By BIODUN JEYIFO

Contronym ? a word that can mean exactly opposite things, e g pharmakon, poison and remedy in pharmacology and botany

Bene, you were amazonian

A revolutionary, a warrior

A female revolutionary and warrior

But you were also pharmakon

The poison that is also the cure

The foundation of Botany

The queen of all sciences

Poison cured, neutralized

Bene, warrior and revolutionary

Amazon and pharmakon

The roots of your life

Of your unique selfhood

Amazon and/or pharmakon?

More Amazon than pharmakon

Or more pharmakon than Amazon?

A needless riddle or conundrum!

Among plants and herbs

There are killers and healers

In botany, queen of all sciences,

Knowledge of poison and remedy

Among feminist revolutionaries

You were unique, Bene

Amazon and pharmakon rare Among women as among men

Not all men are warriors

Not all women are healers

Most women and most men

Tread and justify a middle ground

Your unique selfhood stood out

Until the end, Bene

Or close to the end

When the pharmakon stopped

YOU fatefully confronted

Poison without its remedy

You, Bene Madunagu,

Essence of cure for poison!

You seemed to have forgotten

Who you were or had been

And a great mystery arose:

Did you know yourself, Bene?

Did we, your comrades, know?

Amazon and pharmakon together

In your life, did we know,

Truly know, this basis of your life?

We knew, Bene, we knew

Only we had no name for it

We saw Amazon and pharmakon

Separately, not in combination

As we mourn and celebrate

As we commit you to earth, Reclaiming your full legacy

Will begin, Amazon/Pharmakon!

The closing chapter of your life

Will not have the last word, Bene

In full and in celebration

We will reclaim your legacy, Bene!

Bene, Bene, Bene, Bene, Bene

We will not forget you!

We dare not forget you!

Amazon and pharmakon!

?Biodun Jeyifo is Emeritus Professor of African and African American Studies and of Comparative Literature at Harvard University, USA.

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