And the Kenyan rain has watered many new seeds: New songs, new stories, new sciences In our busy laboratories, new modes in our methods of being
Come again and pick more petals from Your “Flowers of the Rift Valley”, Multiply your marvel at the stunning majesty
Of the flamingoes, pink and proud. Furrow through the fabulously fertile soil Of Limuru, birthplace of our celebrated Storyteller
Whose tales traverse the world. Share another song With Chavakali High where fledgeling stars groom Their wings for future skies”
*
“Come back again”, you said, Your face glowing with that generous smile Your voice that semi-baritone whose music
Embraced the ears of the world. There was a redolent lyricism to your laughter An adorably mischievous wittiness to your humour
You took me back to that day in Nigeria When I called you “PrinceHenry” and assured you that We, your hosts, had sent somebody to bring your crown
I remember the way you looked at the Nigerian sky Through the publisher’s window, chuckled heartily; Then this unforgettable retort:
“First, give me a kingdom, then A palace populated by restless books And a throng of willing readers
Fill one room with a bushel of laughter A symphony of soft whispers And bubbling wine from your rarest palms. . . .”
We laughed so lustily that afternoon The sun envied our sport From the top of its tropical turf.
The book was your life, now your legacy You read it, wrote it, lived it, pressed every page Of it into earnestly humane service
And built it a temple in your capacious mind. Candor met courage and loyalty found a niche In the pantheon of your virtues
You who threw open your pages To our neglected tongues And the eloquent power of their hidden beauty
Sleep well, Brother Tell Marjorie we are still trying toMake it Sing++ Even as we count the stanzas of Micere’s Mother’s Poem+++
Tell Rubadiri the village still “looks behind banana groves”++++ As Imperial Stanley meets the welcoming Mutesa Our past still eyes our present from its long, inscrutable mask
Rest well, Miyinzi the Bookman The future lives on the pages of your hope We embrace it with literate aplomb.
+ Reference to my 1996 visit to Kenya on the invitation of East Africa Educational Publishers, for the presentation and launch of its new edition ofPoems from East Africa, the famous anthology edited by David Cook and David Rubadiri.My visit took me through the stunning beauty of Western Kenya, inspiring a body of poems titled “Flowers of the Rift Valley” dedicated to Henry Chakava, and published later inIf Only the Road Could Tak, Poetic Peregrinations in Africa, Asia, And Europe.
+ to ++++ Reference to Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye’s “Make It Sing”; Micere Githae Mugo’s “My Mother’s Poem”; David Rubadiri’s “Stanley Meets Mutesa”.
Niyi Osundare, one of Africa’s foremost poets and academics, is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of English, University of New Orleans.
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