Damiete Braide
It was a gathering of writers, friends and bibliophiles in Lagos on Thursday, March 14, 2019, during An Evening of Reminiscences for the late Professor Pius Adebola Adesanmi, who died on Sunday, March 10, 2019, in the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max crash in Addis Ababa. He was en route to Nairobi as a participant at the ECOSOCC meeting organised by African Union.
Some of the participant at the event had met the late Professor Adesanmi in person, while some had met him on social media and, instantly, they all became his friends because of his comments on issues on Nigeria, advice and his down-to-earth writings.
Before the commencement of the programme, a slide was shown where he performed before an audience titled Ted X Euston in 2015 where he told jokes by some prominent Nigerians, which kept the audience reeling with laughter. He equally narrated how he grew up with his grandmother, because his parents were in the academia, and they didn’t have time for him. While staying with his grandmother, she usually told him a lot of stories which fascinated his interest in literature.
The slide presentation featured his photographs, excerpts from his writings and an epitaph he wrote for himself in August, 2013, on the instruction of Chuma Nwokolo for 41 African thinkers to write epitaphs for their future tombstones: “Here lies Pius Adesanmi who tried as much as he could to put his talent in the service of humanity and flew away home one bright morning when his work was over.”
Lola Shoneyin, convener of Ake Arts and Book Festival, who doubled as the host and compere, said Quida House was a place where Adesanmi would have loved to be. She recalled, “For me, I am who I am today partly because of Pius. I have known him since 1995/1996, and, finally, met him when he came to do his masters at University of Ibadan in 1998. At that time, both of us attended Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) meetings, and some of the writers told us that Pius and I would be bigger than the teachers who taught us.
“If I have learnt anything about Pius over the last few days, I believe in the randomness and we do not have control of what happens. He was a gift to us, and I remember his laughter more than anything else. He is unassuming; he loves people. Pius had a face for everybody. On meeting you, he would size you up, and know the type of individual you were.
With the intensity of contact of people with him, people feel that they have everything of him. This is a thing that made people come close to him. Pius still had a lot to give. We should all go away thinking about the empty space that he has left. There cannot be another Pius. We can honour him by telling truth to power. We can honour him by showing empathy. I will never forget him. He had a huge impact in my life through the encouragement that he gave to me.”
Speaking afterwards was a Nigerian journalist, editor and author, Kunle Ajibade. “The last time that I wept was when Ken Saro Wiwa was killed. Pius death also did that kind of thing to me, largely because of the kind of person he was. Pius was on his way to the top of the ladder when death removed the ladder from him. I am deeply saddened by his loss,” he said.
Next to speak was Juliet Ajamutuah, a classmate of Adesanmi in secondary school. She read Ecclesiastes 3: 1-6, afterwhich she said, “Pius is a friend who was very troublesome. He looked for my trouble during our school days. I had a chat with him three weeks ago after he recovered from a car accident where two people died. Pius was great when he was alive, but, now, his death has made him greater.”
For Pius Olubode, he met him on social media, and what he learnt from him was his calmness. “Pius was a man who gave me courage to forge on in life. I cannot believe that he is gone,” he said.
Oladeinde Ariyo recalled he met him on social media, too. He added, “I rarely cried, but when I called a friend and she confirmed that Pius was dead, I cried. This is another vacuum. Why must we always bury our young ones? There is more to his departure that we can ordinarily assume. Let his departure not be a departure for everything that he stood for.”
Kadaria Ahmed, a former Editor at NEXT Newspapers, said, “Undoubtedly, he was accomplished in different fields, but what made him truly special was his humanity. It is a quality that was all the more precious, because Pius not only understood but had seen and experienced, firsthand, the horridness of existence, particularly, in our country that has lost its moral compass and is largely driven by greed, avarice and deepening fault lines, which exploit our weaknesses to a full.
“But these did not make Pius rigid or cynical. Despite his acerbic wit, which he deployed with precision in his satirical pieces, his writing never came across as malicious or cruel. His sense of humour and ability to find the ‘funny’ in debacles unfolding across Nigeria on the daily, enabled many to engage with our most complex and often disturbing problems.”
Ojo Olu Kayode said he was a close friend of his in secondary school, adding, “He lived a good life and he will continue to make an impact after his departure.” For Ayodele Osho, “I never met him in person but on social media. He has impacted much on my life. What is it to die young? He didn’t die young, he has left a legacy and had become an institution in the world. He remains a model, and we cannot forget him.”
Toni Kan, a writer, recalled meeting Pius Adesanmi one Saturday in 1997 or ’98, “It was in Surulere. We all gathered for our monthly ANA meeting. We gathered one Saturday every month to read poems, share stories and talk shop. Then, meeting done, we inevitably gravitated to a watering hole. Nduka Otiono or Maik Nwosu would often offer to host us at their homes. I miss the ogbonge man like crazy.”
Victor Ehikhamenor, a writer and visual artist, admitted that writing a befitting tribute for Pius was not one of the easiest tasks for him, “not necessarily because of the pain of his departure of Mother Earth, but of the many things he was to me and to others. Yes, he was a close friend and confidant of more than two decades. He was a fellow writer, a co-mischief maker, one of the best brains of my generation, a lover of my art, a collaborator on many projects… the list is endless. I will continue to celebrate Professor Pius Adesanmi.”
Ms. Molara Wood, writer and former Arts Editor at NEXT Newspapers, added “Pius was that rarest of persons, his heart was bursting with love and affection for those around him. He was thoughtful and insightful, brimming with kindness and decency. Had that plane not dropped out of the sky, he would have gone on to become a juggernaut of African thought.”
Amidst tears, Ogaga Ifowodo said, “What or Who do I curse? The day? The Plane? The makers of the new technology-driven aircraft on which my friend and my brother was flying from Addis Ababa to Nairobi? Ah, death! And the stealth and the many it comes! But it should never ever set its sights on Pius, you survived that road accident, and marvelled that you did. ‘I still don’t know how and why I survived,’ you wrote to me. And death, shamed that you had proved stronger than it on the road, stalked you in the air. I can’t bring myself to say ‘rest in peace’ and yet I must wish your restless, fecund, passionate and patriotic soul eternal rest.”
Denja Abdullahi, President of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), in his tribute, wrote “To lose a man of letters like Pius Adesanmi is to come to an unavoidably void. Nigerian writers are wailing inconsolably, because Pius was, indeed, a man of outstanding words and worlds and a master of his game. ANA mourns Prof. Pius Adesanmi. Nigerian writers are deeply pained by this untimely and unanticipated passage. The global community of African scholars sorely feels the pangs of this painful exit of a friend, colleague and comrade.
Pius Adesanmi, fondly called “Payo” by friends and associates, was born on February 27, 1972 in Isanlu, Yagba East Local Government Area of Kogi State, Nigeria. He held a First Class Honours from the University of Ilorin in 1992, a master in French from the University of Ibadan in 1998 and a PhD in French Studies from the University of British Columbia in 2002. From 2002 to 2005, he was Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Adesanmi joined Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, in 2006 as a Professor of Literature and African studies. He was previously a Fellow of the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA) from 1993 to 1997, as well as of the French Institute of South Africa (IFSA) in 1998 and 2000.
His awards included a 2017 Canada Bureau of International Education Leadership Award; Penguin Prize for African Writings in the Non-Fiction category for his book, “ You are not a country, Africa”, and the Association of Nigerian Authors’ Poetry Prize for his collection, The Wayfarer and other Poems. His was also the author of Naija no dey Carry Last.