Reflection on COVID-19: “The clouds shall not forever possess the sky” By Kelechi Okoronkwo
Reflections on COVID-19: The clouds shall not forever possess the sky
By Kelechi Okoronkwo
“The clouds shall not forever possess the sky”— Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
For a long while now, I have not been able to think creatively. How could you begin to think when you are at the war front? The World War III?. You fight with enemies who are deadly and invisible.
You are barricaded within the walls of your house from where you are constantly inundated with dizzying chants of the war. You are constantly served with gory clips of victims of the war. All through the media.
How could you think creatively when survival, which is the basest in Maslowal need hierarchy, has become your topmost need?
So for a long while now, I have stopped living.
But this evening, I spoke on phone with one of the literary gods in my contact, Chikaodiri Augustus. He sounded low, yet unwittingly lifted my own spirit.
He said to me: “With the restriction of movement, everything has become expensive. We, the common people only mop and yawn when we see people eating, for our pockets are empty. How does one cope? The consolation is found in Ngugi’s words—the clouds shall not forever possess the sky”.
Kelechi Okoronkwo, a Nigerian writer and Poet, wrote this piece on April 13th, 2020