Spirit of the Deep: The Great Place [Book Prologue]

THE GREAT PLACE  

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Place-Soulful-Celebration-Beautiful/dp/14137... + http://uwachuku.googlepages.com/ugonnarevealed 

 

 

Prologue  

 

 

"Even though we face the

difficulties of today and

tomorrow, I still have a

dream. I have a dream that

my four little children will

one day live in a nation where

they will not be judged by the

color of their skin but by the

content of their character."

~Martin Luther King, jr.

 

 

In 1964, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in

prison. Seven years later, I was born. As soon as

I was old enough to understand, my mum and dad,

both historians, had taken me through pages in

history:   

 

 

Outside the bloody, sad tale of the fight of my Igbo

people for survival and fulfilment within Nigeria,

that of the Jews, African Americans, native American

Indians, Koori (Australian Aborigines), Tibetans;

Palestinians; including Mexican Indians, and others

across the world of then and today, the story of

the blatant oppression of native, aboriginal South

African black people by a white minority struck me in a

moving manner.   

 

 

By reading and observation, I followed the struggle

against apartheid. In humane spirit, I was drawn to

the humble, but unequivocal yearning of this South

African leader who had been condemned to spend

the rest of his powerfully advocative life in prison.

Mandela became an enigma to me. Far from me and even

farther from the world around him, Mandela, symbolic

of the courageous spirit of the South African people,

became a spirit of the deep ancestral Africa which I

resolved to uphold, embrace and celebrate after the

dawn of freedom I longed for.   

 

 

Above all, I came to realize that I had fallen in

love with a people and their struggle for a peaceful

recognition of the worth and dignity inherent in their

human essence. This love stems from my family's

unwavering involvement in the South African struggle -

a high level involvement that date back to the time

my uncle, Jaja Anucha Wachuku, was Nigeria's Foreign

Affairs Minister: 

 

 

Notably, a 1964 telegram from the United States Embassy

in South Africa to the Department of State read thus:   

 

 

"Cape Town, April 22, 1964, 11 a.m

/1/Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL

29 S AFR. Confidential; priority.

Repeated to London, USUN, Pretoria, and Lagos.

...

...

/3/In the "Rivonia" trial, nine African Nationalist

leaders, including Nelson Mandela, were charged with

planning and carrying out sabotage. The Rivonia trial

was so called because of the arrest of a number of the

defendants on a farm in Rivonia, Transvaal.

I read the following statement to FonSec Jooste"

of South Africa "yesterday afternoon:

`Nigerian Foreign Minister Wachuku has expressed to

our Ambassador' - USA - `in Lagos his view that if

death penalty should be imposed and carried out on

Mandela and other defendants in Rivonia sabotage

trial it would place moderate African leaders like

himself and Government of Nigeria, who are attempting

to follow a reasonable course on the South African

problem, in an impossible situation...'  Jooste took careful

notes. His reaction to Wachuku's statement was calm...

Satterthwaite"   

 

 

Later, in the early 80s, as Senate Foreign Affairs

Committee Chairman, my uncle, Jaja Wachuku, against the

Nigerian government policy of isolating the South African

government because of apartheid, in a very dangerous

mission, secretly went to South Africa to put pressure on

president Pieter Willem Botha, then prime minister, for

the unconditional release of Nelson Mandela and others;

including the willing abrogation and total dismantling

of the obnoxious apartheid system in every humane sense

and truthful reality. Jaja Wachuku's meeting with president

Botha was a rewarding but acrimonious one. My uncle took

this great risk for the love of his fellow brothers and

sisters in South Africa. Unflinchingly, he truely loved

all humanity; and cared so much for people's well-being,

fulfilment and peaceful joy:

 

 

For example, after the sorrowful Nigerian - Biafran war,

there were so many orphans amongst our Igbo people

in Nigeria. Jaja took some of these orphans into the

Wachuku family and wholly trained and cared for them till

adulthood. Today, these orphans of yesterday are happy and

responsilbly fulfilled members of our big, interesting

Wachuku family and the Nigerian society at large. Today,

they are my cousins, brothers and sisters in that uniquely

African manner of caring, and overwhelmingly inspiring

family tradition. Throughout his distinguished 78 years,

(1918-1996), on this earth, Jaja Wachuku deeply believed

that a wrong-doer cannot be corrected by isolation; but by

compassionate and lovingly understanding dialogue coupled

with constant interaction in order to bring that person

to the same level of love and compassionate understanding

of the fact that we all are worthy and dignified human

beings created in the image of God Almighty:

 

 

Also, during 1979 to 1983, my uncle's days of service

to our people and nation in the Nigerian Senate, a

political correspondent of one of the Nigerian newspapers

reported one amongst Jaja Wachuku's numerous visionary and

proactive advocacy and practical solution to the South

African apartheid problem, in the following words: 

 

 

"The redoutable Jaja held his colleagues

spell-bound on the floor of the Senate

as he weighed heavily on them with his

awesome oratorial machinery, defending

his vision that the defeat of apartheid

and freedom for South African blacks",

and other groups, "shall flow from the

barrels of dialogue and contact, not

from the barrels of isolation and

guns..."

 

 

So, With unwavering vision, for Jaja Wachuku, his unpopular

interaction and dialogue with the apartheid regime had to be

kept going; not just to free the blatantly oppressed and

brutalized blacks and other groups, but also to free

our beloved brothers and sisters - whites - from their

heavily overbearing circle of hatred and destructive

feelings entwined with fatal actions of hopeful

superiority upheld by glaringly unjust laws and

government policies which had no human face.

 

 

To understand more about my uncle's view as stated in

the preceding paragraph and earlier in this prologue,

please, kindly hear Frederik Willem de Klerk in his touching

autobiography titled: "The Last Trek - A New Beginning:

 

 

"It was a day of liberation - not only

for black South Africans, but also for

us white South Africans. Suddenly, the

burden of three hundred and fifty years

had been lifted from our shoulders. For

the first time, we could greet all our

countrymen without guilt or fear as

equals and as fellow South Africans.

When I woke up that morning" (10 May 1994)

"I was still the president of South Africa.

When I went to bed, the mantle had passed

from me to Nelson Mandela...

It is not only black, coloured

and Indian South Africans who have

been liberated. After generations,

whites have been freed from the

defensive Laager (the circled ox-

wagons which served as a kind of

fortress within which they could

protect their women and children

and cattle) in which they had for

centuries been confined...

It was the" Laager "ideal to which

I myself had clung until I finally

concluded, after a long process of

deep introspection, that, if pursued,

it would bring disaster to all the

peoples of our country - including

my own..."

 

 

Humbly, my family's unwavering involvement in the

South African struggle has many untold stories which

I would rather rest for now as I take you on this

soulfully moving journey through Spirit of the Deep.

However, I must let you know that everyone of us who

belongs to the Wachuku family is humbly proud to be

part of the bunch. Ours is an inspiringly outstanding

family which dates back, in known history, four hundred

and eighty years. This means that presently, the Wachuku

family of the area that is today known as Nigeria, is

in its twelfth generation because biblically, a generation

is forty years.  

 

 

Indeed, over the years, my love for the South African

people and all of humanity has continued to grow

in unfathomable dimensions:

 

 

Then, when on 11 February, 1990, six years before

my distinguished uncle, Jaja Anucha Wachuku, went

the way of all mankind, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

walked out of Victor Vester prison, a free and

healthy man, unconditionally, I held my breath

with tears and hopeful unbelief. In the deepest

corners of my soul and being, I knew that Albert

John Lutuli's visionary South Africa was here: 

 

 

Accepting the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway

on 11 December, 1961, Lutuli said:

 

 

"Our vision has always

been that of a non-racial,

democratic South Africa

which upholds the rights

of all who live in our

country to remain there

as full citizens with

equal rights and

responsibilities with

others. For the consumation

of this ideal, we have

laboured unflinchingly;

we shall continue to

labour unflinchingly."

 

 

Today, as I write Spirit of the Deep - in celebration

of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and all the beautiful and

humanely brave people of South Africa - these "rainbow

people of God", I feel so fulfilled; knowing that an

enigmatic reality inside of me has finally found creative

expression and explanation within the inspirational depths

of my being and unfolding earthly journey.

 

 

Accordingly, afterwards, concerning the South African

experience, I was calmly moved by the following words

from John Pilger in his paradoxical British Broadcasting

Corporation (BBC) aired documentary film entitled:  

"Apartheid did not die:"    

 

 

"Coming back to South Africa,

I have been suprised to discover

a generosity of spirit that

survived the atrocities of

apartheid. It is a humanism

expressed in the distinctly

African notion that people are

people through other people.

This sense of community and

sharing is not without the

usual frailties. But the

evidence of its resilence

is everywhere in this country.

And this film has been a tribute

to that vibrant quality.

But tributes are not enough!

...:

It was the ordinary people

of South Africa who set the

pace of change. It was their

humanity and their courage

that triumphed here;

proving that fundamental

change is possible. It

will be a tragedy for all

of us if their continuing

struggle goes unrewarded;

for its inspiration and

lessons are universal."    

 

 

From the enchanting, peaceful gardens and green country-

sides of poetic Geneva through the humbling confluence of

inspiring rivers Niger and Benue to the welcoming and

bravely kind Kraals of South Africa through to the ends

of our breath-takingly beautiful blue earth unbound, let

us acknowledge and uphold our love and cherishment for

one another. We must move with God's loving spirit in us.

Humanity must be willing enough to learn from the healing

South African experience or else, we are lost forever!  

 

 

Indeed, may God Almighty gracefully grant us the mustard

seed faith to find our spirit of the healing deep in South

Africa's inspiring and powerful yearning for peace, harmony

and fulfilment founded on love, oneness and respect for the

divine worth and dignity of all humankind. These are the

subtle, soul stirring words I leave with you this day and

always.  

 

 

Ugonna Wachuku
Geneva, Switzerland 

Sunday 3 March 2002  

 

 

Spirit of the Deep or The Great Place 

~ Critiques/Comments ~   

 

 

Marcia Ellen "Happy" Beevre

happyb8888@aol.com  

 

I don't know much about God, Ugonna.  But surely if there is such a being, it's spirit has touched your heart, mind, body, and soul, and the hearts of your people!   

 

Marcia  

http://www.postpoems.com/members/happyb8888   

 

 

Amy Riberdy

winnowillwhite@hotmail.com   

 

I WISH TO SAY MUCH, BECAUSE THERE IS SO MUCH HERE, BUT, MY COMMENTS WILL BE SHORT. THE PLEA, THE HOPE, THE LOVE, THE POSITIVE DESIRE & THE UPLIFTING CRIES FOR FREEDOM, THE SYMBOLIC REFERRAL TO THE RAINBOW PEOPLE, ALL MAKE THIS PIECE STAND FOR THE PLIGHT OF SOUTH AFRICA. I HAVE LEARNED MORE FROM THIS, THAN I HAVE EVER LEARNED. NOT ABOUT APARTHEID OR ATTROCITIES, BUT, OF THE SPIRIT, THE STRENGTH OF A PEOPLE THAT SOMETIMES ARE FORGOTTEN.  WELL DONE!!!!!  

 

AMY 

http://www.postpoems.com/members/gentle   

 

 

Teresa Jacobs

truffels_37211@yahoo.com  

 

I often wonder why the world is so full of hate. We treat those who look different from ourselves with aversion. I believe that ultimately we are all brothers and sisters. My wish for the world is peace. Maybe someday we will find a cure for all of the injustices that have been placed upon those who look different and the ignorance that once was prevalent will cease to exist and all of god's children will live in peace. Your words have touched me deeply. Thank you so much for sharing them with me. You are truly a good person and someday the good will triumph over the evil.

 

Peace and Love  

Teresa 

http://www.postpoems.com/members/gentle  

 

 

Serene Moment

belleloved@excite.com

 

AWESOME!  I was mesmerized right from the start!  As it slowly unfolds, I feel that I was right there at the scene.  This piece speaks volumes of the messages of love, hope, courage, longing and aspiration for freedom.  You have spoken the voice of your people.  I was truly spellbound!  

http://www.postpoems.com/members/serene    

 

 

Angela Albee

berz13@yahoo.com

 

I scanned what you wrote...not enough time right now to full read it, but what i did read was very interesting. I like the quotes incorporated into the text. I will look foward to reading it in it's entirety. thanks. 

http://www.postpoems.com/members/darkangela  

 

 

Joleen Skerkowski

joski1230@aol.com

 

Ugonna~ I too was trying to do a quick scan through...but  I was indeed caught in your spirit in this writing..I had to continue.....there is hope in this world...spirit of community...and peace......your display is an ultimate work of the Spirit........through and through..I feel as though I am there....Thank you for sharing this ....and many blessings to you......joleen   

http://www.postpoems.com/members/photojoski   

 

 

Mona Omar

monao3@yahoo.com  

 

dear ugonna i hope the coming new year bring all your wishes true of peace and love for all humanity :) god bless you 

http://www.postpoems.com/members/mona   

 

 

Milton Manyaas

manyaas@yahoo.com   

 

Ugonna,  This speaks volumes of the spirit of humanity: the mesages of love, peace, justice for all and universal brotherhood.It is our sincere hope that the mankind would recognize these ideals in its endevour to improve our global village.  

 

Milton 

http://www.postpoems.com/members/meso    

 

 

Mary Charest

charest67@aol.com  

 

Hi Ugonna, Once again I am thrilled to hear from you and to be counted among your many friends.  This piece is very moving, yet bittersweet.  Bittersweet because it reminds me of the one-dimensional thinking that causes all the pain that these beautiful people must recover from.  If everyone could see the world from your viewpoint, it would be an ideal world.  "Let your tears from yesterday find love and peace..."  As always, from you, perfection.

 

Love and peace,

Mary   

http://www.postpoems.com/members/maryfran444   

 

 

Linda M. Medeiros

pudnsis1@aol.com   

 

Ugonna, Bless you for sharing these thoughts of South Africa and the hardships that have occurred throughout her history. Your kind, caring, loving words have been well recieved and so shall they be to all who read. Our precious gift of life should not be entwined with hatred and war, but with love. Our human lifespan is much too short to continue living in the past. Time to drop all negative ideologies and pray to our Lord for guidance through the right path. I see He has started with you and amongst others, now we must spread this love so it does not vanquish into total darkness. Thank you for sharing.

 

Love and peace. Linda 

http://www.postpoems.com/members/pudnsis1   

 

 

Misty Lackey

countrygal_cc@yahoo.com  

 

Thanks for sharing the beauty.   

 

http://www.postpoems.com/members/mistylls    

 

 

Donna Allard

 

Well Ugonna,

 

What can I say ...we are all eagles soring above our countries..with hope and a tear that all will regain a peacefull inheritence. Many share your view(s) but few decide to write. Cheers to you for sharing your voice.  I'm expecting a 'signed' copy my friend  This May our university (U of Moncton) is giving a Literary Conference of which my part is to be responsible for bringing in poets and authors who are associated with the Atlantic. Ie: Atlantic Canada, Iceland, France, Greenland, Norway etc.. maybe one day I can bring you to Canada.  Can you send me a jpg photo and a short bio & biblo so I can add you to my Bookstore, and other sites. Thank you in advance.  Cheers! Keep Safe! Keep Peace! Keep Informed!

 

Donna Allard Allard Creative Communications

Canadian Poetry Association Membership Coordinator  

http://www.postpoems.com/members/saphire   

 

 

Helen Schmidt

heljac123@aol.com  

 

Ugonna,  It was with humility and respect that I read your marvelous work, "Spirit of The Deep."  My wish is that you and your fellow country men and women accomplish that which you have begun . . . bringing freedom, equality, and tolerance to all people of Africa.  What a wonderful man your uncle was! How proud of him you must be.  Thank you so much for inviting me to read this wonderful book.  Best regards, Helen 

http://www.postpoems.com/members/helen  

 

 

Myra Lochner

myrataal@mweb.co.za  

 

Dear Ugonna,  

 

On reading SPIRIT OF THE DEEP, it became clear to me that no other person could have written such an eminent tribute. As a Christian, a son of Africa, and traveller of our times, you understand the heartbeat of the South African nation as a whole, yearning for peace and righteousness.  I am a white South African and I can honestly say that I was brought up by a Christian mother, who demonstrated love for all peoples of South Africa. The law of love is written on the heart...  I should like to know about the symbolic background of the eleven eagles. Is that a reference to the South African languages? Are you the 12th eagle, representative of the rest of the world? Also, what is the meaning of the spear tilling the farmlands?  Ugonna, may the peace and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you where-ever you go.

 

Sincere regards,  

Myra Lochner   

http://www.postpoems.com/members/myrataal   

 

 

Michelle Obakeng

mobakeng@yahoo.com  

 

Hi Ugonna,  

 

I read through your book: "The Great Place." Thanks for posting the Prologue here. Though Frederik de Klerk may be a controversial figure, it is wisdom to have maintained his position in power with Mandela. Perhaps, that was the only way for the people of South Africa to have avoided social unrest. A bit like Abe Lincoln who unwillingly freed the slaves. God used De Klerk for good purposes.  

 

In fact, your book is a tribute to peace and peacemakers of which Nelson Mandela is a leading figure, and your Uncle: Jaja Anucha Wachuku whose name is not included in the history books.  Yes, the people of South Africa deserve to be called "Sons of God", a title that would fit every nation that has been oppressed under heaven.  Your work is proof that one can still fight under God's banner for justice -- What God demands: "Let justice roll in the land". And as you said it: "We must move with God's loving spirit in us..."  Will this publication contain illustrations?  Thanks for including me in your panel. May your work continue to touch hearts.  

 

Michelle

UK 

 

 

Mark Le Roux

mleroux@mail.com

 

Real musical quality. Can well imagine it with drums and dancers.  Would work well in a theatrical context and on the silver screen.  Passionate. Has well researched South African setting.  Imaginative! Original!  

 

Mark 

http://www.adventist.truepath.com   

 

 

Farah Didi

fiffi_d@yahoo.com

 

Ugonna,  

 

You have really excelled yourself here, 

in "SPIRIT OF THE DEEP." The spirituality, 

the oneness of humankind, the shared 

human values you bring out in the book 

through the story of South Africa has no 

bounds. 

 

It is true that "Nkosi Sikelele Africa" is 

more than just the National Anthem of a country. 

It embodies the suffering of the natives of South 

Africa in the apartheid era. And your story and 

poem brings out the heart of their suffering. 

 

Interestingly, I was blessed in meeting Nelson 

Mandela when he came to visit Wales a few years 

ago! I shall never forget that day!  

 

Thank you, Ugonna, for this wonderful visit to 

South Africa! 

 

Farah 

MALDIVES 

http://www.postpoems.com/members/destiny 

2002-03-04 09:55:55

 

Adele Smith

adelesmith4@yahoo.com

 

I never thought of South Africa 

in the contents you wrote this 

interesting book. 

 

Although I live in South Africa, 

I have never felt like a South African. 

I feel like an outsider in an ever  

changing world. 

 

Keep up with your writings! 

 

Adele

http://www.postpoems.com/members/alienadele 

2002-03-21 05:09:59

 

Douglas Lazard

dougiebgood@hotmail.com

"Jesus loves the little children...(ALL)... the children in the world!"  The day is coming soon my friend, when we shall walk in that blessed light as the children of God!  The Pain and shame that we fill now for the way the human race has treated it's brothers, will be washed away forever and replaced by everlasting love,joy and beauty! Rejoice my brother!!!  For the signs are all around us and that day draws nigh! 

Peace and love ~~~~ Dougie ~~~   

http://PostPoems.com/members/dougie  

2002-04-26 08:51:56