Post by Onyango Oloo on Dec 11, 2005 20:48:34 GMT 3
A Poetic Tribute from Onyango Oloo in Nairobi....
www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/11/pryor.obit/
Prior to your debut
White Amerika was complacent
Preferring the comic successors
Of Amos N Andy to do their Steppin Fetchit routines
Richard Pryor you changed all that
With your incendiary, political humour
Which was not above four letter expletives
And even a dose of scat
I was sixteen or seventeen
When I first met you on a Mombasa movie screen
The soundtrack from your movie
Car Wash
Was a hit from Kongowea to Kingorani
Magongo to Ganjoni
Later on when I was old enough
I graduated to your explicit parental advisory
full-length LPs
And I laughed till my ribs ached
Decades down the road in Toronto
I watched your videos and marveled at your timing
And story telling skills
You laughed very hard at yourself
Even as you skewered systemic racism
and many of America’s papered over gazillion ills
No wonder every standup on
Comic View and
Arsenio Hall
Hailed you as the master who kicked open the door
For comedians of colour
Your drug issues and multiple divorces
Just provided canon fodder
and the butt of brand new jokes and gags
Like millions of your fans I was mortified when
We heard your had multiple sclerosis
And saddened when your frenetic voice
Was restricted like your wasting frame to
a wheelchair and
And the background of the world stage
Today when I read online
that your battles with MS are over
stopped by a 7:58 am Los Angeles Sunday heart attack
and you are at peace
And I simply said rest in peace Richard Pryor
Onyango Oloo
Nairobi
www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/11/pryor.obit/
Prior to your debut
White Amerika was complacent
Preferring the comic successors
Of Amos N Andy to do their Steppin Fetchit routines
Richard Pryor you changed all that
With your incendiary, political humour
Which was not above four letter expletives
And even a dose of scat
I was sixteen or seventeen
When I first met you on a Mombasa movie screen
The soundtrack from your movie
Car Wash
Was a hit from Kongowea to Kingorani
Magongo to Ganjoni
Later on when I was old enough
I graduated to your explicit parental advisory
full-length LPs
And I laughed till my ribs ached
Decades down the road in Toronto
I watched your videos and marveled at your timing
And story telling skills
You laughed very hard at yourself
Even as you skewered systemic racism
and many of America’s papered over gazillion ills
No wonder every standup on
Comic View and
Arsenio Hall
Hailed you as the master who kicked open the door
For comedians of colour
Your drug issues and multiple divorces
Just provided canon fodder
and the butt of brand new jokes and gags
Like millions of your fans I was mortified when
We heard your had multiple sclerosis
And saddened when your frenetic voice
Was restricted like your wasting frame to
a wheelchair and
And the background of the world stage
Today when I read online
that your battles with MS are over
stopped by a 7:58 am Los Angeles Sunday heart attack
and you are at peace
And I simply said rest in peace Richard Pryor
Onyango Oloo
Nairobi