Chidi,
I understand that some poets tend to think associatively...
Re- Your ambiguous, enigmatic, profound, provocative "History does not record silence"
A popular recurring phrase that we encounter regularly in journalese is "the gaping silence" which is critical and is usually meant to express outrage or surprise about non-reaction about an event / an occurrence that's crying out for at least a verbal reaction. (To take a local example from here in Sweden, one of our Congolese Brethren, Faustin, popularly known as "Mr Lova Lova" was murdered, dismembered, chopped up into pieces – and this was hardly reported in the Swedish media. Till today' it's the gaping silence.
There is the ominous silence, ominous, when "Silence means consent" In some such awful cases, silence means connivance
In all such cases in which we encounter "a gaping silence", somebody or somebodies missing in action, as in this case of Mr Lova Lova, ironically, history is here presently recording this silence, as history frequently records other silences – such as the hushed silence in mosques and churches over so many atrocities that one would expect to hear being condemned from pulpit and minbar
Nigeria can always boast of moral voices, men of conscience such as Chief Obafemi Awolowo ; Wole Soyinka, Gani Fawehinmi , Fela Kuti, Tai Solarin, to name just five. Maybe I should add Bishop Hassan Kukah, Prof Jibrin Ibrahim, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani)...I could extend the list. I am no expert.
There was no dearth of silence and there was certainly no connivance in many quartets, especially in the music industry during the Vietnam War or about Apartheid South Africa. South African Jazz and the Rastaman were not silent.
In situations where patience is running thin, can any such silence be regarded as " revolutionary silence"? I ask, because from experience I note that sometimes a long silence is followed by a loud explosion...the Krio proverb is," foll ( a chicken, fowl) wae noh dae yeri ( hear) sheee, go yeri stone" ( Which I translate as "My gun will be heard the next time!") Maybe some Krio expert among us could improve on the poetic transliteration.
Fact is that even guns eventually fall silent
It's amazing how much of the vocabulary in this thread (for me) borders on the metaphysical, _ words like "Silence" (mauna), "void", "nothingness" "emptiness" in my own little mind (if indeed it exists) only triggers Buddhism's sunyata / the void
No laughing matter Chidi that on the pragmatic plane ( in alphabetical order, Adeshina Afoloyan and Ibrahim Abdullah are closer to your purpose ( mundane reality)
On a lighter note:
Ibrahim,
Not to record creates a void! Absence creates nothingness!
CAO.
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