FOR NGUGI WA THIONG’O*
(1938-2025)
In the eloquent water of the River Between
Minnows argue the terror of the shark
Rifted mountains hold hands
Across a vast and breathless silence
A soil unspeakably rich:
Red-rooted vegetables beckon from roadside stalls
A corn-covered distance connects my eye
To a yearning horizon
Bleating sheep romp in temperate coats
Unmindful of donkeys trotting under
Their missionary burdens, trailed by tough-limbed
Peasants sobered by the vagaries of the market
Voices and echoes
Across rifted silences
Echoes and voices
Of half-told stories and syncopated songs:
Of the grain of wheat
Which feeds succeeding seasons,
The long, sweat-soaked journey
From grass to bread…
In a house
Somewhere there in Kamiriithu
A story-teller was born
Whose tales traverse the world
*This tribute first appeared in “Flowers of the Rift Valley”, a section on Kenya in my book, If Only the Road Could Talk: Poetic Peregrinations in Africa, Asia, and Europe, published in 2017.
Niyi Osundare, one of Africa’s foremost poets and academics, is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of English, University of New Orleans.
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