If Fagunwa, the creative author of Yoruba language novels, had put his thoughts in a sacrosanct religious form, perhaps his Oke – Igbo town would have become something big of global interest like Mecca and Jerusalem. A beehive of many fanatical religious pilgrimages who would come in their millions with varied faiths to look for the face of God in their different interpretations and pay homage to Fagunwa as the face of their God.
I remember that many of us as children in those years of reading Fagunwa books felt transfigured completely into his imaginative thoughts to the extent many pupils avoided reading those Fagunwa’s fatanstic books of fictions and factions at night. Such was the almost supernatural effects his books like Igbo Olodumare, Ireke Onibudo, Aditu Olodumare.. had on us.
Each time I pass through Oke – Igbo, an ambitious village town to Ondo and see those beautiful hilly and mountainous evergreen undulating landscapes, I always feel that may be Fagunwa made a mistake of not religionising his creative thoughts for religious tourism and commercial purposes like “Awon Arabi”. Well, may be the words guru just behaved as a true giant intellectual, enjoyed his writings and the world of fantasy he created for himself, and for many to come and go without any religious sentiments that would divide humanity further.
Rest In Words, D. O. Fagunwa.
Adeola Soetan
08037207856
