WEST AFRICA REVIEW
ISSN: 1525-4488
Issue 9 (2006)
WEST AFRICA REVIEW ISSN: 1525-4488 Issue 9 (2006) |
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FOR BJ AT SIXTY |
Who will sound the 60 'gbosas'?
Who will serve the virtual wine?
Anyone with lines for BJ
will not land in jail,
for the reign of terror has since been caged.
He is a brain-train on the rail
that connects creators,
creations and consumers of text.
Who will sound the 60 'gbosas'?
Who will serve the virtual wine?
Since 60 minutes make a day
Can 60 years make a sage
without a sagging mien?
As one BJ shakes the literary forest kijikiji
The Araba that does not 'rababa' for words
The Akogun that fears no wars
The warrior-writer who loves peace
and weaves lines with wisdom from ‘lores
There is no kingdom for
tyrants in his world.
He picks them out like ants
I have heard the Ode-Omu DJ play
his 'music'
I have taken wings on his logic
and like magic, words from his lips
his pen and now PC
smashed my ignorance of the past.
The past that is ever before me.
The past of how the heartless rich became,
and the poor remained
shoeless and shirtless.
His thoughts re-created
a future that is within me.
A future of hope,
of overthrow . . .
The present has taken new meanings
outside of episodic readings.
Hey! BJ is sixty
Call the peoples DJ to play
the record of change his likes
Call readers, listeners and visionaries
that our man has arrived at the forecourt
of elders' hut to render
service deep . . .
and service the depth in us
We thought Cornell ate our corn
While we were on the ‘run’
Alas, a sharpened tongue
that speaks to powers that bleed
is the gift we got.
We thought Cornell cornered
our 'eminent CJ' of text and context
The producer of ‘truthful lies’
The protagonist in the ‘conversation’
BJ the protector of our collective imagination
To you this day of celebration
Our words, our thoughts.
Who will not sound the 60 'gbosas'?
Who has not been served the virtual wine?
Citation Format:
Kola Ade Odutola. “For BJ at Sixty,” West Africa Review: Issue 9, 2006.
Copyright © 2006 Africa Resource Center, Inc.