University of Nairobi
Henry Indangasi
Professor of Literature
University of Nairobi
Henry Indangasi
Professor of Literature
I was in the middle of the draft of a long personal essay titled” My Love Affair with Soka Daigaku”when something told me to read the attachment to President Yoshiba Baba’s email. This part of the correspondence which I had not looked at restricted the talkative me to one page.
In the draft essay, I had intended to talk at length how I got to hear of Soka University and its founder Dr. Daisaku Ikeda back in 1980s,the MOU between our two institutions, and the award by the University of Nairobi of the Honorary Doctor of Letters to president Ikeda in 1991.
In this draft personal essay, I was going to mention two books I and Masumi Hashimoto Odari edited, namely, Daisaku Ikeda and Africa: Reflections by Kenyan writers and Daisaku Ikeda and Voices for Peace from Africa. I would have told the story of how the idea behind these books germinated and flourished.
Shortly after I arrived at Soka in spring of 2000, the then president of institution Professor Kinnosuke Komuro asked me to give a public lecture on a topic of my choice.
And I meant to tell you how, instead of delivering a normal lecture, I performed Luhya wedding songs to an audience of 250.When I was asked to repeat the lecture, the audience ballooned to 500.
President Ikeda got to know about it, and subsequently invited me for a dialogue which was later published in the book Dialogue on World Literature. This is probably a book the Soka alumni know about, and it is one that reminds me of how my name is written in Japanese.
Finally, and on a personal level. If it wasn’t for Covid-19, my wife and I were going to celebrate forty years of marriage in 2020.When I was at Soka University twenty years ago, President Ikeda did something for me which no other human being has ever done: he bought a first-class air ticket for my wife’s visit to Japan. To say my wife and I were touched is a gross understatement. But who can rule out the real possibility that this act of kindness from the Founder of Soka University strengthened and fortified our marriage?
