Evelyn Osagie: A short tribute to an irrepressible literary journalist
By Denja Abdullahi
THE news came as a shock, awakening a spiral of memories forged in those days when the activities of the Association of Nigerian Authors(ANA) were adequately reported and extended to the general public by a battery of arts and culture journalists. Evelyn Osagie was just one of the brilliant and dedicated journalists who moved along with writers from one end of the country to another to execute literary projects.
But there was a tinge of difference in her. She was always travel-ready, rugged, adventurous, resourceful, unfazed by the challenges of the inadequacy of anything and blurted out her words with a ring of smiles and laughter. After a literary event, when other journalists get back to do just a story, Evelyn would report that same event with multiple, full-bodied features from different angles running for weeks after the event in The Nation newspaper. You would begin to wonder at her insights and eye for details when reading with pleasure her reports of the same event you had attended. She lived the saying of not staying in a single space while watching a dancing masquerade. It was therefore not a surprise when later she won ANA’s Literary Journalist of the year Prize a couple of times, just like other dedicated arts and culture journalists who won the prize before it went defunct later.
I had a very robust professional relationship with Evelyn during my time as General Secretary of ANA and afterwards. It was like if there was a literary event and she was not there, the coverage of that event was already deficient. Sadly, as at the time I became president of ANA, she had drifted away from the literary desk of The Nation to other things like developmental journalism (which was already peeking while she was reporting ANA) and performance poetry.
A few years ago, we met again at a literary event around Lekki in Lagos and I had to give her a long drive back to another part of Lagos. As we ploughed around the choked streets of Lagos, she resurrected a discussion she had intermittently shared with me over the years. It had to do with exhibiting the trove of archival photos and materials she had acquired from her long years of reporting ANA and other literary events. She had shared some of these with me and I saw a good documentary project in the offing. I had told her before then the possible routes to get the project going and had wondered why she was still stalling. We parted with her promising to do something about it.
About two months ago, a highly respected literary philanthropist reached me and was telling me about opening up an opportunity for someone to come on an extended residency somewhere. He spoke highly of the person and the person in question who reached me is not one given to the frivolous recommendation of anyone. He sent me the person’s number without telling me the name; he only said the person was in the media. I dialled the number and Evelyn’s name popped out. My first words to her were like “so it is you someone would be recommending to me, you see your life?” She laughed her usual laugh mixed with speech. I brought up the matter of the project she had been running away from executing. I virtually told her: “this is your chance!” I noticed something was gone from her lukewarm response. We ended the call with a perfunctory promise of a follow-up from her.
Now, this departure is untimely, too many things are still left undone. Death gives no notice to anyone and that is why if possible each day should be lived as if it would be the last. Evelyn Osagie has played her part so well in the drama of life with the script she got from the Ultimate Playwright (God), and that is why everyone who knew her is talking good about her today. May her soul rest in peace and her loved ones be consoled.
* Abdullahi, a poet and playwright, is a former Secretary and President of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and retired federal culture director
