…Eldred Durosimi Jones has crossed seven rivers, climbed seven mountains, and landed softly in the valley of immortal ancestors. When in May 2016 our documentary team paid him a working visit in his hilltop residence in Freetown, he was 93 years old. But his boyish face, mellow manners, poignant erudition, and tenacious memory teased me into the illusory feeling that he was just too good to die.
The impact of this first meeting with Professor Jones has remained with me to this day. Witty, easy-going, and personable, he was the kind of elder/leader who put you at ease with a ready smile and sincere fellow feeling. One of Africa’s renowned scholars and university administrators, he carried himself with grace shorn of showy grandeur, simplicity ennobled by superb delicacy, a near-magical aura that announced his presence in the public square without the effort of any Master of Ceremony.
A Shakespeare scholar and acclaimed authority in English letters in all their astounding aspects, the author ofknew from both personal and professional experience the vital role of literature in the shaping of a people’s culture, the revitalisation of their memory, the cultivation and maintenance of their sense of self and racial pride.
’ . And less than a decade before his transition, he endowed his beloved city/country with an unforgettable memoir,Over the years, I thought that the union of Eldred and Marjorie was made from heaven. African literature, nay the world’s literary heritage, is the beneficiary of that union. For Marjorie was not just a wife; she was also a soulmate, helpmate, facilitator, most valuable enabler, and, above all, a warm and generous HUMAN being.
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