Eating at the Plate of a Giant

I met Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o at Carifesta V in Trinidad in 2019. He had been invited and I was tasked with looking after him for a while. I picked him up from his hotel, drove him to Carifesta and other events that were taking place. I was in awe.

I studied Ngũgĩ at university. I never thought I would meet him. Which was ridiculous when I think of all the writers and thinkers I've met since attending university.  But I never expected to meet this small giant of a man.

One day when I went to pick him up he had to eat before we left. We sat in the dining room and he had a plate of the most boring dry food brought to him. He chuckled and said that's what he had to eat. If I remember right, it was chicken, broccoli and potatoes. Dry! He passed me a fork and invited me to eat with him. From his plate. This man who I had held in so much esteem for years. I was eating from his plate with him. We talked literature and Africa and we laughed and I thought about my own father who had held the same sparkle in his eye and zest for life.

He asked for my novel and I signed it and carried it in the car when I dropped him off and to this day the book is still on my bookshelf because we forgot all about it with all the chat and workshops and presentations. But sometimes I take it off the shelf and look at what I wrote in it and smile, because I know he would have read it, but the fact that he asked for it and held it and discussed it with me is enough.

In 2024 I got to spend two weeks in the same capacity with Ngũgĩ's son, Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ.  He had been invited to Trinidad by another giant of a man, Funso Aiyejina, who unfortunately died a couple of weeks before Mũkoma arrived. Once more I was in the presence of a great African writer and thinker and of course we got to talk about his father, the man. We read poetry with students and Mukoma played his harmonica, terribly, but with gusto. 

I am grateful to have had the chance to spend time with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and to eat from his plate.

His legacy will continue.
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