An amazing life ends quietly in Muncie

MUNCIE, East Central Indiana (USA) - By any measure, Apimalim Aviah lived a remarkable and sometimes dangerous life before coming to Muncie to seek medical care and to be with his children. Aviah was chief of all Frafra, Dagarti and Kusasi people in an area of nearly 600 square miles in the Yeji region of Ghana West Africa. He was also a retired officer with the Ghana Police Service and former United Nations peacekeeper in war-torn Congo.

When he died April 26 at age 80, he had been in Muncie only a week.


Chief Aviah did not come to his position by birth. In fact, his life was decidedly unremarkable until 1952, when a man ran amok in his town and killed a couple of people with a machete. As police armed with batons hesitantly surrounded the man, Aviah, then a young man working as a messenger, simply walked up, grabbed the man and wrestled him to the ground.


'A very able negotiator'


Ghana at that time was still a British colony - Gold Coast - and when the British commissioner heard of the incident, he wanted Aviah on the police force despite Aviah's lack of education.


The young officer learned quickly and was sent to Elmina, where a former slave trade castle had been turned into a police training facility. Over the next 25 years, police work took Aviah and his family all over the nation. His children joke that they were all born in different places and speak different languages.


He has seven children, not including the many who were adopted into the family and became indistinguishable from blood relatives.


Aviah's police career took him from urban areas to small villages, from Cape Coast, another slave trade port, to Obuasi, a gold mine city, to an assignment policing trains.

"He even pioneered areas never policed before," said his son Joe. "One of his trademarks was that he was a very able negotiator, a gifted moderator."


Ghana had a relatively low crime rate, but police work was dangerous, particularly in 1960, when Aviah was among the elite officers Ghana sent to the Congo Republic as UN peacekeepers during a bloody uprising against Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, who was eventually killed.


Chief of the Frafra Tribe


When Aviah retired from police work in 1978, he returned to the peaceful farming community of Yeji, where the village elders immediately appointed him chief of the Frafra Tribe in the Yeji area of Ghana's mid section. The previous chief had died, leaving the office vacant until the elders found someone worthy.


Because of his intellect and peacemaking skills, Aviah was later named chief of the two other tribes as well.


As chief, his responsibilities included seeing to the welfare of more than 30,000 members of the three tribes, including food, clothing and shelter; performing social, cultural and traditional responsibilities, including marriages and child-naming ceremonies; counseling families with problems; settling disputes; and sometimes acting as judge.


"His word is final," said another son, Chris, "but he always does it in consultation with his elders."

Although he never went to school, Aviah established written records in a society that had had only oral history.


During his week in Muncie, Aviah spent time with all of his children, grandchildren and one great-grandchild here, but his thoughts were always with his subjects.


"His biggest concern was the people at home," Chris said.

Kindness crossed and recrossed the Atlantic

By BRIAN WALKER

Anna Peterson said she wanted to study in Africa, and since he was from Ghana, she hoped he could help.


Aviah's family members locally arranged for Peterson to go to Ghana, where his father was a tribal chief, and stay with other family members there while she researched Ghanaian culture.


Ten years later, when Chief Apimalim Aviah was diagnosed with cancer and wanted to come to the U.S. for treatment, the Peterson family returned the favor.


Anna's father, local physician John Peterson, told Aviah family members he would be honored to care for their father.


Aviah's relatives expressed gratitude for the way their father was treated by Peterson and the oncology staff at Ball Memorial Hospital.

"They showed him great respect and even addressed him as 'chief,' " Chris said.

Funerals fit for a chieftain

The first was a service May 3 at Northside Church of the Nazarene. His son, Joseph Aviah, led that service.


The chief was buried in Gardens of Memory next to two of his grandchildren who are buried there.


His children describe him as a practical man, who they believe would have not wanted his body shipped back to Africa, although he had not discussed the matter with them.


However, Chief Aviah will not be officially dead to his subjects until a family member from Muncie returns to convince the tribal elders that he is, indeed, dead.


James Adare, a cousin who was raised as a son, brought the chief to the United States a few weeks ago. Now he must return and report to the elders, taking soil from the grave here, the last clothing the chief wore, and any hair, nail trimmings or shavings taken before the burial as proof.


Two traditional three-day ceremonies will take place in Ghana later this year.


One will be at Aviah's ancestral home in Bongo in Upper East Ghana.

The most elaborate will be in Yeji, where Aviah was chief over three tribes and more than 30,000 people. His family will have to buy two cows to feed all of those who come.


On the first day, only members of the tribe will take part, drumming, dancing and feasting to celebrate his life.


On the second, they will rest until noon and then other chiefs will arrive with groups of their people to pay their respects and join in the celebration.


On the third, Chief Aviah's family and tribal elders will show their appreciation to the other chiefs and all the sympathizers who attend.


Then the elders and heirs will take stock of the chief's affairs and put them in order, making sure all family members are taken care of.


Aviah's three Muncie children will be there, and his eldest son and heir, Chris, will formally accept or relinquish his right to be chief.


Then the elders will begin the process of choosing a successor based, according to Adare, on his level of responsibility, work ethic, social skills and commitment to family and community.