Ghanaba, Nketia Honoured By National Theatre

The National Theatre was the venue for honouring two of Ghana’s most illustrious sons in the field of arts when the Theatre’s Living Legend series took off last Saturday.

The Divine Drummer Odomankoma Kyeremah Kofi Ghanaba and Professor Emeritus J.H. Kwabena Nketia were honoured through music, dance and poetry.

The main performance on the night and which got a lot of people in the audience to remain till the wee hours of Sunday was the African rendition of G.F. Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus by Ghanaba backed by the Madina Immanuel Presbyterian Church Choir, the Catholic Archdiocesan Choir and the Winneba Youth Choir.

The divine drummer was at his creative best drumming with heart and soul, hands and legs to the admiration of the audience who could not help but give him a standing ovation on two occasions during that spectacular performance.

Perhaps that was meant to be as Ghanaba had earlier promised the audience during one of his many interactions that formed part of the evening’s line-up, that he was going to shake up the theatre with Hallelujah Chorus, and he did.

Though Ghanaba was dominant on the night, Prof Nketia also had some of his pieces performed as well as a poem which he read to the audience Akwansosem and another of his great poems which he wrote in 1946. Through a husky voice which he blamed on a trip he made to Zanzibar, the emeritus professor read the poems whose words most people identified with to elicit a thunderous applause from the crowd.

On a night that the cream of the nation’s arts wheeler-dealers gathered at the main auditorium of the National Theatre, Dr Mohammed Ben Abdallah a lecturer at the University of Ghana was called to introduce the legends.

Dr Abdallah praised the National Theatre for organising the event to reward excellence. He decried what he called “tyranny of the mediocre” which he explained as “that which forces excellence to shy away when people who know nothing about arts decide what is excellent and award them.”

Other brilliant performances on the night were by Peace Elewornu and Michael Allotey who performed Nketia’s Dance of the Forrest, Dance of the Maiden and Cowlane Sextet which were programmed by Andrews K. Agyemfra-Tetteh.

Also worth mentioning is the brilliant show of exceptional piano dexterity by young Sita Korley who performed Nketia’s Atwima and Ghanaba’s Happy Feeling. Hers was a great display of what a young lady can do with her talent and time.

The son of Ghanaba, Glenn Ghanababa Warren and his band was the main band that performed on the night. He led the band to perform some of the works of his father over the years that he has been a musician. Some of them are Africa Speaks; America Answers, Nsamanfo Begye Nsa and Lakpa. The resident youth group of the National Theatre IndigenAfrika performed Ghanaba’s Nyefee Nyebaa Koni Wo Shwe.

The mass choir together with the National Symphony Orchestra also performed some of Kwabena Nketia’s compositions including Adanse Kronkron (which was his first composition when he was “nineteen or twenty years old”) and Monkanfo No as well as E. Pappoe Thompson’s Miye Gbomo Ko.

The night was crowned with the presentation of statuettes to the two octogenarians by the National Theatre as a way of recognising their achievements over the year. Whereas Ghanaba dedicated his award to four people including former president Rawlings (who was sitting at the front) Prof Nketia dedicated his to his late mentor Dr Ephraim Amu.

It was a night that saw the rewarding of the greatest Afro-jazz performer Ghana has ever produced and a great linguist, composer and poet extraordinaire in the persons of Kofi Ghanaba and Kwabena Nketia. It was a great show apart from the fact that Atukwei Okai was too rigid for a compere of a show like that.

The second part of the Legend Series comes off during the month of September and will be used to recognise visual artists Saka Acquaye and Amon Kotei, who have distinguished themselves in the field of sculpture and painting.

Legendary writers Ama Atta Aidoo, Atukwei Okai, Kwesi Brew and Kofi Awoonor will be recognised in October, to be followed by Highlife legends King Onyina, Agya Koo Nimo, Jerry Hanson and the Wulomei in November.