In The Grey Hair of Soyinka - Adjei Agyei-Baah

There’s something mystical

About your grey hair, Baba

Not in its seductive whiteness

Your flower that continues

To bloom on high

Even in its twilight years.

Your hair is much more of a spectacle —

Rising embers that end as fireflies

Fire flights that radiate a dream fulfilled

A dream fulfilled which remains our haven

The expansive shade of the baobab tree

For generations to savour our ageless tales.

This hair indeed envisioned a path

This hair, the stepping stones of African literature

This hair whitens the dark corridors for humanity

Indeed, this hair caused a stir

Perhaps the reason it knows not a fall.

---

Adjei Agyei-Baah [Eric Adjei Baah] (1977 - 2023) Ghana

Source: African Poems

• This poem was presented to Professor Soyinka on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 2014 at an event held at the State Banquet Hall in Accra, Ghana, to launch the book Crucible of the Ages: Essays in Honour of Wole Soyinka at 80. Professor Soyinka replied to the poet: “My mop of grey/white hair insists that I ensure that it is given full credit for any panegyric, since I abandoned it ages ago to do whatever it liked, even refusing to take it to the hair-dresser for the occasional attention.”