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A grand funeral for ‘The Grandmaster’

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                                                     Godwin Avenorgbo, The Grandmaster Kofi Yeboah Writes, AT the funeral of ‘The Grandmaster’, there were no food or ‘takeaways’ served but that did not leave mourners hungry and angry because there were plenty takeaways and food for thought that left them really satisfied. The funeral was very simple – no elaborations; no tributes, and nothing grandeur, all in keeping to the wishes of The Grandmaster, Godwin Rosevelt Avenorgbo. The renowned broadcaster believed in simplicity – of life and events – so his family kept the funeral as such. He was time conscious and punctual (I bear testimony of this attribute having worked closely with him) and his funeral started and ended within schedule as indicated in the funeral programme. There was no ‘funeral cloth’ because in his lifetime, he detested that practice, calling it waste of money for the dead when the living need such resources for survival. There were no tributes because he
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Exit ‘The Grandmaster’: Game over!

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Godwin Avenorgbo (The Grandmaster) Kofi Yeboah Writes, I don’t know how he got the accolade ‘The Grandmaster’ but having studied him closely as my boss and senior colleague, I don’t need a soundbite of that story because Godwin Avenorgbo was professional to a fault. Speaking fine English and pouncing on the least opportunity to tell his audience he learned to speak good English in lower primary, were not more boastful of a trait than his exhibition of professionalism and demand for same. Before and during my journalism training at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) (1994 – 1996), Godwin Avenorgbo was very grand in broadcasting and I got hooked to his professional brand. On stage, whether as programme host on radio or Master of Ceremony at state and public functions, his eloquence, delivery skills and powerful voice engaged his audience, as he drove them to celestial realms. Indeed, he emceed many high-profile state, public and traditional events, and he became a nation
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Friends from Cairo: Who do I say you are?

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  Kofi Yeboah Writes, In Matthew 16:15-16, Jesus Christ asked his disciples: “Who do you say I am?” and Peter answered correctly by declaring the divine identity of Jesus. In Cairo, Egypt, after meeting the participants of the ‘58 th Training Course for Young African Journalists’ for one week, I hereby play the character of Jesus but, unlike him, I turn the question in the opposite direction: “Who do I say you are?” I elect myself, as Peter did, to answer the question, thus, becoming both the examiner and the examined, but leaving the real assessment to whomsoever is marking the script. Although the participants who attended the training course were from different countries and cultures, it was obvious that three weeks of intellectual discourse and lively intercourse succeeded in dismantling whatever barriers that previously blocked their connection. The francophone participants Chadians are normally calm, polite and reserved, and in Nathan, those character traits are glar
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Egyptian civilisation is paragon of tourism

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Kofi Yeboah Writes From Cairo, Egypt is one of the foremost countries in which civilisation first began centuries ago, and on May 6, 2024, when I visited the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation, in Cairo, I could not agree more with that assertion. The National Geographic Society, based in Washington DC, affirms that “Civilisations first appeared in Mesopotamia (what is now Iraq) and later in Egypt”. The National Museum of a Egyptian Civilisation is a bridge that connects medieval and modern Egypt, with artifacts that are ancient in age but arrayed in a beautiful edifice that in itself is a tourism attraction. The inward and outward appeal of the museum, sitting on a 490,000 sq metre-land, is ample testimony of the deliberate plot driving tourism as the third largest revenue inflow in Egypt. The tourism sector in Egypt raked in $13 billion in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the third largest revenue collection industry in the country. That makes a lot of sense, given the la
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Curiosity: The driver to Egypt

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Kofi Yeboah Writes From Cairo, In the heart of Accra, at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, the mortal remains of two distinguished persons are cleaved decades after their marriage celebrated both on earth and in heaven. The marriage between Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah and Egyptian beauty, Fathia, caught the fancy of the nation, and even after ‘death did them part’ more than five decades ago, their mortal remains cleaved in the belly of the earth at the tourism enclave in Accra, still attract a large number of eyeballs. Nkrumah was a champion of African unity but for him to live that charge beyond imagination, by tying the nuptial knot with Fathia, is a masterstroke of the African unity agenda he enjoyed or enjoys huge applause for on earth and in the heavens. In Ghana, especially among rural folks, whenever a star appeared close to the moon, they were deemed to be the symbolic marriage between Nkrumah and Fathia, as people rushed outside to fix a gaze in the sky and exclai
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Dysfunctional blackout or dysfunctional judgment?

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Kofi Yeboah Writes, On February 9, 2024, the Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, waded into the media blackout imposed by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) on two Members of Parliament (MPs), with a ‘bombshell’ that has caught fire in the Ghanaian media landscape. Boadu-Ayeboafoh had his say (which he is entitled to under the 1992 Constitution) but the overwhelming public backlash against his unpopular views is a loud call by media gatekeepers that he cannot have his way because the path he chose is not a thoroughfare. He may be a lone voice but cast as former Editor of the Daily Graphic , former Director of News of the Graphic Communications Group Limited, former Vice President of the GJA, former Executive Secretary of the NMC, current Chairman of the NMC (serving a second term as Chairman) and lawyer, he always possesses a deep, commanding voice that can influence opinion. Thus, although his unpopular views on the media blackout have be
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When birthday becomes dark day

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Kofi Yeboah Writes, Today is the birthday of Jesus Christ, and that reminds me of my last birthday on October 23. The three wisemen in biblical setting who followed the star to look for Jesus, celebrated his birth with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, when they had found him. Hear me ye wisemen of our contemporary setting: on my birthday, follow my advice here; look for, and celebrate, me with gifts but never forget to add chocolate. Beside appreciating God on this auspicious occasion, for almost two decades now, my birthday celebration was never complete without eating and sharing chocolate. And if it is chocolate, it must definitely be ‘Golden Tree Kingsbite’ milk chocolate (large size) produced by the Cocoa Processing Company in Ghana. That brand of chocolate is the only companion besides God that holds my sanity intact, in good and/or bad mood. Whenever I get an opportunity to travel abroad, I carry ‘Golden Tree Kingsbite’ milk chocolate along for two reasons: f
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