Obumselu: Departure in the autumn of time

The saying that “A library is lost when an African elder dies” is partly true in the death of Professor Benedict Ebele Obumselu in the early hours of Saturday March 4, 2017. At 86, Obumselu was an African elder and much more. In him and with his demise, more than a library was lost, indeed, several libraries were lost, for Obumselu was an inimitable scholar, literary critic, raconteur, intellectual muse, political actor, soldier of conscience, patriot and distinguished professor of the history of ideas. His death, in an uncanny way, signals the end of an era of unrivaled scholarship and profound intellectual exertions devoted to the upliftment of the human race especially the African continent which he traversed sharing experience and imparting knowledge.
 
My quest for literary excellence had compelled me to seek out Obumselu. The year was 1982 and my youthful creative juice was bursting by the seams. I had completed two manuscripts and needed the validation by an expert before rushing to publish. And to Obumselu I turned. He came highly recommended especially as one of my two manuscripts was a volume of poems “Cries Of The Soul” which needed the deft touch of a master. I was thrilled by the realisation that the master whose guidance I earnestly sought after was the same Benedict Obumselu whom the great poet Christopher Okigbo acknowledged in his incomparable book of poems “Labyrinths” for “criticisms that continue to guide me along the paths of greater clarity”.  On our first meeting, I was bowled over by his willingness to be of help. So began a father and son, master and apprentice, idol and worshipper relationship that lasted till his demise.  
 
In my interactions with Obumselu, I saw a man greater than I had imagined, who to those who should know, was the greatest African literary critic of his generation.  While covering the 1987 International Literary Conference in Calabar for the Nigerian Chronicle, I had interviewed one of the guest speakers Professor Michael J. C. Echeruo, on the issue of ‘Rigor And Rigour’ in the context of African literature. Echeruo, then Vice Chancellor of Imo State University, had commented that Obumselu was easily the most rigorous African literary scholar around.  

Ensconced with him in his office, Ige, whom Chinua Achebe described in The Trouble With Nigeria  as ‘one of the brightest and most accomplished members of my generation’ stated in the course of our brief discussion that his eagerness to meet with me stemmed from the high esteem in which he held Obumselu whom he described as the brightest in Ibadan of their days. Months later, I had met the literary scholar Prof. Theo Vincent at the University of Lagos where he was Dean of the Arts Faculty. I had innocuously told him that “his colleague Prof. Ben Obumselu sent his regards”.  Vincent, who later became Vice Chancellor of University of Port Harcourt, demurred and insisted that “Ben Obumselu is not my colleague, he was my teacher and still is my teacher.”  Renowned musicologist, traditional ruler and laureate of the Nigerian National Merit Award, the highest award for intellectual accomplishment in Nigeria, Professor Laz Ekwueme once described Obumselu as “The Professors’ Professor”. So much for the well-deserved acclaim, reverence and plaudits that Obumselu received from the cream of Nigeria intelligentsia.  
 
Perhaps, Obumselu has not loomed large on the nation’s present intellectual landscape partly due to the pervading philistinism which elevate cant and mercantile publications to high art. Obumselu remains alive in profound contributions, though scattered in various places and in various forms, they speak to the depth and breadth of his brilliance and craftsmanship.  For him, the mantra ‘less is enough’ and quality not quantity appear to be the watchword.  To Obumselu “every attempt to publish must be a bid for immortality”.  “And immortality in this regard”, he once explained to his former student Professor Isidore Diala “is not really asking to be remembered two hundred years hence…But one must be making a case that is memorable because it is new and central to our conception of humanity.” Diala had deduced that Obumselu “finds it upsetting that given compelling professional demands to publish, in the hands of university lecturers, publications, which ought to be visible symbols of the generation of new insights, often degenerate into mere noise making”.
 
In Ben Obumselu is exemplified the truism that the ridge-like gulf between the merely talented and the supremely gifted is the camaraderie, candour, urbanity, erudition and simplicity the latter evinces. That, to me, is the Obumselu that counts!  Indeed, his life of distinction had revolved along his many roles as a scholar, critic, intellectual muse, soldier (courtesy of his Biafran Army activities) and teacher.  He obviously took his teaching role seriously and succeeded in helping to nurture some of the best that Nigeria has known -Theo Vincent, Dan Izevbaye, Stanley Macebuh, Molara Ogundipe, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jim Nwobodo and Isidore Diala, his latter-day student, who once noted that Obumselu’s models of exemplary teacher/student relationship are primed relationships between Socrates and Plato, and that between Christ and his disciples. It is remarkable that neither teacher of immortal ideas left behind any writing of their own, and regards their disciples’ perpetuation of their masters’ teaching through writing as exemplary love and self-forgetful action.  

On his return from a medical trip to India last year, I had expressed concern about his failing health.  Obumselu, not one to be disconsolate, tried to cheer me up and avowed that he had lived a fulfilled life. Even while bugged down by illness, he continued to give of himself to good causes geared at the upliftment of the Igbo nation, Nigeria and our shared humanity. I had visited Obumselu at his hospital bed the Sunday preceding his death and he was in the good company of his devouted wife, Fidelia and one of his daughters, Chiebuka. Not even the evident pain concomitant of the malignant ailment that ravaged him could stop him from discussing books.  He did not forget the last assignment he gave to me which was to scout for the best bookshops in Lagos.  On learning that I would be travelling to Ibadan the next day, he admonished that I should drive carefully so as to return safely to my loved ones. I did return a few days afterwards to be assailed with the grim news of his passage. Adieu the quintessential scholar and humanist!Oduenyi, a company chief executive, is an adjunct member of faculty at the School of Media and Communication, Pan Atlantic University, Lagos.