Iron Lion # 1

Chris Nwachukwu, an ex labour reporter (one of the most detailed and analytical in the bourgeois press of the late '90s into the earlier part of this decade, with ThisDay newspapers -fridays, then -), ex-trade unionist (with the textile union, which he initially left ThisDay for, to return later), ex-media relations officer of TrustFund, a sympathiser of the Abuja Socialist Collective and at the time of his death, Chief Press Secretary to Adams Oshiohmole died in an auto-crash on Saturday December 13, along with Greg Aruna, a comrade of whom -unfortunately - I do not have much facts on presently, I believe.

The poem below is my tribute to them as I pay my last respects for these fallen patriots, from afar:

There will be a tomorrow
(for Chris and Greg)

In the abyss, it seems
Our dreams perish
...labyrinths of our mortality

Never again, to see
Those we loved and that loved us
The end comes oft unforetold

Ashes on burnt logs though, are
Not full stops...where embers still
Glow, of the fire's hope

The end hardly ever be the end
A beginning is never the beginning
Of being

Companeros, you have fallen, we
Salute you in death. A thousand will stand
Longer tomorrow, for you stood today

Our cry shall be: "fatherland or death!"
The Nigeria you believed in, lived for and
Died in its cause....

Shall one day arise
From the ashes of your graves
And patriots you'll meet with the
spirits

I now have a sister from anoda moda here!

Kathrin Birner has been such a wonderful younger (my fifth) sister, I daresay....and that's not surprising considering the fact that we share the same birthday!

We went together to Hamburg for the Norstadt in der Republik Conference and demonstration last month. She translated and presented my poem at the occassion in deutche (I'm now an international poet! heheheheheheh!). We also did the presentation on Bureacratic-Authoritarian states thesis of O'Donell together  in the Latin America class (by default really...) rand came out with an A+

As "Ronnie" my third sister said; 'what else would u expect from Great Octobrists?' (well she didn't use the same words but "idea is need..."

Kathi has asked me to spend Christmas with her family in Bavaria and I would have loved to. I made friends with comrades from there at Hamburg, particularly "O" and Clem. Her boyfy Stefan is also a nice young man that I take a liking to. But I'll just have to miss it 'coz the Yoruba X-mas party also takes place here on Christmas da...what a pity, you could say

I had a wonderful time yesterday after speaking with my lovely wife, Lola (it was our wedding anniversary). It was at the African People's Convention.

I had been to the APC's club house with akins from the Yoruba parapo group here and during general discussions over beer the APC's president had invited me to come over yesterday and give some insight into pan-Africanism/afro-centricity and organising that could be useful for the group, drawing from my experience. I did and after the (monthly) meeting, the weekend clubbing of the clubhouse swung into full steam!

At this juncture, I must introduce Dr. Omar Hassan...the new friend I made yesterday.

Omar, a vet doc with post-graduate qualiications in English language and lit. as well was at the tram station when I got there...a bit tipsy, so to speak. He reached out to me as a black man, and I did decide to patiently humour him...it turned out to be a wise decision. The old guy (should be close to 60yrs) happened to have been one of the pan-African activists that took Kwame Nkrumah's corpse from the hospital to the airport at Bucharest in '72. He actually took me to his home where I met his Rumanian wife (she was initially uptight; Omar who seems a very friendly person said that a few black bros he met just like that and brought to live in his house till they found their feet stole stuffs. She however later warmed up to me). She said she loves Rumania as much as we love Africa...but loves the Euro more. She (believing I'd also come to stay) "prophesised" that I would be saying a similar thing and long live deutcheland! in the next five years!

....lest I forget, Dr. Omar is from Somalia and has been in deutcheland for two decades + now.....one of the countless brains of our lands lost to the benefit of Europe and the abyss of attempts to drown the frustrations of a fantasy: a home that is only faintly remembered, in the ocean of bacchus....?