Not because he died in the prime of his youth. Although the nostalgia value emanating from a loss of a loved one or a paradise lost does play a significant role in turning him into a powerfully tragic figure.
There is something more, however, which immortalises him in the hearts of many.
“There was something about him that just made people want to orbit around his brilliant sun. Maybe it was his smile, maybe it was the fact that when he focused on you, you’d feel like the most important person. Maybe it was his courage and passion. Maybe it was his unwavering belief in God. I’m not sure. What I do know is that without his tireless efforts, the Uganda literary scene would not be as vibrant as it is today,” says writer-poet Mable Barbara Amuron.
To be a great poet, you have to stick your neck out. Break the mold, take the road untrod and upset the apple cart.
Apart from that whoosh of idioms, I am saying a great poet must be more than just a poet.
Nevender was a larger-than-life poet.
Nobody cares whether you can turn a phrase under the golden nimbus of inspiration. That is unless, of course, that inspiration is paid forward to those who come after you in ways that pay tribute to those who came before you.
Take Wole Soyinka, for instance. This nimbus-haired brother has earned a reputation as the conscience of Nigeria. When he was 33, he was imprisoned without trial for trying to broker a peace with Biafran secessionists, and spent 24 months in solitary confinement in a 4-by-8-foot cell, which he memorably described in a poem written on toilet paper with homemade ink and smuggled out of prison. He was arrested so many times after that he developed a jail bird's-eye view on life. Again, he was sentenced to death by the brutal military regime of Gen. Sani Abacha. And he may have been killed if Abacha didn't die from overdosing on Viagra while chomping on the amber-flesh of two Indian prostitutes.
In brief, a poet is a heroic figure, and Nevender, who succumbed to sickle cell anemia on 11th Feb 2018, was such a figure. He died a few months after he had released his first book, a small teaser poetry collection called Pumpkin Soup.
Emonevate is his second book and was published by The Nevender Legacy, a group of Nevender’s family and friends who are dedicated to keeping his legacy alive. It is a testament to the growing power of poetry and poets that Nevender’s Legacy is intact and he lives on through his own unique words.
The first poem in the book Emonevate is described by Ms. Amuron as “a hilarious account on how to tell a woman you love her called, Becoming a Man”. It goes a little something like this:
“If you’re going to tell a woman you love her,
Do it, Stark raving mad.
Like a Spartan without a breastplate facing Persian hordes
Mouth open with a roar.
Spear raised to the sky
One foot forward
Ready to fly”.
Nevender’s poetry is like a litterbug of literary wordplay. However, its litter is of the-pick-of-the-litter variety: it flows while leaving heaven in its wake.
With poems Like a Fairy Tale, Dearest Ugandan Girl. Unseen Realms, Where I Belong, Awash in His Love, Nevander reveals himself as someone who is not afraid to fall in love or die, even as he feels his own morality all around him.
His courage, poetic insight and humanity are projected and incarnated to us in poems such as They’ll Carry Me, Dying. He also writes about politics, friendship, pain, heartbreak, the darkness of life, and loss:
“I greet you in the name of Hope
It’s that river that never runs dry
That light that never goes out
That word that never leaves the mind
That hand that always holds yours
I greet you and say, ‘Always give it one more day’ ”
Nevender, it is clear, was a rare individual whose rarity was heightened by his early death. Like Tupac, Kurt Cobain, Alliyah and even Philly Lutaaya, Nevender represented possibility and therefore the future.
So, to lose him in these orphaned times is particularly poignant.
Still, in death, Nevender’s influence and impact continue to grow.
Indeed, he is no longer just one of the curiosities on the poetry scene. But he is now a minor celebrity who’ll soon stud the skies with his immortal stardom.
His impassioned words and passionate manner had turned him into the very figure of an artist even while he lived.
Then, as he was claimed by the ages via death’s scythe, poets now consider him a poet’s poet and a poet’s bard rolled into one ball of a fisted thrust to death's solar plexus.
One can still hear his voice, modulated to strike the chords of the lyre of his poetic musicality with a shapely, polymorphous flow.
This flow makes his poetry understated yet stirring. While the soft cadence of his lyrical voice undertows this poetic effect winningly.
Nevender gave Ugandan poetry a once-in-a-lifetime experience of sheer artistry and irrepressible humanity.
This is why his work and words live beyond a soulful elegance to express a destiny which ensures he lives on long after many of us have passed on.