Reflections on the life of Tam Fiofori (1942-2024), By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Sad news hit me hard on Tuesday, June 25, in this year of Our Lord – my inimitable guru Tam Fiofori passed away.

Tam Fiofori was in his lifetime celebrated as a filmmaker, photographer, journalist, publisher and documentarian. Not many people knew that the icon popularly hailed as “Uncle Tam” was once a poet.

It was a pleasant surprise to me when not so long before his passage he sent me the scan of his three poems published in the esteemed American journal Evergreen Review.

Tam signed off his message to me with the following words: “Maxim, these are for your eyes only o…no go begin playing pranks releasing them o, please! Regards, from an ex-poet, Tamunominabo Fiofori.”

Well, I’ve never been known to obey rules, so I went ahead to disobey Tam by publishing the poems without fear or favour, and with no apologies whatsoever!
After all, Franz Kafka advised his friend and literary executor, Max Brod, to burn all his unpublished manuscripts after his death, but the author’s request was disobeyed and the world was rewarded with the publication of the immortal classics: The Trial and The Castle etc.

It’s so thrilling to me that our own Tam Fiofori stood up to be counted amongst the writers of the Beat Generation in America. According to Tam, “Actually, I was known as a poet in New York as from 1966, hanging out with Leroi Jones, Ted Joans, Alan Ginsberg, Gilbert Sorrentino, Gregory Corso and the lot.”

Allen Ginsberg had in 1956 published arguably the most famous poem amongst the Beat Poets as per his classic Howl that starts thusly:

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix…”

Tam’s three poems were published on Page 27 of a 1968 edition of Evergreen Review. In the words of Tam, “These three poems were published in the prestigious Evergreen Review where the literary elite then were published.”

Tam Fiofori added for good measure: “I wrote many other poems published in Negro Digest/Black World…These are temporarily lost to me. Also, I had plays and essays published between 1968 and 1970. Then I gave up creative writing and concentrated on music journalism and managing Sun Ra.”

In 2022, Tam published his 416-page book on the maverick American musician Sun Ra: Space. Music. Myth.

Tam Fiofori’s book on Sun Ra took a long time in coming, for in the words of Tam, “I had promised Sun Ra in New York City in late 1966 when I started working with him and his Arkestra as Secretary/Manager/Booking Agent, that I would write a book on him.”

The book Sun Ra: Space. Music. Myth was initially planned for publication in 2013, that is, 20 years after the passing away of Sun Ra. Then it had to be rescheduled for publication in 2014 to mark 100 years of the birth of Sun Ra.

In the end, Sun Ra: Space. Music. Myth was published five decades after Tam Fiofori’s initial promise. It was through Tam Fiofori that Sun Ra met Robert Moog, the legendary innovator of the Moog Synthesizer.

Down home in Nigeria, Tam Fiofori had in 2011 published A Benin Coronation: Oba Erediauwa, a book which according to the author “has technically provided for 84 pages of photography featuring about 150 original photographs, accompanied by 72 pages of text; all about the Benin City Coronation ceremonies of Oba Erediauwa as the 38th Oba of the Benin Kingdom, from March 23 to 30, 1979.”

Born in Okrika in present-day Rivers State in 1942, Tam was educated at Kings College in Lagos and Kings College, London, England. I can swear on Fela’s Shrine that Tam completely lived his life according to his own terms.

There was this day back then when a lady friend of Tam’s – she was actually the sister of a one-time second-in-command of Nigeria – bought a brand new 504 car and came to launch it with Tam. Tam told the lady that I was the guy of the street who would take them to where we would have a few drinks on the car. I had to abandon my work in THISWEEK magazine office on Ogunlana Drive, Surulere, and we drove to Wazobia hangout in Apapa.

We settled on a table to have a few drinks only for Tam to bring a strange girl to join our group. I could not understand the matter of Tam bringing another girl when he already had a delectable lady friend.
Well, I could not but bring in another girl to join us so that I should not be accused of encroaching on Tam’s 504 lady.

When night was coming on, Tam, the 504 lady, yours truly, and the two other girls decided to leave Apapa and drive up to Pepple Street in Ikeja to witness Fela’s show at the Shrine. When Tam’s original lady said it was time for us to depart from the Shrine, Tam said he was still enjoying the show and was in no mood to go home.
I was asked by the lady to appeal to Tam, but he would not let me speak up or he would “blow his f-g top!”

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In the end, I had to leave with the three ladies, and Tam stayed put at Fela’s Shrine. Tam’s lady drove home in the wee hours while the two strange girls passed the night in my place. Back in the office the next day, Tam Fiofori came looking for me with this expression: “Nothing spoil…”

Adieu, my great guru Tam Fiofori.

Maxim Uzoatu first published this piece on his Facebook Page