Former President John Dramani Mahama has described the works of illustrious Ghanaian poet, playwright and academician, Professor Ama Ata Aidoo as one that was on the lips of every “school-going boy or girl’.
A state burial service was held last Thursday, July 13 at the Forecourt of the State House in Accra for the professor who died on Wednesday, May 31, 2023, at age 81.
Eulogizing the works of the state person in a Facebook post after the ceremony, the former President said “Aunt Ama Ata Aidoo was the candle, and I have had the privilege of being one of the millions of mirrors across the globe that reflected the light that she, as the prime source, inspired and freely gifted the world.
“Her literary works read like a primer: they were on the lips and ingrained in the minds of every school-going boy or girl in secondary school. Among her classic works, The Dilemma of a Ghost and Changes were two of my favourites.”
In attendance of the ceremony was President Nana Akufo-Addo, the African Union High Representative for Silencing the Guns, Dr Ibn Chambas; Chief of Staff at the Office of the President, Akosua Frema Osei Opare, and the 2020 NDC running mate, Prof Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman.
President Akufo-Addo cited a comment from an African while paying tribute: “Every time an elder dies, a library burns with him,” meaning when an elder passes on some amount of stored knowledge disappears.
He went on to say that Ama Ata Aidoo, a brilliant teacher, well-known poet, perfect public servant, and exceptional writer who had a superb command of the English language, was qualified to fit that description.
The late professor, according to the President, was his classmate at the University of Ghana, Legon in the 1960s adding that, “someone with whom I enjoyed friendly and productive relations.”
The officers and crew of the Ghana Navy carried her coffin, wrapped in the national colors of Ghana, in a slow march to a waiting hearse where it was moved to Abeadze Kyeakor in the Central Region for burial on Saturday.
