By Momodu Turay, Lecturer, FBC
As we remember the 27th of December of every year, our rich memory of Ajayi Coomber as a father, teacher, colleague and friend continues to live on. We will never forget the 27th of December, 2013 when news of his death sent ripples of shock everywhere. How can we when we still struggle to come to terms with the reality that we will never meet again in flesh with the man who made us get one of our pleasantest memories of Fourah Bay College? To me, the loss was not only that of a dedicated teacher but that of a caring father.
Pa Coomber (as was commonly called) made a niche for himself. His commitment to duty touched every student he came in contact with. We (his students) still remember him as a stickler for time who has a marked aversion to slackness. He would never be late or worse still absent for a class. This was so even if it was the first week of the term (semester), which was and is still traditionally devoted to activities relating to students’ registration. As preliminary year students in 1990/91 Academic Year, we were particularly impressed by the fact that Pa Comber taught English with a certain inborn finesse and effortless elegance. In the first term of that year, we learned many things about Received Pronunciation and Standard British English. With regard to grammar for example, his primary objective was to elevate us from the stage of knowing grammar to the stage of knowing about grammar. In other words, he wanted us to talk about English grammar more confidently than even the average native speaker of the language can. Among other things, he made us realise that English is one of the languages of Sierra Leone, and there is therefore no excuse for gross incompetence in it. Also, probably in order to develop our passion for English, he emphasised the all-pervasive influence of the English language in the world.
In those days, the system was organised in such a way that students in each English class were divided into groups for weekly tutorial sessions. This was meant to reinforce learning. I can still remember that before we had our first tutorial lesson with Pa Coomber, he gave us an assignment asking us to write a five-paragraph essay on the topic ‘Why I Chose to Enter Fourah Bay College.’ Little did we know that our lecturer was looking out for an opportunity to identify our pitfalls. When we collected our marked scripts, we realised that in each of those scripts, the old man had painstakingly recorded the sentences that contained errors – which were either underlined or ringed – in his personal file. The whole of the week was committed to the identification and correction of our errors. Pa Coomber devised appropriate correction strategies for the error types. For each spelling error, for example, the ‘culprit’ would be asked to rewrite it five times. That was how I came to learn that ‘in fact’, ‘beginning’ and ‘occasion’ have two words, two ‘ns’ and one ‘s’ respectively.
When Pa Coomber left for Kenya in 1990/91 Academic Year, we considered that loss irreplaceable. Indeed, we never had someone who could replace him adequately throughout our remaining four-year course at Fourah Bay College.
Mercifully, after over a decade, the Department was still reeling from the loss following Pa Coomber’s departure when he decided to join it on secondment. This period (2002/3 – 2005/6) marked Pa Coomber’s second coming to the University of Sierra Leone. It was the opportunity provided by his presence that I grabbed to complete my masters programme under his sole supervision. As if that was not enough, under his inspiration, I registered for a PhD programme and he co-supervised my thesis. This second coming had more important developments. One such development threw more light on Pa Coomber’s inordinate passion for his profession. It was concerned with a rumour that he turned down an offer from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology asking him to serve in the administrative wing of the Sababu Education project. He had the required administrative experience for the post. In any age where the number of desperadoes is ever on the increase, one wonders how many of us (his students) could vow to emulate him in this regard!
Pa Coomber continued to serve humanity even while he was on his death bed. During his last days, he wrote an article titled ‘Mind Your Language’ where he collected common errors from his favourite newspapers for the attention of the reading public. (See p. – of this edition) However, he did not live long to see the publication of this article. Significantly, although we have been robbed of our father, teacher, colleague and friend, the loss can be described as partial. For he had worked consistently enough to ensure that good memories of him will not die.
© Politico 13/01/15
