By Uthman Shodipe

From Barracks Bus-Stop, the long, straight, smoothly tarred Tejuosho Street stretches far down into the heart of Tejuosho Market. The street seems sleepy, serene. Fort it is far from the chaotic crowd of cars that are queued in endless streams along the busy business-wrapped Western Avenue from where it takes its course. It simply lies cheerfully naked before the fresh, natural air of this Friday morning, praying for the patronage of pedestrians and motorists.

There is no mad rush of pestering hawkers here, no throng of street traders struggling to eke a living. But there is a concentration of commercial activities, of businessmen who stay in dignified calmness inside their offices and shops.

Up in the sky, the first blood of the rising sun is flashing a brilliant rays on the glittering letter ‘S’ inextricably glued into the glass do-or in the ground floor of house 63, a two-storey building defiantly overlooking the street. This is the office of Ken Saro-Wiwa, for the bold ‘S’ etched in white against a black background stands for Saro the name of the presiding person age here. In a matter of seconds, you are in the general office with the secretaries, awaiting a final dispatch to the executive presence.

Minutes later, you are invited out of the unnaturally chilly reception hall into the warm inner recess of the superior officer.

Ken-Saro-Wiwa2Here is Ken Saro Wiwa, the ubiquitous literary artist, the creative writer who is at home with the three genres of literature – the Novel, Drama and Poetry. He is a controversial social critic, a satirist whose thematic pre-occupation is with the exposure of societal ills economic mismanagement, moral ineptitude, human rights violation, religious intolerance, marginalization of the minority tribes, corruption and nepotism. These themes, he vigorously pursues in all his books and essays “Sozaboy”, “Prisoners of Jebs”, “A Forest of Flowers”, “On A Darkling Plain: An Account Of The Nigerian Civil War”, “Nigeria” On A Brink of Disaster” and lots more. He is a consummate stylist who blends the humorous with the greedy, callous and avaricious con-man, politician and ruler.

This is the man-short, sharp, smart, stoutly built and dark. Through his medicated spectacles, his stem, deep-blue eye balls permanently penetrate the visitor’s face with intimidated confidence. The anterior part of his head is bare and shiny.

His hairs, dotted with grey particles are neatly cut and combed. He wears a charismatic lock on his bright, straight face. He is dressed in a pair of black trousers upon a multiples-colour traditional “buba” shirt.

The narrator is relaxed, deliberately slow and soft-spoken. He punctuates his speech with intermittent puffs at his tobacco pipe, filling the small, congested room with the resulting hard, blue air. He is more anxious to preach his ideology to the visitor than he is with the interview. Ken is a genius in bondage for the subjugated minority tribes in Nigeria. He is a human rights agitator whose life has been fettered in the tight for the rights of the deprived, down-trodden minorities. In pursuance of his purpose, he has launched the Ethnic Minority Rights Organisation of Nigeria (EMIRON) and is on his way to winding up his business ventures for this crusade.

Ken-Saro-WiwaBut now, Ken is still a busy businessman. He wakes up at 6.00am with an irrepressible urge for African news in B.B.C. he has his bath, breakfast and goes to office. His appetite for lunch is long abrogated by his eater-tight business activities, the only factor that rules his afternoons. He retired home at 8.00pm. Then, supper, network news at nine and sleep.

At 10.00pm, he is comfortably snoring. But his profession instinct would not afford him much respite. He is called to service at 1.00am-cretaive writing. Nature knocks him down again at three 0’ clock. He is in deep slumber. The days activities are done. The final night’s rest has come. Three-hour-sleep. Six 0’ clock. He springs up, rushes to his transistor radio, B.B.C. African News.

Another day has dawned.


www.uthmanshodipe.com/ken-saro-wiwa/