Tribute | On the passage of the literary Pan-Africanist: Atukwei Okai | Denja Abdullahi
The
news of the death of Prof Atukwei Okai, which came to us in Nigeria on the 13th
of July,2018, while we were celebrating the 84th Birthday of Wole
Soyinka, one of our literary icons and a great friend of Atukwei Okai, was a rude
dampener of our spirit.
We
in Nigeria under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) knew so
well the life-long labour of Atukwei Okai in uniting African writers in the
Continent and in the Diaspora and building bridges of cultural understanding
across Africa as the ubiquitous and indefatigable Secretary- General of the
Pan-African Writers’ Association (PAWA).
Prof.
Atukwei Okai was to African literature of his age and time what Osagyefo Kwame
Nkrumah was to African politics and liberation struggle. He epitomized the
Pan-African spirit in literature and PAWA, under his eagle-vision, became a
place where strategic linkages were built among writers across Africa and in
the Black Diaspora. The many conferences and grand activities of PAWA under the
gangling command of Atukwei Okai brought us all over Africa and in the Diaspora
together to know and acknowledge one another in the crucial quest to keep the
conversation going if we are to develop our continent to our requirements.
In
Nigeria, we recall that Atukwei Okai was always at our doorsteps, honouring our
invitations, being a harbinger of schemes of cooperation, feeling at home, and
displaying the common bonds we all share as Africans. He was also a sublime
ambassador of his country, Ghana, welcoming us all the time to its expansive
Pan-Africanist historical ambience. As writers of Africa, we have so much
associated Atukwei Okai to the city of Accra and PAWA that it will be painful
contemplating a future visit to that city and PAWA Secretariat in which Atukwei
Okai will be physically absent.
Indeed
the most piquant blows death deals on us all are the absence and void it leaves
in its wake. Atukwei Okai will be called and will not answer but his words in his
inimitable poetry will forever speak for him. He will be immortalized in our
collective memories as he had immortalized many African writers in the
galleries and gardens of the PAWA Secretariat and in the many activities of
PAWA under his watch.
Adieu
Atukwei Okai, journey on to join the pantheon of dearly departed great African
men and women of letters. We will carry on from where you stopped and pass on
the baton when our own turn comes.
***
Denja
Abdullahi, poet, dramatist and Cultural administrator is the President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).
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