A Confluence of Departures

The death, announced yesterday of the beloved Nigerian writer, administrator and traditional ruler, Vincent Ike (https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/ike-vincent-chukwuemeka-1931) coincides with my voracious reading of the book, 'Christopher Okigbo: Thirsting for Sunlight 1930-67', the late poet's biography by Obi Nwakanma. Okigbo's shortened life was taken during the Biafran conflict in 1967. I was already familiar with Chris Okigbo's literary output as a student in Nigeria. And studying History and Political Science at Ife in the 1980s offered also an insight into how he met his end in the heat of battle. For most Nigerians, the Biafra story is a painful one. The notion of the writer as a conscientious objector - or martyr to a lofty cause presides over a huge body of intellectual thought. In her book, Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Adichie brings to life, sometimes in a graphic and brutal way, the cascade of events that typified the slide to war in 1967, with its human cost.

Obi Nwakanma's 'Christopher Okigbo: Thirsting for Sunlight 1930-67' was a gift to me by my friend and old school mate at Ibadan Boys' High School, Olola Ayo Ajayi. I had not read the book for over a year. Perhaps one reason was that I was quietly apprehensive about what I might learn about the life of the enigmatic poet who died aged 37 in tragic circumstances. I was anxious of discovering the innards of a life so fruitful but brutally truncated. I was on the last few pages yesterday when news of Vincent Ike's death was announced. It mattered because Ike and Chris Okigbo were contemporaries as school boys at Government College, Umuahia, one of the first colonial grammar schools modeled on Eton College and Harrow School to train a generation of post-colonial leaders in Nigeria. When Ike and Okigbo (including Elechi Amadi (12 May 1934 – 29 June 2016) attended GCU, the school had a 9-hole golf course!

Ike and Okigbo were part of the nascent crop of intellectuals and future leaders spawned by the active steps of the Colonial government to enlist Nigerians in the public service following the huge loss of British administrators after WW2 as well as a clamour for independence. The erection of 'Government Colleges' across the country was one of the founding blocks following on the success of King's College, Lagos and Yaba Higher College, then the highest tertiary institution in the country. Reading Nwakanma's biography is to view a kaleidoscope of human encounters involving the Crème de la crème of Nigerian society. The main connector was the University College, Ibadan which was set up in 1948 to replace Yaba Higher College by absorbing its students as the nucleus of its first undergraduates. These Yaba Higher College cohort were joined by the young boys from the Government Colleges (including Bayero College, Zaria).

Chris Okigbo and Vincent Ike were contemporaries at University College, Ibadan as were Chinua Achebe, Muhammad Bello, later Chief Justice of Nigeria, Burba Ardo, Mamman Nasir, and 1986 Nobel Laurette, Wole Soyinka. This generation of men and some women were drenched in deep intellectual waters at UCI. The friendships, especially, before the political runctions following independence in 1960, were deep, with resonances of a romantic fervour. The narrations given by Nwakanma are equally touching and ruefull. It is difficult not to pause and wonder how such an assemblage of talent coexisted with a rottening of the soul of a country that held so much promise.

We find the reason for this in Okigbo's poems and in the contemporanous work of Achebe and Soyinka. Indeed, Nwakanma tells us that Okigbo told Wole Soyinka that his play, A Dance of the Forests, commissioned at Federal Palace for the Independence Day celebration was too dark and portended a bad omen for the country. This was in contrast to Okigbo's own celebratory verses:

Thundering drums and cannons

in palmgrove

the spirit is in ascent (Lustra IV, Heavensgate)

Okigbo's biography opens the door to a past that was meant to herald a future of prosperity for a new country. Nwakanma captures the anxiety of the young intellectuals, administrators and business people as they tried to visualise and influence the path of their country's future. It was clear to many of them that the colonial departure was being foisted to somewhat disarm the new country from full propulsion to development. The indications of this veiled effort was controversy over the Anglo-Nigerian Defence Agreement of 1960 which was abrogated following protests against 'neocolonialism' by a wide range of opponents. It was not long before political crisis was unleashed after the 1962 Western Nigeria Parliamentary Crisis. Okigbo was a direct observant in this political theatre and many of his contemporaries were active participants including fellow UCI Classics graduate, Bola Ige who had become a top gun in the Obafemi Awolowo's Action Group political party.

The passing of Vincent Ike at the ripe old age of 89 contrasts with the untimely death of Chris Okigbo at 37 in 1967. Perhaps of Vincent Ike it could be said, he fulfilled his life which was rich and emblematic. And of Okigbo it could be said, his was cut short in its prime. Yet, of Okigbo, Nwakanma remembers that he lived a frenetic life, energetic and vicious, giving and receiving in equal measure at a rate many of his friends soon became used to. A friend, Godwin Adokpaye is quoted as saying the poet was 'a restless spirit in a hurry to complete this cycle of life'.

In 1984, Wole Soyinka used the phrase ' wasted generation' to describe the legacy of people like him who had been the nascent lightbearers of the newly independent Nigeria. It was a controverial statement. If I had a foggy idea of what he meant then, I don't anymore. Nwakanma's insight into Okigbo's world - and that of that generation of Government College and UCI boys and girls, confirms that Soyinka was right. The truth may be that in Okigbo's death in battle at Opi Junction and in Soyinka's own imprisonment during the same war, Nigeria's post-Independence elite, however long they live, all bear a pain in their heart that time cannot heal.

Saturday 11 January 2020