What It Means To Have Death In Your Pocket

 

My name is Fela Anikulapo Kuti, I have death in my pouch, I can’t die -  Fela Kuti

 

Memories are what we are, just that. The lingering memories in a soon to be corpse, at whose death we move to oblivion, if there are 7.5 billion people in the world and more than a thousand die every day chances are that you are going to be a forgotten soul in a decade. 

Is there a way you can cheat nature, cheat death, and evade oblivion? 

Come outside your house and see the building in its entirety, leave it and walk around, take for instance The Nigeria Air force were to send a co – ordinate bomb and destroy your house (this is not hypothetical) and your house got completely obliterated and destroyed , what happens to that house, it becomes a memory, a memory known only to you, the nooks and cranny becomes that which only you remember, the familiar steps you know and climb when you go to pee in the morning with your eyes closed are all gone. 

Even if you were to rebuild the house again from the scratch, it will never be the same, that old house becomes a memory your memory, you who are bound to be dead. So you therefore carry with you to the grave the memory of that house 

That house is just like every human being in the world, we are open and close to those familiar to us those in whose proximity we bleed, laugh and cry. We become their memory and as they die they die with us, either before or after. This is the reality we find ourselves, for as long as it doesn’t exist in our visual plain it is a mirage, a memory 

Money don’t make you rich, my riches is life, forever – Bob Marley 

What does it mean to have death in your pocket? 

This question was asked by a student in my religion class years ago and the lecturer told him simply that to live forever is to have something people will remember you by, that is what it means to have death in your pocket, that is what it means to have eternal life, for there is no heaven or hell, the only eternal life that exist is when people remember your work, art, life, philosophy or invention long after you are gone. 

For as people remember your work, you remain alive as a memory in their hearts and mind, Thereby having eternal life, All it took for Jesus to do is to be a publicly known hippie, living a life of non-conformity, dropping nets, and traveling on foot, and today he is known as God

So is Fela really dead, if 20 years after his "death" I have been listening to him nonstop via my Bluetooth speaker in my room, right now he is in the room with me, singing and teaching me all about Nigeria even though he is “dead” 

 Now think of the celebrity you think are alive those who you think share the same air you breathe in now, think of those artistes struggling to make it in the music industry and the countless songs, and strife they have put in, in a bid to evade oblivion and what will happen to them as they die. 

Think about it, If Davido( He seems to be the big name right now) is alive, can I see him? No, he only exist as a memory from videos and pictures that I have seen online, is he in front of me? No, He is another place and If in another country possibly another time, or time zone to be specific, in other words Davido and Fela share the same equal measure to me as far as connections go, they are both memories, and right now Fela is more alive than he is.  Because the only thing we know of Davido are his songs and videos, just like Fela and if what determines a person to us is the song coming from a speaker can you really say that Fela is dead, he is singing right now. He is not dead, and can never ever die, For his work have transcended space and time, his work will live on and make him alive, He has essentially kept death in his pocket. 

For I know many us today who are fans of Fela’s music couldn’t see him while he was alive the only connection they had to him was through the music coming out of their speaker and that is still the case till today, so if the sum of a person is a music from a speaker or art in a gallery, can we not say that the memory of that person is still intact, hence alive. can we not say that, that person can never die?

Now think of those who you think are alive, the father you don’t talk to, the mother who you only call sometimes, the relatives you haven’t spoken to in decades are they in your space and time right now, No, if anything were to happen to them will you know? No. Are they not essentially dead? 

As long as they are not in your visual plane and you are in aware of the cause of their latest frown, smile and laughter they might as well be dead because the memory you will have of them are now thin and far. Now compare that to the man filing your senses through the Bluetooth speaker who is basically with you right now, With whom you even have a special connection and understanding through relentless musical pedagogy,  Isn’t he alive, Can't you imagine him can’t you almost see him?

If you think of it, that is what It means to be alive, To be seen (either through Imagination) and heard, what else then, He is alive

Now ask yourself what do I have to do to have death in my pocket, is it something you also want to do, do you want to escape the obliterating clutches of death  It means you have to do something that people will remember you by for generations 

And it has to be something good, it could be helping your community, a school, a library, teaching a young person, Living a life of no regret,  Anything at all.  For if all of reality is imagined, and memorized you also can become that which remains imagined and memorized for ages, thereby transcending death by remaining alive long after you leave. 

 

-          Victor Samuel