Obituary: Harry Garuba

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Toyin Falola

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Feb 29, 2020, 11:16:03 AM2/29/20
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We lost the outstanding poet, great essayist, and famous literary figure. Professor Garuba was full of talents. Very well known in the literary world, his voice started to echo at Ibadan, crossing the Atlantic, and then detouring to South Africa where he and Professor Kole Omotoso—his fellow Akure citizen—joined in the transformation of the South African academy. Harry Garuba, Nuruddin Farah (nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize) and Amina Mama (the preeminent feminist scholar) once hosted me. The conversations were elaborate. Harry and I plotted one more time to push Nuruddin for the Nobel. No luck, but the omission is a major one, similar to that of Achebe and wa Thiong’o. The University of Cape Town was a great place to be. Fast forward—Harry and his colleagues were to appoint me to their Faculty as an Honorary Professor.

 

We invited Harry to Austin for a semester where we interacted intensely. He was a theorist with a limitless pool of knowledge. His lectures were well received. I cannot reproduce his laughter. Glued to his face was his signature smile. Only a hand was free at a time, the other holding a cigarette.

 

The transformation that preoccupied Harry created the path to our last meeting in Johannesburg.  Professor Adekeye Adebajo, the distinguished political scientist and eminent public intellectual, brought many of us together at the Institute of Pan-African Thought and Conversation on August 18th and 19th 2018 to dialogue on “Curriculum Transformation in the Humanities.” My memory does not fail me in matters such as this. Harry spoke on the Heinemann African Writers’ Series. At lunch time, we sat together where I told him about a manuscript he had not read, the dissertation of Bode Ibironke of Rutgers on that same Series, subsequently published by Palgrave (Remapping African Literature). And of course, a reminder about his long-awaited book which he was always agonizing about its completion. “There was no death on his face,” as the Yoruba would say.

 

I had planned to see him in the coming weeks. Not anymore. Harry was a secularist. I don’t know what he would say if I ask God to invite him to His side, but I seek this assurance. Harry lived a glorious life.

 

Harry had passion and zeal for poetry, the amazing source of his strength.

He loved words, the spring of his awesome inspiration.

He was both humane and urbane, his warmth and divine protection.

 

When I wanted to tease him, I would call him Haruna. “I am Harry, not Haruna!” he would object.

Harry, I would ask, “what is the difference between file and Fali?”

 

Haruna, you did well on earth.

Harry, your mission has been accomplished.

Harry will continue to be with us.

 

Harry would object but I will pray anyway:

 

Ya Allah,

please remove all the pride and arrogance from my heart,

forgive my major and minor sins and

make me worthy to jannah.

 

Sleep well, great mind.

 

TF

  

Toyin Falola

Department of History

The University of Texas at Austin

104 Inner Campus Drive

Austin, TX 78712-0220, USA

 

Toyin Falola

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Feb 29, 2020, 11:18:13 AM2/29/20
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Ebunoluwa Sotunsa

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Feb 29, 2020, 11:56:12 AM2/29/20
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Prof  Harry Garuba was one of the most brilliant minds I have come across. He taught me literary theory and his explanations in class remain vivid much after a quarter of a decade. I used to affirm, anyone Prof Harry Garuba teaches who fails is really not meant to be in school at all. 
My classmates and I will surely miss him

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Uyilawa Usuanlele

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Feb 29, 2020, 12:05:18 PM2/29/20
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Oh my God, what a big loss. May his gentle soul rest in peace.
Uyi

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
Sent: Saturday, February 29, 2020 11:17 AM
To: dialogue <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obituary: Harry Garuba
 
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Ibrahim Abdullah

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Feb 29, 2020, 12:41:03 PM2/29/20
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Good bye Harry! Our journey started at UI, at Madam Bello and Balewa Hall; with Ima Osaghae, Bona Chizea, Austin Adeoye et al.  I vividly recall our banter in the early 80s; about revolution; social transformation;  Marxism;  Bourgeois scholarship and the so-called Ibadan school. We were to meet again at UCT; I as on my way out and you were just coming. Still can't come to terms with your exit. Adieu Harry--will buy you a drink when next we meet. 
Salaam!  

Sent from my iPhone

On 29 Feb 2020, at 4:18 PM, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:


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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Feb 29, 2020, 2:40:32 PM2/29/20
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This is yet another unbearable  loss. Three  remarkable members of the literati in about a year.

My last memorable image of Harry was on the floor of Oduduwa Hall acting the Wole Soyinka directed Biko's Inquest in which Soyinka himself acted, as part of the struggle against Apartheid.  So you could say Harry's engagement with South Africa began at that country's hour of need.

May his noble soul rest in perfect peace.

OAA



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
Date: 29/02/2020 16:19 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obituary: Harry Garuba

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Michael Afolayan

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Feb 29, 2020, 5:11:18 PM2/29/20
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The diviner dies as if lacking in the art of divination;
The medicine man dies as if wanting in the knowledge of his own medicine;
Death is the ultimate deifier of all things.
Death stings!
It has taken our Harry away -
Across the valley of Great Decision
Ferrying Harry into the pantheon of his ancestors. 
Harry Garuba, the Renaissance man -
Sleep on.
No questions asked;
Shhhhhhh. . .
Sleep on, Harry -
Sleep on.
Now, you are free!


Michael O. Afoláyan
On Saturday, February 29, 2020, 6:06:20 PM GMT+1, Dr BioDun J Ogundayo <akand...@gmail.com> wrote:


  I shall stand here alone

Through this long blighted night

I will neither sing nor

Dance but listening to

The murmur of the

Ebbing waters I shall

Weave my little web of

Dreams beneath the shadows

Cast by these dead iroko trees.

Harry Garuba, RIP😭😭😭


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segun ogungbemi

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Feb 29, 2020, 5:11:18 PM2/29/20
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It is sad to hear of his death. My condolences to his family, relations, friends and associates.
May his soul rest in peace with his Ancestors. 
Segun Ogungbemi. 


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AbdulRasheed Na'Allah

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Mar 1, 2020, 5:45:59 AM3/1/20
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Adetayo Alabi broke the news to me, of the tragic passing of my brother and friend. We loved and respected each other enormously and never stopped wanting to visit one another. Harry came all the way from Harvard at Cambridge to visit and give a talk at Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois in the midle of the Corn Country, and presented one of the most thrilling lectures on what he termed minority discourse, minority poetics! I have never had a more benovelent colleague. Himself, Uzoma Esonwanne and I edited two special volumes of the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature on African Literature and Abiola Irele judged it urgent to publish both on a new book cover. This perhaps is the time to do so in Harry's honor! Sun re o! He decided South Africa was home after all, taking a wife and together making very brilliant and beautiful children. To the wicked souls who hate to see other Africans on the street of Cape Town, you prabaly should be ready for a heart attack because Harry's children have come to stay!

My brother, as we call each other, you have left behind the strongest statement for African writing, for scholarship, for African unity! Adieu!

Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah

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Saturday, 29 February 2020, 05:56pm +01:00 from Ebunoluwa Sotunsa' via USA Africa Dialogue Series usaafric...@googlegroups.com:

Toyin Falola

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Mar 1, 2020, 8:11:20 PM3/1/20
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Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Des Wilson <ephra...@gmail.com>
Date: March 1, 2020 at 6:27:01 PM CST
To: Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>
Subject: Re: Obituary: Harry Garuba

So sorry to hear Harry is no more. Lost him so soon after I  left Ibadan in the early 80s. Many a time with Hyginus Ekwuazi and Andy Okwilagwe we sat out at the Faculty of Arts quadrangle to relish the early songs of Kris Okotie, who at that time was still a law student at UNN. Music and poetry are inspired by the same aflatus. May the good Lord rest his gentle soul.
Des

Gbemi Tijani

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Mar 2, 2020, 4:59:12 AM3/2/20
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aaaah...what happened to Harry Garuba? what transformed him? he inspired us as a poetic voice in the 80s you mentioned when The Guardian on Sunday was artistically ,poetically loud.I can't forget his political scientist colleague & Prof Niyi Osundare then & now!.I know he was one of those critical voice of that time in history before discontent drained him away...Sorry.May his soul rest in Divine poetry..His Maker is a Father of all poets .He will receive him.Amen to we that believe in God.
gbemi tijani mst,02320.

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jare Ajayi

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Mar 2, 2020, 9:16:40 AM3/2/20
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Oh, Harry Garuba gone? The posting by my soulmate, Abdulrasheed Na'Allah, announcing the death of Harry Garuba jolted me. On reading it, what went through my mind was a list of literary scholars and artists we have lost in recent times.
Following in tow was the thought, reminder in fact, that this is how each of us will breath our last one time or the other.
It's quite apt to seize the opportunity to lambaste  xenophobic apostles in South Africa - or elsewhere as Rasheed did in the Obituary. I only want to add here that Garuba's demise is a big blow to us in Ibadan - next in terms of impact to that of his family. For, Harry Garuba left a remarkable footprint in Ibadan; details of which can not be given in this short text.
Prayer is often said for the 'gentle' soul of the departed to rest in perfect peace. For Harry Garuba, his soul was truly 'gentle', just as his character was. Although with a strong intellect and admirable integrity.
May his soul rest in perfect peace. And may the Almighty God spare the lives of the rest of us for much longer - in good health, better service to humanity and in better well-being.
Jare Ajayi

Biko Agozino

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Mar 2, 2020, 9:59:22 AM3/2/20
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I saw that signature smile when he chaired a panel at the conference on the 2015 elections organized by Professor Abubakar Momoh at the INEC research Institute in 2016. Momoh and I were arguing for the development of indigenous knowledge systems while some in the audience insisted that we should cite Talcott Parsons. Harry just smiled and shook his head. Momoh went to the land of the ancestors before him and now he has gone to meet him with a report that the book of essays in his honor is yet to be published. Farewell bros.

Biko

Julius Eto

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Mar 2, 2020, 12:22:00 PM3/2/20
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RIP Prof Harry Garuba, my senior at Government College Ughelli, Delta State, Nigeria.

Your place is assured in history because you're a good man.


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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Mar 2, 2020, 6:28:37 PM3/2/20
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Terrible!

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Chambi Chachage

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Mar 3, 2020, 5:59:28 AM3/3/20
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Gbemi,

Transformed into what? Harry Garuba was my postdoctoral honors advisor at UCT. In a significant way he was a public intellectual in South Africa as attested by many of the ongoing tributes published in a number of newspapers there. So, maybe he was not drained away, but rather moved his fight to Southern Africa.

This is one of the articles Garuba wrote in one of the leading newspapers in South Africa, it gives a glimpse into the burning issues he was tackling while there:

"But as so often happens when student or street protests shine an unforgiving light on our failings, a rash of committees are established in the aftermath and put to work on what is to be done, even when everyone knows what this is" -  Harry Garuba on the Rhodes Must Fall Movement

Best Regards,

Chambi

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Mar 3, 2020, 8:27:08 AM3/3/20
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Awesome!  Here is the footprint of a major thinker.  I am in no doubt I'm reading a kindred spirit.

May he continue to guide our thoughts from the Great Beyond.

OAA



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Chambi Chachage <chachag...@gmail.com>
Date: 03/03/2020 11:10 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: Obituary: Harry Garuba

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Gbemi,

Transformed into what? Harry Garuba was my postdoctoral honors advisor at UCT. In a significant way he was a public intellectual in South Africa as attested by many of the ongoing tributes published in a number of newspapers there. So, maybe he was not drained away, but rather moved his fight to Southern Africa.

This is one of the articles Garuba wrote in one of the leading newspapers in South Africa, it gives a glimpse into the burning issues he was tackling while there:

"But as so often happens when student or street protests shine an unforgiving light on our failings, a rash of committees are established in the aftermath and put to work on what is to be done, even when everyone knows what this is" -  Harry Garuba on the Rhodes Must Fall Movement

Best Regards,

Chambi

On Mon, Mar 2, 2020 at 4:59 AM Gbemi Tijani <tijan...@gmail.com> wrote:

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