WEBVTT

00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:03.040
I\'\'ll change 1,780, please.

00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:04.800
-Nine left?
-Nine remain.

00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:05.800
(street noise)

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-Are you sure?
-Yes.

00:00:07.480 --> 00:00:08.040
All right, okay.

00:00:08.040 --> 00:00:09.680
So we can talk,
we can talk plenty more.

00:00:09.680 --> 00:00:11.800
-Nine remain.
-You want to talk plenty more

00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:13.400
(unintelligible).

00:00:13.400 --> 00:00:14.200
Gonna change thousand.

00:00:14.200 --> 00:00:17.520
It\'\'s already (unintelligible),
so add.

00:00:17.520 --> 00:00:20.920
Top up 50, 20, 40,000,
it\'\'s good.

00:00:20.920 --> 00:00:23.920
Yeah, 40,000 (unintelligible).

00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:25.640
No, I need to top up.

00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:27.760
I need to top up 10,000.

00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:30.800
(street noise)

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Oh, uh...

00:00:49.560 --> 00:00:51.600
Typically me.

00:00:51.600 --> 00:00:52.880
Oh, wait a minute.

00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:55.080
I know I put--oh, here.

00:00:55.080 --> 00:00:56.200
Do you know (unintelligible) ?

00:00:56.200 --> 00:00:58.160
I know (unintelligible) numbers.

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Oh, (unintelligible).

00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:02.440
(unintelligible)

00:01:02.440 --> 00:01:06.600
(speaking foreign language)

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That means, uh,
let me read your number.

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Hey, I go out.

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(speaking foreign language)

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But I know they\'\'re in a hurry.

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It\'\'s nine, two...

00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:27.280
(unintelligible),
seven, nine, eight.

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-Okay.
-Ten thousand.

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Yes.

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(speaking foreign language)

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You see...

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You see how you do
your top up,

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or you add to your, uh,
your airtime minutes.

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Your, oh...

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Well, I think...

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(speaking foreign language)

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(phone ringing)

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Okay, yeah, all right.

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These are professional guys.

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-Oh...
-Okay, let\'\'s go.

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Yeah.

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They don\'\'t give money yet?

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-Yes.
-Okay.

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All right, let\'\'s go.

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That is street side banking.

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♪

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(laughing)

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Or roadside banking.

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Oh, that guy has the, um,
the calculator in his hand.

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-Oh yes, they all do.
-Oh my gosh.

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Yes, well, I mean, uh...

00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:18.560
they are more efficient
than T-Mobile.

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I\'\'ve been dealing with them
over (unintelligible).

00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:23.720
-Oh, sure.
-Yes.

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Because with--
you spend five minutes

00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:30.400
talking to the, uh, machines
before you get to a human being.

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Mm, I\'\'m telling you, this is

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one of the advantages
of private enterprise.

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-Yes.
-When your fate

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is in your own hands.

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Yes.

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♪

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Oh, Skye Bank is here too.

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Oh yeah, everywhere.

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♪

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This my yard.

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That\'\'s pretty close.

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Okay, you see
all of those trees?

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-Yeah.
-That is my property.

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That\'\'s what you\'\'re looking at.

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I planted all of those trees.

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That\'\'s my yard.

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(unintelligible), yes.

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The way you were
talking yesterday,

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you know it was nice,
but it is--

00:03:01.160 --> 00:03:03.520
I thought the river had
disappeared completely.

00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:04.840
The river is still there, but...

00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:05.560
Yeah, but this...

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This is what is left
of my river.

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I used to live way down there.

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Pre the rebel war
in Sierra Leone.

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And so when I came back
after the war,

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I had to get out of here.

00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:22.600
That\'\'s where I used to live.

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♪

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\'\'Cause, yeah, well,
this is old Freetown, Niyi.

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This is one section
of very old Freetown,

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the western district
of Freetown.

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When we go to the east,

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uh, where I was born,

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that is where you will see
even older buildings.

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Oh my God.

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(unintelligible) look!

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All of it\'\'s...

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Jesus Christ!

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♪

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So there, as you can see,

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the madness, very old,
what is left of it.

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♪

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These cities are very different
from Abidjan.

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Abidjan is a modern city.

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I like the mix
in Banjul, in Freetown

00:04:05.600 --> 00:04:09.840
and Lagos of the old
and the new.

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I get very upset
when I go through

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some districts in Freetown

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only to discover
that they\'\'ve pulled down

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so many of the old houses

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with these monstrosities.

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♪

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Where streets are narrow

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and what remains of the old
colonial architecture.

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(speaking foreign language)

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-Yes.
-Yes, uh,

00:04:31.240 --> 00:04:33.160
that\'\'s the Xanadu
way up there.

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This is very vulnerable
to mudslide.

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Oh, yes and no.

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Freetown is very rocky.

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You might be surprised.

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There wasn\'\'t corruption--

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I didn\'\'t see much corruption

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in the old communal
African system.

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I\'\'m not saying it is perfect,
no, economically--

00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:48.840
Yeah, there was
no corruption because...

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Social welfare
was built into the tradition,

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-into the value system.
-Yes.

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-Everything communally done.
-Okay.

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So individualism we are talking
about wasn\'\'t there then, and...

00:05:01.320 --> 00:05:05.080
Yeah, but I think all
societies had an idea

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of communal responsibility.

00:05:07.240 --> 00:05:10.520
Uh, the Anglo-Saxon thing
probably change

00:05:10.520 --> 00:05:12.000
after the Industrial Revolution,

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when, uh, men and women
more or less

00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:19.360
were gang pressed into working
on machines.

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-Sorry, Syl.
-Yes?

00:05:20.400 --> 00:05:23.120
How do these people get
to these houses?

00:05:23.120 --> 00:05:25.160
Do they fly?

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What, we--up there?

00:05:26.280 --> 00:05:27.520
Yes, where are the roads?

00:05:27.520 --> 00:05:28.680
Well, no, well, that\'\'s actual--

00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:30.680
that\'\'s what this discussion
is all about.

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The--the, uh, the, uh,
the first concern...

00:05:37.160 --> 00:05:38.120
This doesn\'\'t make sense.

00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:39.640
-Where are the roads?
-Well, it\'\'s been a--

00:05:39.640 --> 00:05:42.880
oh, well, the question is how
have they been building there?

00:05:42.880 --> 00:05:46.120
If you don\'\'t build right away,
you\'\'re asking for trouble.

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-Lien on it.
-Yes, so yes.

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So you build,
you begin to build,

00:05:50.400 --> 00:05:53.280
and then you worry
about the road later.

00:05:53.280 --> 00:05:57.880
Yeah, it is the opposite
of what happens in the West

00:05:57.880 --> 00:06:00.200
where we see the council,

00:06:00.200 --> 00:06:02.160
we plan the area out.

00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:04.240
Put sewage and things like that.

00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:09.480
You have a premium and land
is a life and death issue.

00:06:09.480 --> 00:06:12.520
As we say, my brother,
God forbid.

00:06:12.520 --> 00:06:14.680
-Suppose there is fire...
-Yes.

00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:15.440
...in one of these houses.

00:06:15.440 --> 00:06:16.920
How is a fire truck
going to get here?

00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:21.080
Well, you don\'\'t worry about
that until it happens.

00:06:21.080 --> 00:06:22.160
Yes.

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That is the disease
of Africa.

00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:26.480
Well, I don\'\'t think
it\'\'s a disease,

00:06:26.480 --> 00:06:28.320
I think, uh...

00:06:28.320 --> 00:06:32.680
the urgency of
so-called development

00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:35.600
by which I mean everybody
wants to live in a house

00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:36.880
that is beyond their means,

00:06:36.880 --> 00:06:41.360
but is only 25-30%
of the population, uh,

00:06:41.360 --> 00:06:44.600
that can afford
this kind of outrage.

00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:45.720
It is a disease, my brother.

00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:50.360
I call it \"act first,
think later.\"

00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:03.200
(street noise)

00:07:05.640 --> 00:07:07.440
(dog barking)

00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:10.320
-Uh, I...
-Mayakovsky.

00:07:10.320 --> 00:07:15.040
Yeah, I moved my books
to my family house here,

00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:17.440
which is technically
my house,

00:07:17.440 --> 00:07:21.240
and I tried to save
what was left.

00:07:21.240 --> 00:07:23.600
And so this is
the poetry collection,

00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:27.400
and this is my English
literature collection.

00:07:27.400 --> 00:07:31.400
Um, Dickens, Fielding,
you name it.

00:07:31.400 --> 00:07:32.920
-I have everything.
-Yeah.

00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:34.800
And like you, I\'\'m a--

00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:39.040
The biggest investment I\'\'ve made
in my life is in books.

00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:41.040
I\'\'ve spent tens of thousands,

00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:42.760
and there are more books here.

00:07:42.760 --> 00:07:44.800
As you can see, they go way up.

00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:47.240
You name it,
all of the subjects,

00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:49.160
40% literature, philosophy.

00:07:49.160 --> 00:07:51.360
And these were the books
you were able to rescue.

00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:53.480
These are the books
I was able to rescue,

00:07:53.480 --> 00:07:59.280
you know, after the disastrous,
uh, collapse of my house.

00:07:59.280 --> 00:08:01.800
And--uh oh--and there are
more books here.

00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:06.240
As you can see, gentlemen, in
this house, this is where...

00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:08.840
From Langston Hughes
to Mao Zedong.

00:08:08.840 --> 00:08:11.880
This is where I spent
my first 21 years.

00:08:11.880 --> 00:08:15.760
It was--if you focus
on this wall,

00:08:15.760 --> 00:08:17.200
that door--

00:08:17.200 --> 00:08:19.480
should I remove the towels?

00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:21.720
Okay, this is my bedroom.

00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:22.840
It was from this bedroom

00:08:22.840 --> 00:08:25.360
that I left to go
to the United States.

00:08:25.360 --> 00:08:27.840
My father built this house
in 1936.

00:08:27.840 --> 00:08:32.240
Nothing has changed,
same original veranda,

00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:36.480
the pillars, uh,
the balusters, balustrades.

00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:40.480
And this is my--
this is my childhood.

00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:43.680
I spent my first 21 years
in this house.

00:08:43.680 --> 00:08:45.520
Before you go,
and now come--

00:08:45.520 --> 00:08:48.600
-Yes, yes.
-Uh, certainly...

00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:52.560
I can imagine
the kind of person

00:08:52.560 --> 00:08:55.360
that must have been able
to build this kind of house

00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:56.560
-in 1936.
-Yes, yes.

00:08:56.560 --> 00:08:59.080
They are--
you certainly have come from

00:08:59.080 --> 00:09:02.440
a very comfortable upper middle
class Creole family.

00:09:02.440 --> 00:09:05.120
We were, yes, we were very
comfortable upper middle class.

00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:09.360
Yes, my father was, uh,
a colonial civil servant

00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:10.880
in the colonial customs.

00:09:10.880 --> 00:09:13.120
Yeah, he was
a first class officer.

00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:14.360
I have his papers.

00:09:14.360 --> 00:09:15.240
Uh, that was his profession.

00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:18.800
He was a civil servant
in the colonial customs.

00:09:18.800 --> 00:09:21.920
But he was a part time
church assistant organist.

00:09:21.920 --> 00:09:26.440
Now, you had that head start,

00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:28.760
that advantage and so on, yeah?

00:09:28.760 --> 00:09:30.720
You\'\'re talking to the son
of a farmer...

00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:33.680
-Yes.
-who grew up with very little.

00:09:33.680 --> 00:09:35.360
-Yes.
-Now I\'\'m wondering,

00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:38.160
you were born into privilege,
in a manner of speaking.

00:09:38.160 --> 00:09:40.200
-I was.
-How come that you turned out

00:09:40.200 --> 00:09:43.680
to be a writer
who doesn\'\'t only sympathize

00:09:43.680 --> 00:09:48.200
but empathizes with peasants
and their agony?

00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:50.440
Precisely because
I was born into privilege,

00:09:50.440 --> 00:09:54.360
I can understand
the agony of people, I hope.

00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:57.240
You\'\'ve never felt hunger
in your stomach

00:09:57.240 --> 00:09:58.680
because there is no food
in the pantry.

00:09:58.680 --> 00:10:01.640
Yes, we had everything
so I can understand

00:10:01.640 --> 00:10:02.920
how people might go hungry,

00:10:02.920 --> 00:10:04.640
\'\'cause I never went hungry,
you know?

00:10:04.640 --> 00:10:08.120
From here, I rode a bicycle
all the way across town

00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:09.000
to the Prince of Wales School.

00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:11.440
And that was part
of the privilege too

00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:13.160
that you had a bicycle.

00:10:13.160 --> 00:10:15.360
Was it a Raleigh
or a Roji or...?

00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:16.720
Uh, it was a Phillip.

00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:18.080
-A Phillip, aha.
-Yes.

00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:20.120
That was a choice brand.

00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:21.400
Yes, it was, yes.

00:10:21.400 --> 00:10:22.560
No, there\'\'s no denying it.

00:10:22.560 --> 00:10:26.320
It\'\'s like riding a car
to school these days.

00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:27.920
-That\'\'s true.
-High school.

00:10:27.920 --> 00:10:30.480
Yeah, I brought some Germans
here many, many years ago,

00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:34.680
they said, \"Syl, even by German
standards,\" this house 1936,

00:10:34.680 --> 00:10:36.400
\"you were born into privilege.\"

00:10:36.400 --> 00:10:38.200
Yes, so, yeah, that was it.

00:10:38.200 --> 00:10:40.120
-You know, so...
-So have you...

00:10:40.120 --> 00:10:44.680
have you ever seen yourself
committing class suicide?

00:10:44.680 --> 00:10:45.640
Oh, please, I...

00:10:45.640 --> 00:10:46.600
(laughing)

00:10:46.600 --> 00:10:50.040
I mean, I did that
when I became a poet.

00:10:50.040 --> 00:10:51.440
(laughing)

00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:54.480
(dog barking)

00:10:57.400 --> 00:11:02.080
♪ Come swell the chorus
one and all ♪

00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:06.000
♪ And join the ranks
with me ♪

00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:10.720
♪ Prosperity
to the Prince\'\'s boys ♪

00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:14.160
♪ At Prince of Wales Kington ♪

00:11:14.160 --> 00:11:18.720
♪ For searching Sierra Leone
far and wide ♪

00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:22.520
♪ No school can well be found ♪

00:11:22.520 --> 00:11:27.800
♪ That sends forth
truer gentlemen ♪

00:11:27.800 --> 00:11:32.400
♪ Than Prince of Wales
Kington ♪

00:11:32.400 --> 00:11:35.600
That\'\'s the school song
of this great school.

00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:37.280
(laughing)

00:11:37.280 --> 00:11:42.280
Okay, Niyi, uh, I\'\'m very happy
to bring you here.

00:11:42.280 --> 00:11:43.400
This is my secondary school,

00:11:43.400 --> 00:11:47.160
or the Americans
will call it high school.

00:11:47.160 --> 00:11:49.520
And, um...

00:11:49.520 --> 00:11:52.040
that\'\'s now boarded--

00:11:52.040 --> 00:11:55.080
well, not boarded,
blocked entrance.

00:11:55.080 --> 00:11:56.520
As I said in the poem,

00:11:56.520 --> 00:12:00.000
this school,
the Prince of Wales School,

00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:05.840
was founded and opened by
the Prince of Wales,

00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:09.440
who gave up becoming
King of England

00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:12.480
because of
that American divorcee

00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:16.880
named Wallis Simpson,
I think--right?

00:12:16.880 --> 00:12:18.080
That\'\'s her name,
that\'\'s right.

00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:20.400
She seduced him,
I don\'\'t know what happened.

00:12:20.400 --> 00:12:24.280
He lost his head and said,
\"I don\'\'t want to be a king.\"

00:12:24.280 --> 00:12:26.640
And how was that for you

00:12:26.640 --> 00:12:28.160
as a student here?

00:12:28.160 --> 00:12:29.520
Well, well, uh,

00:12:29.520 --> 00:12:31.680
well, it was--well, you see,

00:12:31.680 --> 00:12:33.240
it was important for me
in one respect.

00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:35.600
Did you know the story
why you were a student here?

00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:38.080
No, I didn\'\'t know that,
but later I was grateful

00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:41.720
to Mrs. Wallis Simpson
for making sure

00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:43.360
that I had no respect
for royalty.

00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:46.080
I said, \"If she could undermine
the British royalty

00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:49.800
as a divorced woman,
I could do it as a poet.\"

00:12:49.800 --> 00:12:51.840
(laughing)

00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:54.520
Yes, but--so in many ways,

00:12:54.520 --> 00:12:57.880
she gave me the impetus
to revolt against royalty.

00:12:57.880 --> 00:13:00.520
I revolted against royalty.

00:13:01.760 --> 00:13:04.280
When you came from a school
like this,

00:13:04.280 --> 00:13:07.320
you were prepared
for any university.

00:13:07.320 --> 00:13:12.200
There was the idea of
public responsibility,

00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:15.360
esteem, you know,
respect for tradition,

00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:20.560
and I am proud to say that
I came to school here

00:13:20.560 --> 00:13:22.560
at the right time,

00:13:22.560 --> 00:13:26.080
when shame was...

00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:26.920
a moral value.

00:13:26.920 --> 00:13:28.520
-That\'\'s right.
-That you must maintain.

00:13:28.520 --> 00:13:33.120
I insist that one of
the great moralities is shame.

00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:36.440
If you lack shame,
then you are immoral.

00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:37.920
-Niyi, my brother.
-Yes?

00:13:37.920 --> 00:13:39.320
Uh, where we\'\'re going now,

00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:44.560
we\'\'re going up the stairs
leading to the second floor

00:13:44.560 --> 00:13:47.640
of this historical building
of the Prince of Wales.

00:13:47.640 --> 00:13:50.200
Of course, basically
without this building

00:13:50.200 --> 00:13:52.320
there would be
no Prince of Wales.

00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:53.880
Mm.

00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:02.240
(hammering)

00:14:02.880 --> 00:14:05.680
When I was here in the \'\'50s,

00:14:05.680 --> 00:14:07.720
this used to be the library.

00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:10.560
But now as you can see
it has become a classroom.

00:14:10.560 --> 00:14:15.680
And the original building
on the top floor,

00:14:15.680 --> 00:14:17.400
uh, that is where we assembled.

00:14:17.400 --> 00:14:21.840
And this poem in memory or in
honor of the Prince of Wales--

00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:25.600
not memory, no, no,
a reflection of my days here,

00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:28.880
I imagine I was sitting
during assembly

00:14:28.880 --> 00:14:30.360
and looking out at the ocean.

00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:34.200
As you can see on the right
hand side is the Atlantic.

00:14:38.440 --> 00:14:41.800
So with your permission,
I would like to read this.

00:14:41.800 --> 00:14:43.920
The Prince of Wales School.

00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:39.680
This is a very lovely coastline,
its ruggedness,

00:15:39.680 --> 00:15:45.320
and the ocean has an almost
thunderous melody about it.

00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:47.320
As it comes in here,
it\'\'s noisy.

00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:50.680
It reminds me so much
about my own history,

00:15:50.680 --> 00:15:57.000
just the history of slavery
and being taken out here,

00:15:57.000 --> 00:15:59.160
the history of reconquest

00:15:59.160 --> 00:16:01.920
by which I mean
how we brought, uh,

00:16:01.920 --> 00:16:04.360
the (unintelligible)
back to Sierra Leone

00:16:04.360 --> 00:16:09.400
so they must have sailed
on this violent ocean,

00:16:09.400 --> 00:16:10.760
seeing the rugged coast,

00:16:10.760 --> 00:16:13.040
and what was going through
their minds,

00:16:13.040 --> 00:16:14.640
I could only imagine.

00:16:14.640 --> 00:16:16.120
And each time I see this,

00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:20.000
one of the poems that comes
immediately to my mind is, uh,

00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:22.200
Robert Hayden,
\"The Middle Passage.\"

00:16:22.200 --> 00:16:28.320
Yes, those ships loaded
with African slaves

00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:29.440
going on and on and on,

00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:30.800
and so many of them dying

00:16:30.800 --> 00:16:32.480
and being thrown overboard,

00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:34.840
and the sharks
following the ships.

00:16:34.840 --> 00:16:36.800
-Yes, yeah.
-Knowing full well

00:16:36.800 --> 00:16:39.400
that meat, food is ready.

00:16:39.400 --> 00:16:40.200
That\'\'s good.

00:16:40.200 --> 00:16:42.800
It is really--I mean,
and each time,

00:16:42.800 --> 00:16:44.520
even when I\'\'m in the air,

00:16:44.520 --> 00:16:48.320
and I look at
the mighty Atlantic,

00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:49.320
its majestic beauty,

00:16:49.320 --> 00:16:54.360
I also look beyond about a mile
or a mile and a half below

00:16:54.360 --> 00:16:57.040
and I think,
what about those bones?

00:16:57.040 --> 00:16:59.240
-Are they still there?
-Yes, yes.

00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:02.400
They were white,
have they turned black?

00:17:02.400 --> 00:17:03.360
-Yes.
-And so on.

00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:05.320
-Questions to ask.
-Yeah.

00:17:05.320 --> 00:17:08.560
But I\'\'ve also written
personally about this

00:17:08.560 --> 00:17:10.760
because in
Concerto for an Exile,

00:17:10.760 --> 00:17:12.840
you may recall I ask,

00:17:12.840 --> 00:17:16.120
referring again to
the Portuguese conquerors,

00:17:16.120 --> 00:17:17.920
-I wrote, I said--
-You called them conquistadors.

00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:21.200
Yeah, I said, \"Oh,
my Portuguese conquistador,\"

00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:24.080
I said,
\"Was I captain of the ship

00:17:24.080 --> 00:17:24.760
that brought you in?\"

00:17:24.760 --> 00:17:28.120
I said, \"What name shall I
give to my people?\"

00:17:28.120 --> 00:17:29.480
It is a question of identity.

00:17:29.480 --> 00:17:34.080
This sea becomes associated
with my identity

00:17:34.080 --> 00:17:35.520
as a Sierra Leonean

00:17:35.520 --> 00:17:37.920
because without this ocean,

00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:41.680
there probably would be
no Syl Cheney-Coker\'\'s poetry.

00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:42.280
Yeah.

00:17:42.280 --> 00:17:44.240
Because the roots of my poetry

00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:51.000
is the tracing--is--of the
beginnings of my own heritage.

00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:53.720
(birds chirping)

00:17:53.720 --> 00:18:04.000
♪

00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:20.000
♪

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:22.520
USS Kearsarge,
a seaborne staging post

00:20:22.520 --> 00:20:28.280
for more than 1200 people flown
from Sierra Leone to safety.

00:20:28.280 --> 00:20:28.760
♪

00:20:28.760 --> 00:20:31.680
Evacuees and escapees
from the turmoil

00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:32.880
that\'\'s followed their departure,

00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:35.800
Monday\'\'s Nigerian
naval bombardment

00:20:35.800 --> 00:20:36.240
from off the coast,

00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:39.000
and the escalating clashes
on dry land.

00:20:39.000 --> 00:20:41.280
The U.S. airlift
rescued from Freetown

00:20:41.280 --> 00:20:45.080
expatriates of at least
40 nationalities,

00:20:45.080 --> 00:20:47.560
all bound next for Guinea.

00:20:47.560 --> 00:20:50.880
In the meantime,
a dose of American culture,

00:20:50.880 --> 00:20:54.560
not that anything onscreen
was likely to rival

00:20:54.560 --> 00:20:56.080
their own drama.

00:20:56.080 --> 00:20:59.120
(crowd noise)

00:21:00.840 --> 00:21:03.800
(gunfire)

00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:09.280
(shouting)

00:21:09.280 --> 00:21:14.000
We have some shared stories
going back quite a while,

00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:16.520
but I think the one
you want to hear about

00:21:16.520 --> 00:21:21.040
is how one day 1997, uh,

00:21:21.040 --> 00:21:23.120
the almost miraculous happened,

00:21:23.120 --> 00:21:28.800
and right when we were being
fitted for, uh,

00:21:28.800 --> 00:21:31.320
the escape journey
from Sierra Leone

00:21:31.320 --> 00:21:32.920
during the menace
of the rebel war.

00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:35.120
That to me was
a very, very sad time

00:21:35.120 --> 00:21:39.280
because everybody
was holding their passport...

00:21:39.280 --> 00:21:41.240
-Yes.
-...and waving it, uh,

00:21:41.240 --> 00:21:44.640
at the Americans
inside the compound...

00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:46.880
-Yes.
-...beseeching them

00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:50.240
to take them in
and protect them.

00:21:50.240 --> 00:21:53.280
-Yes.
-Because they had heard about

00:21:53.280 --> 00:21:55.360
-the evacuation.
-Mm-hm.

00:21:55.360 --> 00:21:59.320
And, uh, as you know
we were very close friends

00:21:59.320 --> 00:22:00.880
of John Hirsch at that time.

00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:02.360
The American ambassador
to Sierra Leone.

00:22:02.360 --> 00:22:06.240
Yes, so--and John,
although he wasn\'\'t in town...

00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:08.720
-Yes.
-...his deputy Ann Wright...

00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:11.240
-Yes.
-...was just so marvelous

00:22:11.240 --> 00:22:17.080
about the whole, um, setup,
and so efficient.

00:22:17.080 --> 00:22:19.320
-Yes.
-And promised us

00:22:19.320 --> 00:22:21.600
that we would be looked after

00:22:21.600 --> 00:22:25.120
after they had looked after
their citizens

00:22:25.120 --> 00:22:27.280
and their green card holders.

00:22:27.280 --> 00:22:29.480
Yes, yes, that\'\'s right.

00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:32.240
-I just have a slight...
-Addition?

00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:33.840
...addition to that.

00:22:33.840 --> 00:22:34.920
My memory\'\'s not that great.

00:22:34.920 --> 00:22:37.120
While we were at the hotel
there,

00:22:37.120 --> 00:22:39.720
Ann Wright,
the deputy chief of mission,

00:22:39.720 --> 00:22:41.160
I\'\'ll just mention...

00:22:41.160 --> 00:22:44.720
And then, \"John has insisted

00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:45.760
that I evacuate you people.\"

00:22:45.760 --> 00:22:48.560
I said,
\"I\'\'m not going anywhere.\"

00:22:48.560 --> 00:22:49.920
(laughs)

00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:52.440
And, uh, she said,

00:22:52.440 --> 00:22:57.320
\"Syl, I have...

00:22:57.320 --> 00:23:01.720
an aircraft carrier
sitting out there

00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:03.680
in the middle of the Atlantic.

00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:08.560
I have enough planes to flatten
this place in 20 minutes,

00:23:08.560 --> 00:23:11.360
but I don\'\'t have the permission
to do that,

00:23:11.360 --> 00:23:13.120
so I\'\'ll do what
I\'\'ve been told to do.

00:23:13.120 --> 00:23:17.840
I\'\'ve been told not to leave
you people behind.\"

00:23:17.840 --> 00:23:20.280
Yes, and you remember
anything else from there?

00:23:20.280 --> 00:23:21.680
-How we were fitted out?
-Yes, yes.

00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:23.440
-Yes?
-No, wait.

00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:25.160
When we went into the room,

00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:26.760
it was just this big bed.

00:23:26.760 --> 00:23:27.240
Yes, that\'\'s right.

00:23:27.240 --> 00:23:29.640
But it was what they call
a divan bed

00:23:29.640 --> 00:23:31.400
where there\'\'s a mattress
and then a thing,

00:23:31.400 --> 00:23:35.720
-a--a support underneath.
-Yes, that\'\'s right.

00:23:35.720 --> 00:23:39.640
So we figured out that we need
to pull that mattress down

00:23:39.640 --> 00:23:43.160
on the floor and let you guys
sleep on the floor,

00:23:43.160 --> 00:23:45.160
and us ladies sleep on the bed.

00:23:45.160 --> 00:23:47.320
But when we took
the mattress out,

00:23:47.320 --> 00:23:50.400
do you remember we saw
these panties and...?

00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:51.880
Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.

00:23:51.880 --> 00:23:53.600
I had forgotten those details,
yes, yes.

00:23:53.600 --> 00:23:57.800
There was this stack of
panty--ladies panties and bras

00:23:57.800 --> 00:24:00.080
underneath the mattress
between the mattress

00:24:00.080 --> 00:24:01.720
-and the support.
-That\'\'s right.

00:24:01.720 --> 00:24:03.720
And we all had a good laugh.

00:24:03.720 --> 00:24:05.160
It was--yes, yes.

00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:07.040
And we spent the night there.

00:24:07.040 --> 00:24:08.240
When our turn came,

00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:10.360
we went into the helicopter,

00:24:10.360 --> 00:24:13.600
but not before
they gave us lifejackets.

00:24:13.600 --> 00:24:14.680
Mm-hm.

00:24:14.680 --> 00:24:15.840
And, um...

00:24:15.840 --> 00:24:20.040
I remember when I was sitting
in the helicopter...

00:24:20.040 --> 00:24:20.560
Mm-hm.

00:24:20.560 --> 00:24:23.000
...in the short couple
of minutes

00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:27.640
from land to the ship,
I looked landwards

00:24:27.640 --> 00:24:29.120
and I said, \"I don\'\'t know

00:24:29.120 --> 00:24:31.920
if I\'\'ll ever see
this country again.\"

00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:36.120
It was to be another five years
before I saw Sierra Leone.

00:24:36.120 --> 00:24:38.280
-Mm.
-Five years.

00:24:38.280 --> 00:24:40.040
It is painful then
for me to say

00:24:40.040 --> 00:24:41.480
-my wife never made it back.
-Right.

00:24:41.480 --> 00:24:44.440
No, she died of cancer
in the United States,

00:24:44.440 --> 00:24:48.640
and she wanted to come back
so desperately.

00:24:49.880 --> 00:24:55.120
To my wife dying of cancer,
for Dalisay.

00:27:52.280 --> 00:27:54.240
...dear wife.

00:27:55.240 --> 00:28:05.480
♪

00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:31.400
I\'\'ve surrounded myself
with a wall of loneliness.

00:28:31.400 --> 00:28:35.440
But within that wall
I don\'\'t feel lonely,

00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:37.800
if that makes any sense to you.

00:28:37.800 --> 00:28:43.560
♪

00:28:43.560 --> 00:28:47.520
I think, uh, being solitary

00:28:47.520 --> 00:28:49.800
has been the best medicine
for me.

00:28:49.800 --> 00:28:51.040
But this--
let me repeat again--

00:28:51.040 --> 00:28:54.880
this doesn\'\'t mean that
I\'\'m a lonely man.

00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:55.360
No, no.

00:28:55.360 --> 00:28:59.560
I would rather sit here
and drink and puff on my pipe

00:28:59.560 --> 00:29:03.000
than go to some
outlandish celebration

00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:07.320
where everyone has got to show
how many tiers of jewelry

00:29:07.320 --> 00:29:10.760
they\'\'ve put on or how expensive
their pair of shoes.

00:29:10.760 --> 00:29:14.280
I haven\'\'t worn a suit
in 47 years.

00:29:14.280 --> 00:29:15.840
I don\'\'t have a tie.

00:29:15.840 --> 00:29:18.680
I don\'\'t intend--
I don\'\'t intend

00:29:18.680 --> 00:29:21.600
to ever own a tie again.

00:29:21.600 --> 00:29:23.240
I don\'\'t wear a suit, no.

00:29:23.240 --> 00:29:27.000
Yes, and I\'\'ve told, uh,
whoever might have to bury me

00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:29.520
that if you stick me
in my coffin,

00:29:29.520 --> 00:29:32.400
a very cheap one at that,
and you put me in a suit,

00:29:32.400 --> 00:29:34.560
I\'\'m going to sit up
and slap your face.

00:29:34.560 --> 00:29:39.400
Yes, yes, \'\'cause that is--
that is who I am.

00:29:39.400 --> 00:29:42.160
Which is why
you\'\'re making this movie.

00:29:42.160 --> 00:29:45.600
The--the independent discovery

00:29:45.600 --> 00:29:48.760
on his part and on my part

00:29:48.760 --> 00:29:51.560
that we were...

00:29:51.560 --> 00:29:55.120
more or less writing poetry

00:29:55.120 --> 00:29:57.760
with a concern for humanity.

00:29:57.760 --> 00:30:00.480
I was teaching in
one Nigerian university

00:30:00.480 --> 00:30:03.600
and he was teaching
in another university.

00:30:03.600 --> 00:30:06.880
I was teaching his poetry
to my students

00:30:06.880 --> 00:30:08.160
and he was doing likewise,

00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:10.120
teaching my poetry to his
students.

00:30:10.120 --> 00:30:15.320
And we met in 1980 and the rest,
as we say, is history.

00:30:15.320 --> 00:30:16.560
That\'\'s why we\'\'re here.

00:30:16.560 --> 00:30:19.920
I always tell people I never
really left Sierra Leone.

00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:20.920
I take Sierra Leone with me.

00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:24.680
It\'\'s like the terrible weight
of history,

00:30:24.680 --> 00:30:28.640
both positive and negative,
that I go around with.

00:30:28.640 --> 00:30:32.320
Otherwise I can\'\'t write,
I can\'\'t survive.

00:30:32.760 --> 00:30:35.800
(bird cawing)

00:30:42.280 --> 00:30:44.040
This painting illustrates, uh--

00:30:44.040 --> 00:30:49.120
this is--this is
a beautiful depiction

00:30:49.120 --> 00:30:50.800
of downtown Freetown.

00:30:50.800 --> 00:30:54.560
Hundreds of birds used
to make a home in this tree.

00:30:54.560 --> 00:30:57.680
-That\'\'s right.
-Yes, they would fly out...

00:30:57.680 --> 00:30:58.600
Yes.

00:30:58.600 --> 00:31:00.360
...in the morning
or early afternoon,

00:31:00.360 --> 00:31:01.240
and in the evening time,
they\'\'d come.

00:31:01.240 --> 00:31:03.880
Oh, they were a sight,
especially in the evenings.

00:31:03.880 --> 00:31:05.800
In the evenings
they\'\'re a sight.

00:31:05.800 --> 00:31:08.840
Plus also vultures,
you know.

00:31:08.840 --> 00:31:12.040
Uh, this is where the...

00:31:12.040 --> 00:31:15.280
They way you
described that, uh...

00:31:15.280 --> 00:31:18.520
that scene in your novel,
you know,

00:31:18.520 --> 00:31:22.200
I think it\'\'s one of the reasons
people associate you

00:31:22.200 --> 00:31:24.000
with the so-called
magical realism.

00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:27.680
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Yeah, you made it really,

00:31:27.680 --> 00:31:30.240
uh, sound extremely magical.

00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:33.400
Magical--except that it was--
it was reality I was

00:31:33.400 --> 00:31:34.440
-describing.
-Mm-hm.

00:31:34.440 --> 00:31:36.360
I was--I mean, I was describing

00:31:36.360 --> 00:31:37.920
the magic of watching the birds.

00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:41.000
The vultures and the bats
fly out.

00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:42.120
It\'\'s very magical.

00:31:42.120 --> 00:31:46.280
This huge blanket of wings
as they\'\'re going out everywhere.

00:31:46.280 --> 00:31:50.240
I think one of your books
is called, what is it?

00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:51.000
The Eye of the Earth.

00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:54.920
That\'\'s right, it is
with that special eye

00:31:54.920 --> 00:31:56.520
that you look at the earth.

00:31:56.520 --> 00:31:58.000
And that is the way
I see things.

00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:02.200
We see images, but, I mean,
not necessarily...

00:32:02.200 --> 00:32:05.800
pertain to us a singular
inheritance.

00:32:05.800 --> 00:32:07.080
It\'\'s become universal,

00:32:07.080 --> 00:32:10.600
but it is how you represent it
in your art

00:32:10.600 --> 00:32:12.760
as poets or as painters.

00:32:12.760 --> 00:32:14.440
That is what makes it magical,

00:32:14.440 --> 00:32:17.600
and--and I am tired,

00:32:17.600 --> 00:32:21.440
as I said in the introduction
toSacred River,

00:32:21.440 --> 00:32:25.200
that what might sound
magical to you

00:32:25.200 --> 00:32:26.760
is my day to day...

00:32:26.760 --> 00:32:28.720
-Reality.
-...reality.

00:32:28.720 --> 00:32:30.440
I live it.

00:32:30.760 --> 00:32:37.880
One day, I think it was 1995,

00:32:37.880 --> 00:32:43.000
I was sitting in the, uh,
Victoria Park

00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:44.600
before it collapsed.

00:32:44.600 --> 00:32:48.280
I was talking to the late
Wiltshire Johnson.

00:32:48.280 --> 00:32:49.920
He had brought some poems
for me,

00:32:49.920 --> 00:32:51.320
and wanted me to look at
those poems.

00:32:51.320 --> 00:32:54.400
He had been asking me
for a long time.

00:32:54.400 --> 00:32:58.080
So I read the poems
and gave him my opinion.

00:32:58.080 --> 00:32:59.360
As soon as he left,

00:32:59.360 --> 00:33:02.800
uh, a military man
came up to me.

00:33:02.800 --> 00:33:05.560
I think he was a sergeant.
He said:

00:33:16.280 --> 00:33:17.840
He said:

00:33:19.560 --> 00:33:21.760
I said, \"Yes.\"
He said:

00:33:23.160 --> 00:33:25.280
I mean, it\'\'s one of those

00:33:25.280 --> 00:33:28.160
extraordinarily
fortuitous moments

00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:32.440
when a writer\'\'s ears
are enlarged like an elephant\'\'s.

00:33:32.440 --> 00:33:37.840
So I said, \"Fate must have
sent this man to me.

00:33:37.840 --> 00:33:39.560
I must hear his story.\"

00:33:39.560 --> 00:33:41.680
So he said--I said:

00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:48.400
He said:

00:33:55.760 --> 00:33:57.720
I said, \"Yes.\"
My ears became larger.

00:33:57.720 --> 00:34:00.000
He didn\'\'t know that
he was talking to someone

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:02.760
who had been present
before anything happened.

00:34:02.760 --> 00:34:03.840
I said, \"Yes.\"

00:34:03.840 --> 00:34:06.000
I said, \"What happened?\"
He says:

00:34:35.560 --> 00:34:37.560
(laughter)

00:34:37.560 --> 00:34:40.520
(applause)

00:34:45.080 --> 00:34:49.360
\"Not My Business\"
by Niyi Osundare.

00:36:04.520 --> 00:36:08.480
I\'\'m always very scared
of labels.

00:36:08.480 --> 00:36:12.560
Uh, but if you call me human,
I accept that label.

00:36:12.560 --> 00:36:17.040
Uh, there is nothing wrong
with protest literature.

00:36:17.040 --> 00:36:19.320
Basically all literature
is protest

00:36:19.320 --> 00:36:21.240
in one way or another.

00:36:21.240 --> 00:36:23.920
The most sublime form of art

00:36:23.920 --> 00:36:27.240
is a protest against silence.

00:36:27.240 --> 00:36:29.160
The real issue is

00:36:29.160 --> 00:36:31.880
what or whose politics?

00:36:31.880 --> 00:36:34.760
You know, I have been
called political poet.

00:36:34.760 --> 00:36:38.440
There was a time I used to be
concerned about it.

00:36:38.440 --> 00:36:41.480
Now I claim it,
as Christians will say,

00:36:41.480 --> 00:36:43.000
and I embrace this.

00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:44.480
Oh yes, political.

00:36:44.480 --> 00:36:45.280
Why not political?

00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:49.120
My very presence on this earth
is political.

00:36:49.120 --> 00:36:52.480
My existence as a black person
is political.

00:36:52.480 --> 00:36:55.880
The language I use itself
is political.

00:36:55.880 --> 00:36:57.200
The choice is political.

00:36:57.200 --> 00:36:58.640
I\'\'m Yoruba.

00:36:58.640 --> 00:36:59.440
I write in both languages,

00:36:59.440 --> 00:37:02.600
but most of my works
are known in English.

00:37:02.600 --> 00:37:06.560
So when you say political
protest and so on,

00:37:06.560 --> 00:37:09.320
these are terminologies
which critics,

00:37:09.320 --> 00:37:12.240
particularly Western critics
who are formalists,

00:37:12.240 --> 00:37:15.360
used to smash works
that do not agree

00:37:15.360 --> 00:37:19.480
with their literary
and political ideology.

00:37:19.480 --> 00:37:22.400
But you have to be aware
of the world in which you live.

00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:26.080
You have to be careful
the way you handle politics.

00:37:26.080 --> 00:37:35.840
♪

00:38:01.320 --> 00:38:03.240
♪

00:38:03.240 --> 00:38:06.160
(projector clicking)

00:38:06.160 --> 00:38:16.400
♪

00:38:50.200 --> 00:38:52.080
♪

00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:00.480
♪

00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:03.400
(projector clicking)

00:39:03.400 --> 00:39:11.440
♪

00:39:22.640 --> 00:39:24.280
♪

00:39:24.280 --> 00:39:24.920
\"Our Lady of Diamonds\"

00:39:24.920 --> 00:39:27.120
is the Diamond River itself,
you know,

00:39:27.120 --> 00:39:29.760
and which is both
the source of the beauty

00:39:29.760 --> 00:39:33.160
and the source of the tragedy
of Sierra Leone.

00:39:33.160 --> 00:39:34.640
Beauty and diamonds,
I mean,

00:39:34.640 --> 00:39:38.040
the idea of gem diamonds
when it\'\'s polished,

00:39:38.040 --> 00:39:42.400
that is the most wonderful,
the most treasured gift

00:39:42.400 --> 00:39:45.080
you can give to a woman,
\"The Lady of Diamonds.\"

00:39:45.080 --> 00:39:48.240
But of course, uh,
our rebel war, as it was called,

00:39:48.240 --> 00:39:51.360
was fought largely
because of this precious gift.

00:39:51.360 --> 00:39:56.160
Uh, it led to the dehumanization
of the people of Sierra Leone,

00:39:56.160 --> 00:39:59.480
the fragmentation
of our consciousness.

00:39:59.480 --> 00:40:00.480
So I was overwhelmed,

00:40:00.480 --> 00:40:02.120
it took me back to that period

00:40:02.120 --> 00:40:05.280
when we almost seemed
to have lost

00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:10.160
that most precious of...

00:40:10.160 --> 00:40:13.840
of morality,
of values too, yes.

00:40:13.840 --> 00:40:16.440
Where did those rebels go?

00:40:16.440 --> 00:40:17.080
Everywhere.

00:40:17.080 --> 00:40:20.280
We\'\'re going to the church
I used to attend

00:40:20.280 --> 00:40:25.040
before I decided Christianity
and I must part company.

00:40:25.040 --> 00:40:27.280
Yeah, it\'\'s called
St. Phillips.

00:40:27.280 --> 00:40:29.640
Come, didn\'\'t you say
in one of your books,

00:40:29.640 --> 00:40:34.040
\"Oh, Christ, you lied to me
at\"--is it Gethsemane?

00:40:34.040 --> 00:40:36.440
-At Calvary.
-At Calvary.

00:40:36.440 --> 00:40:37.360
Yes.

00:40:37.360 --> 00:40:41.480
Do--give--give me
those lines again.

00:40:41.480 --> 00:40:42.520
Uh...

00:40:42.520 --> 00:40:45.040
Or that eternity,
or that cheek,

00:40:45.040 --> 00:40:45.720
or something, something.

00:40:45.720 --> 00:40:48.040
It\'\'s just like--
I mean, it\'\'s like

00:40:48.040 --> 00:40:51.400
a camel\'\'s hump in some areas.

00:40:51.400 --> 00:40:54.760
(singing in foreign language)

00:40:58.120 --> 00:41:04.520
If paganism means a return
to original form of

00:41:04.520 --> 00:41:08.120
Christian belief
or religious belief

00:41:08.120 --> 00:41:12.440
encompassing the whole spectrum
for humanity,

00:41:12.440 --> 00:41:16.120
then I ran away from this
because of principles

00:41:16.120 --> 00:41:18.280
in denial of who I was.

00:41:18.280 --> 00:41:20.640
I don\'\'t see myself
in their light as a pagan.

00:41:20.640 --> 00:41:24.640
I see myself as a cultural
and universal humanist.

00:41:24.640 --> 00:41:27.840
So religion for me is the
universal expression of being.

00:41:27.840 --> 00:41:31.720
We\'\'re all--we\'\'re all
religiously one.

00:41:31.720 --> 00:41:35.200
So--but if the Christians
see me as a pagan

00:41:35.200 --> 00:41:38.200
by my running away
from their arrogance,

00:41:38.200 --> 00:41:39.840
then I\'\'m gladly
a Christian pagan.

00:41:39.840 --> 00:41:42.160
Yeah, and in addition
to that, my brother,

00:41:42.160 --> 00:41:44.160
we cannot talk about
Christianity in Africa

00:41:44.160 --> 00:41:46.240
without talking about
colonialism.

00:41:46.240 --> 00:41:50.680
You know, because, uh,
the Bible came first,

00:41:50.680 --> 00:41:51.880
and the sword followed.

00:41:51.880 --> 00:41:54.520
Whenever the Bible
felt threatened,

00:41:54.520 --> 00:41:55.600
it invited the sword.

00:41:55.600 --> 00:41:57.280
The two of them
worked hand in hand.

00:41:57.280 --> 00:42:03.440
Poetry means the exploration
of the deep,

00:42:03.440 --> 00:42:06.200
of the mysterious,

00:42:06.200 --> 00:42:09.520
and essentially
of the indigenous.

00:42:09.520 --> 00:42:12.120
And I\'\'m looking at
pagan Europe,

00:42:12.120 --> 00:42:15.760
at the great art that
pagan Europe produced.

00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:18.520
Does anybody talk about
the Vikings anymore?

00:42:18.520 --> 00:42:20.560
You know, so there is
really nothing

00:42:20.560 --> 00:42:23.320
monumentally strange
what is happening in Africa.

00:42:23.320 --> 00:42:29.120
It\'\'s just the way they tried to
whitewash our heads and so on,

00:42:29.120 --> 00:42:29.480
and--no.

00:42:29.480 --> 00:42:33.320
Christianity and African
religions can coexist.

00:42:33.320 --> 00:42:37.200
That\'\'s what they are doing
in Yorubaland.

00:42:37.200 --> 00:42:39.440
(laughing)

00:42:39.440 --> 00:42:41.360
(street noise)

00:42:41.360 --> 00:42:44.440
A big do of a great event
tonight.

00:42:44.440 --> 00:42:47.800
These are like
two big prime ministers

00:42:47.800 --> 00:42:52.480
visiting the Literary Society
of Sierra Leone.

00:42:52.480 --> 00:42:55.080
(applause)

00:42:55.080 --> 00:42:59.400
Yes, if you did not borrow
those hands, make it louder.

00:42:59.400 --> 00:43:01.720
(applause)

00:43:01.720 --> 00:43:05.400
African writers
have done a lot of work.

00:43:05.400 --> 00:43:06.680
They\'\'ve taken many risks.

00:43:06.680 --> 00:43:12.320
Writing on our continent today
involves a lot of risk taking.

00:43:12.320 --> 00:43:15.320
Thinking interrogatively,

00:43:15.320 --> 00:43:17.640
thinking originally,

00:43:17.640 --> 00:43:19.800
involves a lot of risks.

00:43:19.800 --> 00:43:21.200
Dele Giwa took it,

00:43:21.200 --> 00:43:22.280
he was bumped,

00:43:22.280 --> 00:43:23.240
um, and killed.

00:43:23.240 --> 00:43:26.800
But we make sure that
his legacy continues.

00:43:26.800 --> 00:43:29.880
Um, it\'\'s my happiness
to meet you here.

00:43:29.880 --> 00:43:32.000
Thank you very much
for your poems.

00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:34.880
Thank you very, very much
for your poems.

00:43:34.880 --> 00:43:39.920
I will be taking all this
with me back to Nigeria.

00:43:39.920 --> 00:43:41.520
What my eyes have seen here,

00:43:41.520 --> 00:43:45.240
my friend Syl Cheney-Coker,
you talk all the time,

00:43:45.240 --> 00:43:48.080
\"Oh yes, Sierra Leone legacy,

00:43:48.080 --> 00:43:50.560
the legacy of poetry.\"

00:43:50.560 --> 00:43:53.120
I\'\'m happy that you are a father

00:43:53.120 --> 00:43:56.160
with so many children
following you.

00:43:56.160 --> 00:43:58.440
This is very important.

00:43:58.440 --> 00:44:00.400
Very, very important.

00:44:00.400 --> 00:44:04.160
People say I\'\'m dissatisfied,
that I\'\'m angry.

00:44:04.160 --> 00:44:05.520
Yes, I am very, very angry

00:44:05.520 --> 00:44:08.320
because our world is not
where it should be yet.

00:44:08.320 --> 00:44:11.000
I know we are capable
of doing better.

00:44:11.000 --> 00:44:16.280
You live in a country
that has a lot of resonance,

00:44:16.280 --> 00:44:17.120
a lot of history

00:44:17.120 --> 00:44:22.080
for the rest of Africa
and the rest of the world.

00:44:22.080 --> 00:44:25.680
Short poem I want to read.

00:44:25.680 --> 00:44:26.760
The mouth,

00:44:26.760 --> 00:44:28.480
Yoruba philosophy,

00:44:28.480 --> 00:44:29.760
is a temple.

00:44:29.760 --> 00:44:32.400
The tongue is the priest.

00:44:32.400 --> 00:44:34.560
Mind what you say.

00:44:34.560 --> 00:44:37.000
Words have consequences.

00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:39.880
This is whatThe Word
is an Eggis about.

00:44:39.880 --> 00:44:41.360
It goes with the song.

00:44:41.360 --> 00:44:42.920
Uh, my own beat would be:

00:44:42.920 --> 00:44:46.280
(singing in foreign language)

00:44:46.280 --> 00:44:48.040
All you join me in singing this.

00:44:48.040 --> 00:44:50.000
(singing)

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:50.880
Let\'\'s have it.

00:44:50.880 --> 00:44:52.760
(all singing)

00:44:52.760 --> 00:44:56.520
(singing)

00:44:56.520 --> 00:44:58.760
(all singing)

00:44:58.760 --> 00:45:02.160
(singing)

00:45:02.160 --> 00:45:04.360
(all singing)

00:45:04.360 --> 00:45:07.640
(singing)

00:45:07.640 --> 00:45:10.080
(all singing)

00:45:10.080 --> 00:45:13.160
(singing)

00:45:13.160 --> 00:45:15.240
(all singing)

00:45:15.240 --> 00:45:19.080
(singing)

00:45:19.080 --> 00:45:20.680
(all singing)

00:45:20.680 --> 00:45:24.000
(singing)

00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:25.640
(all singing)

00:45:49.200 --> 00:45:51.880
(singing)

00:45:51.880 --> 00:45:54.360
♪

00:46:21.800 --> 00:46:24.520
(singing)

00:46:24.520 --> 00:46:29.640
♪

00:46:29.640 --> 00:46:32.440
(street noise)

00:46:32.440 --> 00:46:42.680
♪

00:46:46.640 --> 00:46:51.400
I say it is important to visit
the university area yesterday.

00:46:51.400 --> 00:46:53.120
\'\'Cause here in...

00:46:53.120 --> 00:46:55.640
You see how lean these cows are?

00:46:55.640 --> 00:46:56.560
(cow mooing)

00:46:56.560 --> 00:47:00.200
You wonder, you buy this,
how much flesh.

00:47:00.200 --> 00:47:00.440
You buy.

00:47:00.440 --> 00:47:02.080
That\'\'s why the Fulani herdsmen

00:47:02.080 --> 00:47:03.280
are coming down, because...

00:47:03.280 --> 00:47:07.720
uh, they must have had rain
up north sometime.

00:47:07.720 --> 00:47:12.480
Oh, God, in Nigeria, you see
the bulls these days.

00:47:12.480 --> 00:47:13.760
They are lean.

00:47:13.760 --> 00:47:16.040
As lean as many Nigerians are.

00:47:16.040 --> 00:47:19.120
-Which is--but lean is good.
-Oh, it\'\'s better.

00:47:19.120 --> 00:47:23.080
Oh, no estrogen and all those
things they pump into...

00:47:23.080 --> 00:47:24.440
You avoid having a heart attack.

00:47:24.440 --> 00:47:26.680
-Yeah, sorry, my water.
-And all the poison

00:47:26.680 --> 00:47:28.080
they put in the food chain.

00:47:28.080 --> 00:47:31.160
Poison they put in this, in...

00:47:31.160 --> 00:47:34.600
your chicken, your beef.

00:47:34.600 --> 00:47:38.120
These ones are
raised on grass.

00:47:38.120 --> 00:47:39.680
Oh yes.

00:47:45.520 --> 00:47:47.680
(speaking foreign language)

00:47:49.360 --> 00:47:51.000
Ah, my God.

00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:53.000
This is an armored tank.

00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:55.440
(foreign word), Officer George.

00:47:55.440 --> 00:47:56.840
Officer George!

00:47:56.840 --> 00:47:58.560
What\'\'s up?

00:47:59.640 --> 00:48:01.640
(door opening)

00:48:01.640 --> 00:48:02.640
-Good morning.
-Hi, good morning, sir.

00:48:02.640 --> 00:48:03.440
-How are you?
-Fine, sir.

00:48:03.440 --> 00:48:05.520
Thank you very much
for coming.

00:48:05.520 --> 00:48:07.400
Sorry we--about the delay.

00:48:07.400 --> 00:48:09.640
-We are going to Ekiti.
-Okay, sir.

00:48:09.640 --> 00:48:10.320
-Ikere.
-Okay, sir.

00:48:10.320 --> 00:48:12.360
And they are waiting
for us there already.

00:48:12.360 --> 00:48:16.600
Which one do we take--
do we go Ife, Ilesha,

00:48:16.600 --> 00:48:18.520
Akure, Ikere, or...?

00:48:18.520 --> 00:48:22.360
(speaking foreign language)

00:48:22.360 --> 00:48:23.640
I don\'\'t know...

00:48:23.640 --> 00:48:24.320
How about you?

00:48:24.320 --> 00:48:28.760
(speaking foreign language)

00:48:28.760 --> 00:48:29.320
-Oh, really?
-Yeah.

00:48:29.320 --> 00:48:30.640
-You know this better then?
-Yes.

00:48:30.640 --> 00:48:31.760
-Yeah, we\'\'re ready.
-Okay.

00:48:31.760 --> 00:48:34.400
Yeah, you follow--
good morning.

00:48:34.400 --> 00:48:36.080
How are you?

00:48:38.720 --> 00:48:44.560
(speaking foreign language)

00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:46.560
Yes.

00:48:46.560 --> 00:48:51.160
(speaking foreign language)

00:48:56.640 --> 00:48:58.640
No.

00:48:58.640 --> 00:49:01.520
Ife, Ilesha, Akure.

00:49:01.520 --> 00:49:03.040
(children singing)

00:49:03.040 --> 00:49:06.360
(speaking foreign language)

00:49:07.800 --> 00:49:08.920
(door opening)

00:49:08.920 --> 00:49:10.360
(laughing)

00:49:10.360 --> 00:49:11.920
What a big surprise.

00:49:11.920 --> 00:49:13.360
Welcome, sir.

00:49:13.360 --> 00:49:15.520
-How are you?
-I\'\'m fine, sir.

00:49:15.520 --> 00:49:17.160
(applause)

00:49:17.160 --> 00:49:18.120
Thank you very much.

00:49:18.120 --> 00:49:19.400
What\'\'s your name?

00:49:19.400 --> 00:49:20.720
(unintelligible)

00:49:20.720 --> 00:49:24.400
(unintelligible exchange)

00:49:24.400 --> 00:49:25.920
Thank you.

00:49:25.920 --> 00:49:27.560
...very, very much.

00:49:27.560 --> 00:49:28.640
Thank you.

00:49:28.640 --> 00:49:29.720
Thank you.

00:49:29.720 --> 00:49:32.480
(applause)

00:49:32.480 --> 00:49:34.040
Ah...

00:49:34.040 --> 00:49:35.200
Ah!

00:49:35.200 --> 00:49:38.160
(laughing)

00:49:39.360 --> 00:49:41.360
(speaking foreign language)

00:49:41.360 --> 00:49:46.000
(singing in foreign language)

00:49:52.240 --> 00:49:53.200
(laughing)

00:49:53.200 --> 00:49:54.440
Ah, you remember!

00:49:54.440 --> 00:49:57.400
(laughing)

00:49:59.920 --> 00:50:01.240
(screaming)

00:50:01.240 --> 00:50:02.920
(laughing)

00:50:04.560 --> 00:50:06.000
Onini?

00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:09.640
(laughing)

00:50:11.680 --> 00:50:12.400
(speaking foreign language)

00:50:12.400 --> 00:50:16.320
It\'\'s good to see you.
Good to see you.

00:50:18.320 --> 00:50:19.800
It\'\'s almost gone.

00:50:19.800 --> 00:50:20.720
(laughing)

00:50:20.720 --> 00:50:23.840
(murmur of crowd)

00:50:23.840 --> 00:50:25.160
By--by the...

00:50:25.160 --> 00:50:30.880
Oh yes, by the time
we got to upper form,

00:50:30.880 --> 00:50:33.480
this block...

00:50:33.480 --> 00:50:37.240
this block of classrooms
had been completed.

00:50:37.240 --> 00:50:39.000
In our final year,

00:50:39.000 --> 00:50:41.680
I was appointed
library prefect.

00:50:41.680 --> 00:50:44.520
So I, uh, took care of
all the libraries,

00:50:44.520 --> 00:50:50.200
and I must tell you that
the libraries had books

00:50:50.200 --> 00:50:51.120
in those days.

00:50:51.120 --> 00:50:55.880
And in every class
was a chart

00:50:55.880 --> 00:50:58.840
with all our names on it.

00:50:58.840 --> 00:51:00.880
And the question
at the top is,

00:51:00.880 --> 00:51:05.440
\"How many books
did you read this week?\"

00:51:05.440 --> 00:51:09.320
You had to read a new novel
every week.

00:51:09.320 --> 00:51:13.840
Thirty-Nine Steps,
Tom Brown\'\'s School Days.

00:51:13.840 --> 00:51:15.760
Oliver Twist.

00:51:15.760 --> 00:51:17.720
Um,Great Expectations.

00:51:17.720 --> 00:51:20.280
Look, the Charles Dickens\'\'
books.

00:51:20.280 --> 00:51:21.000
Shakespeare.

00:51:21.000 --> 00:51:24.160
First of all,
Shakespeare made easy

00:51:24.160 --> 00:51:25.920
I know by Lamb.

00:51:25.920 --> 00:51:27.680
When we were in upper secondary

00:51:27.680 --> 00:51:31.000
we started reading
Shakespeare himself.

00:51:31.000 --> 00:51:33.720
We began withTwelfth Night,

00:51:33.720 --> 00:51:36.360
then moved on toAs You Like It.

00:51:36.360 --> 00:51:37.400
But it wasAs You Like It

00:51:37.400 --> 00:51:40.640
that then featured
in our school certificate

00:51:40.640 --> 00:51:41.240
leaving exam.

00:51:41.240 --> 00:51:44.440
That\'\'s the book
Mr. J.S. Manly taught me,

00:51:44.440 --> 00:51:46.720
the man whose memorable name
I mentioned

00:51:46.720 --> 00:51:49.440
throughout the time
I was in Sierra Leone.

00:51:49.440 --> 00:51:50.560
He was a Sierra Leonean.

00:51:50.560 --> 00:51:52.000
We had wonderful teachers.

00:51:52.000 --> 00:51:53.720
Really, really wonderful
teachers.

00:51:53.720 --> 00:51:55.880
And I think that\'\'s
one of the reasons

00:51:55.880 --> 00:51:58.440
I committed my own life
to teaching.

00:51:58.440 --> 00:51:59.640
I want to give something back.

00:51:59.640 --> 00:52:01.840
-Hello, how are you?
-Fine, thank you.

00:52:01.840 --> 00:52:04.280
I hope you are
working very hard.

00:52:04.280 --> 00:52:04.880
Yes, sir.

00:52:04.880 --> 00:52:06.760
I\'\'m happy to meet you.

00:52:06.760 --> 00:52:12.280
Yeah, I sat in this classroom
in 1965.

00:52:12.280 --> 00:52:14.240
This was where
I learned literature,

00:52:14.240 --> 00:52:17.240
I learned Latin,
I learned geography.

00:52:17.240 --> 00:52:21.800
I was about your size
at that time too.

00:52:21.800 --> 00:52:24.040
Please work hard.

00:52:24.040 --> 00:52:26.800
Let\'\'s make our country better.

00:52:26.800 --> 00:52:28.240
Yes, (unintelligible).

00:52:28.240 --> 00:52:32.120
May the future be bright for
all of you and your children.

00:52:32.120 --> 00:52:33.640
(unintelligible)

00:52:33.640 --> 00:52:34.680
Thank you.

00:52:34.680 --> 00:52:36.920
(applause)

00:52:36.920 --> 00:52:41.560
(singing in foreign language)

00:53:08.600 --> 00:53:14.240
This gentleman saved my life
when I was in form six.

00:53:14.240 --> 00:53:16.000
I could have been poisoned.

00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:18.640
That\'\'s his story.

00:53:18.640 --> 00:53:20.840
But...

00:53:20.840 --> 00:53:25.800
he saw some shady deals

00:53:25.800 --> 00:53:28.000
and he reported to me

00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:31.200
that I shouldn\'\'t eat
on the table...

00:53:31.200 --> 00:53:32.000
Oh.

00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:36.800
...because we\'\'re
all, uh, brothers.

00:53:36.800 --> 00:53:38.600
Yes.

00:53:38.600 --> 00:53:41.920
But I agreed.

00:53:41.920 --> 00:53:42.920
Even my colleague brother,

00:53:42.920 --> 00:53:46.800
I didn\'\'t allow him
to take the food.

00:53:46.800 --> 00:53:50.200
But at nine o\'\'clock
in the evening,

00:53:50.200 --> 00:53:53.160
I was invited to
the house master\'\'s house--

00:53:53.160 --> 00:53:54.840
that house is there--

00:53:54.840 --> 00:53:58.560
only to be given--
I was given that food,

00:53:58.560 --> 00:54:00.920
already turned stone black.

00:54:00.920 --> 00:54:02.440
(murmur)

00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:07.320
It was somebody from his class

00:54:07.320 --> 00:54:10.400
who wanted to kill me.

00:54:10.400 --> 00:54:12.160
But he saved my life.

00:54:12.160 --> 00:54:13.280
And I had made up my mind

00:54:13.280 --> 00:54:17.160
whenever anybody
wants to honor him,

00:54:17.160 --> 00:54:20.720
I will be physically there...

00:54:20.720 --> 00:54:24.000
because I am alive today

00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:28.400
because of Osundare.

00:54:28.400 --> 00:54:32.600
God used him
to protect me.

00:54:32.600 --> 00:54:34.400
(applause)

00:54:34.400 --> 00:54:37.840
Professor Osundare,
you will live long.

00:54:37.840 --> 00:54:38.440
Amen.

00:54:38.440 --> 00:54:41.360
Let\'\'s give a big hand
for both of you.

00:54:41.360 --> 00:54:42.320
(applause)

00:54:42.320 --> 00:54:46.000
-Live long and prosper.
-Big hand for the two of you.

00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:48.520
(applause)

00:54:48.520 --> 00:54:49.400
Two brothers done well,

00:54:49.400 --> 00:54:52.240
two students of this school
done well.

00:54:52.240 --> 00:54:54.040
Thank you very much.

00:54:54.040 --> 00:54:55.400
(unintelligible)

00:54:55.400 --> 00:54:56.480
Three, four.

00:54:56.480 --> 00:55:01.120
(singing in foreign language)

00:56:17.680 --> 00:56:22.280
(singing in a foreign language)

00:56:44.400 --> 00:56:46.920
(chanting in foreign language)

00:56:46.920 --> 00:56:48.200
(repeating)

00:56:48.200 --> 00:56:49.560
(speaking foreign language)

00:56:49.560 --> 00:56:54.200
(reciting in foreign language)

00:56:59.440 --> 00:57:00.200
Amen.

00:57:00.200 --> 00:57:01.520
(chanting in foreign language)

00:57:01.520 --> 00:57:03.800
(repeating)

00:57:04.440 --> 00:57:05.680
-(unintelligible)
-Yes.

00:57:05.680 --> 00:57:07.120
Let me show you around here.

00:57:07.120 --> 00:57:11.680
(speaking foreign language)

00:57:25.840 --> 00:57:28.320
This is where--
this is where it all started.

00:57:28.320 --> 00:57:29.400
-Yeah, it\'\'s...
-Yes.

00:57:29.400 --> 00:57:31.560
-And how could you call this...
-...my father\'\'s house.

00:57:31.560 --> 00:57:34.800
How could you call this
a poor man\'\'s house?

00:57:34.800 --> 00:57:36.160
(laughing)

00:57:36.160 --> 00:57:37.920
No, (unintelligible).

00:57:37.920 --> 00:57:41.080
When we went to
(unintelligible) street,

00:57:41.080 --> 00:57:42.680
uh, your brothers--

00:57:42.680 --> 00:57:44.480
uh, I mean, your brother
was after me.

00:57:44.480 --> 00:57:49.680
I mean, I mean, I was
respectably middle class,

00:57:49.680 --> 00:57:51.080
nice verandas, everything.

00:57:51.080 --> 00:57:53.080
But he always
represented himself

00:57:53.080 --> 00:57:55.400
as being a poor farmer\'\'s son.

00:57:55.400 --> 00:57:57.520
-Relatively.
-This is two stories.

00:57:57.520 --> 00:58:01.120
Yeah, your father\'\'s house
is made of stone.

00:58:01.120 --> 00:58:02.200
-Yes.
-Uh huh.

00:58:02.200 --> 00:58:05.400
-1936.
-1936 he built this.

00:58:05.400 --> 00:58:06.280
Yeah, 1936.

00:58:06.280 --> 00:58:08.160
This is 1949.

00:58:08.160 --> 00:58:09.560
-I grew up--
-Your evolution.

00:58:09.560 --> 00:58:12.160
I grew up rich,
but not wealthy.

00:58:12.160 --> 00:58:13.840
-Oh.
-And our parents...

00:58:13.840 --> 00:58:15.360
You were rich in all aspects.

00:58:15.360 --> 00:58:16.920
-Rich, very, very rich.
-Yes.

00:58:16.920 --> 00:58:20.040
I thank this background
for who I am today

00:58:20.040 --> 00:58:22.600
because I was taught
the difference

00:58:22.600 --> 00:58:23.480
between wrong and right.

00:58:23.480 --> 00:58:28.080
I was also taught that money
is not everything.

00:58:28.080 --> 00:58:29.400
Yes.

00:58:33.040 --> 00:58:37.280
We see that my people
are picking up the phrase.

00:58:37.280 --> 00:58:38.160
This is it.

00:58:38.160 --> 00:58:39.400
So I became a socialist

00:58:39.400 --> 00:58:40.600
even before I went to school.

00:58:40.600 --> 00:58:45.520
And I never knew Karl Marx
or, uh, Friedrich Engels

00:58:45.520 --> 00:58:47.280
until I got to the university.

00:58:47.280 --> 00:58:49.320
My father used to sit there

00:58:49.320 --> 00:58:50.880
when he came back
from the farm.

00:58:50.880 --> 00:58:53.760
That was where
he had his dinner.

00:58:53.760 --> 00:58:54.600
And he would stay there

00:58:54.600 --> 00:58:57.800
and overlook this whole place
for a while

00:58:57.800 --> 00:59:00.840
before then coming down
to sit here.

00:59:00.840 --> 00:59:02.520
He loved talking,
he loved it.

00:59:02.520 --> 00:59:04.480
And he was a man whose--
and singing.

00:59:04.480 --> 00:59:07.800
He was a man whose company
we always craved.

00:59:07.800 --> 00:59:11.120
When he finished there,
he would then go to, uh,

00:59:11.120 --> 00:59:13.800
the front of one of
the houses over there,

00:59:13.800 --> 00:59:17.480
the one overlooking
the main street,

00:59:17.480 --> 00:59:19.040
(unintelligible) something.

00:59:19.040 --> 00:59:21.160
I used to sit very close to them

00:59:21.160 --> 00:59:23.120
and I picked up a lot.

00:59:23.120 --> 00:59:26.080
Uh, what I picked up mostly, uh,

00:59:26.080 --> 00:59:30.160
was reflected inVillage Voices,
my second book of poems.

00:59:30.160 --> 00:59:35.640
Full of poems about songs from
my (unintelligible) childhood,

00:59:35.640 --> 00:59:38.160
including (speaking
foreign language).

00:59:38.160 --> 00:59:42.760
(singing in foreign language)

00:59:56.840 --> 00:59:57.480
(laughing)

00:59:57.480 --> 01:00:00.480
(singing in foreign language)

01:00:00.480 --> 01:00:02.600
(laughing)

01:00:02.600 --> 01:00:04.640
Now that song--

01:00:04.640 --> 01:00:06.000
that song is so important

01:00:06.000 --> 01:00:08.040
because when the book
was published,

01:00:08.040 --> 01:00:10.920
no, no, before
it was published in 1984,

01:00:10.920 --> 01:00:11.720
it was sent to assessors.

01:00:11.720 --> 01:00:14.160
The assessors said,
\"This is a good book for poems,

01:00:14.160 --> 01:00:16.400
but the poem on page
I don\'\'t know what it is,

01:00:16.400 --> 01:00:20.240
uh, the Christians
may not like it.\"

01:00:20.240 --> 01:00:24.040
What the song is
is a song for the bride.

01:00:24.040 --> 01:00:27.400
The bride is saying, \"I\'\'m going
to my husband\'\'s house,

01:00:27.400 --> 01:00:29.640
the man who has yams
in his barn

01:00:29.640 --> 01:00:32.320
and a strong penis
between his legs.

01:00:32.320 --> 01:00:37.200
And that before this moon
turns the ninth next year,

01:00:37.200 --> 01:00:38.920
I will be bearing his child.\"

01:00:38.920 --> 01:00:40.080
So it was a fertility song.

01:00:40.080 --> 01:00:41.880
So why should the Christians
not have liked it?

01:00:41.880 --> 01:00:45.080
Because they said it was pagan,
and I love paganism.

01:00:45.080 --> 01:00:48.040
No, but sex is all about
creation in Christianity.

01:00:48.040 --> 01:00:48.920
It is indeed.

01:00:48.920 --> 01:00:51.040
But this is in
(unintelligible) where

01:00:51.040 --> 01:00:52.880
some of our songs
are extremely rich,

01:00:52.880 --> 01:00:55.640
(foreign word) songs,
for example, yeah?

01:00:55.640 --> 01:01:00.840
Yes, where men create songs,
very beautiful poems

01:01:00.840 --> 01:01:02.000
against female genitals,

01:01:02.000 --> 01:01:06.760
and women create
equally beautiful songs

01:01:06.760 --> 01:01:07.600
against male genitals.

01:01:07.600 --> 01:01:12.080
They ask the man, \"Uh,
have you known this woman,\"

01:01:12.080 --> 01:01:13.400
and you know what--

01:01:13.400 --> 01:01:14.600
-No.
-You know what it means.

01:01:14.600 --> 01:01:16.440
-Yeah.
-Have you known this woman

01:01:16.440 --> 01:01:17.760
-in the Bible.
-That\'\'s right.

01:01:17.760 --> 01:01:19.240
Yeah, have you slept with her,

01:01:19.240 --> 01:01:19.840
so what\'\'s the difference?

01:01:19.840 --> 01:01:22.080
That\'\'s right, no,
it is right for the Bible,

01:01:22.080 --> 01:01:24.240
but when it comes
to other cultures,

01:01:24.240 --> 01:01:25.800
-\"Oh yeah, that must be pagan.\"
-I see.

01:01:25.800 --> 01:01:29.600
I was brought up in this house
to respect balance.

01:01:29.600 --> 01:01:30.560
-Yes.
-Balance.

01:01:30.560 --> 01:01:32.720
My father sat here,

01:01:32.720 --> 01:01:33.880
in 1961 generally,

01:01:33.880 --> 01:01:37.680
when I was about to leave
for Amoye Grammar School.

01:01:37.680 --> 01:01:39.560
Our grandmother
had just passed away,

01:01:39.560 --> 01:01:42.200
so the entire family
was around,

01:01:42.200 --> 01:01:43.280
and they were all there.

01:01:43.280 --> 01:01:46.560
And he asked me to-
my box was already packed.

01:01:46.560 --> 01:01:50.040
My mother carried the big one
on her head.

01:01:50.040 --> 01:01:51.560
There were no vehicles.

01:01:51.560 --> 01:01:57.200
I put the pail, my brothers
carried books and so on,

01:01:57.200 --> 01:01:58.800
with my name on the pail,

01:01:58.800 --> 01:02:00.840
(foreign word) Osundare.

01:02:00.840 --> 01:02:01.640
I was very, very proud.

01:02:01.640 --> 01:02:04.280
So we were about to leave
when my mother--

01:02:04.280 --> 01:02:06.080
when my father then said,
\"Come.\"

01:02:06.080 --> 01:02:10.240
I knelt here before him
and he prayed for me

01:02:10.240 --> 01:02:11.280
that my way would be clear,

01:02:11.280 --> 01:02:16.200
and he thanked me too
for upholding the family name,

01:02:16.200 --> 01:02:16.680
which is very important.

01:02:16.680 --> 01:02:21.480
Then he said, \"Today,
I don\'\'t know how to write,

01:02:21.480 --> 01:02:24.640
but I have taught you
how to write.

01:02:24.640 --> 01:02:26.400
Every book that I buy for you,

01:02:26.400 --> 01:02:30.200
the first thing you write on it
before you write your own name

01:02:30.200 --> 01:02:32.680
is (speaking foreign language).

01:02:32.680 --> 01:02:36.080
Remember the son
of whom you are.\"

01:02:36.080 --> 01:02:39.240
That remains with me
up till today.

01:02:39.240 --> 01:02:42.360
(murmur of crowd)

01:02:42.360 --> 01:02:44.480
Oh, okay.

01:02:44.480 --> 01:02:45.280
James.

01:02:45.280 --> 01:02:48.600
(speaking foreign language)

01:02:52.080 --> 01:02:52.720
Oh, this is beautiful.

01:02:52.720 --> 01:02:56.920
I was pretty young when
my mother kept on telling me.

01:02:56.920 --> 01:02:59.640
Maybe that is why I never know
how to swim

01:02:59.640 --> 01:03:03.120
because while my mates
would go to ocean to swim,

01:03:03.120 --> 01:03:04.120
there were two things I did.

01:03:04.120 --> 01:03:06.880
I read my books
and I helped my mother

01:03:06.880 --> 01:03:07.560
in the kitchen.

01:03:07.560 --> 01:03:12.360
The--she told me--
she taught me how to pound.

01:03:12.360 --> 01:03:15.680
You know, you put the--
you boil the yam,

01:03:15.680 --> 01:03:17.160
you put the yam in the mortar,

01:03:17.160 --> 01:03:19.640
and you hit the yam
with this

01:03:19.640 --> 01:03:23.080
until it becomes
very supple dough.

01:03:23.080 --> 01:03:25.320
The pestle fights the mortar,

01:03:25.320 --> 01:03:28.920
the mortar fights
the pestle.

01:03:28.920 --> 01:03:32.440
There has to be a fight
between the two of them.

01:03:32.440 --> 01:03:35.280
Usually the victim
is the yam.

01:03:35.280 --> 01:03:37.480
-Of course.
-But from that victimhood

01:03:37.480 --> 01:03:39.000
comes the pounded yam.

01:03:39.000 --> 01:03:43.320
(speaking foreign language)

01:03:43.320 --> 01:03:44.920
(singing in foreign language)

01:03:44.920 --> 01:03:47.440
You see, that\'\'s the poetry
coming out.

01:03:47.440 --> 01:03:49.240
Yeah, uh huh, yeah,
(foreign word),

01:03:49.240 --> 01:03:51.440
and that (foreign word)
is onomatopoeic.

01:03:51.440 --> 01:03:53.200
-Yes, of course.
-(foreign word)

01:03:53.200 --> 01:03:54.880
is sound of pestle...

01:03:54.880 --> 01:03:57.240
The pestle and the mortar.

01:03:57.240 --> 01:03:58.880
-On the mortar.
-Yes.

01:03:58.880 --> 01:04:00.680
-Yeah.
-Yes.

01:04:00.680 --> 01:04:01.400
Or this.

01:04:01.400 --> 01:04:02.240
(tapping)

01:04:02.240 --> 01:04:03.240
And we have to be careful

01:04:03.240 --> 01:04:05.360
because it will bruise.

01:04:05.360 --> 01:04:06.840
That is how it is.

01:04:06.840 --> 01:04:09.040
So I knew how to do this,

01:04:09.040 --> 01:04:13.800
and I also learned how
to cook, to prepare soup.

01:04:13.800 --> 01:04:15.760
Whoever cooked first

01:04:15.760 --> 01:04:17.480
served all the others.

01:04:17.480 --> 01:04:19.440
Whatever you cooked
for your children,

01:04:19.440 --> 01:04:21.800
you shared with the children
or other people.

01:04:21.800 --> 01:04:25.440
This is the communal ethic,
ethos,

01:04:25.440 --> 01:04:28.400
that, uh,
comes constantly to me.

01:04:28.400 --> 01:04:31.040
You cannot just live
your individual life

01:04:31.040 --> 01:04:34.560
and ignore the lives
of others.

01:04:34.560 --> 01:04:36.200
When my mother went away,

01:04:36.200 --> 01:04:37.560
the other wives took care of me.

01:04:37.560 --> 01:04:40.200
It actually takes a village
to raise a child.

01:04:40.200 --> 01:04:44.160
Whoever, uh, is older
than your parents

01:04:44.160 --> 01:04:45.600
stands in loco parentis.

01:04:45.600 --> 01:04:48.280
You know, it\'\'s in the place
of a parent,

01:04:48.280 --> 01:04:51.120
and should correct you
wherever you are.

01:04:51.120 --> 01:04:52.320
So as I keep on saying,

01:04:52.320 --> 01:04:54.760
there is a lot about
our culture

01:04:54.760 --> 01:04:56.600
that we may frown upon,

01:04:56.600 --> 01:04:59.720
but there is a lot,
an awful lot,

01:04:59.720 --> 01:05:02.160
that we need to take with us.

01:05:02.160 --> 01:05:04.320
(street noise)

01:05:04.320 --> 01:05:06.560
In Yorubaland,

01:05:06.560 --> 01:05:07.200
the market...

01:05:07.200 --> 01:05:11.680
is always not very far
from the palace.

01:05:11.680 --> 01:05:13.200
So strictly speaking,

01:05:13.200 --> 01:05:17.200
we are in the heart
of an ancient kingdom

01:05:17.200 --> 01:05:18.280
in this part of Ibadan.

01:05:18.280 --> 01:05:21.000
-That\'\'s right.
-Hello.

01:05:21.000 --> 01:05:23.280
(foreign word), madam.

01:05:23.280 --> 01:05:24.080
Yes.

01:05:24.080 --> 01:05:27.200
(murmur of crowd)

01:05:27.440 --> 01:05:29.920
There is a poem of mine, uh--

01:05:29.920 --> 01:05:32.400
what is it now,
\"The Song of Life.\"

01:05:32.400 --> 01:05:33.760
Actually it\'\'s a celebration

01:05:33.760 --> 01:05:37.600
of different kinds
of Yoruba foods,

01:05:37.600 --> 01:05:40.560
uh, and the colors,

01:05:40.560 --> 01:05:42.120
yes, and the variety.

01:05:42.120 --> 01:05:45.280
(murmur of crowd)

01:05:45.280 --> 01:05:48.720
And the importance
of the farmer.

01:05:48.720 --> 01:05:50.040
(speaking foreign language)

01:05:50.040 --> 01:05:53.160
(murmur of crowd)

01:05:54.600 --> 01:05:57.440
(speaking foreign language)

01:05:57.440 --> 01:05:58.240
(horn honking)

01:05:58.240 --> 01:06:00.160
Many of the products here

01:06:00.160 --> 01:06:01.800
have no final prices.

01:06:01.800 --> 01:06:03.120
Their prices are not fixed.

01:06:03.120 --> 01:06:07.400
You know, you want to sell
something for 20 naira,

01:06:07.400 --> 01:06:08.760
you start with 30 naira.

01:06:08.760 --> 01:06:14.520
And then the buyer will begin
to haggle and bargain with you.

01:06:14.520 --> 01:06:17.000
\"Uh, okay, what about 18 naira?\"

01:06:17.000 --> 01:06:17.440
\"Okay, bring money.\"

01:06:17.440 --> 01:06:20.080
\"Fifteen naira,\"
\"Ah, that\'\'s too much.\"

01:06:20.080 --> 01:06:22.920
Uh, then you argue a little bit.

01:06:22.920 --> 01:06:23.840
Okay, bring money.

01:06:23.840 --> 01:06:25.560
Then you take another look
at it.

01:06:25.560 --> 01:06:27.720
\"Okay, let me pay 12 naira.\"

01:06:27.720 --> 01:06:28.760
And they say, \"Ah, no.

01:06:28.760 --> 01:06:31.120
That is actually how much
I paid for it.\"

01:06:31.120 --> 01:06:33.360
Uh, and then
you leave that alone

01:06:33.360 --> 01:06:35.320
and you begin to tell stories.

01:06:35.320 --> 01:06:36.800
\"How is your baby?\"

01:06:36.800 --> 01:06:37.720
\"How is the family?\"

01:06:37.720 --> 01:06:41.440
You know, that is the--
and contact began

01:06:41.440 --> 01:06:45.560
on a formal commercial basis.

01:06:45.560 --> 01:06:49.600
By the time you come into
the end of the negotiation,

01:06:49.600 --> 01:06:51.440
it has become personal.

01:06:51.440 --> 01:06:52.560
Very, very personal.

01:06:52.560 --> 01:06:55.120
And you see people laughing.

01:06:55.120 --> 01:06:59.840
One of the, uh, first surprises

01:06:59.840 --> 01:07:01.720
many Nigerians encounter

01:07:01.720 --> 01:07:04.600
on getting to Europe
or whatever

01:07:04.600 --> 01:07:07.760
is the fact that everything
is taxed.

01:07:07.760 --> 01:07:10.000
You know, you don\'\'t need
to even talk to anybody,

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:12.680
you get there, $2,
you pick it up,

01:07:12.680 --> 01:07:15.480
give it to the cashier,
and you go away

01:07:15.480 --> 01:07:18.320
without any contact at all
between you

01:07:18.320 --> 01:07:20.400
and the people selling.

01:07:31.760 --> 01:07:35.200
One of the most important
civil demonstrations

01:07:35.200 --> 01:07:36.760
I took part in

01:07:36.760 --> 01:07:40.320
happened in February 1971

01:07:40.320 --> 01:07:41.920
at one of largest halls.

01:07:41.920 --> 01:07:43.000
It\'\'s called Zik Hall,

01:07:43.000 --> 01:07:46.840
named after Nigeria\'\'s
first president, Azikiwe.

01:07:46.840 --> 01:07:49.040
And students of that hall
complained

01:07:49.040 --> 01:07:51.120
that their food was substandard.

01:07:51.120 --> 01:07:52.680
The vice chancellor then,

01:07:52.680 --> 01:07:53.480
whom we all loved,

01:07:53.480 --> 01:07:55.600
didn\'\'t handle the situation
well.

01:07:55.600 --> 01:07:58.640
He ignored the students
in a way,

01:07:58.640 --> 01:08:01.280
and I think on the sixth day
or so,

01:08:01.280 --> 01:08:06.920
um, he invited the police
into the campus, you know.

01:08:06.920 --> 01:08:09.880
And the police,
when they entered the campus,

01:08:09.880 --> 01:08:11.640
started shooting tear gas,

01:08:11.640 --> 01:08:14.360
and after that,
live bullets.

01:08:14.360 --> 01:08:17.400
One of our students,
one who was our friend,

01:08:17.400 --> 01:08:19.840
Kunle Adepeju, was shot,

01:08:19.840 --> 01:08:23.240
and he died in front of
the female hostel there.

01:08:23.240 --> 01:08:27.040
So that was, um,
our baptism of fire,

01:08:27.040 --> 01:08:30.720
the baptism of fire for
all Nigerian universities.

01:08:30.720 --> 01:08:32.200
We lost our first student.

01:08:32.200 --> 01:08:34.640
Since then, oh,
so many of our students

01:08:34.640 --> 01:08:39.640
have been--have fallen
to, uh, police bullets.

01:08:39.640 --> 01:08:49.880
♪

01:09:01.920 --> 01:09:06.240
Our politicians, our rulers
steal our money.

01:09:06.240 --> 01:09:08.240
They put the money
in foreign banks.

01:09:08.240 --> 01:09:10.400
It doesn\'\'t--
it doesn\'\'t occur to them

01:09:10.400 --> 01:09:13.200
that they should do something
in their name.

01:09:13.200 --> 01:09:15.120
You know, no vision.

01:09:15.120 --> 01:09:18.080
I think nobody\'\'s going
to remember politicians

01:09:18.080 --> 01:09:21.200
because there\'\'s a joke
in the Soviet Union

01:09:21.200 --> 01:09:24.520
which I like very much
as a writer.

01:09:24.520 --> 01:09:28.720
After the collapse
of the Soviet Union,

01:09:28.720 --> 01:09:30.920
the story goes
that a high school--

01:09:30.920 --> 01:09:34.680
no, primary school teacher

01:09:34.680 --> 01:09:38.000
was teaching history,

01:09:38.000 --> 01:09:41.720
and she\'\'s supposed to have said
to her students,

01:09:41.720 --> 01:09:45.160
\"Okay, today we\'\'re
going to talk about

01:09:45.160 --> 01:09:48.360
our previous rulers

01:09:48.360 --> 01:09:50.200
of the Soviet Union.

01:09:50.200 --> 01:09:52.680
And today we\'\'re going
to concentrate

01:09:52.680 --> 01:09:55.160
on Leonid Brezhnev,\"

01:09:55.160 --> 01:09:59.920
who was the last, um,
leader of the Soviet Union.

01:09:59.920 --> 01:10:01.760
Story goes that she said,

01:10:01.760 --> 01:10:06.280
\"Okay, class, who knows
who Brezhnev was?\"

01:10:08.000 --> 01:10:12.360
All the students
were blanked face.

01:10:12.640 --> 01:10:16.000
And she said, \"Come on,
come on, don\'\'t be afraid.

01:10:16.000 --> 01:10:17.400
Say something.

01:10:17.400 --> 01:10:19.760
Who was Brezhnev?\"

01:10:19.760 --> 01:10:21.640
All the students looked at her,

01:10:21.640 --> 01:10:26.400
and after a while,
I understand one girl sat there

01:10:26.400 --> 01:10:29.800
and very gingerly began
to raise her hand.

01:10:29.800 --> 01:10:33.800
And the answer is classic
to me as a writer.

01:10:33.800 --> 01:10:37.400
Uh, she said, \"Uh, teacher,

01:10:37.400 --> 01:10:41.360
was Leonid Brezhnev
not a minor official

01:10:41.360 --> 01:10:45.320
during the days of the great
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn?\"

01:10:45.320 --> 01:10:48.720
(laughing)

01:10:48.720 --> 01:10:52.760
When Obama went to Argentina,

01:10:52.760 --> 01:10:53.600
after Cuba,

01:10:53.600 --> 01:10:56.280
at the dinner with
the vice chancellor,

01:10:56.280 --> 01:10:59.520
he stood up and spoke
to the Argentines.

01:10:59.520 --> 01:11:04.440
The only person he quoted was
the great Argentinean writer,

01:11:04.440 --> 01:11:06.680
yeah, Jorge Luis Borges.

01:11:06.680 --> 01:11:08.040
And the Argentineans clapped.

01:11:08.040 --> 01:11:09.640
They said,
\"You did your history.

01:11:09.640 --> 01:11:13.520
You know for us what the man
who gives us respect

01:11:13.520 --> 01:11:15.000
is our great writer.\"

01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:17.280
I say this not because,
you know,

01:11:17.280 --> 01:11:19.160
we are here being documented,

01:11:19.160 --> 01:11:22.880
but no nation survives
in the long run

01:11:22.880 --> 01:11:27.080
without the contribution
of its scientists,

01:11:27.080 --> 01:11:27.880
its artists,

01:11:27.880 --> 01:11:31.000
its painters,
its engineers.

01:11:31.000 --> 01:11:32.280
Politicians come and go.

01:11:32.280 --> 01:11:33.040
They\'\'re a dime a--you know?

01:11:33.040 --> 01:11:36.360
But we are the ones
who make nations.

01:11:41.280 --> 01:11:43.360
(hum of motor)

01:11:47.680 --> 01:11:50.880
I used to come here
when I was an undergraduate,

01:11:50.880 --> 01:11:51.760
but just to visit.

01:11:51.760 --> 01:11:57.160
You know, um, and to enjoy
the aura of nature.

01:11:57.160 --> 01:11:59.240
It was when I became a writer

01:11:59.240 --> 01:12:00.440
at the University of Ibadan here

01:12:00.440 --> 01:12:05.760
that the botanical garden
became much more valuable

01:12:05.760 --> 01:12:06.200
to me.

01:12:06.200 --> 01:12:08.600
Very early in the morning,
I would come here

01:12:08.600 --> 01:12:11.120
so I could hear
the chirping of birds

01:12:11.120 --> 01:12:13.080
and the crinkling
of insect

01:12:13.080 --> 01:12:17.720
and dew, raw dew,
actually falling on me.

01:12:17.720 --> 01:12:20.520
All those things are reflected
in forest cycles,

01:12:20.520 --> 01:12:22.160
and the smell of the earth,

01:12:22.160 --> 01:12:24.280
especially when the rain
had just fallen.

01:12:24.280 --> 01:12:26.880
The smell of the leaves,
decaying leaves,

01:12:26.880 --> 01:12:30.280
and the different kinds
of trees.

01:12:30.280 --> 01:12:33.000
Uh...

01:12:33.000 --> 01:12:34.800
That was also the period
I was--

01:12:34.800 --> 01:12:38.440
I began, uh, my
Songs of the Season,

01:12:38.440 --> 01:12:41.320
which was an escape again--
not just an escape,

01:12:41.320 --> 01:12:45.920
but a way of coping with
military dictatorship.

01:12:45.920 --> 01:12:48.840
The military wouldn\'\'t allow us
to write,

01:12:48.840 --> 01:12:51.880
uh, because they wanted silence.

01:12:51.880 --> 01:12:53.200
I knew silence would kill me,

01:12:53.200 --> 01:12:58.400
and I had to invent some kind
of antidote against it,

01:12:58.400 --> 01:13:01.720
so I started--
I began a poetry column

01:13:01.720 --> 01:13:04.560
every Sunday
in theTribune.

01:13:07.000 --> 01:13:11.760
We were there when
these three people came.

01:13:11.760 --> 01:13:13.800
One had an axe,

01:13:13.800 --> 01:13:16.000
one had...

01:13:17.840 --> 01:13:20.680
One had a knife
and a cudgel.

01:13:20.680 --> 01:13:23.760
And the other one had a gun.

01:13:23.760 --> 01:13:25.280
No, it was the axe man,

01:13:25.280 --> 01:13:28.600
a butcher\'\'s knife,
short and very sharp.

01:13:28.600 --> 01:13:32.240
That was the one that
hit my head with the axe,

01:13:32.240 --> 01:13:34.840
and of course the blood
started spilling over

01:13:34.840 --> 01:13:38.760
and, um, you know,
I had a concussion.

01:13:38.760 --> 01:13:43.280
It\'\'s--it was--a really,
really, uh, close shave.

01:13:43.280 --> 01:13:48.240
You know, just outside
the botanical garden here.

01:13:48.240 --> 01:13:52.680
I must say that, uh,
I was naive, really.

01:13:52.680 --> 01:13:55.120
But that taught me
a lot of lesson.

01:13:55.120 --> 01:13:59.480
Up till now, the Nigerian
government hasn\'\'t told me

01:13:59.480 --> 01:14:01.680
the people who came
to attack us.

01:14:01.680 --> 01:14:07.520
Uh, the Commissioner for Police
sent messages to me

01:14:07.520 --> 01:14:09.000
at the hospital,

01:14:09.000 --> 01:14:10.000
very kind words,

01:14:10.000 --> 01:14:12.760
and they said they would...

01:14:12.760 --> 01:14:15.160
How did they put it in Nigerian?

01:14:15.160 --> 01:14:17.320
\"We will leave no stone unturned

01:14:17.320 --> 01:14:21.120
in finding the people
who came to attack you.\"

01:14:21.120 --> 01:14:21.920
But nobody has.

01:14:21.920 --> 01:14:25.560
But I know it also came
just a couple of days

01:14:25.560 --> 01:14:27.200
after I came back from London,

01:14:27.200 --> 01:14:29.640
after receiving
the Commonwealth Poetry Prize,

01:14:29.640 --> 01:14:35.320
uh, forThe Eye of the Earth,
the book that I started here.

01:14:35.320 --> 01:14:37.120
And that\'\'s the book
that launched me

01:14:37.120 --> 01:14:37.680
into international fame, really.

01:14:37.680 --> 01:14:41.640
There is, uh, an experience
I don\'\'t like remembering--

01:14:41.640 --> 01:14:44.240
two terrible experiences
in my life

01:14:44.240 --> 01:14:46.120
that, uh, I will never forget--

01:14:46.120 --> 01:14:48.080
that one and Katrina.

01:14:48.080 --> 01:14:50.920
(heavy rainfall)

01:14:50.920 --> 01:14:54.320
(reciting in foreign language)

01:15:35.840 --> 01:15:39.240
(reciting in foreign language)

01:15:46.080 --> 01:15:49.120
(wind howling)

01:15:59.480 --> 01:16:03.280
Life is a chronicle
of gains and losses,

01:16:03.280 --> 01:16:05.800
losses and gains.

01:16:05.800 --> 01:16:07.240
When Katrina took place,

01:16:07.240 --> 01:16:10.600
the whole world
literally came to my aid

01:16:10.600 --> 01:16:13.920
and my family\'\'s aid.

01:16:13.920 --> 01:16:17.680
I watched the flood
as it swallowed up my desk,

01:16:17.680 --> 01:16:23.840
then my desktop computer,
and everything just disappeared.

01:16:23.840 --> 01:16:27.640
At that point, my wife tapped me
on the shoulder said,

01:16:27.640 --> 01:16:29.160
\"Niyi, we are drowning.\"

01:16:29.160 --> 01:16:32.320
It didn\'\'t even occur to me
to save myself.

01:16:32.320 --> 01:16:34.880
It was my books,
my books, my books.

01:16:34.880 --> 01:16:36.680
(roar of the ocean)

01:16:36.680 --> 01:16:39.160
The first three months
after Katrina

01:16:39.160 --> 01:16:42.320
I was having nightmares
every, every night.

01:16:42.320 --> 01:16:51.120
The nightmare had a regular
and hauntingly frequent plot.

01:16:51.280 --> 01:16:53.160
Usually about two
in the morning,

01:16:53.160 --> 01:16:56.840
I would find myself
in the middle of an ocean,

01:16:56.840 --> 01:17:01.280
and the water would be boiling
just like this,

01:17:01.280 --> 01:17:02.680
boiling and boiling,

01:17:02.680 --> 01:17:09.680
and then I will find myself
sinking little by little,

01:17:09.680 --> 01:17:10.480
little by little.

01:17:10.480 --> 01:17:14.240
But whenever the water
was about to reach my nose,

01:17:14.240 --> 01:17:20.360
I would just wake, wake up
from my sleep, sweating.

01:17:20.360 --> 01:17:27.400
♪

01:17:27.400 --> 01:17:30.320
(hum of helicopter)

01:17:30.320 --> 01:17:40.560
♪

01:17:54.400 --> 01:17:56.760
I write in Yoruba,
I write in English.

01:17:56.760 --> 01:18:01.400
But most of the time, I write
between the two languages,

01:18:01.400 --> 01:18:03.000
what I call the interface.

01:18:03.000 --> 01:18:07.400
So the indigenous
and the, um, and the foreign

01:18:07.400 --> 01:18:11.440
actually feature
very prominently inevitably,

01:18:11.440 --> 01:18:13.680
because quite a number
of people are saying,

01:18:13.680 --> 01:18:18.000
\"No, no, no, let us throw away
all the colonial--

01:18:18.000 --> 01:18:20.560
all the Western canons,

01:18:20.560 --> 01:18:22.560
because they are colonialist.

01:18:22.560 --> 01:18:24.440
Let us jettison this.\"

01:18:24.440 --> 01:18:26.120
No, that is unrealistic.

01:18:26.120 --> 01:18:29.680
You know, colonialism is
already part of our culture,

01:18:29.680 --> 01:18:31.320
it\'\'s already
part of our history.

01:18:31.320 --> 01:18:35.480
We only need to discipline it
and take the best out of it.

01:18:35.480 --> 01:18:38.320
After all, not everything
African is good.

01:18:38.320 --> 01:18:42.400
There are aspects of our culture
that should be done away with.

01:18:42.400 --> 01:18:45.200
But there are aspects
that we have to keep

01:18:45.200 --> 01:18:48.720
to be able to survive
(unintelligible).

01:18:50.840 --> 01:18:53.640
The guy from Ilorin

01:18:53.640 --> 01:18:58.840
who is the current
Senate President...

01:18:58.840 --> 01:19:02.880
colluded with the
(unintelligible) Party,

01:19:02.880 --> 01:19:04.120
and overnight,

01:19:04.120 --> 01:19:06.480
they tampered with
the Constitution,

01:19:06.480 --> 01:19:08.040
uh, senate regulations,

01:19:08.040 --> 01:19:14.400
and he got secretly elected
as Senate President.

01:19:14.400 --> 01:19:16.800
The whole country
was alarmed.

01:19:16.800 --> 01:19:19.040
It was really terrible,
we were just moving out

01:19:19.040 --> 01:19:23.560
of the darkness of the former
regime and this happened.

01:19:23.560 --> 01:19:28.160
So he literally stole
the senate presidency.

01:19:28.160 --> 01:19:31.840
Uh, it was in the heat
of that development

01:19:31.840 --> 01:19:34.640
that I wrote a satirical poem,

01:19:34.640 --> 01:19:38.000
\"Blues for the New
Senate King.\"

01:19:38.000 --> 01:19:43.360
Um, and it went viral,
as they say.

01:19:43.360 --> 01:19:53.600
♪

01:20:06.760 --> 01:20:13.440
That a poem is capable of
offending a powerful politician

01:20:13.440 --> 01:20:16.120
and his loyalists,

01:20:16.120 --> 01:20:20.920
and, uh, to the point
that they\'\'ve thrown

01:20:20.920 --> 01:20:23.840
every concentration effort

01:20:23.840 --> 01:20:27.920
and they want
a (unintelligible) council.

01:20:27.920 --> 01:20:32.720
Last year, we had students from
about ten secondary schools,

01:20:32.720 --> 01:20:38.280
in spite of, um, a national
crisis we had at the time,

01:20:38.280 --> 01:20:42.120
so this year
it was going to be grander.

01:20:42.120 --> 01:20:44.360
The teachers are now calling

01:20:44.360 --> 01:20:47.760
because they have
prepared their students

01:20:47.760 --> 01:20:51.640
to do the performance
and recitation of my poems

01:20:51.640 --> 01:20:56.680
and the poems of
Professor (unintelligible).

01:20:56.680 --> 01:20:58.640
So they\'\'re saying--

01:20:58.640 --> 01:21:00.120
And so they are surprised

01:21:00.120 --> 01:21:02.560
that the thing is no longer
taking place.

01:21:02.560 --> 01:21:08.280
So some of them are suggesting
that they would like their...

01:21:08.280 --> 01:21:11.720
pupils or students
to come to Ibadan,

01:21:11.720 --> 01:21:13.520
but I have discouraged that.

01:21:13.520 --> 01:21:16.360
If the politicians and the
elders say they don\'\'t want it,

01:21:16.360 --> 01:21:18.880
please don\'\'t bring
their children.

01:21:18.880 --> 01:21:21.360
But that might be dangerous,

01:21:21.360 --> 01:21:22.160
you know.

01:21:22.160 --> 01:21:26.040
So I\'\'m not the only one
that is shocked by this.

01:21:28.680 --> 01:21:31.840
No, and as I have always said,

01:21:31.840 --> 01:21:33.800
whoever bans a book

01:21:33.800 --> 01:21:37.920
or whoever bans--
or whoever censors

01:21:37.920 --> 01:21:40.480
a literary event this way

01:21:40.480 --> 01:21:42.880
is just one inch away

01:21:42.880 --> 01:21:47.600
from assassinating the author
of the offending work.

01:21:48.400 --> 01:21:51.320
(rhythmic drumming)

01:21:51.320 --> 01:21:54.480
♪

01:21:54.480 --> 01:21:57.320
(murmur of conversation)

01:21:57.320 --> 01:22:00.680
(whooping)

01:22:01.360 --> 01:22:04.440
(singing in foreign language)

01:22:04.440 --> 01:22:06.480
(drumming)

01:22:06.480 --> 01:22:12.360
(singing in foreign language)

01:22:14.560 --> 01:22:15.840
(drumming)

01:22:15.840 --> 01:22:21.720
(singing in foreign language)

01:22:23.160 --> 01:22:24.040
(drumming)

01:22:24.040 --> 01:22:27.600
(singing in foreign language)

01:22:27.600 --> 01:22:30.360
(drumming and singing)

01:22:30.360 --> 01:22:40.600
♪

01:22:51.520 --> 01:22:52.760
(applause)

01:22:52.760 --> 01:22:56.600
When the organizers
of this festival came to me,

01:22:56.600 --> 01:22:58.800
I was a little hesitant

01:22:58.800 --> 01:23:01.840
because of all the noise
it\'\'s going to make

01:23:01.840 --> 01:23:03.840
and all the wahala.

01:23:03.840 --> 01:23:05.200
But then I said, \"Good.

01:23:05.200 --> 01:23:06.440
But one of the conditions is

01:23:06.440 --> 01:23:11.280
please don\'\'t take money from
any of the political thieves.

01:23:11.280 --> 01:23:15.200
Uh, second, please invite

01:23:15.200 --> 01:23:17.880
members of
the younger generation.\"

01:23:17.880 --> 01:23:19.320
Schools outreach.

01:23:19.320 --> 01:23:22.080
This is one of the reasons
you are here.

01:23:22.080 --> 01:23:23.000
As far as I\'\'m concerned,

01:23:23.000 --> 01:23:27.080
you are the most important part
of this festival.

01:23:27.080 --> 01:23:29.520
I think you should
clap for yourself.

01:23:29.520 --> 01:23:30.200
(applause)

01:23:30.200 --> 01:23:36.160
You are the most important part
of this, uh, festival.

01:23:36.160 --> 01:23:39.160
Why do you think
I have come to that conclusion?

01:23:39.160 --> 01:23:43.880
Because you are
the leaders of tomorrow.

01:23:43.880 --> 01:23:45.600
Please read newspapers.

01:23:45.600 --> 01:23:48.560
Listen to the television,
listen to the radio.

01:23:48.560 --> 01:23:51.680
Be alive to what is
happening around you.

01:23:51.680 --> 01:23:54.760
Uh, my mother used to say,
(speaking foreign language).

01:23:54.760 --> 01:23:56.840
It is with your mouth
you\'\'re going to say,

01:23:56.840 --> 01:23:58.600
\"No, I\'\'m not going
to take this.\"

01:23:58.600 --> 01:24:02.680
When I began to say,
\"I\'\'m not going to take this,\"

01:24:02.680 --> 01:24:06.480
our corrupt and extremely
decadent politicians

01:24:06.480 --> 01:24:07.080
were not (unintelligible).

01:24:07.080 --> 01:24:10.440
Look at all the monies
they\'\'ve been stealing.

01:24:10.440 --> 01:24:13.400
(chatter)

01:24:18.560 --> 01:24:21.680
I know, or they spend it
in hospital.

01:24:21.680 --> 01:24:24.280
You steal two billion naira,

01:24:24.280 --> 01:24:26.280
and they go up and down,
up and down.

01:24:26.280 --> 01:24:28.560
Now, okay, (unintelligible),

01:24:28.560 --> 01:24:29.360
50,000 naira.

01:24:29.360 --> 01:24:31.440
And they say, \"Yeah,
we punished him.\"

01:24:31.440 --> 01:24:34.400
In China, they tie you up,
they shoot you.

01:24:34.400 --> 01:24:36.000
So you don\'\'t steal.

01:24:36.000 --> 01:24:37.520
In Thailand,
they shoot you.

01:24:37.520 --> 01:24:39.200
(murmur of conversation)

01:24:39.200 --> 01:24:40.200
Okay.

01:24:40.200 --> 01:24:42.400
I\'\'m very happy to
stand with you, sir.

01:24:42.400 --> 01:24:45.560
(murmur of conversation)

01:24:47.320 --> 01:24:48.520
-Get yourself...
-Yes, sir.

01:24:48.520 --> 01:24:50.840
...a rich girlfriend
to buy you a new phone.

01:24:50.840 --> 01:24:53.160
-Yes, sir.
-Yes, yes.

01:24:53.160 --> 01:24:58.600
I really like your poems
and (unintelligible).

01:24:58.600 --> 01:24:58.720
Oh, oh.

01:24:58.720 --> 01:25:02.320
I can recite it for you, I
(unintelligible) it for my HSC.

01:25:02.320 --> 01:25:04.680
Oh, you did it
for your HSC.

01:25:38.440 --> 01:25:39.800
He has memor--

01:25:39.800 --> 01:25:44.760
He has memorized
the entire bloody poem.

01:25:44.760 --> 01:25:48.440
He deserves a pat
on the back for that.

01:25:48.440 --> 01:25:50.600
Good, you\'\'re a good man,
you\'\'re a good man.

01:25:50.600 --> 01:25:54.280
It\'\'s a difficult poem,
but you\'\'ve memorized it.

01:25:54.280 --> 01:25:55.440
-Good, yes.
-Thanks.

01:25:55.440 --> 01:25:57.600
Okay, thank you very much.

01:25:57.600 --> 01:26:01.160
♪

01:26:01.160 --> 01:26:02.840
But when you retire,

01:26:02.840 --> 01:26:04.480
are you going to as it were

01:26:04.480 --> 01:26:07.240
rekindle your father\'\'s memory

01:26:07.240 --> 01:26:10.640
by doing a teeny weeny
bit of farming

01:26:10.640 --> 01:26:13.720
in this backyard of yours
so next time I come,

01:26:13.720 --> 01:26:16.040
we won\'\'t have to go to a market
to buy veggies,

01:26:16.040 --> 01:26:21.040
we\'\'ll just uproot whatever
you may have planted.

01:26:21.040 --> 01:26:24.200
And think twice before
you answer this now.

01:26:24.200 --> 01:26:26.160
-My father--
-\'\'Cause if you say yes,

01:26:26.160 --> 01:26:26.920
I will remind you.

01:26:26.920 --> 01:26:31.000
My father solved that problem
a long time ago.

01:26:31.000 --> 01:26:32.720
In fact, he solved that problem

01:26:32.720 --> 01:26:35.240
before I knew
how to read and write.

01:26:35.240 --> 01:26:36.200
Mm-hm.

01:26:36.200 --> 01:26:39.480
Um, was it 1954

01:26:39.480 --> 01:26:40.520
he went to Lagos

01:26:40.520 --> 01:26:42.120
and he bought a pen.

01:26:42.120 --> 01:26:44.480
I was in primary two.

01:26:44.480 --> 01:26:47.240
We were still using
chalk on slate.

01:26:47.240 --> 01:26:48.200
-I remember.
-Yeah.

01:26:48.200 --> 01:26:50.080
The man called me and said,

01:26:50.080 --> 01:26:50.880
\"What is this?\"

01:26:50.880 --> 01:26:51.560
I said, \"A pen.\"

01:26:51.560 --> 01:26:55.080
He said, \"This is the kind of
pen your teachers use.

01:26:55.080 --> 01:26:58.240
I bought it, I\'\'m going
to keep it for you.

01:26:58.240 --> 01:27:01.280
Uh, one day
you will be old enough,

01:27:01.280 --> 01:27:05.640
you will be wise enough,
learned enough to use this pen.\"

01:27:05.640 --> 01:27:06.600
Mm-hm.

01:27:06.600 --> 01:27:07.800
And he said,

01:27:07.800 --> 01:27:09.800
\"I provide for the family

01:27:09.800 --> 01:27:12.200
by scratching the ground
with my fingers.

01:27:12.200 --> 01:27:19.440
I would like you to put
black spots upon white spaces

01:27:19.440 --> 01:27:19.720
with this pen.\"

01:27:19.720 --> 01:27:22.760
Reminds me very much
of the poem \"Digging\"

01:27:22.760 --> 01:27:25.240
by the Irish poet
Seamus Heaney.

01:27:25.240 --> 01:27:31.040
\"This pen, held between
thumb and forefinger,

01:27:31.040 --> 01:27:33.160
snug as a gun,

01:27:33.160 --> 01:27:36.200
I intend to dig with it.

01:27:36.200 --> 01:27:37.120
I\'\'m digging with a pen.\"

01:27:37.120 --> 01:27:38.600
So you won\'\'t be doing
any farming.

01:27:38.600 --> 01:27:40.400
There will be farming

01:27:40.400 --> 01:27:41.120
or gardening.

01:27:41.120 --> 01:27:42.520
I love to see things grow.

01:27:42.520 --> 01:27:44.240
The reason you don\'\'t see
anything here

01:27:44.240 --> 01:27:47.200
is because I have not started
living here yet.

01:27:47.200 --> 01:27:50.000
Uh huh, you know
we were talking about that.

01:27:50.000 --> 01:27:52.520
I\'\'m going to start with
that mango,

01:27:52.520 --> 01:27:54.200
which is usually this high,

01:27:54.200 --> 01:27:56.120
and its fruits
are this big.

01:27:56.120 --> 01:27:59.680
And then when you have
two or three fruit on it,

01:27:59.680 --> 01:28:03.320
it then drags the branches
to the ground.

01:28:03.320 --> 01:28:07.520
What we witnessed
in Freetown

01:28:07.520 --> 01:28:11.640
is a typical African malaise.

01:28:11.640 --> 01:28:13.640
Uh, the absence
of governance.

01:28:13.640 --> 01:28:15.080
That should be (unintelligible).

01:28:15.080 --> 01:28:17.640
There are certain places, uh,

01:28:17.640 --> 01:28:20.560
where you shouldn\'\'t
put buildings.

01:28:20.560 --> 01:28:22.720
There are certain places
that should be reserved.

01:28:22.720 --> 01:28:26.880
Now before you think I\'\'m
condemning Sierra Leone...

01:28:26.880 --> 01:28:30.800
No, no, no, I condemn
Sierra Leone far more strongly

01:28:30.800 --> 01:28:32.280
than any other person
on this planet.

01:28:32.280 --> 01:28:34.320
...which I consider
my own country as well.

01:28:34.320 --> 01:28:37.760
Anybody here, they do it,
where I was born, they do it.

01:28:37.760 --> 01:28:39.280
Well, you have more land.

01:28:39.280 --> 01:28:40.680
All over the place they do it.

01:28:40.680 --> 01:28:42.880
Government designated areas
are there,

01:28:42.880 --> 01:28:46.880
and then politicians will use
their political influence

01:28:46.880 --> 01:28:48.400
to put one kind of monstrosity

01:28:48.400 --> 01:28:52.520
on a place that was originally
designated a public park.

01:28:52.520 --> 01:28:56.080
-Yes.
-Yeah, so it\'\'s...

01:28:56.080 --> 01:28:57.720
This lawlessness that we have

01:28:57.720 --> 01:29:00.920
in many parts of, uh,
many parts of Africa...

01:29:00.920 --> 01:29:04.480
And this has been one strand of
what we\'\'ve been writing about.

01:29:04.480 --> 01:29:06.920
And, I mean,
and as I understand,

01:29:06.920 --> 01:29:08.600
I think that\'\'s
what\'\'s in a way

01:29:08.600 --> 01:29:10.200
probably has led
to this documentary.

01:29:10.200 --> 01:29:14.640
But, uh, the sticking out,
so to speak, of our necks,

01:29:14.640 --> 01:29:17.320
not of anybody--I\'\'m--
I\'\'ve never--

01:29:17.320 --> 01:29:18.880
well, it is too late now
to worry about

01:29:18.880 --> 01:29:21.360
whether my neck
is going to be chopped or not

01:29:21.360 --> 01:29:23.880
\'\'cause, uh,
I\'\'ve seen my death--

01:29:23.880 --> 01:29:26.640
as Colonel
Aureliano Buendía said

01:29:26.640 --> 01:29:28.920
inOne Hundred Years
of Solitude,

01:29:28.920 --> 01:29:33.080
when some young boy
had the gall

01:29:33.080 --> 01:29:34.760
to disturb his peace,

01:29:34.760 --> 01:29:35.600
\"How are you, Colonel?\"

01:29:35.600 --> 01:29:37.560
He said,
\"I\'\'m sitting right here

01:29:37.560 --> 01:29:40.920
waiting for my funeral
procession to pass.\"

01:29:40.920 --> 01:29:41.600
I love that line.

01:29:41.600 --> 01:29:44.880
So these days, I don\'\'t worry
about other things.

01:29:44.880 --> 01:29:47.280
I just need to write
a few more books,

01:29:47.280 --> 01:29:53.000
uh, make a few more journeys
into territories of the unknown,

01:29:53.000 --> 01:29:54.320
and drink some more wine,

01:29:54.320 --> 01:29:57.520
and, uh, I\'\'ll come to see you
one of these days

01:29:57.520 --> 01:29:59.560
when you finish with
the monstrosity.

01:29:59.560 --> 01:30:03.000
I wish I could be as peaceful
with the situation.

01:30:03.000 --> 01:30:07.000
Well, you don\'\'t drink wine,
so that\'\'s why you don\'\'t envisage

01:30:07.000 --> 01:30:08.080
journeys into the unknown.

01:30:08.080 --> 01:30:08.680
No, no, no, no, no.

01:30:08.680 --> 01:30:10.560
It\'\'s not a matter of wine.

01:30:10.560 --> 01:30:13.680
I\'\'m going to give you
the kind of reaction I gave you

01:30:13.680 --> 01:30:17.440
when you gave me a copy
ofFarewell to Dreams.

01:30:17.440 --> 01:30:18.440
-Mm-hm.
-Uh uh.

01:30:18.440 --> 01:30:20.680
You haven\'\'t got there yet.

01:30:20.680 --> 01:30:22.880
No, until we pass away,

01:30:22.880 --> 01:30:24.520
we\'\'re going to be
thinking about this,

01:30:24.520 --> 01:30:28.880
and so no matter how many
bottles of wine we drink...

01:30:28.880 --> 01:30:31.680
I intend to drink as many
bottles as my stomach can take.

01:30:31.680 --> 01:30:33.720
As much--yes,
as much as possible.

01:30:33.720 --> 01:30:36.920
Uh, you don\'\'t get--
somebody like you or me,

01:30:36.920 --> 01:30:38.600
we don\'\'t get to a stage
where we say,

01:30:38.600 --> 01:30:40.440
\"Yeah, we\'\'ve paid our dues

01:30:40.440 --> 01:30:42.000
and we\'\'ve done it everything.

01:30:42.000 --> 01:30:43.520
Now let\'\'s rest.\"

01:30:43.520 --> 01:30:44.680
With no electricity,

01:30:44.680 --> 01:30:48.560
with people stealing
political positions,

01:30:48.560 --> 01:30:49.720
with monies disappearing?

01:30:49.720 --> 01:30:53.560
Our situation now is worse
than it was ten years ago,

01:30:53.560 --> 01:30:56.720
fifteen years ago
when we were at our--

01:30:56.720 --> 01:30:58.440
when we were at our prime.

01:30:58.440 --> 01:31:00.720
-So, uh, I understand.
-Hey, hold on,

01:31:00.720 --> 01:31:01.280
speak for yourself.

01:31:01.280 --> 01:31:05.680
This bull has no intention
of being put out to pasture.

01:31:05.680 --> 01:31:07.800
I may not be at the peak
of my prime,

01:31:07.800 --> 01:31:10.840
but I have no intention of
being put out to pasture.

01:31:10.840 --> 01:31:13.320
Now you have corrected
the original position.

01:31:13.320 --> 01:31:14.800
-Oh, there you go.
-I agree with you.

01:31:14.800 --> 01:31:17.840
Yes, there you go,
yes, yes, yes, yes.

01:31:17.840 --> 01:31:18.760
You see, so.

01:31:18.760 --> 01:31:21.200
So Mr. Filmmaker, uh,
have we satisfied--

01:31:21.200 --> 01:31:25.720
I think that might be a good
time to have some more wine.

01:31:25.720 --> 01:31:26.480
Good, thank you.

01:31:26.480 --> 01:31:27.840
That\'\'s what I like about you.

01:31:27.840 --> 01:31:32.760
You capture the essence of
the pipe smoking poet\'\'s spirit.

01:31:32.760 --> 01:31:35.440
Time to have some more wine.

01:31:36.240 --> 01:31:39.480
And, uh, so to you,
my friend.

01:31:39.480 --> 01:31:40.000
Yes.

01:31:40.000 --> 01:31:43.680
To literature,
to poetry, to art.

01:31:43.680 --> 01:31:44.640
Yes.

01:31:44.640 --> 01:31:46.720
And to all those

01:31:46.720 --> 01:31:52.320
who find our works worthy
of dissertation.

01:31:52.320 --> 01:31:52.840
Indeed, indeed.

01:31:52.840 --> 01:31:55.440
To the feature of
international friendship.

01:31:55.440 --> 01:31:57.880
Yes, indeed,
and in response to that,

01:31:57.880 --> 01:32:03.040
to the essential goodness
of, uh...

01:32:03.040 --> 01:32:04.480
One thing I can say
for certain,

01:32:04.480 --> 01:32:09.080
this friendship would not
have been maintained if, uh--

01:32:09.080 --> 01:32:11.840
I mean, we do quarrel,
we do disagree,

01:32:11.840 --> 01:32:16.040
but we\'\'ve never been
in competition

01:32:16.040 --> 01:32:17.120
with each other,

01:32:17.120 --> 01:32:18.880
because we\'\'re different people,

01:32:18.880 --> 01:32:20.600
we\'\'re different poets.

01:32:20.600 --> 01:32:22.360
And I think we...

01:32:22.360 --> 01:32:25.560
that is essentially the key
to this friendship.

01:32:25.560 --> 01:32:32.840
But perhaps if we were
poets with similar...

01:32:32.840 --> 01:32:38.200
imagistic, uh,
what is it--canvas,

01:32:38.200 --> 01:32:40.040
yes, if our images
were the same,

01:32:40.040 --> 01:32:44.320
if we were competing
for the same audience,

01:32:44.320 --> 01:32:44.920
so to speak,

01:32:44.920 --> 01:32:47.120
the friendship might have been

01:32:47.120 --> 01:32:48.200
in danger of collapsing.

01:32:48.200 --> 01:32:52.520
But we have--we have
very different audiences.

01:32:52.520 --> 01:32:53.800
When I say different audiences,

01:32:53.800 --> 01:32:55.880
we are spread towards
a worldview,

01:32:55.880 --> 01:33:01.160
but the source of Niyi\'\'s
inspiration can never be mine

01:33:01.160 --> 01:33:07.400
because he has the grandeur
of so much that I don\'\'t have.

01:33:07.400 --> 01:33:09.200
And, uh, so...

01:33:09.200 --> 01:33:13.320
uh, we exchange views,
we discuss views.

01:33:13.320 --> 01:33:13.760
And 21 days--

01:33:13.760 --> 01:33:16.120
this is not really the longest
we\'\'ve spent together.

01:33:16.120 --> 01:33:17.840
-No.
-The longest we spent together

01:33:17.840 --> 01:33:20.320
-was when we were in Iowa.
-University of Iowa.

01:33:20.320 --> 01:33:22.800
-In 1988, yes, yeah.
-International Writers program.

01:33:22.800 --> 01:33:28.240
That\'\'s right, and that was when
you were working onBarracuda?

01:33:28.240 --> 01:33:33.080
No, I was working onThe Last
Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar.

01:33:33.080 --> 01:33:35.640
Alusine, yeah,
but the working title then...

01:33:35.640 --> 01:33:36.520
But the working title then

01:33:36.520 --> 01:33:39.640
became the first book
of, uh,Sacred River.

01:33:39.640 --> 01:33:41.320
-Sacred River.
-\"The Years of the Barracudas.\"

01:33:41.320 --> 01:33:45.200
That\'\'s right, and you remember
each morning, you know,

01:33:45.200 --> 01:33:47.560
whenever we met
and we were talking,

01:33:47.560 --> 01:33:50.680
uh, you told me
what you wrote last night?

01:33:50.680 --> 01:33:52.120
-Yes.
-And I read portions

01:33:52.120 --> 01:33:55.440
of what I wrote
the previous night to you.

01:33:55.440 --> 01:33:58.360
There we were,
facing the Iowa River,

01:33:58.360 --> 01:34:02.640
from the eighth floor
of the Mayflower building.

01:34:02.640 --> 01:34:06.520
University of Iowa,
Iowa City.

01:34:06.520 --> 01:34:10.640
The second day
after we arrived in Iowa, uh...

01:34:10.640 --> 01:34:15.120
we all were taken in a bus
to, uh, a store...

01:34:15.120 --> 01:34:17.040
-We went shopping.
-...where we went shopping,

01:34:17.040 --> 01:34:20.720
and the first thing
we bought were typewriters.

01:34:20.720 --> 01:34:21.240
Yeah, typewriters.

01:34:21.240 --> 01:34:23.920
And I still remember
the way you were...

01:34:23.920 --> 01:34:25.440
you (unintelligible)
your own typewriter.

01:34:25.440 --> 01:34:29.320
Your typical way
of pressing what you are--

01:34:29.320 --> 01:34:32.640
\"Oh yeah, I\'\'m going to do
good business with this.

01:34:32.640 --> 01:34:34.200
Niyi, it\'\'s fine.\"

01:34:34.200 --> 01:34:35.080
Well, we did write.

01:34:35.080 --> 01:34:36.800
And I said, \"Yes, yes indeed.\"

01:34:36.800 --> 01:34:40.840
That was when I was working on,
uh,Midlife.

01:34:40.840 --> 01:34:43.400
-Mm-hm.
-Yeah, I was working onMidlife.

01:34:43.400 --> 01:34:45.360
Turned out to be a book
eventually,

01:34:45.360 --> 01:34:47.720
and I dedicated the book
to family

01:34:47.720 --> 01:34:52.600
and members of--some members
of the Iowa Writing Program.

01:34:52.600 --> 01:34:54.120
Your name was number one.

01:34:54.120 --> 01:34:55.440
-I saw it.
-So we\'\'ve been together--

01:34:55.440 --> 01:34:57.920
Yeah, we\'\'ve been together
for a long time.

01:34:57.920 --> 01:34:59.880
And this is why again

01:34:59.880 --> 01:35:02.760
I have been wondering
all along,

01:35:02.760 --> 01:35:05.480
how Chivas...

01:35:05.480 --> 01:35:07.880
came to choose the two of us.

01:35:07.880 --> 01:35:10.800
I know you were the first person
he consulted.

01:35:10.800 --> 01:35:14.120
How come it\'\'s these two?

01:35:14.120 --> 01:35:18.720
If, you know, two contrarian,

01:35:18.720 --> 01:35:21.400
uh, diametrically opposed
personalities

01:35:21.400 --> 01:35:23.920
could have ruined
a program like this,

01:35:23.920 --> 01:35:27.880
it\'\'s as if he went
to the pantheon

01:35:27.880 --> 01:35:29.200
of African literature

01:35:29.200 --> 01:35:34.240
and chose two best friends
as it were.

01:35:34.240 --> 01:35:36.760
Two best friends
who love each other

01:35:36.760 --> 01:35:38.680
without worshiping
each other,

01:35:38.680 --> 01:35:40.640
who are critical of each other

01:35:40.640 --> 01:35:44.520
in a most, uh, productive, um...

01:35:44.520 --> 01:35:47.000
-And constructive manner.
-And constructive.

01:35:47.000 --> 01:35:50.200
-Yes, and constructive manner.
-We exchange essays,

01:35:50.200 --> 01:35:52.280
exchange poems,
and look at that.

01:35:52.280 --> 01:35:56.640
How did he--the way he landed
upon the two of us,

01:35:56.640 --> 01:35:59.360
and then we are doing
this kind of thing.

01:35:59.360 --> 01:36:02.200
I think that is one of the
questions that I\'\'m asking.

01:36:02.200 --> 01:36:04.360
-We have to ask him.
-Yeah, we have--yeah.

01:36:04.360 --> 01:36:07.920
One of the questions too that
the future we continue to ask,

01:36:07.920 --> 01:36:12.480
because it\'\'s something
that goes beyond the level

01:36:12.480 --> 01:36:14.720
of mere serendipity.

01:36:14.720 --> 01:36:15.280
Yes, yes.

01:36:15.280 --> 01:36:20.120
Well, does that answer
your question, Mr. Filmmaker?

01:36:20.120 --> 01:36:26.120
♪

01:36:26.120 --> 01:36:30.320
(soft, echoey singing)

01:36:30.320 --> 01:36:40.560
♪

01:36:52.840 --> 01:36:56.320
We\'\'ve tried to do
what poets do best--

01:36:56.320 --> 01:37:02.080
snatch lyrical victory
out of the jaws of defeat.

01:37:02.080 --> 01:37:12.320
♪

01:38:03.200 --> 01:38:06.160
(soft, echoey voices)

01:38:06.160 --> 01:38:16.400
♪