“Come back again”, you said,
Your face glowing with that generous smile
Your voice that semi-baritone whose music
Embraced the listener’s ears.
There was a redolent lyricism to your laughter
An adorably mischievous wittiness to your humour
You took me back to that day in Nigeria
When I called you “Prince Henry” and assured you that
We, your hosts, had sent somebody to bring your crown
I remember the way you looked at the Nigerian sky
Through the publisher’s window, chuckled heartily;
Then this unforgettable retort:
“Give me a kingdom first, then
A palace populated by restless books
And a throng of willing readers”
We laughed so lustily that afternoon
The sun almost joined us from
The height of its tropical escape
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The book was your life, now your legacy
You read it, wrote it, lived it, pressed every page
Of it into earnestly humane service
And built it a temple in your capacious mind.
Candor met courage and loyalty found a niche
In the pantheon of vital virtues
You who threw open your pages
To our neglected tongues
And the eloquent power of their hidden beauty
Sleep well, Brother
Tell Marjorie we are still trying to Make it Sing*
Even as we count the stanzas of Micere’s Mother’s Poem**
Tell Rubadiri the village still “looks behind banana groves”
As Imperial Stanley meets the welcoming Mutesa***
Our past still eyes our present from its long, inscrutable mask
Rest well, Miyinzi the Bookman
The future lives on the pages of your vision
We embrace it with literate aplomb.
*to *** Reference to Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye’s “Make It Sing”; Micere Githae Mugo’s “My Mother’s Poem”; David Rubadiri’s “Stanley Meets Mutesa”.