The last week of September was hectic for me. Saturday, 30th September 2023 in particular was a busy day for “Manager” and me with funerals, a wedding and a birthday party lined up both in and outside Accra. While she travelled outside Accra for the wedding, I took care of activities here in Accra.
As I endured the three-hour funeral service, my concentration ebbed and flowed. Having been spoilt and pampered in my church where we sit on individual chairs heavily padded with foam with beautiful chair-backs to decorate them, I found the hard benches of this church pinching and very bottom/buttocks-unfriendly!
My mind went also to the big-man who said on radio/TV that, Ghana could develop funeral-tourism with tourists being sent among others, to the funeral capital of Ghana the Ashanti Region where a place like Bonwire could offer economic attractions and benfits!
The true story of the funeral of the village goat-thief also came rushing in my mind.
Kwadwo Aponkye
“Aponkye” is the Twi word for a goat! Kwadwo Aponkye as he was called behind his back, was notorious for stealing goats to satisfy his huge appetite for goat-meat light-soup aka “aponkye-nkrakra.” With such a strong reputation acquired over years of goat-stealing, Kwadwo Aponkye’s burial service at the village Methodist church attracted lots of people that morning from the districts who waited to hear what his tribute would read like.
This was against the background that, tributes are often so doctored and whitewashed that the truth everybody knows about the deceased is swept under the carpet and replaced with beautiful and fantastic lies! Only good things must be said about the dead even if that results in outright lies being told.
The tribute for Kwadwo Aponkye which was read in perfect Twi translated as follows:
“Brethren, our dear departed brother who lies before his Maker today was a very good and kind-hearted man. So kind was he that, everybody liked him. Indeed, our brother was not only loved by us human beings, but also by animals. Goats in particular had an affinity for him and loved him dearly. In the process these goats sorely tempted and tested him. As ordinary mortals, we are often tempted in life just as Jesus was. But unlike Jesus who was the son of God and whose shock-absorbers against temptation were specially designed by his heavenly father, we human beings often fall to temptation. So was it with our departed brother Kwadwo Aponkye who we mourn today!”
Deceased
Unlike Kwadwo’s tribute, for the burial service of the deceased last Saturday, tribute after tribute described him as an affable and good man who dedicated his life to evangelizing. Perhaps the fact that there were over twenty Revered-Ministers, members of his Men’s Fellowship and indeed a record number of mourners from all walks of life confirmed his good nature. Indeed, an association of widows from Asamankese who enjoyed the generosity of the deceased came to read a moving tribute about their late benefactor.
Discussion
As I listened to the good things said about the deceased, my mind went back to the government official’s submission on funeral tourism!
At the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya from 4- 6 September 2023 Kenya’s President William Ruto stated;
“Kenya will leverage on its long-standing and warm relations with Ghana to increase its tea and horticultural products exports. Under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), we will also collaborate to pursue investment opportunities in agriculture and energy for our mutual prosperity.”
I wonder if given the chance in Kenya, the big man would have articulated his views on funeral tourism as a viable proposition Ghana could leverage on as President Ruto suggested the export of tea to Ghana.
As the service progressed, I wondered also if a bus load of foreign tourists bussed to participate in the funeral service would have been amused with three hours of what we Ghanaians endured.
People elected to represent the rest of us and come out with policies for national development must not upset those who elected them by proposing ideas which suggest they have not been well thought through. For some, it even shows disrespect for the dead, with death being commercialized.
For as the C18th century Political Philosophers like Thomas Hobbes and John Locke reasoned, the reason why the majority cedes some of its powers to government is to be provided with security and development through workable solutions!
Leadership LEAD! Fellow Ghanaians, WAKE UP!
Brig Gen Dan Frimpong (Rtd)
Former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association (APSTA)
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