Prof Kwabena Nketia

Dust to dust and ashes to ashes

was not said of the fine dust

which was blown and now in our entrails

It remains forever relevant

forever in the hearts purer

In the souls fresher

in the minds uncorrupted

Behind the veil I see

a psyche leaves its body,

dark skin so tall that penetrates the skies

A master builder of the times

who once lived in a coast of gold

south of the Sahara

where the Greenwich meridian cuts across

The light at the great hall dimming

Oh Legon loses its own, a professor, a composer

A maestro and father to ethno music

Great masters never fall

they sleep the long sleep

The sleep of the fathers, the ancient ones

We will mourn not your loss

Because we still have them

What you left mankind

What you stood for

Your idles, dreams

Your handiworks, deeds

Oh master, master composer,

master of the arts you are

Nature in harmony you left us

In letters, signs

keys, lines

sounds fine,

tunes in rhymes

They vibrate and echo at the same time

They float and navigate tribes, cultures

A soul that made audible and plain the language of souls

the messages of the powers that be you captured

to shape a whole generation, an era, a civilization a time

There is beauty in harmony of notes

but you led us to unity through musical harmony

Oh master, master mind

Once I sought to see you

but now I have all of you even those who think in line with you

I wanted to hear your voice

but now have it even with the echoes of your voices

I wanted to feel your presence

but now I have more to feel than that,

your overwhelming influence across the seas and beyond the spheres

In the mind’s eye we still see you

A life like a river which flowed in the dirty boisterous waves

yet never lost its colour, fresh smell and taste.

Oh life is death, death’s liveliness and youth, its storm before the calm.

Death is life, life before another begins.

In death is life, a transformed life.

Life never ceases, it pauses several times to renew itself

and transformed into other garbs when death calls

giving way to other different forms of life.

Legon will arise

Ethno music will survive

Whatever you loved will still smile

Wo jogban Emeritus Prof. Kwabena Nketia