I shed an unseen tears, when the erudite, the lion and his many jewels of accomplishment, teachers’ teacher, paragon of versatility, the peerless Professor Godini Gabriel Darah, fondly refers to as “G.G” dropped the bombshell at the class he had with my level on the 16th of December, 2015! Did i just said bombshell? As in, bombshell? It is more than a bombshell! The bombshell, he will soon bow out. And the class, ELS 303, African Oral Literature was likely the last class he will take my level. Yes, “was likely’. Today, 9th of February, 2016 he finished the course outline. After the end of the class, i remained seated for several minutes, gazing at him, as he collected the attendants’ list of students, and the test scripts of the test he administered to us. Most of us students, who will major in Literature at the final year, were looking forward to when he will take us, ELS 422, Studies in Drama, ELS 435, American Literature and ELS 436 African-American Literature. This aborted “looking forward” dampened me, as i returned back to my hostel. It is base on the foregoing, “emotion recollected in tranquility”: that i salute a mentor, grand mentor.
I first encountered Professor Darah on the pages of national dailies, Vanguard, The Guardian, and mass medias, especially, Delta Broadcasting Service, Warri and Asaba in the early years of the first decade of the present 21st century. Then, he was Special Adviser on Public Communication to the former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori. In 2005, when he was appointed as Chief of Staff, Government House, Asaba, the name G.G. Darah was loud! I put on the television, G.G. Darah, tune in to radio stations, G.G. Darah, open pages of papers, G.G. Darah. Everywhere, everytime, G.G. Darah. His name, registered itself in me. And i looked forward to encounter him physically.
Oghene (God), supported it, and i got admitted into English and Literary Studies Department at the Delta State University (DELSU), Abraka in 2013. That same year, i encountered Professor Darah physically. Thanks to my present Head of Department, the inimitable Dr. Sunny Awhefeada, who allowed me to join him to Agbarho, where the oldest and formidable socio cultural and political organisation in Nigeria, the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) held an election for officers that will man the Union. It was that same gathering, historic gathering i encountered the scholar-writer, Mr. Peter Omoko, who currently teaches at the famous Delta State College of Physical Education, Mosogar. Omoko is the author of Battles of Pleasure (2009), Three Plays (2010), and Crude Nightmen (2015). All are elegant dramatisation of the perennial problems that have retarded development in Nigeria.
At DELSU, Mr. Alex Roy-Omoni, the eclectic teacher of literature, introduced us, my level to the towering credentials of Professor Darah. While teaching us, at interval, he will quote Professor Darah, and the world’s most distinguished scholar of Oral literature, Professor Isidore Okpewho, who hails from Abraka, where DELSU is sited. One of the most often quote on oral literature, is “I am worried that there is so much work yet to be done in terms of collection, transcription, analysis and publication…”. This introduction prepared our minds and, we anticipated to see the “veteran” of oral literature.
November 17, 2015, will remains an auspicious day. An auspicious moment. The sun was gentle, it was as if, we were expecting the revolutionary Jesus Christ. Abruptly, the fearless, radical but humble Professor Darah walked majestically into the class.
Everyone sat spellbound in the 1000 seatiing lecture theatre as he greeted the class and went straight to the podium. He raised up his “hard-disk” head, cleared his throat and everyone agape, uttered G.G. DARAH. Unbelievable! G.G. Darah, the man whose name is synonymous with Oral Literature.
Lecture start. First, he regaled us with narratives who he is, his experiences as oral literature expert and folkorist, his years as president of Nigeria Folklore Society and his envisioned Nigerian Oral Literature Association (NOLA). He introduced us to the course, ELS 303, “a study of the various genres of oral literature in Africa, with emphasis of the Nigerian experience” that will enable us to be acquitted with the history of the study as well as the theories of folklore. He taught and quoted without books, and titillated us with oral history, from the cradle of civilisation, Egypt, where Plato, Aristotle, etc acquired their omnipotent knowledges, that their presences are felt in all disciplines. He labelled them “intellectual thieves” and charged them for Plagiarism.
It was truly, an epiphanic encounter with the versatile, compendium of knowledge on radical thinkers and liberators in the world, a first-rate authority on oral literature, folklore and cultural science. Salute to a mentor!
Oreh, writes from DELSU, Abraka.
