Esk'ia Mphahlele Remembered (Tribute‪)‬

The phrase 'affable to a fault' could well be the severest understatement to characterise Esk'ia Mphahlele. He related warmly to everyone and did so with a natural and consummate ease. People meant everything to him and life was forever ripe with metaphor and analogy. He would cradle experiences, mull them over, toss them about, prod here and tickle there to extract and savour. All this coupled with a comical gait of flaying arms and a thunderous laughter made of him both a delightful caricature and a sage! Wherever he went people wrapped him in his weighty reputation--yet he, in his immense ordinariness, seemed blissfully unaware of it. In every audience, be it one or several, he found an opportunity to learn and to teach. Everyone seemed to know of his writings, of his thinking, and however much they may have been daunted, they enjoyed the ease with which his charm and utter ordinariness disarmed them. And then his natural and almost instinctive mentorship kicked in.