Tribute to Etwieba Barima Boakye Nhyira Ofori Atta (‘Yaw Fraser’)

Oh what would I not give to be present at Kyebi this weekend, to participate in the funeral obsequies of Etwieba Barima Boakye Nhyira, known to most people as Fraser Ofori Atta, or (to his friends and family) Yaw Fraser.

He was the former Abontendomhene of Kyebi, as well as Oyokohene of Akyem Akakom, Kyebi and Kukuruntumi. He was also a long-term resident of London, England. He was sadly gathered unto his fathers on 1st June, 2015. He was 81 years of age.

Fraser Ofori Atta was editor of the Evening News in 1968 when I made my first trip to the USA as guest of the US Department of State. Before Fraser became its editor, the Evenings 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 reorganisations of the state-owned media that followed the overthrow of Dr Nkrumah. In his tenure, Fraser tried to make the paper respectable and when I was going to the United States in 1968 on a visit sponsored by the State Department, I arranged with him to publish my impressions of America.

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 Progress Party propaganda sheet it had been set up to become. 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 with Etwieba (son of the “Leopard”, as the King of Akyem Abuakwa is known to his people) Yaw Fraser was that we went back a long time – I lived in his family home in 1951, when I 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 administered to junior boys like me who completed the Kyebi Government.

However, not long after, as if what had happened vis-à-vis his

father’s death, was not enough, yet another disaster befell him. On June 21st 1944, his uncle and guardian Opanin Kwame Kagya with seven of his kinsmen all “Ahenemma and Ahenananom” had been incriminated in the so-called Kyebi murder case of Apedwa Odikro Akyea Mensah and had been arrested and charged with murder.

There was strong evidence that the murder never was. And when that truth emerges it will establish that, Akyea Mensah committed suicide by hanging himself at Nkomena Sirikyi near Adadientem.

That nobody killed Akyea Mensah.

To Adiepena then, the arrest of his uncle as it was spelt the doom of his education.

However, Adiepena was not finished yet. Dejected and distraught, he again found solace and consortium in his elder sister, Emily Ofori-Atta who was then working as a teacher at Koforidua ECM Primary School. Etwieba Fraser completed the Kyebi Government School between 1941-1950. He entered the Abuakwa State College (Abusco) also at Kyebi, in 1951. Academically, Fraser was an excellent and brilliant student. In the field of Sports, Etwieba Fraser was one of the best sports men his school ever produced.

He was a good footballer and a sprinter who won many trophies for his school. Even in school, young eloquent and hardworking Fraser started writing articles for many newspapers, including the Evening News. He successfully completed Abuakwa State College in 1955, having obtained a General Certificate of Education (GCE) O’ Level.

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Displaying EDITED BIOGRAPHY & TRIBUTES FOR ETWIEBA BOAKYE NHYIRA FRASER OFORI.docx.

The 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, enabled Yaw to absorb the poetic language of the court seamlessly. I once heard him pour libation at the celebration of the Ohum Festival by the Akyem Abuakwa Susubribi Association in London. His voice sounded as if it was an echo-chamber from which the ancient sages of our land were trying to make themselves heard once again.

Verses that were heavy in content and even heavier to articulate, passed through his lips easily like someone merely saying “Good morning!” Verses such as this alliterative marvel:

Kurotwiamansa a wonam sesseaase ma seseaase woso bribribribri!

Ogytanaa a woho baabi é odum; na baabi é brofre; na baabi nso ‘e fetefre!

(The Leopard who passes through the thickets unseen, making the leaves rustle mysteriously: ‘bribribribiri’!… The undying fire lit from a tree part of whose stem is odum; part pawpaw; and part the forest bush pawpaw that yields no fruit!)

I was once privileged to visit the Ofori Panin Palace at Kyebi when the late Osagyefuor Kuntunkununku was on the stool. Out of excitement, I forgot to bend the upper part of my body when I was shaking the Okyenhene’s hand. Soft-voiced as ever, Yaw, who, as Abontendomhene, was sitting next to Kuntunkununku, whispered to me, “Bo wo mu ase!” (Bend your upper body!) I did so, and was saved from a gaffe for which my Grandmother, Nana Afia Boatemaa, who reigned both as Chief and Queen Mother of Asiakwa, would have upbraided me, was she alive to hear of it!

At the same palace, I once 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 landed – right shoulder/right drum; left shoulder/left drum, and so on. Meanwhile, the drummer’s lips would be whispering into Yaw’s ear, the words that he was playing on the “talking drums”; words like:

Obrempong nante bre-bre:

Obrempong ma ne homena so!

Okwan tware asuo

Asuo Tware kwan

Opanin ne hwan?…

Yeboo kwan kotoo asuo;

Asuo firi tete

Odomankoma boo adier!)

(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 hope Yaw has actually left some of the things he knew behind. Because it would be such a shame if he is allowed to take it with him back to the elders who taught it to him and whom he has now gone to join.

In one respect, we the succeeding generation are lucky, for in the late 1970s, Fraser managed to betake himself to the University of Ghana, Legon, where he penned a thesis on The Amantourmmiensa Group of Akyem Abuakwa. (The paper is mentioned by Dr Ado Fenning, the utmost authority on Akyem Abuakwa history.) I just hope Yaw was able to write down some more of the valuable information that was inside his head. For he saw and was closer to five Akyem Abuakwa Kings – Nana Sir Ofori Atta The First; Nana Ofori Atta The Second; Nana Amoako Atta The Fourth; Nana Kuntunkununku The Second and Osagyefuor Amoatia The Second.

As Fraser Ofori Atta, Etwieba was a former elected president of the Ghana Journalists Association, and I am immensely glad to see that members of his family did the customary thing and officially informed the Association of his passing. I am sure the Association will send a strong delegation to Kyebi to mourn with the family. Both as an Ayokuorba (member of the Oyoko Clan) and a member of the Association, I join in celebrating the life of this great scion of the Ofori Panin Stool.

In 1955, Frazer Ofori Atta obtained a scholarship to the University of Berlin, which earned him a Diploma in Communications. On his return to Ghana inn1955, he became a Public Relations Officer for the United Africa Company (UAC).

May the entire family be consoled, and me too – as a member of the family.