Nigeria, July 27 -- I received the shocking news of the passing of Okello Oculi, the Ugandan scholar who lived 48 years of his life in Nigeria, while I was on the train to Ottawa from Kingston-Ontario. It was difficult to process the news because I had exchanged messages with him just three days ago. He didn't sound like that was the last I would hear from him. He even received the video messages on our boat cruise to 1,000 Islands in Kingston that I sent him yesterday. Life is brutally unpredictable.

He was very much his usual self in our recent exchanges - upbeat, insightful and provocative. He talked about Europe's massive investments in music as a cultural resource to entertain the upper classes, while the lower classes derived pleas...