Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has penned a moving tribute to his late younger brother, Femi Soyinka, renowned Professor of dermatology, venereology and clinical immunology, who died in the early hours of Tuesday 14 June 2022 at his home in Kukumada Village, Ibadan, Oyo State. He was 85 years old.
In the tribute, Soyinka narrated his last encounter with his brother, when he paid him a visit on his sick bed.
He described how his brother kept a tight hold on his hand, and how they communed in silence, during the visit, 48 hours before his death.
According to the highly respected man of letters, Femi gripped his hand twice, refusing to let go even when nature called. Soyinka made this revelation at the event tagged Evening of Tributes in Memory of Professor Femi Soyinka which was held on Thursday 29 June 2022 in Ibadan, Oyo State.
In the postscript of his tribute entitled The Secret Life of Baale Kukumada (as shared by his quite complicitous brother), Soyinka jokingly described Femi as an unrepentant bundle of mischief who remained one up to his last breath.
The tribute was read by the literary icon’s eldest son and former Commissioner of Health in Ogun State, Dr Olaokun Soyinka.
“I was with him barely forty-eight hours before his night of departure. I had been on the road for hours and, on arrival, should have gone to the toilet. However, that need was clean forgotten in my anxiety to see him, and I allowed his wife to lead me straight to his bedside.
“She pulled up a chair and I sat beside him, and took his hand. Femi returned the grip and we sat like this for a while, communing in silence. Sometime later, Nature reminded me of a neglected duty. I tried to detach but he held on, quite gently, not letting go.
“So, I stayed put. Inevitably, Nature gave a more imperative nudge until finally, I was left with no choice. I gently detached his hand, went off, delivered and returned. Again I took his hand and again, he turned the grip. The pressure was, however, somewhat different in some indefinable way. It was still firm but gentle, so perhaps it was the pulse that had changed.
“Kofo had rejoined us. She sat next to his head and tried to coax him into acknowledging my presence in some more obvious way. It was not needed. I am convinced he knew me, had sensed who I was. That change in pulsation, I feel reassured, was his response, an inward, mischievous chuckle. And what that rapscallion was saying was: ‘Broda, I nearly made you pee in your pants,’” Soyinka narrated.
Soyinka left after spending a brief time there as he was ostensibly filled with the grief of losing a younger brother with whom he had been very close and shared many fond memories. And indeed the bond between the two brothers was palpable during those last moments they shared.
