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 By Owei Lakemfa

I was part of an international trade union delegation to observe the potentially explosive 2002 Zimbabwean presidential election. It was like a contest between that country and the West, and Zimbabwe had denied visa to many observers. I had just a few days to get to Harare, so I needed a visa fast.

My best option was to get across to the ambassador and convince him to issue me a quick visa. I got to the embassy in the evening and told the staff that I had an urgent message from the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, which I could disclose only to the High Commissioner.

I was ushered into his reception where I waited as he had a guest with him. Then the door opened, and there was Lindsay Carlton Eseoghene Barret walking out. He asked what I was doing there. I explained to him, and he went back to see the ambassador. The ambassador apologised that he had only been informed I was from the NLC, but Barret had just told him who I was. He asked me to submit my passport and return the next day as he was sure I will get a special waiver from Harare.

Such was the reach and influence of Barret, the global citizen who had a choice to make any part of the world his home, but chose to navigate the oceans from Jamaica back to Africa, where his forebears had been snatched over 400 years before.

He was 25 when he left Paris in February 1966 to attend the First Festival of Black and African Arts and Culture in Senegal. His plan was to move on to Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana and if possible, work in that country which was the Black Star of Africa.

He wanted to explore the communities from which his African ancestors had been abducted to the Caribbean, and initiate the renewal of their African ancestry as Marcus Mosiah Garvey, the Pan Africanist giant had done five decades before. Unfortunately, before the festival ended, the Nkrumah administration had been overthrown in an American Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, coup.

Rather than be discouraged, Barret moved to Sierra Leone as a Correspondent of the West African Magazine. The then Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone, Professor Davidson Abioseh Nicol, suggested that Barret would fulfil his quest better in Nigeria.

So in July 1966, he moved to Nigeria where he was already friendly with leading playwrights, John Pepper Clark and Wole Soyinka, both of whom he had previously interviewed in Europe. He had stayed ever since, naturalised as a Nigerian and adopted Bayelsa as his home state.

Barret had come to Nigeria some months before the Civil War. He used his skills to promote the restoration of national unity under the Gowon regime. In fact, he was present at the 1970 ceremony in Owerri when the exchange of the peace instrument between Biafra, represented by the Chief Justice, Sir Louis Nwachukwu Mbanefo, and the Inspector General, P.C. Okeke, on one hand, and the Federal Government represented by then Colonel Olusegun Obasanjo, was made.

Barret also supported the consolidation of regional peace enforcement in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said of his role in Liberia: “Lindsay gave his tremendous talent of thought and words, without meaningful compensation as he sought to promote gender equality and regional cooperation.”

The tremendous talents she alluded to include Barret the novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, journalist, publisher, broadcaster, literary critic and photographer; a jack of all these trades and master of all.

Barret’s service to the continent helped him to build wide connections and enduring friendship with people like Kofi Awoonor, author of the famous 1971 novel: This Earth, My Brother; Mohhamed Ibn Chambers and Abas Bundu, former Executive Secretaries of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, and Dr Amos Claudius Sawyer, the former Interim President of Liberia. Sawyer who affectionately calls Barret, ‘Sir Lind’ told him: “Liberia has benefited greatly from your dedication and loyalty to Africa and your enduring faith in the people of the Black World…all that your narrative on the significance of ECOWAS in Liberia was authentic, insightful and professional. You wrote from your head seasoned in experience, and your heart full of love.”

Expectedly, it is in Nigeria Barret has had the most impact deploying his creative and professional talents in helping to build a country he so loves. Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan told Barret that his most significant contribution is in traversing the world, telling the stories of the Black people, “amplifying their voice and sustaining a narrative of hope through your works.”

Former Foreign Minister, and one-time Labour Minister, retired General Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu, who has been Barret’s friend for decades, wrote about him: “He is calm as a dove yet strikes like an eagle. He is discerning and unafraid to report or comment on any matter of national interest. He stands by the truth, speaks to issues and stays on them until they are acted upon.”

Barret made his major mark in journalism, a profession in which he has many friends. When he turned 80 on September 15, 2021, two men reputed to be among some of the best columnists in Nigerian history, penned him hilarious pieces.

Peter ‘Pan’ Enahoro from his London home wrote: “Today is your commencement of real old age. Your experience until now was that you were not getting younger. You don’t feel any different from the person you were yesterday but there’s a style to being 80. If your wisdom was to think before you spoke, you must now learn to speak before you think.

“If what you say is a load of nonsense people will struggle to make sense of it thinking you profound. Drop off to sleep when you want, wherever you like. It is the privilege of the elders. Do not smile often; old men’s teeth should be seen only by dentists.”

Uncle Sam Amuka, publisher of the Vanguard Newspapers, who ran the witty ‘Sad Sam’ column, wrote: “Dear Lindsay, Jamaican-born who has become a cherished Naija idol, happy birthday. Look, Lindsay, you gave all your children native names from where you bore them. So, tell me, what name you go give the one you go born in Abuja. Cheers, boy!”

On Sunday, September 15, 2024, when the inimitable Barret marked his 83rd birthday, I went on a pilgrimage to his home in Abuja. Armed with a bottle of alcoholic wine which is the drink of elders in the Niger Delta; I genuflected and handed over the bottle. I was in the company of my elders, Epa Tom Odemwingie and Aare Agbaakin Wole Olaoye as we celebrated with the living ancestor.