BY OUMAH OTIENOH

In one of my interviews with Kenyan prolific playwright, David Mulwa, I unintentionally walked with him through the pathway of the glittering literary past.

Mulwa made fond reference to several literary bigwigs such as Okot p’Bitek, John Ruganda, Francis Imbuga, Laban Erapu and David Rubadiri. He expressed his humongous admiration for Rubadiri as a great lover of poetry.

The mention of David Rubadiri reminisced my high school days when Poems from East Africa (1971), an anthology that he edited with his Makerere colleague, David Cook, was our poetry bible.

Certainly, I was introduced to East African prolific poets such as Jared Angira, Taban lo Liyong and Okot p’Bitek through this masterpiece paperback.

I purposed to visit the octogenarian poet for a literary discourse on his works even if it meant flying to his hometown in Lilongwe.

My 2028 visit at the literature department at Makerere University where Rubadiri taught for close to a decade (1968-75) after being exiled by Kamuzu Banda further whetted my literary appetite to dig deep into Rubadiri’s towering literary world.

When I later read East African Educational Publishers (EAEP) tribute that David Rubadiri had slipped into the underworld, I was lost for words.  But how could I doubt EAEP yet they were Rubadiri’s first publisher?

Reality struck me that my chase for the great poet will never come to fruition. We had lost one of our most illustrious and revered literary sons.

As eulogized by his publisher, EAEP, while his entrance into the literary scene did not catch the attention of many, the loss that is occasioned by his exit is still immense seven years after.

Though famed for the Poems from East Africa, an anthology that he edited with David Cook, Rubadiri later birthed a poetry book Growing Up With Poetry (1989). His only novel No Bride Price (1967) was penned to criticize the reign of Kamuzu Banda who had exiled him.

Ironically, Rubadiri sought refuge in Uganda where he was again exiled by Idi Amin and finally flew to Kenya where he taught at the University of Nairobi (1976-84).   

David Rubadiri is arguably labeled as one of the most widely anthologized and celebrated African poet to emerge after independence.

Most lovers of his works may never believe that Rubadiri was such a down-to-earth academician, his towering literary achievements notwithstanding.

In an interview with Saturday Nation in 2013, he explained that he was living out his retirement in a ‘small two-acre plot with what he described as a simple house’ in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital.

As we remember our fallen son, we shouldn’t forget to ask where the creative bug first hit him. Coincidentally, it was at the premiere King’s College in Budo where he met renowned Ugandan poets, Okot p’Bitek and Timothy Wangusa, and the trio fell in love with the written word back in the 1950’s.

These little words by her granddaughter, Victoria Rubadiri, will forever be etched in our minds. ‘He was a literary giant whose words continue to inspire so many across the great continent.’ Fare thee well literary grandpa!

The writer is a Kenyan contributor on literature, art and culture. He is also a travel enthusiast.  oumahotienoh2009@yahoo.com