Scribbled notes that turned out to be Imbuga’s last words

The late Francis Imbuga. PHOTO/FILE 

In Summary

• Literature professor Egara Kabaji of Masinde Muliro University had the honour of reading these words during his memorial service held last weekend at his graveside in Sabatia, Vihiga County. Here are Imbuga’s words as he wrote them on the index cards that he always carried with him:
• It is gratifying that Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology has decided to immortalise Imbuga through an annual memorial lecture.

Some people are lucky to be favoured with the ability to know that the ultimate is about to happen.

Francis Imbuga was such a person. A few days before his death, he scribbled what has turned out to be his final word on his role as an artist.

Significantly, these thoughts will enable biographers and students of literature to understand the ideological foundations of his works.

Literature professor Egara Kabaji of Masinde Muliro University had the honour of reading these words during his memorial service held last weekend at his graveside in Sabatia, Vihiga County. Here are Imbuga’s words as he wrote them on the index cards that he always carried with him:

“I write in order to understand myself more. If I didn’t write, I would still claim to understand myself, but this would only be at the level of my conscious experience and my interaction with my environment at this conscious level.

“When I write, I am told by psychologists and other thinkers, that there is that other me, which asserts himself in my writing, which makes me kill someone within the first 20 pages of my novel or my play; which makes me laugh at everything from funerals to church weddings. That part of me can never surface and be captured by me in any other way than through the process of writing.

“I am what society has made me and my reaction to the method which society used in order to make me at every stage of my growth is partly hidden in my subconscious or unconscious self.

“Yes, quite frankly speaking, I would rather be on stage, for that is where I feel most comfortable. There, I would have no responsibility whatsoever except to faithfully live some other person’s life for an hour or so.

“But is that why hundreds of thousands of people are actively involved in the art of the theatre? Is the aim of our participation in theatre merely to live some other person’s life for an hour or so? Is our participation in the theatrical activities a means of temporary escape from the reality of our situation?

“The answer to these questions, as you all know is a blunt NO. We participate in theatrical activities because we believe in its capacity as an instrument of awakening, educating and sensitizing us in our desire to contribute to the emergence of a new conscience and to our well being.

“Art can be beautiful when experienced at our deepest levels of appreciation. But for it to influence us, it must have its origins from similarly deeply rooted concerns.

“Change has always had the capacity to inspire creativity. I hope that whatever we create at this time of change will come from a deeply rooted internal centre of inspiration. I want my art to be universal, strongly appealing and permanent to the future hazards of interpretations on its own, for that is what it will always be, art, minus me.”

It is gratifying that Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology has decided to immortalise Imbuga through an annual memorial lecture. According to the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Fred Otieno: “It is important for the University to recognise Francis Imbuga, who was, so far the best playwright East Africa has ever produced.”

Prof Francis Imbuga, Kenya’s finest playright, died on November 18, 2012, in Nairobi. He was then teaching at Kenyatta University.