PART ONE
William Shakespeare, perhaps the greatest English poet and
playwright, in his epic play- Macbeth, looking melancholic and distraught, as a
result of the death of Lady Macbeth, had soliloquized-
“Tomorrow
and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the
last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools. The
way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle.
Life's but a
walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and
is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing.”
The world is replete with history of men who came in a jiffy and
left so soon. They are usually referred to as meteors.
A meteor is like a shooting star. It sparkles, it dazzles, it
brightens up, but it is also a falling star. They are also like joy, that has a
slender body, that breaks so soon- “Ayo
abara bin tin,” as was depicted in Ola Rotimi's epic play- “The gods are not to blame.” A meteor
rises fast and disappears at the apogee (height) of its glory. Meteors are
always messengers, usually in a hurry to deliver their messages and disappear.
Meteors are like-
Raphael Ernest Grill Armattoe-12th of August, 1913-22nd
of December, 1953.
Duro Ladipo-1931-1978, Walter Rodney-23rd March, 1942
to the 15th June, 1980 A Ghanaian doctor, author, poet and
politician.
Dr. Walter Rodney,
prominent scholar, historian, political activist- 23rd march 1942 to 13 June
1980.
 |
| Duro Ladiipo |
Pius Adebola Adesanmi 1972 to 10 March 2019.
Joseph Sanusi Gbadamosi Adegoke Adelabu- Penkelemesi a dazzling
politician, meteor and iconoclast- 1915-1958
Olusegun Awolowo, January
20 1939 to July 10 1963.
Tunji Ogunkanmi founder and promoter- Cornerstone Insurance Plc,
October 5 1960 to November 5, 2000.
Raphael
Ernest Grill Armattoe- 1st August, 1913 to 1953
He lived for 40 years. He was a
Ghanaian doctor, author, poet and politician. He was nominated for the 1949
Nobel peace prize and was a strong campaigner for the unification of British
and French Togo land.
REG was born at Keta in the
Gold Coast, in what is now known as the Volta Region of Ghana. After his basic education in the Gold Coast,
he left for Germany in 1930, at the age of 17, for further studies.
He studied in Germany, France
and the Ireland. He eventually qualified as a medical doctor in Edinburgh and
established his own private practice.
His research for the use of the
“Abochi drug” against human parasites,
led to his nomination for the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 1948.
Armattoe later devoted more
time to writing. He returned to the Gold Coastin 1947 and set up a medical
clinic at Kumasi, at the Ashanti region.
He turned his attention to
politics, writing and poetry. His first collection of poems- “between the forest and sea,” was
published in 1950.
Armattoe and Kwame Nkurmah were
of different political divides.
He joined the Ghana Congress
Party (GCP) rather than Nkurmah Convention People's party (CPP)
Armattoe died young and he had
predicted his death in a popular poem- “the
way I would like to die.”
He had said in the poem, he
would like to die while the dew is wet on the ground. The dew is wet on the
ground in the morning- a metaphorical phrase to express the morning of life i.e.
when one is young.
"This is the way I would like to go
If
you must know
I
would like to go while still young
While
the dew is wet on the grass
To
perish in a great air crash
With
a silver plane burning bright
Like
a flashing star in the night
While
the huge wreckage all ablaze, shines brightly for my last embrace...
I'd
like to see the flames consume
Each
nerve and bone and hair and nail
Till
of dust naught but ash remains
Or
as stone, swiftly sink unseen
But
if I should hear someone wail
Because
dust has gone back to dust
Mad
with fury, I shall return
To
smite the poor wretch on the head
So
let me go when I am young
And
the dew is still on the fern
With
a silver plane burning bright
Like
a flashing star in the night..."
In 1953, Armattoe travelled
to New York City, leading a delegation to address the United
Nations about the "Eweland question", seeking international
support for a union between British and French Togo. On his way back to
the Gold Coast, he visited his daughter Irusia, at the time a student
in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and then Germany. He fell ill and
died in a hospital in Hamburg. His wife reported that he said he had been
poisoned by some unknown persons. He had apparently been attacked previously by
supporters of Kwame Nkrumah.
Armattoe was married
to Swiss-born Leonie Schwartz, who was also known as "Marina".
They had two daughters, the elder, Irusia, being born in Derry. Armattoe
and his family lived at Kumasi in Ghana until his death. His father, Robert
Glikpo Armattoe, was a merchant who traded mainly with the Germans and also
studied local indigenous languages.
R.E.G Armattoe, Rest in perfect
peace.
DURO LADIIPO -1931 to 1978
He was one of the best known
Yoruba theatre icons, playwrights and stage theatre iconoclast. Like his name
sounded, he was born, several times, before he finally stayed, hence the name-
Duroorike
His stage plays captivated
Yoruba myths, pantheons, folklore and history. His most famous play- Oba Koso
(the king did not hang ) was a dramatisation of the Yoruba story of how Alaafin
Sango became the orisa of thunder. This play received international acclaim at
the first common-wealth art festival, Berlin in 1965 and on a European tour
packaged by his mentor- Professor Ulli Beier.
Duroorike, was raised in a
Christian family. His father was an Anglican Church priest in Osogbo. However,
Duro's interest in stage plays, drama and history, may have been influenced by
his grandfather, who migrated to Osogbo after the Jalumi war.
His grandfather was a Sango
priest, and was well versed in the Yoruba mythology, especially those emanating
from old Oyo.
At a young age, Duro Ladipo
sneaked out of the vicarage to watch Yoruba festivals. As a choir master in the
church, he scandalised the church, by including Bata drums in the Easter
Cantata, that he had composed for the church and he was thereafter excused from
the church choir group.
He thereafter started his home
theatre group in 1961, but he became fully established, with the founding of
the Mbari Mbayo club in Osogbo.
With a soaring popularity and
fame of a theatre icon, he produced Oba Moro in 1962, Oba Koso and Oba wa ja,
in 1964.
He was part of the Mbari Mbayo club
in Ibadan in 1961 and he later transformed the club into a cultural centre, art
gallery and a meeting point for young artists seeking to develop their talents
in Osogbo and its environs.
Duro Ladipo wrote quite a
number of plays such as-
Suru Baba Iwa and Tani mo owo
iku.
He also produced stage plays
for television stations. He produced- “Bode wa sinmi” for the Nigerian
Television Authority, Ibadan.
He dispensed with the
traditional dances and the opening and closing Glee's, usually employed for
bracketing performances.
Ladipo expressed his passion
for Yoruba culture and tradition through drama, music, dance and stage
performance.
On the 11th of March, 1978, at
the age of 47, Duro Ladipo breathed his last, after a brief illness in Osogbo.
Within this short space, Ladipo had dominated the theatre world like a
colossus. May the soul of this thespian, theatre icon, dramatist and playwright,
rest in perfect peace.
Walter
Rodney- 23rd march 1942 to 15th June, 1980 was born into a working
class family in George town, Guyana.
He was an exceptionally bright
student, a champion debater that earned him a scholarship at the university
college in the West Indies, Jamica. He graduated in 1963 at the age of 21 with
a first class degree in History. In 1966, at the age of 24, Rodney earned a PhD
in African History, at the school of African and oriental studies, England.
Rodney wrote his book- “A history of the upper guinea” in 1970
and was widely acclaimed for his originality. He traveled widely and became
very well known internationally as a scholar, activist and a formidable orator.
He taught at the university of Dar es Sallam in Tanzania, between 1966 to 1967
and 1969 and 1974 and briefly at his Alma matter- University of the West Indies
in Mona in 1969.
On the 15th of October, 1968,
the government of Jamaica, because of Rodney’s socialist inclinations, declared
him a persona- non Grata and was banned from ever entering Jamaica and was also
subsequently dismissed by the University of the West Indies.
This harsh political stand and
vendetta on Rodney, by the Jamaican Prime minster, Huge Shearer, led to a mass
uprising against the government by students and the poor of West Quinton, which
escalated into a riot, known as the “Rodney
riot.”
This riot, which resulted in several
deaths, hazards and violence, caused the Jamaican government, millions of
dollars in damages.
The riot triggered an increase in
political awareness across the Caribbean, especially among the Rastafarian
section of Jamaica and was well documented in Rodney's book, - “the groundings with my brother”
published in 1969.
In 1969, at the age of 27,
Rodney became a professor of history at the university of Dar-es Sallam.
There, he served as a professor
until 1974. In 1972, he wrote his epic and most influential book- “How Europe
under-developed Africa.”
The book became enormously influential
and it was perhaps among the first set of books, that would bring a fresh
perspective on under development in Africa.
When in Dar-es-sallam, he was
influential in developing a new center of African learning and discussion. In
1974, Rodney returned home to take up an appointment as a Professor at the University
of Guyana, but the Guyanese government prevented his appointment.
Despite this denial, he became
increasingly active in politics, he founded the Working People's Alliance- a
party that provided an effective and credible opposition to the Guyanese
Government.
On the 30th of June 1980,
Rodney was killed in Georgetown at the age of 38, by a bomb planted in his car-
a month after returning from celebrations that had seen Robert Mugabe's
emergence as the first President of Zimbabwe.
His brother- Donald Rodney, who
was also injured in the explosion, said that a Sergeant in Guyana defense
force, named Gurgle Smith, had planted in Rodney’s car, the bomb that killed
him.
After the killing, Smith fled
to French Guiana. There was a wide suspicion, though not proven, that the
assassination was set up by Guiana's then President- Linden Forbes Burnham.
Rodney's mission and struggle was to lift the cause of the masses
(proletariat) from the hands of the bourgeoisie- (the elites class in the
society.)
Rodney, one of the most
outstanding and profound scholars on the African continent, certainly lived his
38 years, for the poor of Africa.
A fellow Professor- Winston
Mark Bower at the Walter Rodney- commemorative symposium held at York College,
in June 2010 remarked that Walter Rodney- was a pioneering scholar, who
provided new answers to old questions and post old questions, in relation to
the study of Africa.
Professor Wole Soyinka, a Nobel
laureate, at a symposium, on Friday, the 27th June, 1980 at the Oduduwa Hall,
University of Ife, Nigeria, remarked that- Walter Rodney- "was clearly one of the most solidly ideologically
situated intellectuals ever to look colonialism and it's contemporary heir-
black opportunism and exploitation in the eye"
Rodney, perhaps must have lived
ahead of his time.
May his soul rest in peace.
Professor
Pius Adebola Adesanmi (27 February 1972-10th
March 2019)
He was a Nigerian-born Canadian professor, writer, literary
critic, satirist, and columnist. He was the author of “Naija No Dey Carry Last,” a 2015 collection of satirical essays.
Adesanmi died on the 10th March 2019, when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302
crashed shortly after take-off, from Addis-Ababa.
Adesanmi was born in Isanlu, in Yagba East Local Government area
of Kogi State, Nigeria. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in French language
from the University of Ilorin in 1992, a Master's degree in French from the
University of Ibadan in 1998, and a PhD in French Studies from the University
of British Columbia, Canada, in 2002.
Pius attended Titcombe College Egbe, Kogi state and earned his
first degree at the age of 20, his master's degree at the age of 26 and his PhD
at the age of 30. Between 2002 to 2005 Pius was an assistant Professor of
comparative literature at the Pennsylvania state university, USA.
In 2006, he joined Carlton university at Ottawa Canada as a full
time Professor of literature and African studies and thereafter became the
Director of the University's institute of African Studies until, his death on
the 10th of march, 2019, when Ethiopian airlines flight 302 to Nairobi crashed
immediately after take-off with all the 149 passengers and 8 crew on board. He
was on his way to an African Union Conference.
At an early age in Titcombe college, he was an instant star,
having represented the school in many competitions, with outstanding prices.
A friend of Pius- Professor E.C Osundu, of Providence College,
Rhodes Island, USA, captured the very essence of Pius' rather short but
extremely remarkable and meteoric life, in an elegy-
"Pius was a rare being,
ebullient, a razor sharp mind, he was what the Yoruba called “Omoluabi”- a person
of honour and good character. Yet when it came to polemics, he could easily
move to a jaguda (roughian) Nigeria has lost one of those who loves her most.”
In July 2018, perhaps as a foretaste of the impending doom, Pius
was involved in a car accident along Oyo / Ogbomosho road, when the vehicle he
was traveling in (a Nissan) had a head on collision with a car from Ibadan- (a
Toyota Privia)
Pius was heading to Lagos as usual, on another international
assignment, to catch a flight to Dakar, Senegal.
On this accident Pius wrote-
"Two hours after the accident, no help came. The evacuation
culture was zero...”
He further said that people just gathered at the scene of the
accident and were screaming and shouting. No one attempted to help.
A short while ago, Pius Adesanmi’s mother-Mama Louis
Olufunke-Adesanmi, had been denied a visa, on three different occasions, to
visit her son in Canada. The mother vowed that she would never apply for visa
again to Canada and like a soothsayer; she said they would bring the visa to
her in Ilorin. The Department of Foreign Affairs, invited Pius as a Guest
Speaker for an event. Pius did not waste the opportunity. After the lecture, he
thanked the head of the consular, during a tete
a tete, and told him, that he could not understand, why his mother was
denied entry visa to Canada to come and visit him. As was reported by Pius
friend and Confidant- Pharmacist Sunday Akoji- “three days after the event in Toronto, a dark heavily tinted SUV, with
a diplomatic plate number, pulled up in front of mama Adesanmi’s home in
Ilorin.”
The Canadian High Commissioner sent his aides, who drove all the
way from Lagos to Ilorin, to go and stamp Mama Adesanmi’s passport with a visa
to Canada, in her living room, with a letter of apology, personally signed by
the High Commissioner. Only a Pius could have attained this spectacular feat.
“Pius in his life
time wrote regularly for Premium Times and Sahara Reporters. Adesanmi’s
writings were usually content deep and in-depth. He was pungent and satiric,
with emphasis on the Nigeria's social and political system and culture that
needs a reawakening. His writings and his targets were usually among several
others- politicians, Pastors and relevant public figures.
In September 2015, his remark on the decision of the Emir of Kano
to marry an under aged wife could not but escape a personal response of the
Emir who responded to Adesanmi by name-
In the same year 2015, he gave a public Lecture titled- "Africa is the forward that the world
needs to face.”
He wrote his first book- “the
way fairer and other poems” in 2010 and in 2011, he also wrote, “you are not a country, Africa.”
This collection of essays won the inaugural penguin price for the
non-fiction category.
Pius was also in 2017, a recipient of Canada bureau of leadership
education award.
 |
| Hon. Femi Kehinde |
This seminal academic and public intellectual per excellence;
lived the life of a meteor. A quick pace and double steps. Adesanmi's death
elicited a candle light memorial at Unity Fountain Abuja and in cities around
the world. "Pius Adesanmi's must have lived two or
more life times before" according to
a poet- Chedu Eziana.
He left behind his wife- Olumuyiwa and her doting daughters-Damilare
and Oluwatise.
Pius, Rest in perfect peace.
TO BE CONTINUED...
This piece was written by:
HON. (BARR.) FEMI
KEHINDE, ATTORNEY AT LAW AND FORMER MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES, REPRESENTING
AYEDIRE/IWO/OLA-OLUWA, FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY (1999-2003) OF OSUN STATE.
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