“One Year Of Solitude”: A Husband Remembered: A Year Later, Dequi Kioni-Sadiki Reflects On Life Without Black Political Prisoner #SekouOdinga
From: dequi kioni-sadiki
To: Sadiki “Bro. Shep” Olugbala
Cc: dequi
Sent: Thursday, January 16, 2025 at 03:30:46 PM EST
Subject: re: my Community “One Year” Thank You
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ONE Year of Solitude
it’s been One Year since my Man’s Man — Sekou Mgobozi Abdullah Odinga — made his Transition to the Other Side. For me, January 12th, 2024 still feels like yesterday when i saw Sekou for the last time in that hospital room. & as i sailed across the Atlantic looking out over the ocean, i sat thinking, Praying & talking to Sekou about what this One Year has been for me. this doesn’t mean Sekou’s death is more prominent in my mind than his life. i Love Sekou Odinga to life. Sekou lived, Loved, struggled & left a powerful example & legacy for us to live by & follow. he & i shared a revolutionary Black Love that neither of us had ever experienced before making his physical absence from all my every-days more painful & heartbreaking than anything i’ve ever felt before.
& so it’s been One Year of abject loneliness, inconsolable tears, missing Sekou beyond measure, Praying for the expansion of his grave & that he be granted entry into Paradise while also selflessly wishing what has been true for One Year wasn’t, that i didn’t need weekly grief counseling or a healing traveling tour just to be anywhere but here. thankfully, despite my many waves of emotion/trauma, its also been One Year of gratitude, revelation, counting my many Blessings & slowly forging ahead into this new life i’ve been forced to create, learning to adjust to the revolving web of folk coming into & out of my life, letting go of those i thought i could count on but couldn’t & holding onto those i didn’t know i could count on but could & learning to distinguish between those who Love me for me & those who profess to due to my marriage & life with Sekou. no malice or shade, i get it. what i want folk to know more than anything is how thankful i am that Sekou was able to count on & hold onto the Love so many showered him with across his 33–1/2 year-bid, his last 9–1/2 years of being home & especially the last 4–1/2 months of his life.
& so on this One Year later, i send this to you who have stood with me, cried alongside me, held me close — literally & figuratively — watched over me, checked on me — frequently &/or sporadically — sent me text messages of hope, affirmation & inspiration, invited me to stay in your home(s) for days/weeks at a time, cooked for me, carried me out to lunch/dinner &/or invited me out for a date or a walk to get out of the home Sekou & i shared, sat/visited with me, brought me a meal to share, embarked on days-long road trips to get me, chauffeured me up to Ferncliff Cemetery for my monthly grave site visits & so much more through all my spoken & unspoken moments to say how deeply humbled, honored & privileged I am to feel the warmth of your acts of Love, kindness, compassion, patience & generosity surrounding me.
& though i continue to feel terribly alone every time i walk through our apt door that Sekou will no longer be waiting on the other side of &never coming back into, sleep in our bed at night, start my day, complete the marital status question on some official document or walk anywhere in this world without the Love of my Life by my side, i think about all the ways many of you show up & reinforce for me that — in the truest sense of the word — i am not alone.
for that please accept my heartfelt gratitude for the support & Love you have gifted me through this most unimaginable period of grief, pain & sorrow. “ain’t no way i could pay you back” just know that i Love & Appreciate you all!!!
Peace & Blessings…inwildwomynspirit&style…dequi kioni-sadiki
“We will meet all of us women of every land.
We will meet in the center, make a circle.
We will weave a world web to entangle the powers that bury our children.”
