By Prof GG Darah
Sunny Kpikpi Kotor (SKK) was an alumnus of our school, St. Vincent's College (SVC), Okwagbe. His life exemplied the best and brightest that SVC has been known for in the 63 years of its existence, namely, academic excellence, creative ingenuity, and a resilient spirit that does not succumb to difficuties. These attributes are expoused in our School's motto: "Nil Desperandum: Never Despair".
As Government Orator (Otota), Kotor kept aloft the banner of SVC. As a Catholic institution, its formative years were marked by the dual linguistic heritage of English and Latin, the lingua franca of the Catholic Church, the mother of all Christianity. About 50% of English words have Latin roots. As students we were fluent in both English and Latin. This made us excel in written and spoken English, in debates, and love letter writing. One Latin quotable quote we cherished was: "Mens sano in corpore sano: A sound mind in a sound boby" Kotor inherited these traits of linguistic pluralit, making him an event manager with panache. All of us who watched him on duty often believed that Kotor and the microphone were like Siamese twins. With his ornate voice, he would bellow, holar, hector and chastise jokingly. He won the ear and heart of everyone, including those who did not understand what he said. Kotor would vocalise like a violin and saunter between rolls of seats in crowded arenas. He never seemed to forget anything - from official titles and names, native names, cognomens (odovan), positions held now and in the past, sometimes future positions dreamed of. Like the veteran Urhobo Orator, Kotor deployed mixed media: English, Urhobo, Pidgin English, and a smartering of Igbo, Ukwuani, Ika, Isoko, Ijaw, Itsekiri. His juicy jokes were full of edifying stories. I recall moments when his chants of "Women, O ye" made female party activists swoon with amorous sighs and delirious glances.
Oratory is a linguistic art begotten of verbal competence and philosophical sobriety. You may be born with it or learn it as an art. Oratory was one of the seven compulsory subjects in ancient Black Egyptian Universities about 5,000 years ago. Students had to memorise about 30 volumes of hand-written texts to be recited verbatim during exams. Moses of Pharaonic Egypt did, and so did Jesus of Nazareth as an external candidate of an Egyptian university with an offshore campus in Palestine. This explains why Jesus always preached orally and his listeners never tired of hearing him.
Kotor epitomised all the poignant and sublime features of orality and oratory. Among his African ancestors in this realm of knowledge are St. Augustine, the Black Bishop of Hippo in Carthage (now Tunisia). Professor at 31 of the Italian University of Milan, St. Augustine's oratorical prowess helped the Catholic Church to survive Roman persecution in the 5th century A. D. His book, "City of God" remains an ecclesiastical mannual 1,500 years after. Black Aesop from Ethiopia is another genius. His idioms and wise sayings are still subjects for doctoral dissertations 1,500 years after his death. Another Ethiopian, bushy-haired Bilal Ibn Rahab, sold as a slave to Arabian lands, used oratory to sway millions of converts to Islam about 635 A. D. Bilal's charming voice could make Muslim soldiers to weep with joy. He invented the "Allah Akubar" (God is Great) slogan that still echoes in all Muslim mosques around the world. Nigeria's Nnamdi Azikiwe and Adegoke Adelabu (Penkelemesi or peculiar mess) were denizens of oratorical grandiloquence. They electrified huge crowds by speaking English, Igbo, Yoruba, Greek, and Latin. Kotor was a modern incarnate of these greats. This gift of oratory is, perhaps, the reason why Kotor gave himself the mysterious sobriquet of "Ilehweri: the irresistible love charm"
It is difficult to imagine that a government event will now take place without the resonant voice of Kotor being heard. But that is the mystery of life; the Urhobo adage expresses it as "obaro akpo, okuku: the future is darkness, unknowable". Each one plays his/her part and departs in a blaze of glory. Let me end by returning to the Latin language of SVC of yore. One enigma about omnipotent death rendered in Latin was: "Memento homo, qua pulvis, es et in pulvem, revertaris: Remember humans, that it was from the dust of the earth you were created, and unto the dust you shall return".
All of us grieving over Orator Kotor now should know this truism and conduct our affairs with candour, honesty, and humility.
Prof Godwin Godini Darah is National Chairman,
St. Vincent's College Okwagbe Old Students Association
