Over the years most of my Nigerian friends have wondered at the letters I used to get from Brutus, the legendary South African poet, author of A Simple Lust, Letters to Martha, Sirens, Knuckles and Boots, etc. Brutus and I have travelled the Lagos streets, and he lamented the shame that there were still open drains on Nigerian streets. But Brutus was not all complaints and seriousness, for he once suggested that we should co-author a book of erotica!

Upon the rooted charm of amalgamation
Ikoro convokes confederal communion
As ordained by the log of memory
At the head of the waters...

History beckons the unities
Soul song of sovereignty
A universe unbound by ballot
By one race: the human race...

Beyond his biological children, Soyinka is a father-figure and mentor to multitudes. While attending the 2008 Caine Prize for African Writing in England I laughed when one of my fellow nominated authors was being touted as a student of South African Nobel Laureate JM Coetzee. The house came down when eventually it was revealed that I was a student of Soyinka as opposed to some “eaglet” Nobel prize-winner!

For a song the poet delivers
An image of root and gravity,
Armed with the story
Of a leader with the common touch...

He was quite at peace with booming body odour, the asphyxiating tang of sweat-sodden blankets, sharp animal practices, sub-human life…His weapon was laughter. He brought sanity to bear on inhumanity by laughing endlessly at himself and getting his fellow prisoners to mock at themselves too...