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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
"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
