Professor Yakubu Saaka is dead

[Akurang-Parry, Kwabena]

 www.ghanaweb.com: General News of Tuesday, 9 September 2008

Professor Yakubu Saaka is dead

Accra, Sept. 9, GNA- A delegation from the Bole-Bamboi Traditional Area in the Northern Region, on Tuesday, called on Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, to formerly announce the death of Professor Yakubu Saaka, former Deputy Foreign Minister in the Third Republic.

Prof. Saaka, 63, who died in South Africa, on August 31, 2008, after a short illness, contested the presidential slot of the People's National Convention for Election 2008, but lost to Dr Edward Mahama. Kanzawura Yahaya, Leader of the delegation told the Vice President at the Osu Castle that the late Minister would be buried in Ohio in the US on September 13, 2008.

He said funeral arrangements in Ghana would be announced soon. Alhaji Mahama described the late Prof. Saaka as a personal friend, a good singer and a teacher who was a source of inspiration to a number of people in the North. He was survived by a wife and four children.

 

Educational Background ((Culled from Oberlin College website)
Professor Saaka has taught at Oberlin College since 1972. He was educated at the University of Ghana where he took his B.A. in Political Science (1970) and M.A. in African Studies (1972). He received the Ph.D. in Political Science at Case Western Reserve University in 1976. During an extended leave of absence from Oberlin (1979-1983), Mr. Saaka was elected a Member of Parliament in Ghana , and later appointed Deputy Foreign Minister. In this latter capacity, Mr. Saaka represented Ghana in several international bodies, including the United Nations where he was Ghana 's Chief Delegate to the General Assembly, and at the Organization of African Unity where he was the Vice-Chairman of the Liberation Committee in 1980. Areas of Professor Saaka's main area of interest is Government and Politics of Africa. He is the author of Local Government and Political Change in Northern Ghana.

---

Source: GNAKwabena Akurang-Parry, Ph. D.

(Assoc Prof of African History & World History)

Dept of History

Shippensburg University

Shippensburg, PA, 17257, USA

 

Phone: 717 477 1286

Fax:     717 477 4062

[Tony Iyare]

So sad that we seem to be losing so many African intellectuals on a high scale. But I'm surprised that this renowned intellectual is to be buried in Ohio, USA and not in Ghana. Can anyone provide the reason for this? Tony Iyare .  Mobile Phone:: 234-803-304-6943, 234-702-809-1704, Home Phone: 234-1-850-6335 E-mail: ehia...@yahoo.co.uk   --- On Wed, 10/9/08, Akurang-Parry, Kwabena <KAP...@ship.edu> wrote:

[Akurang-Parry, Kwabena]

Yes, it is so sad. Prof. Saaka was a nice and affable human being. I met him once when I interviewed for a job at Oberlin. According to my informant, who is a friend of the Saaka family, Prof Saaka had cancer, knew that the end was near and inevitable, and had requested that his remains should be interred in Oberlin, Ohio, because his children would remain there. Thanks.

 

Kwabena.

 

Kwabena Akurang-Parry, Ph. D.

(Assoc Prof of African History & World History)

Dept of History

Shippensburg University

Shippensburg, PA, 17257, USA

 

Phone: 717 477 1286

Fax:     717 477 4062

---

From: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com [USAAfric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Tony Iyare [ehia...@yahoo.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 9:01 AM
To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Professor Yakubu Saaka is dead

[OLADMEJI ABORISADE]

Dear Professor Akurang-Parry,
   Very sad to hear of the death of Professor Yakubu Saaka. From all indications, Professor Yakubu Saaka was an idigenous African from Ghana. He was  born in Ghana, educated in Ghana, worked in Ghana, represented Ghana locally, Nationally and International.He died in South Africa and was  flown to Ohio for burial.Although it was not mentioned in the write up whether Professor Yakubu Saaka wanted to be buried out side Ghana.If he did, only God knows why. But if it is the wish of the family, that may be personal. However, with the contributions of Professor Yakubu Saaka to his  home country, I think  he was eminently qualified to be buried in Ghana as a sign of dignity and respect for humanity.
Thank you,
Professor Oladimeji Aborisade.

---

[Tony Agbali]

The burial of Africans in their adopted homeland shows at least a voluntarity that previously enslaved Africans did not have.  The mutual decisions that makes African immigrants or American Africans to be buried on the same soil that their children will tread upon shows that many Africans on this land see America as a homeland, and would become a tribe of ancestors for the succeeding generations carrying their genes.    Therefore, it points to the eclipsing in some sense of the annotation that African immigrants are transients or sojourners; it seems that they have began to prove that America is and can be a homeland to them, and become an ancestral homestead for their forebears.  Maybe, and maybe not, the homeland that has continuously proven to eat up its best, and diminished the stature of many of her own, forgetting them, has begun to pay for it, also being in turn forgotten in some broad sense. Whatever, the ramifications that this entail is best left to individuals to sort out.   However, the point of fact is that many Africans have been buried here for a long time. James Aggrey in the Carolinas, Orishaketuh, the Bantus that escaped from the 1904 World Fairs in St. Louis, the Congolese popular St. Louis World fair and New York Museum of Natural History displayed personality, Ota Benga, among some others who in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries belonged to Africa but were marked by the seal of transglobal connections and even exploitations left their material remains here in the US as templates upon which the present wave of African immigrants are replicating.    In spite of everything these Africans may lie in graves that maybe unmarked or unknown, but their legacies and their imprints remain valid and their contributions continue to be respected.   Aggrey's remain never went home to Ghana but some years back the African Students Association, took the soil from his grave back to Ghana, so like the transnationalist that he was, Aggrey remains dwells in two worlds; he returned truly through another generation and pedigree, to the homeland where he made vital contributions and from where his genes derived. But he equally lived on, in the United States at Livingstone College.   Professor Saaka, and his contributions are no less diminished simply because his remains lie in Ohio. This recalls another African, Monica, the mother of the great St. Augustine, who then living in Milan, Italy far away from Carthage in modern Libya told her son- not to worry about her remains but only to remember her at the altar of the Lord.  On another level, there wa the traditon among the enslave to place a personal object with a dying enslaved to take the message back to the African homeland in a kind of spiritual transhumance, to tell their folks that they are well.  It is memories, call it magic by association, whatever, it was a symbolic and ritualistic way of communication, and communicating ideas about return to Africa, not through physical return but at the plane that is quintessentially soulful and spiritual.    Of course, then, as most traditional Africans know, it is the memories, the remembrances, and the libations that put that materially and spiritually across that defines our continuity within intergenerational consciousness. In so far, as Professor Saaka is remembered by families, friends, colleagues, and those whose lives he impacted, he will relish his new ancestral status.    May the ancestors receive and make one of their own Professor Saaka, and may he find no impediment on his journey back to the true homeland, as we place our intentionality of concern for a better Africa, as well as the Ghana that he honorably embodied and represented on him as he joins the ancestors of our land and gene. May he find peace and rest, and on his adventure of life, may he enjoy his numerous stops in pure beauty on this new forage, this new migration and transmigration to a homeland where he would feel welcome and a part of. --- On Wed, 9/10/08, OLADMEJI ABORISADE <olaabo...@msn.com> wrote:

[Elias Bongmba]

Dear all,

This is very sad news. Ghanaians have lost a wonderful son and leader.
We share their grief and must also celebrate the life of Professor Saaka
whose true calling was always service for Ghana and Africa. May God give
peace to his family at this time of sorrow.

Elias Bongmba

OLADMEJI ABORISADE said the following on 9/10/2008 9:03 PM:

> Dear Professor Akurang-Parry,
> Very sad to hear of the death of Professor Yakubu Saaka. From all indications, Professor Yakubu Saaka was an idigenous African from Ghana. He was born in Ghana, educated in Ghana, worked in Ghana, represented Ghana locally, Nationally and International.He died in South Africa and was flown to Ohio for burial.Although it was not mentioned in the write up whether Professor Yakubu Saaka wanted to be buried out side Ghana.If he did, only God knows why. But if it is the wish of the family, that may be personal. However, with the contributions of Professor Yakubu Saaka to his home country, I think he was eminently qualified to be buried in Ghana as a sign of dignity and respect for humanity.
> Thank you,
> Professor Oladimeji Aborisade.
>
>
>
> From: KAP...@ship.eduTo: USAAfric...@googlegroups.comDate: Tue, 9 Sep 2008 22:28:04 -0400Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Yakubu Saaka is dead
>
>
>
>
> www.ghanaweb.com: General News of Tuesday, 9 September 2008
> Professor Yakubu Saaka is dead

> Accra, Sept. 9, GNA- A delegation from the Bole-Bamboi Traditional Area in the Northern Region, on Tuesday, called on Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, to formerly announce the death of Professor Yakubu Saaka, former Deputy Foreign Minister in the Third Republic.Prof. Saaka, 63, who died in South Africa, on August 31, 2008, after a short illness, contested the presidential slot of the People's National Convention for Election 2008, but lost to Dr Edward Mahama. Kanzawura Yahaya, Leader of the delegation told the Vice President at the Osu Castle that the late Minister would be buried in Ohio in the US on September 13, 2008.He said funeral arrangements in Ghana would be announced soon. Alhaji Mahama described the late Prof. Saaka as a personal friend, a good singer and a teacher who was a source of inspiration to a number of people in the North. He was survived by a wife and four children.
>
> Educational Background ((Culled from Oberlin College website)Professor Saaka has taught at Oberlin College since 1972. He was educated at the University of Ghana where he took his B.A. in Political Science (1970) and M.A. in African Studies (1972). He received the Ph.D. in Political Science at Case Western Reserve University in 1976. During an extended leave of absence from Oberlin (1979-1983), Mr. Saaka was elected a Member of Parliament in Ghana , and later appointed Deputy Foreign Minister. In this latter capacity, Mr. Saaka represented Ghana in several international bodies, including the United Nations where he was Ghana 's Chief Delegate to the General Assembly, and at the Organization of African Unity where he was the Vice-Chairman of the Liberation Committee in 1980. Areas of Professor Saaka's main area of interest is Government and Politics of Africa. He is the author of Local Government and Political Change in Northern Ghana.

[Akurang-Parry, Kwabena]

Several people have contacted me regarding Prof Saaka's interment in Oberlin, Ohio. Please, find my initial response below. Oga Falola didn't post it. Let us see whether it will find the light of day this time:

 

 Yes, it is so sad. Prof. Saaka was a nice and affable human being who contributed so much to Ghana's development. I met him once when I interviewed for a job at Oberlin. According to my informant, who is a friend of the Saaka family, Prof Saaka had cancer, knew that the end was near and inevitable, and had requested that his remains should be interred in Oberlin, Ohio, because his children would remain there. He went to Ghana to see his folks for the last time and when the cancer became serious was flown to South Africa with the hope of stabilizing his condition so that he could be flown back to the USA for full treatment, but he unfortunately did not make it. May his soul thrive in perfect peace.

 

Kwabena.

 

 

Kwabena Akurang-Parry, Ph. D.

(Assoc Prof of African History & World History)

Dept of History

Shippensburg University

Shippensburg, PA, 17257, USA

 

Phone: 717 477 1286

Fax:     717 477 4062

---

From: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com [USAAfric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Tony Agbali [atta...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 11:54 PM
To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com