LIFESTYLE
A Special Dedication to a Special Man of Grace
He walks gracefully, works graciously and gives generously
Without noise but with dignity full of poise, he operates in a manner void of insanity.
His name is African. Difficult to pronounce. Just try it: ENEGNKI. The Africanness is not only unique but united and universal.
In its strangeness is its quiet attractiveness. In its calm quaintness is its absolute appeal. In its rarity is its silent significance.
He has strong political, social and economic views demonstrated in complicated subtility. They are clothed in sophisticated linguistic robes: full of endless sublime anecdotes, paradox, loftiness, nobility, dignity, parallelism, pun, innuendoes, irony, oxymoron and proverbs.
Of a truth, to know a man is to know his writing. To know a man’s writing is to know his style. To know his style, is to know him.
Little wonder, it has been said by a famous authority: (“Le style est l’homme meme.”) “The style is the man himself.” — Buffon.
He therefore believes albeit with a heavy tint of inversion, “The style is everything. The take is an afterthought.” Methinks, ‘The take is everything. The style is an afterthought.”
He has a brilliantly enlightened sense of humour. His sense of humour is buried in his unrivalled height of wisdom. His exalted sense of wisdom speaks volumes.
For example, he gives men fish. Like the Chinese proverb: The fish are always in the river. So, he teaches men how to fish. In effect, in the absence of the “fish-giver”, the diligent man would get the fish for himself always.
My understanding of him is that he should be, if he is not, a Professor, a philosopher, a writer, an essayist and a public-affairs commentator and an astute analyst, just to mention a few.
The 5th century Greeks were right. Kings ought to be philosophers and philosophers ought to be kings.
BUT Africa is backward.
He is pained. He is grieved. He is disappointed. Africa ought to be better. Like the biblical Moses, he is not satisfied with the comfort of the palace of Pharaoh.
What is the benefit of comfort when the people who are my brethren are comfortless? What is the essence of freedom when my kins are hopeless and their future blink? Their lands are ravaged by hunger, poverty and bondage. They are strangers in their ancestral home.
Hence in his views, he is against oppression, depression and suppression in all their ramifications, denotation and connotations.
He is against institutional and representative ‘victimization’ (for lack of a better term). Consequently, he is vehemently and unrepentantly opposed to Trumpism, Buharism, Putinism, Mamoodism, Uzodinmaism and all global-cum-local ‘symbolisms’ of “misleadership”, misrulership, misgovernance, misrepresentation and maladministration + mismanagement of the common resources.
With a shade of ‘biblicalism’, though he is in the Diaspora: he is not of the Diaspora. He rigorously remembers his roots. He fights that his roots might be liberated, protected, promoted developed, uplifted, settled and stabilized.
According to him, it is a “promise” he “made to God.”
He should not be aired. He should be heard nonetheless but not necessarily be seen. He is a form of the late Gani Fawehinmi, the Senior Advocate of the Masses, the Gadfly.
I hereby celebrate him in my rather infinitesimal manner. I make him the symbolic king of the common, ordinary people.
Like Jesus, he would oppose it. But leadership is by birth, not by position. Peter Obi officially lost the election in Nigeria but morally won it. Even outside power, he is showing leadership.
Ironically, those in power seems to be asleep (a story for another day).
Pregnancy-like: the truth can be hidden within the gestation period. But the truth cannot be hidden after the metaphorical “nine months.”
I celebrate you, sir.
Greetings to a few African writers here: Ik Ngene, Feyi Fawehinmi, Roy Biakpara.
Thanks for reading.
Read my stories:
“We are in a War: War Without Bullets”⬇️
https://medium.com/@chineduonyema2324/we-are-in-a-war-war-without-bullets-4cad6cda54c4
“Ekwe”⬇️
https://medium.com/short-sweet-valuable/ekwe-2e093022d1cc
