JULY 13 FOR THE LION AND THE JEWEL

By Dahood Kolawole Mandela

It has to be noted that Uncle Akinwándé Oluwo̩lé Babátúndé S̩óyinká is a hybrid: a typical Ijegba. In writing he is portrayed as a hybrid of Medieval and Renaissance. In deeds, he is both the lion and the jewel. To the made-writers he is a semi-god. To the made-literati he is an Athena, the Greek god of wisdom, intelligence, skill, peace, warfare, battle strategy, and handicrafts. No wonder he is described as Ogunlakaye of words and Irunmole of letters. The writers at formative stages read him as books and sip or gulp the sublime of his knowledge from unequivocal titles. The light he brought to Africa with the worded wordings in 1960s and the unparalleled glory of 1986 shall forever be celebrated and appreciated. The oldest retainer of Nigerian cultures. An undiluted theist. Ambassador of Ogun. I doff my cap and raise my fist.

He is indeed a lion with never-say-die spirit. The hater of impiety and impunity. The lion that threatened the “Alapata Apata” (The butcher at Aso Rock). His zero tolerance for injustice we shall always celebrate. The only figure that threatens Ibrahim Babangida. The only living soul that makes Olusegun Obasanjo fidgets. Your efforts to avert fratricidal war of 1967 shall forever be appreciated. Even when isolated from the “crazy world” as your cousin, Fela Anikulapo, would call it you were not silenced by the “silencers.” Your tigeritude is not a surprise anyway. Your aunt, Funmilayo Kuti and your mother, “Wild Christian” portrayed heroism in the “Adubi crisis” and your cousin through artful Afro-music questioned the ineptitude of our society. Blessed is the household of S.A Sóyinká (Essay, your father). Blessed is the womb of “Wild Christian” – your mother. Blessed is this era that witness you. Our own WS, that’s greater than William Shakespeare. Our own “word”, that’s greater than William Wordsworth.wole

Imagine his first sojourn to the ancient metropolitan city of hospitality, Ibadan. Imagine the competition he faced during his entrance examination. Dr. Omololu Olunloyo, the former Governor of Oyo State and his classmate confirmed it that 2002 students sat for the examination but only 47 of them made it to the Government College, Ibadan. Imagine the condition of Education in his days at “Apata Ganga.” His arithmetic was poor because he has “arithmaphobia” but his creativity was matchless, nonpareil and unequaled. No wonder “Oloye” S.A Sóyinká (his father) gave him lots of books, the to-be-materials for success and greatness as if he saw the future , at the railway station in Abeokuta. Ugh……….. Know the gifts you buy your child(ren). His talent was easily noticed by the talent-scouts (his teachers) who introduced him to the school Drama Group. In the league of talents he was foregrounding. A little tiny figure that transformed quickly into an unfelled iroko. Books are manure to him and writing, the only disease he had long contracted through his father.

He is a blessing to the University of Ibadan and the University’s Education in Nigeria. Tell the world all over that the 1986 Nobel Prize of Literature Winner studied here on our soil and in our university. If his University degree represents another hybridization, his primary education and even secondary were both in the villages. And Ibadan was never a city that could match the description of London. If none of the Nigerian universities appears on the world universities’ ranking it is a shame on the faces of our directionless leaders. It is as a result of the general neglect of Arts and the value of creativity. Kongi is our university and his ranking is first since 1986.

“Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement”, this is the submission of Vladimir Lenin. Kongi was blended with theories as a young graduate from the Government College, Ibadan. He was grand as a person, his actions grandiose and his speech grandiloquent. As a thoroughbred and firebrand young school leaver entering a university he quickly noticed the ineptitude relationship between African students and foreign lecturers. Our lion roared and his lion-like attitude was noticeable. The saboteurs or gadflies were cowed. Blessed are your days as undergraduate. Imagine the condition we would have met our university. White men would have ridden us like horses. We are thankful to our titan: The great Beowulf with PEN as a sword.

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Baba! As if you saw the future that some left-sided thinking fellows would be born, you designed our world through the well crafted words that would persuade us to appreciate books and Literatures. You simplified, simplify and keep simplifying the ever confused English letters from the distance. You make us understand that the removal of “W” from “Where, What and When” and the addition of “T” to replace it answers all the questions. The mysteries that even the white man finds difficult. You are truly a deity of letters that deserved to be worshipped with letters. The unelected parliament for justice, equity and fairness. His heroics during the wetie regime are still fresh in our memory. He registered his dissatisfaction before General Ibrahim Babangida even in the midst of celebration when Dele Giwa was assassinated. He elbowed quietude-ness when Ken Saro Wiwa was unfairly killed and led protest in the heart of London. His letters to the world leaders about the orchestrated wantons of General Sanni Abacha is fresh in our memory. Thanks a million baba for your sincerity to your words that “the man dies in him who keeps silent in the face of injustice.”

Long live Kongi. Long baba Olaokun, Moremi, Iyetade, Peyibomi, etc. Long live, the grand Father of African Literature. Long live our lion; our jewel.

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