APOTHEOSIS ART HOUSE BLOG: Meditations on Greatness: Meeting Ben Okri at Africa Writes

What does it mean to sit in a hall filled with kindred spirits under the voice and intellectual force of a man whose name has accompanied you from childhood to date?

For many years, Ben Okri has evolved to become a name that needs very little or no introduction to not only the literary initiate, but also to the art enthusiast. His works and achievements speak volumes. Having won huge and remarkable literary prizes from The Man Booker to Commonwealth Writers Prize and received honorary doctorate degrees from several prestigious institutions, Ben Okri’s voice has become a force that cannot be ignored.

Ever since I arrived England for my postgraduate studies, most of the times when I am not studying, writing, or listening to music, I am on YouTube seeing videos from TEDX talks to literary conversations, speeches, documentaries, interviews and the likes. It has since become a sort of hobby or an antidote to moments of boredom that could have succeeded in leaving me depressed. This new hobby has led to interesting discoveries which in turn has led and continued to lead me to Amazon, clicking away at books and having my shelf filled with more literary books than music texts. This has often resulted in my flat-mates doubting my course of study and arguing that I had chosen the wrong course. After one of such YouTube moments, I found myself on Amazon clicking at books by Ben Okri. I hoped to see Ben Okri someday, to hear him live, shake his hands and observe his person.

The books were delivered and I remember being amazed at the size of The Famished Road. 574 pages? What for? I quickly found answers to my question when Amazon delivered my copy of Ngugi’s Wizard of the Crow and I saw its number of pages too.

In the first week of June, I saw a post by Africa Writes which read Meditations on Greatness: Ben Okri in Conversation. I bought the student ticket as soon as I was done reading the post. Finally, I was going to see Ben Okri. I started seeing more YouTube videos of him until his voice registered in my subconscious and continued to speak in my dreams. On the day of the performance, I packed all my Ben Okri books and left for The British Library at 96 Euston Road, London. I was not sure how I would feel if he did not sign them or disappeared after the event.

Ellah Allfrey chairing the conversation with Ben Okri shortly after his address.

Seated in the third row, I watched Ben Okri walk in gracefully with Ellah Wakatama Allfrey who would chair the conversation after his address. From where I was seated, I could feel the awe that greeted his presence. He has an aura that tends to draw all focus on him. As expected, the symbolic beret was on his head, tilted to the right as usual. First, I was struck by his preamble which lasted for about ten minutes or more. He spoke about power and freedom of the mind. Here are two quotes I caught from his preamble:

“You cannot have power unless you have freedom of the mind.”

“Have a fierce free mind to question the lies of history. Only free people can make a free world.” Delivered with brilliance and vigour, it was an apt introduction to his main theme: Meditations on Greatness.

It is not surprising that Ben Okri came to the event somewhat ‘over-prepared’. The man wrote almost a whole book on the theme. He had what could pass for a full manuscript right there on stage. Considering the time allotted to his session, there was absolutely no way he could do justice to his work if he insisted on reading everything. Hence, to justify the work’s volume, he started with a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “Sorry, friend, for sending you this long letter. There was no time to make it short.” With this, the journey on meditation began.

As he examined the ontology of greatness, how greatness can be achieved and what it means to be great, I felt a rather strange force which sprung my mind into levitation. It was a thought-provoking session. Ben Okri literally led the audience into the deep well of his profound mind which, of course, is filled with greatness itself. Listening to him, it was not difficult to decipher that his speech was a product of meditations on greatness. Ben had probably locked himself in a room for several days that became weeks, meditating on greatness and pouring those words on paper. Aside from reading his exact words, Ben was often wont to drive home his points using his hands in a theatrical manner. It was one gesture that could not be ignored as a lady made mention of that during the question and answer session with the audience. At this point, let me quickly share a few quotes from his meditation:

“Greatness is sustained. It surpasses itself.”

He made reference to a Chinese proverb which says that “anyone who can think about one thing for five minutes can rule the world.”

“Whatever we have lost, we have lost in our minds first. There is no greatness without greatness of thinking.”

“Greatness is greater than perfection because of its continued resonance.”

“We can only be as great as our sense of reality.”

In addition to the few quotes above, let me also share this idea which has left a lasting impression on me as it still reminds me of a statement by Professor Tunji Vidal during one of the plenary sessions at the annual conference of the Association of Nigerian Musicologists held in Port-Harcourt a year ago. Ben Okri opines that greatness could be an invisible force which continuously strives to be discovered and hosted in a visible body where it springs forth in manifestation. It is an idea afloat, waiting to be harnessed by the mind with a sense of vision.
Inasmuch as I count it as a privilege to listen and watch Ben Okri live on stage, I came away with a rather strange impression that his address was a thousand various quotes on greatness stringed as one. As he spoke, while I tried to wrap my head around one profound statement, he dropped yet another until it became series of interwoven pregnant statements begging to be delivered. At some point, I argued within myself that most of his statements could pass for sub-themes which could be further developed and discussed extensively. However, it was not difficult to see that Ben Okri is a thinker and philosopher in his own rights. His body and spirit swims in the pool of artistry. On another note, it is, however, a reasonable argument if one questions the obvious missing of great women in the paradigms cited by Ben Okri while making reference to a few great people. It would have been great to know about women whom he considers great and why. In this era of gender sensitivity and equality especially on the African continent, such could pass for a grave omission on his part.

Ben Okri’s address received a thunderous applause as he sat for the conversation with Ellah Allfrey. Ellah’s brilliant questions received apt answers from Ben. The question and answer session with the audience was short but the whole session was rewarding, to say the least.

As soon as the closing announcements ended, I left the hall as quickly as possible and became the third person on the queue waiting for Ben’s autograph. Ben Okri signed my copies of his books amidst small talks and my phone’s camera captured that rare moment. We shook hands. Ben Okri. I felt a sense of elation and one of my missions at Africa Writes became accomplished.

As I travelled back home on the train, I asked myself, “What does it mean to be a Ben Okri in 2015?”