Got home after a comme ci comme ça day. My spirit is heavy and my unconscious thought dwells on Wole Soyinka. When I have burden like this, I just freestyle and allow the spirit to lead and I float, typing whatever cums but tonight, there is resistance, a friction, the spirit warring with the flesh. I can’t concentrate.
So I went search for emails between me and him way back in the days. But my spirit is not focusing. I hope all is well with the sage.
Frustrated, I am just dropping this, I wrote when he turned 80, published June 3, 2014. Wise one, Eniogun, my thoughts are with you.
Why We Write; In Honour Of Wole Soyinka’s 80th Birthday
Primarily we write because we are social animals in search of people to share our ideas and ideals with. Because most of these people are far and oral communication will not be trusted to be transmitted without noise and distortion, we write; our forefathers carved theirs on stones, bark if trees and human bodies.
We also write because we are artists trying to express ourselves hence each of us has a unique writing style and choice adjectives that paints a wordy picture of the intent of the writer.
Whatever be the reason for writing-orally (Poetry) or by stringing letters together-prose, nobody should be denied the write to write.
If we are denied this write, some turn into murderers and suicide bombers to express themselves. Forensics will tell you that no two suicide bombers detonate the same bomb in the same manner or do murderers particularly serial killers choose the same killing method.
The banning of peaceful protest of the Bringback our girls by FCT Abuja Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu will not bring out the best in some of these protesters who have been writing their frustrations on mere placards. Pushing them underground or scattering them in such a manner that they will not have a centralized command centre is more a security risk than having them collectively writing Bringback our girls with their tears.
Police Commissioner Joseph Mbu is also a writer. He has with teargas and impunity written volumes in Rivers State before he was elevated to the FCT Abuja. We should look at the “papers” he wrote in Rivers to have an understanding of what he intends to communicate in FCT Abuja as 2015 General Election approaches.
Hardly do writers change their style and I don’t expect Mbu to but it is left for all concerned to write a rejoinder to Mbu’s write ups. We must communicate by daring Mbu and courting arrest for there is no greater autobiography than dying for what you believe in.
WS my own Eniogun, turns 80 and I am honoured to have had documented interesting intellectual intercourse with him. Sail on Mate; as we row after you.Ahoy!!
Che Oyinatumba
