Dear Oga Ikhide:
I haven't shown you any poetry yet.
A friend, Bankole Irungu once marveled that so many black people in Stockholm could be smiling so much, all of the time. Me? Ask those who know me – if I enjoy this love-life or not. But I'm often angry, sometimes like this or even like this and as I've said before some people born free in Freetown, Sierra Leone are not used to some other free people telling them what to do, when to smile and when to play soukous. So, all I want is some clarity from you please. Exactly what do you mean by "elimination"?
It kept me worried all last night. Does Ikihide mean that I'm going to be "eliminated"? By who? Mwalimu? The only elimination that I've ever been interested in is called "fana" the elimination of the ego (it has various other names in other traditions) – and I tried, I really tried to be "no me" (abject humility) and Mr. Ego was severely suppressed for many, many, years, even artistically, when playing the unamplified guitar, and then one day "it" (he?) REBELLED ! I will continue to be me.
I just watched the midday news on BBC- CNN – Sky news- and then "Crisis in Egypt : The Next move for the US", an interview with a former American ambassador on CNBC, then some more news updates, all about the upcoming Muslim Brotherhood "day of rage" now that el-Sisi has said that the army must now fire live bullets in self-defence, in their country Egypt - after the army massacres of 5th July, 27th) and 13th -13th August and then, without any warning two worlds came into view : the image of Ikhide (the man) cycling away slowly (on a bicycle) and some still unclarified fog about what he means by "eliminations" – which for my own peace of mind I'd like to have cleared up as soon as possible and what I really want to know, is, is it good or is it bad? Does Oga Ikhide approve or disapprove? Is he thoroughly disgusted? Is it a venial or a mortal sin – the kind of sin that will cost me my immortality? Should I care –or should I want to pierce an arrow through his bone marrow and then cycle (slowly) away – to what awaits me before the end of eternity?
Now, with the " Day of rage" in Egypt still ringing in my ears , Nina Simone's Mr. Bojangles and her "Don't let me be misunderstood " just popped up in my head (from nowhere ) and that's the beginning of rumination over which I have no control. Or perhaps the rumination started and was carrying on (in my head) unnoticed, until someone and something as concrete as Mr. Bongo and Nina's "Don't let me be misunderstood" popped up - unsummoned – but at least something concrete, something of material content (the lyrics and the melody) as for me dear Oga Ikhide constitutes music, = rhythm and melody intertwined as it is here for instance (circa 1970)
Thinking of Ikhide (thinking, not rumi-nating - like Rumi) thinking - a much sharper activity – and I think better with a pencil in my hand and trying to figure out what the Oga means by "eliminations" - as a medical student told me yesterday about a studying technique," You know that you have understood when you can explain it to someone"
Thinking of Michel Butor and Atwood bitters. According to SL herbal science, if It's sweet, it's no good for a man – (sugar gives "makru) and if it's bitter then it's all to the good for a man.
Also thinking of the role of Marlow ("pass the bottle") some Conrad narratives.
And now I pass the bottle ( not the kind that Wofa Akwasi has been reporting about Kenya) I pass the bottle of Kosher wine hoping that you don't fall off your bicycle as you cycle way , slowly…
On Thursday, 15 August 2013 14:50:01 UTC+2, xokigbo wrote:
Eliminations! How did ruminations turn into THAT?IkhideSent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
-------- Original message --------
From: Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Date: 08/15/2013 7:57 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Okwy Okeke <okwud...@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - My apologies please.
Are you tempting me to shoot a cupid harrow into your wheel barrow?On Thursday, 15 August 2013 13:38:32 UTC+2, IKHIDE wrote:Oga Cornelius,The prose-poetry of your eliminations! Man, you are something else, you are something else! I have never ever not met a man like you!*cycles away slowly*Oga Okwy Okeke ,
This is a true story - one of your minster brothers came into the nightclub with two beautiful German bitches, one hanging on his left arm and the other hanging on his right – whereupon some drunken German tourists started to hoot and make monkey noises and performed a whooping wild jungle dance around him mocking and taunting him – they must have thought that they were in the Berlin Club 1939. Brer Minister who was in his agbada and sporting a Zik type red riding hood went to the phone and ordered two military jeeps to come to the scene of the crime pronto - and there the German tourists were bundled into the jeep taken to their hotel to collect their passports and then put on the first flight to Bonn – after which he phoned the governor who also smiled at him, "You sef now, oh you do am oh!" There was no "diplomatic incident", no fallout. You didn't read about it in any Nigerian or German newspaper. These things 'appen.
I agree with you about Adepoju. Just the first verse here. Apparently, Adepoju would like some Igbo authority (maybe the National Council of the Igbo Elders?) to issue a licence (like a driving licence) to speak on behalf of Igbos. I wonder what kind of licence would entitle the loose cannon to speak on behalf of Nigeria or on behalf of humanity /i-manity or just "common decency" or to speak "responsibly", or will it do to merely say God sent me or the Angel Gabriel told me to warn them?
About Cardinal Rex Lawson , well, first thing I did, I made a pilgrimage to his grave and found some goats grazing peacefully in the grass that was growing right over him, whilst you - you were merely watching the sacred crocodiles feasting and swashbuckling their tails in the sunset and of course keeping your hands out of harm's way. (Please tell us some more sometime)
Had a similar experience when I left flowers by Carl Michael Bellman's grave by the Church opposite Åhlens - I remember the birds chirping - although he isn't buried there, he's buried someplace else. That night, I dreamed I was hanging out with Bellman in an inn in eighteenth century Stockholm - and it was rather crowded, and rowdy. Here's Martin Best (an Englishman) at his best doing one of my Bellman songs. I wonder how Rex or the Seagull's Prince David Bull would have done it.
About Cardinal Rex Lawson, well poets can be dead and still write or be read - and yes they can, can be dead wrong. If Rex's mum was Kalabari then I'm a Yoruba man. If his mum was from some Igbo clan, I'm still a Yoruba man.
Dead write or dead wrong as it may be, here's a re-posting, And the elements were so mixed in him,
About diversity, re- your words, "Only the simpleton fails to understand the wisdom of letting the weed and the grain grow, or for the eagle and kite to perch."
To everybody:
OH how I love this: to see heaven in a wild flower, the previous, The Crystal Cabinet, and the next : To Thomas Butts and the one before that : The Everlasting Gospel and while you may demur there are those who prefer Another Verse-ion and the one after that: Broken Love and all of them and worse still , thinking about Egypt and Everything
Have been mulling over this ever since Brother Obama's visit was announced - now consult the short note I wrote: "Nobel Peace Laureate Barack cf. security not only around him cf. also terrorism" - and then yesterday I saw some of it in print: Sweden labelled 'high risk' before Obama visit
At this point I'm afraid to turn on the TV to see what the hell is going on in Egypt.
I wish that like Oga Ikhide I could cycle slowly away,
and say bye for now,
On Thursday, 15 August 2013 02:03:17 UTC+2, okwy wrote:Hi Cornelius (hope you don't mind the first name),The first referenced piece in your reply is mine, while the second isn't. John Does are not all the same, especially when one of them adds a title to differentiate himself from poor proletariats like me.You are dead right on Cardinal Rex Lawson, and I am embarrassed given that I worked in the Akaso groves as recently as last year, watched the sacred crocodiles (even as they stopped us from our task), and played in those waters, story for another day.On the matter of The Theory of What Should Be according to Toyin Adepoju, I demur, then I was raised to find value in everything, even the hunch-backed midget, or the crooked finger as you never know what the gods may demand for sacrifice tomorrow. Only the simpleton fails to understand the wisdom of letting the weed and the grain grow, or for the eagle and kite to perch.Cheers,...Okwy------------------------------------------
We face forward,...we face neither East or West: we face forward.......Kwame Nkrumah
From: Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Okwy Okeke <okwud...@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, 14 August 2013, 19:16
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - My apologies please.
Sir,At least I've read your AnambraForum : Message: Okwy Okeke's Lessons: Defection toAnd your comment on The Sun News Soyinka has a covenant with Igbo people , so as to have an idea of where else you're coming f
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
No comments:
Post a Comment