraser, the first British Principal of Achimota

School, and personal friend of Nana Sir Ofori-Atta I.

Died at Korle Bu Hospital, Accra 1 June 2015
Educated at Kyebi Government School between 1941 and 1951.

Abuakwa State College 1951-1955.
University of Berlin, East Germany 1955-57 (Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communications)

University of Ghana, Legon 1972-75 (BA Hons in History with Sociology, 1st Class Hons).

Visiting Scholar, University of Ghana Institute of African Studies (1980-84)

JOURNALISM:
Editor The Evening News 1966
Editor The Star 1968
FAMILY:
Married 9 times.
Survived by a wife, 17 Children and 9 Grand-children