History remembers both the heights to which genius can lift humanity and the depths to which it can descend. Dolly Parton belongs to this tradition of enduring creative genius. She may have departed this physical world, but the songs remain. The stories remain. The generosity remains. The memories remain. And, perhaps most importantly, the emotional imprint she left on millions of lives remains. Death may silence a voice, but it cannot silence what that voice has given to humanity.
By Valentine Obienyem
In October 2009, duty and fellowship took me to Nashville, Tennessee, for the 7th Annual National Convention of the Anambra State Association USA (ASA-USA). To set foot in Tennessee, particularly Nashville, is to enter the beating heart of country music—the city that has long stood as its historic capital.
While the official business occupied our days, I had a private pilgrimage in mind. I had arranged for Dr Primus Odili, who lived in Nashville at the time, to take me to see Dolly Parton’s home, much as I had once made a pilgrimage to the home of Smokie in Bradford, England – drawn by the same fascination with the places where the voices that sent us into ecstasy once lived.
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I did not expect to meet her. I simply wanted to stand, even from the roadside, before the home of an artist whose voice had accompanied the devotional ecstasies of our youth.
Perhaps our fascination with such voices is as old as civilisation itself. In Homer’s “Odyssey”, Odysseus, returning from the Trojan War, encountered the Sirens, whose enchanting voices lured sailors towards destruction. Knowing the danger but unwilling to miss their song, he had himself bound to the mast while his men stopped their ears with wax.
Dolly Parton’s voice reminds me, in a strange and beautiful way, of that ancient story. But where the Sirens’ music led men towards ruin, Dolly’s drew us towards memory, tenderness, hope and our shared humanity. Hers was a voice that could make sorrow bearable and joy more luminous.
I place Dolly Parton on the same pedestal as Don Williams, Kenny Rogers, Jim Reeves, John Denver, Rod Stewart and Smokie – rare voices that do more than entertain; they enter the deepest recesses of memory and emotion. We find their Nigerian counterparts in Osita Osadebe, Ebenezer Obey and King Sunny Adé. Did I hear Gen Z mention Davido, Flavour and Burna Boy? No comment.
These are the voices whose songs accompany us through the seasons of life, becoming woven into memories of youth, love, loss and hope. Which of you, like me, arranged collection of their songs to be played for my girlfriends when they visited?
Such moments bring to mind an enduring philosophical truth: if we can stand in awe before Erin-Ijesha Waterfalls, the hills of Idanre, the tranquil waters of Agulu Lake, the landscapes of Nsukka or the sacred groves of Osun-Osogbo, why should we not also stand in reverence before the highest miracle of all – a Dolly Parton that was both great and good? A woman whose music was more than melody; it was storytelling distilled into emotion – honest, tender and compassionate. She sang of heartbreak and hope, humble beginnings and triumphant dignity, reaching across continents and generations.
And so, when I remember Nashville in October 2009, I remember not merely a convention or a city. I remember the anticipation of that small pilgrimage to the home of a woman whose voice had entered my life long before I set foot in Tennessee. I did not know then that, years later, I would write these words of farewell:
If you want to preserve the satirical edge while making the sentence elegant and logically balanced, I would put it this way:
But genius of such magnitude, whether deployed for good or ill, never truly leaves the stage. Plato in philosophy, Archimedes in mathematics and physics, Euclid in geometry, Shakespeare in literature, Michelangelo in art, Mozart in music, Peter Obi in governance, and, in less exalted registers, Tinubu in political perfidy, Umahi and Wike in pettiness, and Reno in sycophancy—all demonstrate, in their different ways, the enduring power of human influence. Some leave behind ideas and creations that elevate humanity; others leave examples that serve as warnings about what talent and influence can become when placed at the service of less noble purposes. Their bodies may return to the earth, but their ideas, actions and influence continue to speak across generations. History remembers both the heights to which genius can lift humanity and the depths to which it can descend.
Dolly Parton belongs to this tradition of enduring creative genius. She may have departed this physical world, but the songs remain. The stories remain. The generosity remains. The memories remain. And, perhaps most importantly, the emotional imprint she left on millions of lives remains. Death may silence a voice, but it cannot silence what that voice has given to humanity.
Obienyem wrote from Awka, Anambra State
