Remembering 'Small,' the funeral singer who made joyful music in the face of death
The Ghanaian singer would vocalize and dance all night long to send off the departed. On the verge of his long awaited first trip to perform abroad, he has died, reportedly of COVID.
There is a sad irony in writing an obituary for a man who spent his adult life as a funeral singer.
For decades, Mbabila "Small" Batoh led his trio, fra fra, in providing funeral music throughout rural northern Ghana.
"Small," as he was widely known, played a homemade kologo (a 2-string lute)— with dog tags attached to the end for rattles. He belted original songs like "You Can't Escape Death" and "No One Is an Orphan" with a tenor of raspy virtuosity.
He could riff almost endlessly,
