Sweet reminisces and bitter regrets

How fascinating it is once in a while to look back on one’s life and recall all those standout moments and sore gaps that punctuate one’s trod from the cradle to the grave! As a young man back in 1993/4 or thereabouts, I received a call from the office of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Botswana – at that time Prof. Thomas Tlou. It was him on the line. We had not met face to face before then. He told me he had just returned from a UNESCO meeting in Paris, France and had been given a parcel by Professor Rex Nettleford to forward to me. Our newspaper at that time was housed in the main mall along Botswana Road. I wasted no time in getting to his office! Prof Rex Nettleford was the professors’ professor! He was the Rector and Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. I had met him in Saskatchewan, Regina – Canada while attending the Silver Jubilee of Gemini News Service, which I wrote for at the time. It was not only Gemini that I corresponded for at that time, I also wrote for AFP, the French news agency and would frequently liaise with their southern Africa regional office in Jo’burg. Prof Nettleford had been invited to the celebration in Saskatchewan as a guest speaker and was one of the few people of colour at that conference. The others were the then Editor of the Ugandan Monitor, the Editor of Namibia’s New Era, a reporter from Papua New Guinea and yours truly! Nettleford stunned me. He exuded a natural aura that distinguished him an intellectual par excellence. And indeed he was as I was later to learn. Yet he was humble and down to earth to the point of extending a hand of frienship to lowly mortals like myself! Perhaps it was because as a descendant of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, he felt a tinge of sweet nostalgia, a longing for an Africa that none of us could imagine, whenever he interacted with brothers and sisters from the Mother Continent! He gave such a profound speech that had everyone in that University Hall in Regina gaping in awe. What I remember to this day, is the absolute silence that attended his presentation – it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop – and that was an African in the Diaspora speaking.All the whites held on to every word that issued from his mouth and afterwards wanted an opportnity to take some snapshots with him. We were honoured that the Professor immediately took a liking to us and didn’t have to compete for his attention. He walked with us through the University gardens and sat with us at the Hotel lobby imparting and freely sharing so that we could drink from his fountain of wisdom! It was such an honour to meet Prof Nettleford especially after my recent trip at the time to Accra, Ghana where I had studied for sometime at the Ghana Institute of Journalism. Here I had the opportunity to visit the Elmina Castle in the Cape Coast and to see with my own eyes the Door of No Return through which Nettleford’s forebears had gone through to reach Jamaica and finally the Mainland of America, where they would work the corton fields and create the wealth that we envy today from their sweat, blood and tears! It was also in Ghana that we visited the Volta Region, where then President Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings originated. But at this place we were treated to one of the monuments that have immortalised the legend of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, whom I am honoured to have studied at a school he founded, Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) in Accra. This Nkrumah was inspired by the writings of the Jamaican, Marcus Garvey when he went and studied in the USA. And so, Nettleford was pleasantly surpirsed when he learnt that I was not only familiar with the works of Garvey, but his pioneering role in Pan Africanism. That is why he decided he would share some of his seminal works on Ras Tafari with me. But back to Prof Thomas Tlou! When I got to his office he couldn’t believe I was the person Nettleford had asked him to deliver the package to. He saw a small boy out of league with people like Prof. Nettleford. And that is how I got to know Prof Tlou! As for the parcel, suffice to say the contents have been shared with many Batswana in fact one of the books to this day remains with one Ras Jesus in Gantsi. I must now ask him through this piece to return it so that I can share it with other brothers and sisters. As for regrets, when an emissary of President Sam Nuyoma’s government met with me at the then Gaborone Sun Hotel and tried in vain to recruit me to join Radja Munamava’s New Era! I mean that was a whole minister for Godsake, but I put country before everything else, only to later lose my job that year! I spent the next ten years rueing that lost opportunity! But then again, you never know your worth until you’ve been down and out, I am confident today that the world is now my oyster!