Meanwhile, Mr. Omololu contacted our patron, the late Sir Adeyemo Alakija, to intervene with the authorities to preempt our arrest. Subsequently, Sir Adeyemo made an appointment to meet with Sir Arthur in his capacity as grand patron of our club and it was suggested that we who led and participated in the sacking of Bristol Hotel should accompany him. We reluctantly agreed.
A day or so before we were to meet with Sir Arthur, the Governor made a statement to the nation in which he referred publicly for the first time to the Bristol Hotel incident. His Excellency declared that some seventy years previously, there might have been justification for whites and blacks to live apart, for the reason, if none other, that there were some diseases to which whites were immune but which killed blacks, and vice versa.
But for well over seventy years there had existed a medical department in Nigeria maintained at public expenses to find a solution to the problem and if no solution was found, then there was left only one of two choices, that is either to continue to live apart and abolish the medical department or to live together and continue to maintain the department.
Sir Arthur then declared: “I have chosen the latter. With effect from today, there will be no more European hospital, club or reservation in Nigeria.”
Thus, racial discrimination or apartheid was abolished in Nigeria. The European hospital in Lagos (now Military Hospital) and European Club at Ikoyi were renamed Creek Hospital and Ikoyi Club respectively. The European hospital at Warri serving the then Central Provinces of Ondo, Benin and Warri, was changed to Maple Annex. The European hospital at Ibadan was changed to Jericho Nursing Home. Areas otherwise known as European Reservation were renamed Government Reserve Area (GRA). And so on throughout the country. There was general jubilation throughout the country.
Led by Sir Adeyemo and Mr. Omololu, we later went to meet with Sir Arthur at Government House, Marina. Naturally, we expected a hostile reception, but we were widely mistaken. Sir Arthur, undoubtedly tempered by age and maturity and experience, welcomed us warmly, smiled broadly and, turning to Sir Adeyemo, said jokingly something in words like these:
“Sir Adeyemo, I did not make my statement because of your young rascals, who took the law into their hands, but deliberately to pre-empt an imminent danger. This is the first time that violence has been introduced into the public life of Nigeria, and once it started, it may never recede. I have seen it happen in many countries where I served, in India, Burma and the Caribbean. My statement, therefore, was to prevent violence spreading.”
Apparently, Sir Adeyemo expected us to apologise to Sir Arthur but we never did. The Governor then turned to Sir Adeyemo and asked: “Will you and your friends like to have a drink with me?” Sir Adeyemo thanked the Governor for the invitation but expressed regret that we had no time and had to go.
On our way back to the Island Club, travelling in two cars, all of us somehow began to develop a guilty conscience about what we did at the Bristol Hotel. This was because Sir Arthur, who had the security agencies and the full force of British imperial might behind him, chose to completely disarm us with his charm and unprecedented diplomacy.
At the club, Odunsi was the first to speak. He addressed me and asked me how we could be sure that, in fact, all the white men we attacked at Bristol Hotel supported racial discrimination and the treatment meted to Ivor Cummings? Was it not possible that many of our victims would have disapproved of the treatment? How could we be sure that many of them were not innocent persons who did not even know what happened to Ivor?
We felt thoroughly ashamed that in prosecuting a worthy cause, we might inadvertently have wronged innocent people. We were all convinced that if a similar act of discrimination was re-enacted, we would never yield to violent reaction as we did at Bristol Hotel.
Sir Arthur had taught us, as youths, an enduring lesson – to be responsible and give peace and reason a chance.
I hope next time you are on Alfred Rewane Road and Awolowo Road in Ikoyi, you will remember this story and its inherent lessons.
May the soul of Pa Alfred Rewane continue to rest in peace.”
The story has since gone viral and we found ourselves in the same corner [“Harlem Corner”]as Professor Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laurette who delivered the following message by North Korean Inter-continental ballistic missile as a warning shot to Donald Trump:
“Hallo Bashorun,
Many thanks indeed for this reminiscence. I hope you are planning to publish them in one volume. Naturally they vary in contemporary interest and catchment power, depending on the reader, but they appear uniformly engrossing. In my case, this actually triggers off memories, which is only to be expected. For instance, it reminds me of when I single-handedly ‘integrated a then swish motel called Atlanta Americana. Just like the hotel that features in your text, it has been demolished. On one of my visits years ago, I tried hard to locate the site, but a gas station (I think) now stood on it. Christopher Kolade was present – it was during one of those early meeting of American ‘negroes’ as was the expression at the time, and African young intellectuals and artists, up-and-coming entrepreneurs, technocrats etc etc. organised by AMSAC (American Society for African Culture. I ought to ask Kolade his recollection of what took place, which included being threatened – one and a half times – with shooting by a blatantly racist police officer. (The half denotes threatened arrest with suggestive gun butt fingering). The aftermath produced results from the hotel management, but nothing as historically transformative as yours. It remains an obscure side event to America’s heavy narrative of integration.
Maybe I should insert it somewhere in the next edition of INTERVENTIONS series now under preparation. There we go – one never knows what effect such reminiscences may provoke! So, write on, Bashorun, as these recollections surface and – publish!
Wole Soyinka.”
Sunday 20th August 2017 must forever remain a watershed in the history of America as fear and rage overwhelmed the nation in the midst of monumental turbulence with President Donald Trump’s approval rating at a miserable 34 per cent barely seven months after he was sworn in onJanuary 20, 2017. He scored only 38 percent for leadership qualities and only 32 per cent believe he will get a second term as President.
The trigger was his flip-flop over the violence that occurred between white nationalists and counter protesters at Charlottesville, in the state of Virginia on Saturday 12th August, 2017.
The rally by white supremacists and anti-Semites provoked a counter protest by those who insist on racial and gender equality. While all this was going on, James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into the crowd, killing 32 year-old Heather Heyer and injuring at least 19 others.
Bashorun J.K. Randle, OFR, FCA
