Ronald Davis…1941 – 2022

I wrote this piece last Sunday morning.

I am publishing it today as my humble announcement.

I have been devastated over the past 3 days.

Last Friday, one of my closest friends in the world passed on.

The news hit me like a tornado, numbing my senses. I don’t know what I then did with my phone, but from the moment Sule Alli broke the news to me, the elements joined in a conspiracy and my phone and the Whatsapp feature that I use for most of my communication, stopped functioning.

So, in the past three days, I have been unable to communicate with anyone.

Unable, also, to fix the phone, unable to function, I have remained at home and in bed, thinking about the meaninglessness of life, again, in total and humbling surrender, defeated completely by this ‘thief’ in the darkest of nights. It is Sunday morning now.

I wake up from the reality of another sleepless night. I pick up my phone and find that a ‘miracle’ has happened – some of the features, including my WhatsApp application, are back, functioning again.

So, I am writing this in a hurry to catch up with humanity and all those that must have been trying to reach me without success.

I am thinking.

Is this Ron’s handiwork from wherever he is now? Is this how Ron wanted me to absorb and digest the tragic news of his sudden and shocking journey to the land from which no one but Christ has ever returned? OK, Ron. You win.

It is with deep pain that I want to acknowledge to all our mutual friends, and our global family of athletes and coaches whose lives his work, his mentorship and his humanity have touched around the world, particularly in Nigeria and Tanzania, that Ronald Davis, African American former Athlete, foremost international coach, social and civil rights activist,