<<Print>>

1. �What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel! In appreciation, how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? � Hamlet in Shakespeare�s play, HAMLET. Act 2, Sc. 2 2. �All the world�s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. � Jacques in Shakespeare�s play, AS YOU LIKE IT. Act 2, Sc.7 3. �Whom shall Death leave alone? Everybody shall climb Death�s ladders� An Akan saying. 4. �Out, out, brief candle! Life�s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more; it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.� � Macbeth in Shakespeare�s play, MACBETH. Act . 5 Sc. 5 5. �Every soul shall taste of death �And the life of this world is nothing but an illusory enjoyment.� � HOLY QURAN. 3: 186 6. ��.Death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come � - Caesar in Shakespeare�s play, JULIUS CAESAR. Act 2: Sc2 7. �When beggers die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.� � Calphurnia in Shakespeare�s play, JULIUS CAESAR. 2. Sc. 2 It is certainly one of the ironies of life that Mr. Komla Dumor, who died in London on Saturday, January 18, 2004, is being mourned in Ghana for his monumental work in journalism. Ten years ago in 2003, a big storm of protests swirled around the award of the journalist of the Year to Mr. Dumor. Both within the ranks of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) and outside, it was said that Mr. Dumor was not a journalist and that being just a presenter of radio programmes did not make him one. It was said that he did not have a qualification in journalism as a result of formal training at a journalism institute. The criticism engulfed even those who had made the recommendation. Today, if there is a word of protest against recognising Mr. Dumor as a journalist, I have not read or heard it. It is true that Mr. Dumor did not enter journalism with a certificate, diploma or degree. He entered the field with a distinctly �unjournalistic� qualification of a degree in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Ghana, Legon. He was also to earn a master�s degree in Public Administration from Harvard. He was not the first person to enter the field of journalism without any formal qualification or training in the profession. Before him were many Ghanaians who had practiced journalism without any previous formal qualification. Many of them had on-the-job training on THE ASHANTI TIMES published at Obuasi by the Ashanti Goldfields Limited. One Mr. Freestone was then in charge. Others cut their journalistic teeth elsewhere. What they all had in common was their ability to grasp the intricacies of their profession in the face of difficulties. If Mr. Dumor was not the first to enter journalism without previous formal training in journalism institute, he was also not the first Ghanaian journalist to work with or the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Names of Ghanaians who worked at the BBC include Ofebea Quist-Arcton, Elizabeth Ohene, Ben Dotse Malor, Yaw Ampofo Ankrah and Sani Daara. Ghanaian correspondents of the BBC have included Adwoa Yeboah-Afrifa, Ben Ephson, Kwabena Akosa Sarpong and Kwaku Sakyi Addo . So I ask what did Mr. Dumor bring to journalism? Mr. Frank Apeagyei, owner of the Beverly Hill hotel at Asylum Down, is one of the �lucky� few who had Ghana Government scholarship to study journalism at the London School of Journalism. Sometime in 2007, Mr. Apeagyei summed up what he considered to be the hallmark of good journalism. He wrote; �As a product of the London School of Journalism, I was taught to acknowledge what journalism is all about, namely, forthrightness, conviction, courage, truthfulness, and consistency, the use of the language and style which must be captivating and readable, in putting our crafted messages to inform, educate and entertain�. From the fulsome praise, tributes, eulogies and encomiums heaped on Mr. Dumor after his death, it is clear, as Mr. Apeagyei observed that Mr. Dumor was that and more an accomplished journalist whose professionalism and integrity could not be questioned. If Mr. Dumor was not the first Ghanaian to open a door of opportunity at the BBC, he certainly widened the opening for other Ghanaians and black people everywhere to enter. No wonder the BBC is reported to have announced the setting up of a foundation to train Africa journalists. The world is such that, from time to time, a person enters the stage, does what everybody else does, but takes the performance several notches higher. The reaction to the death of Mr. Dumor shows how ordinary human beings can do ordinary things in extraordinary ways and rouse everyone�s attention. Mr. Dumor apparently �over-drove� himself to achieve excellence. He punished his body and minds as he pushed on amidst the threat of stroke attack, and amidst professional jealousies. Did his wife and children and children know of his personal strife and misery as he kept silent and smiled into the cameras? Mr. Dumor has paid a high price in dying so young at the age of 41 for the profession he so single-mindedly loved. Dying so young? Who are we to question the will of God? He gives and he takes away. We and the family of Mr. Dumor should take a consolation in the reflection that, at the young age of 41, Mr. Dumor used his work to touch so many different kinds of lives all over the world. We console ourselves with the reflections that his achievement was so great that his death has brought out all the eulogies from very prominent people the world over. What else can a person want? I say with Shakespeare, �After life�s fitful fever, he sleeps well. Nothing can touch him further.� May God grant him eternal rest in Paradise.