Eighty-six Gun Salute to Kongi

This is a very special post and I didn't want today to just go like others without carving a note into history about one of Nigeria's and Africa's most celebrated and decorated writer.




( Receiving the highly coveted Nobel Prize in Literature- 1986)


My first encounter with this Votary of Ogun was in secondary school, Jibril Martin High School, in Iponri. I did not know how I came about this little book and I can't even remember its title. But in it, I found legendary Nigerians who had put Nigeria's map in the world. It was there I read of the Ogun man. How he won several literary prizes while he was in secondary school. Then he found a placement in The premier University to study English. It was then I decided I was going to study in the university of Ibadan. My thought was: if Ogun Abibiman could go there, that means there was something there for me too.


Well, our hero or should I say my hero because he is my role model. Oh! I didn't tell you who I am talking about? Well, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. Becoming the first African to be so honored. By now you should know who I am talking about.


My second encounter with this great man of letters was still in secondary school. My good friend Deji Ogunbamowo gave me a copy of The Man Died to read and to keep. Then, we were in senior secondary school (S.S 1). I read it but got lost in the maze of words and worlds. I abandoned the task that year and later came full circle with other works as an undergraduate in the Department of English at the university of Ibadan. Works like The Lion and the Jewel, Kong's Harvest, The Trial of Brother Jero and the sequel, Jero's Metamorphosis; The Strong Breed, Madmen and Specialists, Ibadan; The Penkelemese years, King Babu, The Dance of the Forest; Death and the King's Horseman, Bacchae of Euripides; Season of Anomy, The Interpreters, A play of Giants; A Forest of thousand Daemons (English translation of Ogboju ode ninu Igbo Irumale by D. O Fagunwa , Opera Wonyonsi, Isara: A voyage Around Essay, Ake: The Years of Childhood; Childe Internationale, You Must Set Forth at Dawn, To Zia with Love, Alapata of Apata; The Road, Harmattan Haze on an African Spring( which I am yet to read). I have listed this books in no particular order.


Dr. Ademola Dasylva, later Professor, was he that first called you Igilango Geesi(Master of English) in many of his hilarious and highly dramatic classes in those memorable years. The then Dr. Nelson Fashina, now Professor, nearly choked us with more than forty dramatic text in our 200 level. Truth be told, we are the better for it. Because it exposed us to writers and the world they painted and how to interprete the world through their texts.









I told you earlier that Wole Soyinka is my first motivation for wanting to study at the university of Ibadan. The second motivation is my love for African novels or any novel at that that promises great plot and good story line, plus a deep message.


Although, I have not had the opportunity to meet Kongi before. But I am hopeful that before he changes path with this earth, I will share a table with him and we will discuss his works, his life and belief system. I forgot to tell you that I penned a poem for Kongi when he turned 80. But how to get it to him became the bone of contention. It is not a lofty poem as such. Take it like a little child's play; a handshake from a boy to a grandfather.






Fly high igilango geesi!
You mix acid with your ink
too hard for king Babu to drink.
You stormed the radio house
Denouncing Mad Men and Specialists who were returning from a Dance of the Forest.
You became a victim in Dodan barracks while Gowon leads a parade for his bride in Lagos during the civil war that reduced us to dwarfed giants.
and the cable came reading: The Man died!


You made a short stay before a congenital idiot thirsted for your pen and your life.


You fled then, re-robing as The Swamp Dwellers examining The Trials of Brother Jero.


You felt The Road wasn't safe enough and you came to Ibadan: The Penkelemes years through which A Play of Giants rode,
Fetching you the Nobel Prize only Africa's finest can receive.


It was you that brought us
to the map of letters.
The Swedish cannot deny the prowess of your pen.
When Death and the King's horseman staged in London,
They bowed to the protégé of Ogun.


Kongi, you have fought many wild beasts and survived many harsh juntas.
It is now time to rest and nurse
these little toddlers learning the magic of words.


Like I said, it is nothing big. I just wanted to add my voice to the numerous voices chanting the praise of the Nobel Laureate, Emeritus Professor Akinwande Wole Soyinka. Happy 86th Birthday sir!


I still remain
Yours truly,
Julius Topohozin.