‘Harry Garuba retains a hallowed space in the history of Nigerian literature’

Humanist, masterful, urbane, activist, pathfinder, inspiration, juggernaut, humourous, and mentor are some of the words being used to describe the late poet and teacher, Professor Harry Garuba.

The renowned academic, author and poet, passed on the evening of Friday, February 28 following an illness, aged 61.

The news of his demise hit the Nigerian academic and literary establishment like a thunderbolt out of the blues. It further compounded the misery of writers still mourning the passing of Professors Tejumola Olaniyan and Chukwuemeka Ike.

Born in Akure, Ondo State in 1958 but originally from Uneme-Nekhua, Akoko Edo local government of Edo State, Garuba studied English at the University of Ibadan and also earned his PhD from the same institution. He published his first academic book, ‘Mask and Meaning in Black Drama: Africa and the Diaspora’, in 1988. He taught at Ibadan for 15 years before leaving for the University of Zululand, South Africa, where he taught in the English Department.

In 2001, Garuba moved to the University of Cape Town, where he taught in the African Studies and English departments until 2019. He published widely in the fields of African and postcolonial literature.

The late academic was a highly beloved teacher among students and dependable ally to fellow writers including Afam Akeh, Remi Raji, Onookome Okome, Chiedu Ezeanah, Bose Shabah, Sanya Osha and Niyi Okunoye in the then vibrant writing community in Ibadan. Humble and unassuming, he always wanted the best for students, upcoming writers and everyone generally. 

Despite having left Nigeria for long, he regularly touched base with colleagues and students at home. He did all within his power to encourage young writers and advance fields, including electronic/digital publications. 

He was the keynote speaker at the 2015 national convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) where young writers who had only read and heard about him, sat at his feet. Despite his hectic schedule, the late academic still found time for other edifying, youth-centric projects. He served as Jury Chair for the 2018 edition of the 9mobile Prize for Literature, the first pan-African Prize that celebrates African debut writers of published book-length fiction. Ugandan writer, Doreen Baingana, and South Africa’s Siphiwo Mahala were on the panel with him.

His disposition to building young ones, instead of condemning them, is evident in his answer to a question on the quality of new African writers and if they can do well as the older generation.

“Yes, I see the new generation of African writers doing as well as their predecessors. The earlier generation had a historic mission – to paraphrase Chinua Achebe – that is different from that of this generation. They laid the foundations and opened the gates for a new kind of writing. The new generation builds on this foundation; they move through the gates exploring new frontiers, defining new preoccupations and, by so doing, also opening up new possibilities,” he said.

On how African writers, publishers and lovers of literature can benefit from the enormous potentials in technology, Garuba averred: “Electronic/digital publications have massively impacted on the ways that writers and publishers bring literature to the public and the ways that lovers of literature access literary texts. As in every other area of our lives, technology has the potential to bring incredible benefits. African writers and publishers are already harnessing these benefits not only through electronic books but also through publications and conversations on digital platforms. 

“Brittle paper immediately comes to mind, and there are several others. Last year a student of mine wrote an essay, a critique of the fact that recent debates in world literature had ignored the numerous internet platforms in which literature is thriving these days. What could have more world-reach as the internet? Goes to show that professors are yet to catch up with the technologies to which the young have become faired accustomed!”

Late last year, the man credited with changing the face of Nigerian poetry with ‘Voices From the Fringe’ was home to gather materials for a significant essay on the Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA).

Little wonder then that the tributes have been pouring in for the mild-mannered gentleman.

Eminent historian, Professor Toyin Falola, couldn’t hide his despair in a lengthy, heartfelt tribute. He wrote: “We lost the outstanding poet, great essayist, and famous literary figure. Professor Garuba was full of talents. Very well known in the literary world, his voice started to echo at Ibadan, crossing the Atlantic, and then detouring to South Africa where he and Professor Kole Omotoso—his fellow Akure citizen—joined in the transformation of the South African academy. Harry Garuba, Nuruddin Farah (nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize) and Amina Mama (the preeminent feminist scholar) once hosted me. The conversations were elaborate. Harry and I plotted one more time to push Nuruddin for the Nobel. No luck, but the omission is a major one, similar to that of Achebe and wa Thiong’ o. The University of Cape Town was a great place to be. Fast forward—Harry and his colleagues were to appoint me to their Faculty as an Honorary Professor.

“We invited Harry to Austin for a semester where we interacted intensely. He was a theorist with a limitless pool of knowledge. His lectures were well received. I cannot reproduce his laughter. Glued to his face was his signature smile. Only a hand was free at a time, the other holding a cigarette.

“The transformation that preoccupied Harry created the path to our last meeting in Johannesburg. Professor Adekeye Adebajo, the distinguished political scientist and eminent public intellectual, brought many of us together at the Institute of Pan-African Thought and Conversation on August 18th and 19th 2018 to dialogue on “Curriculum Transformation in the Humanities.” My memory does not fail me in matters such as this. Harry spoke on the Heinemann African Writers’ Series. At lunchtime, we sat together where I told him about a manuscript he had not read, the dissertation of Bode Ibironke of Rutgers on that same Series, subsequently published by Palgrave (Remapping African Literature). And of course, a reminder about his long-awaited book which he was always agonizing about its completion. “There was no death on his face,” as the Yoruba would say.

“I had planned to see him in the coming weeks. Not anymore. Harry was a secularist. I don’t know what he would say if I ask God to invite him to His side, but I seek this assurance. Harry lived a glorious life. Harry had passion and zeal for poetry, the amazing source of his strength. He loved words, the spring of his awesome inspiration. He was both humane and urbane, his warmth and divine protection.”

One of his former students at Ibadan, Dr Henri Oripeloye of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife wrote: “Prof Harry Garuba ‘is’ a quintessential teacher and probably the greatest humanist I ever encountered as a student. Quite unassuming and brilliant. Always willing to listen to our complaints. The last time we met, he said Henri, you refused to learn how to smoke a cigarette from me. We have lost a passionate teacher, mentor and a great friend. Oga Harry, rest perfectly anywhere you are now.” 

Also, reliving shared moments with the late academic, ex-arts journalist, Layi Adeniji, said: “Strangely, it’s in moments like this that words fail one. How can I sum up the Harry G essence in a few words? Here was a man who was so simple yet complex; a man who though a literary juggernaut took pride in being among those at the fringe? Harry G as we fondly called him, was one of our very best but we lost him to South Africa because we just don’t know how to keep our very best. He was not just a friend but a mentor and a teacher. I met him for the first time in 1993, when I started my journalism career. 

“Thanks to Nduka Otiono, who introduced us. And that was how I joined the group of young writers and journalists who flocked to his office and many times his home to discuss poetry and those other things associated with ant congregation of the acolytes of the creative muse. It was in that house that many significant poets of my generation honed their skills. He was a pathfinder and an inspiration. It is no surprise that ‘Voices from the Fringe: ANA Anthology of New Nigerian Poetry”, he edited became the defining collection for those I classify as the third generation of Nigerian poets. Harry was soft-spoken with some generous dose of humourous mischief but deep. Very deep. A first-class intellectual. He was authentic but more than anything else, a good human being!”
Former ANA president, Dr Wale Okediran, told TRCN: “Harry and I shared interests in literature and social advocacy. For this reason, we worked closely together in the Association of Nigerian Authors as well as several NADECO activities. We were still in touch when he relocated to South Africa. About 2007, when I visited SA on official duties as a Member of the House of Representatives, I had the good fortune to be hosted by Harry and his South African wife in their Cape Town home. We still kept in touch after that on some literary activities of common interests until his demise. He was a committed academic and loyal friend. I commiserate with his family, colleagues and friends. May his soul rest in perfect peace. Amen”

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s spokesperson and a UI alumnus, Laolu Akande said, “May Prof Harry Garuba’s soul rest in peace. May his memory be blessed. He was an outstanding scholar and passionate humanist. His simplicity is proof of his sagacious prowess and his notable scholarship. I knew him as an up and coming academic while we were in the Faculty of Arts. He served and taught with zeal.”

Award-winning dramatist and former ANA President, Denja Abdullahi, also recalled Garuba’s sterling qualities and achievements.

“Harry Garuba retains a hallowed space in the history of Nigerian literature in his mentoring and nurturing of most of the leading lights of the third-generation Nigerian poets, most of whom like him, later fled the dross and tyranny in Nigeria in those years of the locust under the military. His commitment to art and the rejuvenation of African literary discourse using animist indigenous paradigms was unique and iconic. He was of quiet, deep mien, affable and given credence to the saying that still waters run deep. 

“He edited that seminal collection of poems’ Voices from the Fringe’ with which ANA announced the arrival of new voices to the literary world in the early 80s. I was to meet him closely in March 2015 in Goree, Senegal at a poetry residency which he co-facilitated. There I talked to him about giving a keynote at the ANA International Convention which held in Kaduna later that year, and we all applauded his presentation which was about the place of Africa in World Literature. His departure is a great loss to African poetry and literary scholarship; coming soon after that of Tejumola Olaniyan and at the heel of the first anniversary of the tragic demise of Pius Adesanmi, one of the minds Garuba nurtured decades ago in Ibadan.”

Details of his funeral service, which TCN learnt might be in April, will be shared by his family. He is survived by South African wife, Zazi; son, Ruona; daughter, Zukina and a child had for him by poet, Lola Shoneyin.