Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- No Wings
- Preface to Second Edition
- Foreword to Second Edition
- Introduction to Second Edition
- A Note of History
- Should I Ever…
- THE COUNTRYSIDE
- AKAN
- EWE
- GA-ADANGME
- DAGOMBA
- HAUSA
- THE TOWN
- Tumble-Down Woods
- Tough Guy in Town
- In the Streets of Accra
- Snuff and the Ashes
- Radio Dance Hour
- This is Experience Speaking
- Palm Leaves of Childhood
- Hot Day
- The Literary Society
- It's Ritual Murder
- The Wrong Packing Case
- Lines on Korle Bu
- Pay Day
- The Walk of Life (Agbezoli)
- Peace
- Heaven is a Fine Place
- Ata
- Complaint
- To My Mother
- Oh! My Brother
- The Homeless Boy
- The Lone Horse
- The Perfect Understander
- The Woods Decay
- On Parting
- To the Night Insects
- The Blind Man from the North
- A Second Birthday
- In God's Tired Face
- The Executioner's Dream
- Had I Known
- Re-incarnation
- Ancestral Faces
- ‘O Forest, Dear Forest’
- My Sea Adventure
- The Passing of The King
- Patriotism
- African Heaven
- The Ghosts
- The Herdsman from Wa
- Pa Grant Due
- The Mosquito and the Young Ghanaian
- Unity in Diversity
- The Journey to Independence
- Ode to the Hon. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
- The Dawn of the New Era
- The Meaning of Independence
- National Anthem
- The Contributors
- Index
Heaven is a Fine Place
from THE TOWN
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 August 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- No Wings
- Preface to Second Edition
- Foreword to Second Edition
- Introduction to Second Edition
- A Note of History
- Should I Ever…
- THE COUNTRYSIDE
- AKAN
- EWE
- GA-ADANGME
- DAGOMBA
- HAUSA
- THE TOWN
- Tumble-Down Woods
- Tough Guy in Town
- In the Streets of Accra
- Snuff and the Ashes
- Radio Dance Hour
- This is Experience Speaking
- Palm Leaves of Childhood
- Hot Day
- The Literary Society
- It's Ritual Murder
- The Wrong Packing Case
- Lines on Korle Bu
- Pay Day
- The Walk of Life (Agbezoli)
- Peace
- Heaven is a Fine Place
- Ata
- Complaint
- To My Mother
- Oh! My Brother
- The Homeless Boy
- The Lone Horse
- The Perfect Understander
- The Woods Decay
- On Parting
- To the Night Insects
- The Blind Man from the North
- A Second Birthday
- In God's Tired Face
- The Executioner's Dream
- Had I Known
- Re-incarnation
- Ancestral Faces
- ‘O Forest, Dear Forest’
- My Sea Adventure
- The Passing of The King
- Patriotism
- African Heaven
- The Ghosts
- The Herdsman from Wa
- Pa Grant Due
- The Mosquito and the Young Ghanaian
- Unity in Diversity
- The Journey to Independence
- Ode to the Hon. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
- The Dawn of the New Era
- The Meaning of Independence
- National Anthem
- The Contributors
- Index
Summary
Hear the voice of the wayside preacher: ‘Heaven is a fine place; Heaven is a glorious place; Heaven is a comfortable place. Any who reaches Heaven will enjoy the most incomparable, superb, attractive and sweet smelling scent of life there, beyond utter description. Things there are incomparable with the practical, material, and visible things we see here, in life.
‘The bedecked houses, the towering mansions, which we see here, on this plane of life; the elaborate palaces of Kings and Queens; the mighty and magnificent cathedrals, the Domes, the Theatres and many other attractive establishments, on this earth, are merely the counterfeit imitation of Heavenly Habitations.
‘The hurrahs, the toasts, the ovations, and the various commemorations in which we jubilate, on this earth, are just the partial and divisional displays of the superabundance of Heavenly Design. The luxurious cars (amongst which we can mention the Studebaker, Opel, Zephyr, and the Jaguar), the spacious shining buses, the electrical or coal-engine trains, the buzzing and noisy aeroplanes, the Helicopters, all in magnitude and diminutive, are just inventions and artificial creations subtracted from the spiritual world.
‘As soon as a man enters Heaven, or has reached the threshold of entering there, he at once looks down upon these material and corporeal inventions, as futile as the sand.
‘The artful painted Damas, the wormlike looking velvets, the decorated kentes, which we preciously value; the soft smooth blankets, the dazzling woollens and palmbeaches, which we constantly procure and wrap our bodies in, are only the fallen leaves, from the top of the tree of Life, in Heaven, upon this earth. The man-made gods and goddesses: the gold, the diamonds, manganese, bauxite; uranium which man values so much, are mere drops, deposits, and evacuations of angelic superfluities.
‘The joys and merriment that we occasionally experience, and indulge ourselves in, are but the remnants of Heavenly festivals, which operate there at all times.
‘He who spends one day in Heaven, and has enjoyed himself there with its perpetual concomitant fragrance, aroma, and melodious music, sharply condemns and despises a thousand years of earthly reveries and orgies. Everybody, small or big, rich or poor, learned or unlearned, tall or short, must unceasingly fight from now onwards to secure the ticket, the passport, or the license to enable him to reach Heaven.
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- Information
- Voices of GhanaLiterary Contributions to the Ghana Broadcasting System 1955–57, pp. 204 - 208Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2018