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    Atumpan: Drum-Talk
    Atumpan: Drum-Talk
    Atumpan: Drum-Talk
    Ebook161 pages22 minutes

    Atumpan: Drum-Talk

    By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe Jr.

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    About this ebook

    In Atumpan: Drum-Talk, Okoampa-Ahoofe evokes the primal and visceral essence of rhythm in words. The poetic voice captured in this ebullient anthology is at once poignant and perfusive.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateOct 21, 2004
    ISBN9780595782734
    Atumpan: Drum-Talk
    Author

    Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe Jr.

    The first recipient of the 1988 John J. Reyne Artistic Achievement Award for English Poetry at New York City College, where he earned his bachelor?s degree (summa cum laude) in English, Communications and African-American Studies, Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., was born and raised in Ghana. He teaches English and Journalism at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. A graduate with Master?s and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Temple University, Philadelphia, Okoampa-Ahoofe regularly writes political and cultural columns for the Accra Daily Mail, Ghanaweb.com, Africa-Forum.Net, AfricaNewsAnalysis.com, as well as occasional book reviews and commentary for the New York Beacon and the Ghanaian Chronicle. He is married and has a daughter.

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      Book preview

      Atumpan - Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe Jr.

      All Rights Reserved © 2004 by Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

      No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic,

      electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage

      retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

      iUniverse, Inc.

      For information address:

      iUniverse, Inc.

      2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100

      Lincoln, NE 68512

      www.iuniverse.com

      LCCN: 2004114784

      ISBN: 0-595-33477-6

      Contents

      Acknowledgments

      Introduction

      Grandpa

      Genius

      Jennifer R.

      Awakening

      Guya

      McVeigh-the-Silent

      Paulette I

      Paulette II

      Lincoln Tunnel

      Susan

      Bathsheba

      Sacrilege

      This Ring Thing

      Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol

      Fall

      And We Remember

      Accused

      Jamie Cee

      What Would He Do?

      For Cicely

      Pramila

      Obscene Gestures

      The Tribe

      Kananu

      Dog Days

      Judith

      Amistad (for K. P.)

      Selina

      Wanda Bermudez

      Asmaa

      Connie

      Kumba Jumba

      Evlin

      In Memoriam—Efua Sutherland

      In Memoriam—Efua Sutherland II

      In Memoriam—Efua Sutherland III

      Sheila

      American

      For Mzwakhe Mbuli

      (Upon listening to and being enraptured by your song

      "KwaZulu Natal)

      Bacchae

      Melissa

      Strange World

      Marie

      Pat

      African Vibes

      Plagiarized

      Toby

      About the Author

      Critical Praise For Okoampa-Ahoofe’s Poetry

      I dedicate this volume to the Rev. Theodore Henry (Yawbe Aboagye) Sintim(1896?—1982), my maternal grandfather and formative guardian who educatedmore Gold Coasters, Ghanaians and Africans by founding schools and improvingupon old ones and teaching and preaching and managing and raising entire colo-nies of illustrious compatriots and com-matriots and progeny than anyone elsethat I know of… Indeed, it was Papa who always insisted that: Frank and plaintalk purges the soul. It goes without saying that grandpa would have loved tohave lived just a little longer to see Nelson R. Mandela eviscerate the cormoranttentacles of Robben Island; but even more importantly, Papa would have loved tohave been entrusted with the daunting but hardly impossible challenge of reunit-ing Winnie and Rolihlahla in a triumphal feast of nuptial sempiternity…. Nodoubt, he would also have loved to see Clarence Joseph Desiree Mobutu SeseSeko shown the barnyard’s escape hatch for the congenital thugs and butchers ofour collective, continental African dignity.

      Also, to Obaapanyin Yaa Amponsaa (1900?-1970), of Akyem-Apedwa, mymaternal grandaunt, whose proverbial beauty inspired Ghana’s staple highlifemusic, but whose authentic and historical identity, unfortunately, has often beengrossly distorted and fictionalized by ignorant and presumptuous critics both athome and abroad.

      To the long-suffering people of Ghana who continue to weather stygian evil inthe specious name of revolution and nomothetical butchery with resilient forti-tude.

      And to America, the beautiful nation of my civic affiliation; America thepachydermous polity of tribal and racial contradictions which continues toproudly flaunt her tawdry democracy rhetoric with her grubby and sanguinary,eagle-fisted left-eye corner, even as—like her coccidia-diseased bastard sonMobutu Sese Seko—she begrudges the poor and innocent of their right to decentlivelihood. America-the-beautiful, overfed hermaphroditic general of a gouty aris-tocracy.. O America, I shall love you even unto death.

      And, of course, to my beloved wife, Dolly Doris Afua Oye Nyanyo Mensah;and my dearest daughter, Abena Aninwaa Okoampa-Ahoofe.

      Acknowledgments

      Image302.PNG In putting this volume together, I havehad to depend on the material, moral and professional generosity and goodwill ofmany people, the most readily remembered of whose names appear as follows:Kwasi Gyan,

      my elder paternal cousin who provided me shelter and provender for nearlyfour years (1995-1999) while I navigated and scavenged the treacherous land-scape of the American job market; Alexander (Nana Kofi) Bamfo, whose

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