(Memory Evergreen)
A straight shooter he* was
Who never missed his mark
When he sent words on errands
He backed them up with the urgency of a summons
Not for him
That clever cloak of cant
Which rules the dissembler’s wardrobe
The hide-and-hit intrigue of the shadowy whisperer
Not for him
The mimic mask of protocolic pretensions
The panoply of prevarications
Which stands Truth on wobbling legs
He looked Truth in the eye
And both of them liked what they saw
Even in this land of fabulous fraud
He never faked or feigned
A Scientist addicted to Knowledge
He showed an ignorant nation
The ways of knowing – and doing
When death came at last, it met a book in his hand
Quick with the cutting word
Impatient with sluggish reasoning
And what a voluble story-teller he was
Humorous, unstintingly compassionate
From the busy lab to the far-flung farmstead
He pursued a tireless war on Hunger
His memory lives and thrives
Like evergreen songs of the River Basin
From Oke Are to Oke Ukere
His memory rides the hilly wind
Rest now, tireless warrior
Rest right, rest easy.
Niyi Osundare is one of Africa’s foremost poets and a Distinguished Professor of the University of New Orleans (UNO), where he teaches in the English Department.
A noted agronomist, relentless polemicist, former general manager of Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority, and longest-serving chairman of University Press Plc., Ibadan, Nigeria.
