The news of Hyeladzira Balami’s demise was devastating, to put it mildly. My eyes misted but I had to hold myself together. But the sad news was expected by those who were close to him.
He had been sick for some time, hospitalised, and discharged to spend the last days of his life at home. His death was more devastating as he was relatively young despite being in his mid-sixties. He belonged to the generation of those born about Nigeria’s independence and who would grow up during military rule and corrupt civilian governance.
I called him Hyeladzira, unlike most people who called him Balami. Hyeladzira was my student and junior colleague in the Department of English at the University of Maiduguri. He was also my mentee, great friend, and junior brother.
He was one of those who helped to fashion my very positive impression of Maiduguri and Nigeria’s North. He was a Bura, a minority group, in the Biu area. He was a Christian.
Hyeladzira, as a colleague, was a member of our “gang” which included Captain Ben Abagyeh, Ben Oladele Akogun, Abubakar Othman, and me. We went to an outside drinking place in town many evenings and talked mostly about poetry and a little about Nigerian politics over soft drinks and isi-ewu. You can imagine bonding with Hyeladzira during work hours and after-office hours.
He had a good sense of humor. He laughed a lot. Being a student and scholar of Stylistics, he was very knowledgeable in literature and language.
He read wide. He pla.