Owusu Ansah Buried

THE MORTAL remains of popular actor, Kwame Owusu-Ansah, were interred on Saturday at the Osu Cemetery after a burial service at the Holy Spirit Cathedral in Accra. The burial was heralded by a wake-keeping on Friday night at the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA’s) Press Center where the body was laid in state for public view. The final funeral rites for the departed movie star who left behind two children, Alexis Maa Fia and Mimi Awurama, was held at Pavilion ‘A’ of the Ghana Trade Fair Centre at La after the burial. The late actor, who was otherwise known as ‘African Child’ died through a motor accident which occurred on the Accra-Tema Motorway on Thursday May 1, 2008. His Toyota Camry with registration number GT4665Z had run under a parked cargo truck, getting mangled beyond repairs. In the process, he suffered several head and waist injuries and died at the Korle Teaching Hospital in Accra on Friday May 2 when doctors were busy trying to save him. The burial and funeral ceremonies attracted Ghanaian and Nollywood (Nigerian) film stars such as Kanayo O. Kanayo and Jake Ayenam as well as members of the general public. The funeral was however not without irregularities. At the wake-keeping, a section of the Ghanaian print media who went there to cover the ceremony were prevented from taking pictures but TV cameras were allowed. A cameraman of Fylla Magazine who tried to take pictures had his camera confiscated. When BEATWAVES asked why media men were being given a hard time, a family member only said: “That is how we arranged it.” The paper also gathered that press tags for media personnel were not only limited in number but poorly prepared, easy for anybody at all to duplicate. Most ordinary Ghanaians who came to observe the occasion and bid the ‘Africa Child’ farewell at the wake-keeping were disappointed at how they were treated and how the funeral was organized. Most of them said they were locked outside and left at the mercy of pickpockets and mobile phone snatchers. It was a virtual gridlock at the gates. According to some fans, for an actor of that fame, the family should have envisaged the number of people that would besiege the funeral grounds and therefore found a bigger venue that could contain everybody. At Pavilion ‘A’ of the Trade Fair Centre, the situation was the same. Some celebrities and media personnel could not make their way into the pavilion due to limited space. They stood outside to witness the ceremony.