Photo by Lockie Hunter during Wordplay show
At what point does a heart give up?
As if there’s a singular moment in time instead of a steady build-up weakening up to the day, the hour, the second…a slowing down of one’s life to that final time when the last breath is drawn.
As if we’re not passing on each day, getting close and closer to our deaths than when we first begun life.
I’m not sure whether the first time I met Binyavanga was in Kenya or Uganda. All I remember is we were at a writers’ conference, perhaps Kwani Trust which he’d founded. He was as flamboyant as a rainbow, full of jokes and creative provocation. Who will forget How to Write About Africa? The way that satirical essay gave birth to lots of fan-following and several imitations of How Not to Write About Africa? Binyavanga worked irony to the bone and we appreciated him. Later we met in Ghana during the Pan African Literary Forum (PALF) in 2008, and then Senegal when he came to TrustAfrica where I worked. He presented a proposal for funding literary activities. Those who have known him also know that he excelled at that—fundraising. No was never an option. He accomplished whatever he set his mind to while moving on to the next challenge. His bag was always full, even when he travelled light. He never ran out of ideas. He was large, large in life, and seems to have always been aware that we’re really here for a short time. And so he lived. All-or-nothing, his mantra. Tributes are pouring forth acknowledging the multitudes he contained in his self. To think of him is indeed to remember what a force he was in life, writing, and everything he did.
I’ll close this with a celebration of life in my new writing, nine poems recorded live on Wordplay show, Asheville FM 103.3. As you’ll hear in some of these poems, the month of May had already placed in me contemplation of life and death and bloom in between through the spirit of my beloved father. One of the songs I chose to accompany my work is an all-time favorite Kothbiro, by one of the finest Kenyan musician, Ayub Ogada. May this song soothe our souls and those we’ve loved that have journeyed on, including Ayub himself.
Y’all take care.
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