Browsing through my memoirs, I am occasionally swept off by ‘spooky’ encounters recorded by wrinkled cameras. No I-phones those days. But I am glad those cameras quivered and registered weak shots, making it hard for spooky events to jump out of pages.
I draw attention to a bizarre encounter with an elf, a human spirit of sorts; a spooky confrontation with this wonder man early in life. He had risen from death as a high priest at Duakwa; he healed the sick, and changed the spiritual profile of my home town for years. I present here pictures dating back to the 1960s, where Okomfo resurrected from death, and the entire retinue of mourners ran helter-skelter.
During my teen years, I had a brush with this mystical persona who was on a hunt for me. What was my crime so early in life? These are some of the pages I shudder to open in my memoirs.
The next however is a happy ending to an otherwise eerie encounter. A man long thought to have passed on, but was discovered to be hale and hearty: Willie Abraham, one of the few surviving confidantes of Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah. He must have been in his 30s when he was plucked from Oxford University by Nkrumah to be his advisor and a professor at Legon. It was surprising that in 1995, almost 30 years after Nkrumah’s overthrow, Abraham was still on his feet, bubbly cheeks and all.
A surprise visit to him by me (and a colleague, Kofi Anyidoho) in California 1995, left us wide eyed! His erudition was intact, so was the clarity of diction. Then also a note I received from Uncle Willie in 2022, only a year ago, which comforted me. Truly, truly Nkrumah still lives. You will soon read my chat with this intellectual giant. This is a page in my memoirs I open with gusto. Let these pictures jump out of the pages; Ghana will celebrate.
By Kwesi Yankah
