William Blair
Butterworth who died on Good Friday in Seattle, Washington State in the USA was
a huge influence on the lives of hundreds of men and women who were lucky to be
his students at Okuapemman School in the early 1960s. I was one of those and
wherever and whenever we have met in the years since, Uncle Blair as we called
him, has always been part of the conversation. It is strange that I only knew
him for only one year because his inspirational impact on me has been
disproportionately large.
In a sense, although
Blair stayed in Ghana for only three years, this country also loomed
disproportionally large in his own life which has been cut short tragically by
cancer at the age of 74. He had an enduring love affair with Okuapemman School and
Ghana and visited this country at least three times after he finished his stint
as one of the first batch of Peace Corp Volunteers who arrived in this country
in 1961. If my memory serves me right, he was perhaps the only PCV to stay for
an additional year after the customary two years ended. His last visit was four
years ago when he came to open the ICT laboratory in the school which was built
on his inspiration, mostly with his funding and now bears his name.
He was larger than life
in all senses of the expression; definitely when I went to Okuapemman School he
was the one person you would not miss. He was tall and big in the way only
Americans grow to be and added to his physical presence a booming voice that would
often be heard in laughter. He represented for us “America” at that time in the
first 20 years after the Second World War when US power was unrivalled and
still in the ascendancy. People like Uncle Blair were the reason why despite
years of political disdain for some of America’s imperialist excesses many
people of my generation still have a profound love for the American people and
way of life.
Blair was a Kennedy
American. He was only 25 when he was made Assistant Headmaster at the school.
This was rather unusual; assistant headmasters in secondary schools used to be
dowdy catechist-type teachers of the old school. They were usually the ones who
meted out the most extreme punishment for the least infraction of the rules.
Assistant headmasters of the time did not laugh much, not in front of students
because laughter would be interpreted as a sign of weakness. Assistant
headmasters did not have to show LOVE for their students even if they felt it.
That was the way it was. Blair was different. And that is why and how he became
my hero for life. He made school a lot more fun to be at and many of us
followed him like the guru he was just to hear what he had to say.
At Okuapemman Uncle
Blair taught a number of subjects including English, English literature and French
but it was his running commentary on current affairs, especially the struggle
of Black people in America for justice and equality in the US that struck a
chord. It was from him we learnt about Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. He was
a huge fan of Muhammad Ali and I remember that he was probably the only person
in the whole school who predicted that Ali, then called Cassius Clay, would
defeat the fierce Sonny Liston who had made mincemeat of some serious
heavyweights in the ring. Blair typically used the Clay-Liston fight to explain
some of the changes going on in America and the future represented by Clay and
his type.
He told us about Jack
Kennedy and on the night we learnt of Kennedy’s death Uncle Blair became our
immediate target of sympathy because he was for us what we felt Kennedy stood
for: youthful idealism, coexistence, respect for our different cultures, but
above all, a subtle form of subversion of the old order and an impatience to
change things. When I think back on it, “change” was his message. He introduced
new ideas and concepts, including teaching French by gramophone records known
as the “Assimile” or immersion method, which was revolutionary then and still
widely used for rapid language learning in some countries. He would play rock
and jazz on his gramophone for us and run his usual commentary on Satchmo or
whoever he was playing.
One particular day
stands in my memory and I have written about it in this column and elsewhere
for its magical effect. Before Blair poetry for me and my fellow students was
known as “recitation”, a mindless act of memorising verse and reciting it
mostly to satisfy the curriculum but with no aesthetic effect. Uncle Blair was
the first teacher to introduce us to poetry as a beautiful piece of art that
speaks a language of intelligent emotion. On this day he decided to to
introduce us to Edgar Alan Poe via Annabel Lee:
It was many
and many a year ago,
In a kingdom
by the sea,
That a maiden
there lived whom you may know
By the name
of ANNABEL LEE;
And this
maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love
and be loved by me.
I can still see him
even today reading from the book with that twinkle in his eyes and booming that
magic stanza to his students. It was calculated to have an effect. It did. Back
in the dormitory that evening I picked up my pen and started writing a poem.
Yes, a love poem. When you discover the power of poetry at the age of twelve
that is what you write, or think you are writing. But the effect on me was
instantaneous and magical and has not waned to date.
We missed him dearly
when he left at the end of the first year but I reconnected with him albeit
briefly five years later when I went to America to attend Camp Rising Sun at
Rhinebeck in New York State. He visited the camp and stayed at the Guest House
overnight and participated in a few of the events before leaving for Washington
DC. He invited me to the US capital before I returned to Ghana and what
happened at dinner was pure Uncle Blair. He took me to the nicest restaurant I
had even seen, let alone enter, at that point in my life. When the waiter came
for our orders Uncle Blair ordered steak and I said “the same”. The waiter
asked “rare or well done?” and Uncle Blair said “rare”. I said “the same”. When
the food arrived it was a piece of red meet bathed in what looked like a pool
of blood! Uncle Blair burst out laughing. That was the occasion to explain
American culinary complexities, but meanwhile he had secretly ordered a “well
done” for me knowing that would be more to my taste.
Five years ago when he
visited Ghana he brought his two sons to show them the country he had told them
so much about. He decided to help Okuapemman School in some way and at the
suggestion of his sons settled on setting up an ICT laboratory which has since
been furnished and equipped with funds provided by Blair and some past
students. But what stands out is his exceptional quality as a loving human
being. He just loved his students and the opportunity to impart new ideas to
his young charges. There was no boundary about subjects or topics he could
discuss. That was his legacy: learning and cultures have no boundaries.
A SPECIAL MEMORIAL
SERVICE WILL BE HELD AT OKUAPEMMAN SCHOOL AT 2PM ON SUNDAY APRIL 21. ALL PAST
STUDENTS ARE EXPECTED TO ATTEND WITH THEIR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS.
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