Nigeria, May 19 -- FOR HENRY CHAKAVA

The Veteran Bookman from Vokoli who illuminated the world with the rainbow of African letters

If this tribute took so long in coming It is because your passing left me wordless From a slow, unspeakable grief..

The hills left no hint The roadside grass uttered no whisper The rain never told the roof

About your quiet, reluctant parting Before we woke up that March morning And discovered you had picked up the horsetail

And danced to the other side of the Great Mountain Alas, Vokoli's Veteran Bookman has gone. Unfinished chapters ruffle the pages of our memory

*

"See you in Kenya again, very soon", You pledged the last time we met "It's a long time now since you came our way+

And the Kenyan rain ha...