The life and story of the late John Samuel Pobee, a New Testament scholar, theologian, writer, mentor, educator, ecumenist and missiologist is unconventional in many respects. In a foreword to an 80-page funeral brochure, the deceased had given strict instructions regarding his funeral. Giving credit to God’s grace and divine mercy that had kept him alive as a man who had lived with many physical ailments since childhood, he directed that at his funeral, there should be no “jingoism and haughtiness of the Pharisee in the biblical parable of the Pharisee and the Publican.” Therefore, even though tributes were to be included in the funeral brochure, they were not to be read at any of the services. Furthermore, Pobee gave instructions for his mortal remains to be interred at Akusu, the royal mausoleum of his wife, Martha, near Kumasi. For a proud Fante with a matrilineal lineage to request that he be buried in his wife’s cemetery is as unconventional as the man John Samuel Pobee.
Casely B. Essamuah (Wed,) studied this question.