Every Wednesday night during the winter semester, Kwadwo Opoku-Agyemang takes a group of nine students to the Africa. Never mind that they never leave the classroom on the fourth floor of the Eberhard Center. They go. To Africa in general, and to Opoku-Agyemang's home country of Ghana in particular.
Opoku-Agyemang (KWA-jo o-POKE-ooh ah-je-MANG), a professor from University of Cape Coast in Ghana, is teaching at Grand Valley State University during the 1999-2000 academic year as GVSU's first Fulbright scholar. Opoku-Agyemang has taught African, Caribbean, African-American and British literature at the University of Cape Coast since 1986.
At Grand Valley this semester, he is teaching a course called Oral Literature in Africa, as part of GVSU's English and African/African-American Studies curricula.
This is an introductory course to acquaint students with the topography of oral literature in Africa, Opoku-Agyemang explains in the course syllabus. The largest majority of illustrations will be taken from Wet African societies, particularly from Ghana.
On a recent evening, Opoku-Agyemang writes key words and names of characters from a story on the classroom's marker board. His soft-spoken, slightly accented voice draw students in as he recounts a story about a priest, a prince, and a golden stool that guarantees the Ashanti nation victory in war.
The story imposes a myth on the people of Ashanti, with a central metaphor that becomes the symbol of the nation, he explains, as part of a lecture on the topic of primal myth. And so, a reality has been created out of this narrative.
The students are attentive throughout the explanation. Emmanuel Addai, a senior from Berrien Springs who emigrated from Ghana with his family when he was three years old, finds the course personally interesting.
This class has benefited me because since I've been in the United States so long I didn't know so much about my own culture, says Addai, a Behavioral Science major. He's focusing on Ghana because that's where he's from. Another reason I took this class is because the professor spoke in one of my African literature classes last semester about oral literature, and I was curious about it.
The course also satisfies a personal interest for Tammy Layman, a 1994 GVSU graduate who is involved with local group called the Story Spinners. She will apply what she learns about oral literature when she tells stories at future community events at nature centers, schools, retirement homes, and museums.
The way he delivers the class is more of a haven, Layman says. He tells stories in class and that's how we learn. I would never have read African folktales before, but now I might use them. For instance, next year for Black History Month I'll be prepared with some stories.
In addition to myths and legends, Opoku-Agyemang will be discussing poetry, proverbs, songs of insult, drum language and a variety of tales that have a specific purpose.
African folklore is a remarkable repository of delightfully didactic information about African thinking and creativity, he explains. There are mythical tales of a pre-cynical world before it grew old and full of days, songs to rock love awake, gentle tales to send children to sleep, proverbs to summarize life's lessons, and dirges to ease the eternal burden of death.
A native of Ghana, Opoku-Agyemang is nonetheless familiar with North America. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees from York University in Toronto. He was awarded a previous Fulbright grant 10 years ago and spent one academic year at Clark University in Atlanta. Last year he gave a series of lectures at Wake Forest University.
In addition to teaching, Opoku-Agyemang has been keeping an active speaking schedule in the community. His next speech is scheduled for February 14 as part of the World Affairs Council Great Decisions series. His lecture is titled In the Shadow of the Castle: Africa's Place in the World. The free lecture will be in the Gerald R. Ford Museum at 7 p.m.
Opoku-Agyemang applied for a Fulbright grant to spend this year at GVSU after he lectured in Ghana to a group of visitors from Grand Rapids, including GVSU faculty members and Dean of International Affairs Brenda Robinson. Accra, Ghana, is a sister city of Grand Rapids.
The Fulbright program was established in 1946 under congressional legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. The program, designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries, is sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency and administered by the Council for International Exchange Scholars.
