Marika as ‘Teacher’ and Friend
Morgan Delphinis
Author and Educator
I was never formally taught by Marika but learned a lot from her as a friend. The following issues were highlighted in her life:
Human good and evil
Marika was always clear about human nature criss-crossing class and racial boundaries and she crossed them in supporting me. Marika allowed me to use her flat to do my A level revision being aware of the crowded circumstances of my family. While this did not improve my A level grades, it brought me in touch with thinking professionals such as Paul, a journalist from Hungary and Joe, a student from Nigeria. Joe made a positive impression on me, particularly in highlighting the political ambitions of humans while quoting Shakespeare: “Caesar was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it” followed by bellowing loud laughter.
Pride in Jews fighting back
I lost touch with Marika when I left school but we reconnected again a number of years after. At this stage I was reading more widely and was reading the novel Exodus, based around the Jewish experience. While Marika was happy about Jews fighting rather than being victims, she had her reservations.
Lack of cross class unity amongst the Jewish community
Marika firstly indicated to me differences between European Jewish communities seeing themselves as ‘better’ than Jewish people from North Africa and that some of the ultranationalist Israeli Jewish people had not experienced the direct suffering at the hands of the Nazis, as her family had.
Horror of a racist state and what her relatives had died for.
The experiences that Marika recounted, especially after I had visited Hungary, were of Jewish people being tied together and each second one being shot so that the ones who were shot dragged the living ones down into the Danube, in order to save Nazi bullets.
She talked about being prepared by her family to escape with the family valuables in a teddy bear in case the others were captured.
She also talked about a relative who had survived the gas chamber because she was tossed out because the gas chamber was already full.
Marika also discussed her horror of later in life meeting someone from New Guinea who explained how discrimination was practised against him because of colour.
Marika found the whole idea slimy and horrific, particularly as she herself was brownish and always wondered if it was due to an African amongst past Roman troops in Hungary.
We often compared notes on research progress, mine on Caribbean and African Languages, Marika on Panafricanism.
Like all of us Marika felt the passing of the years from, initially, being told by her doctor that she was “As strong as a horse”, to increasing pain, to wishing for death as she could no longer write, or think, or bear company for long. Despite this Marika talked about some research on the local area and its population movements.
My last visit was a few weeks before her death. Marika was rebellious to the last. We were coming up from the café with Marika pushing her one wheeled zimmerframe but insisting that the cars should get out of the way, not her, not Marika!
I will now say what I call the ‘Hausa song of farewell’ “Dan Adam bai iya iyuwa in ba ya shafe juna. Sabo da haka, in na shafe ka, ka yafe ni, na riga na shafe ka” (The son of man is not able to live without rubbing up against each other, so on Marika’s behalf, if I have rubbed you up the wrong way, forgive me. As for me, I have already forgiven you!)