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Posted on : Oct 18, 2011

Tribute to Victor Kanu by Carole Alderman

I met Victor in 1983 shortly after I heard about Sai Baba. My husband and I went to his house and Victor talked about Swami and how we could find Him. Actually our paths had crossed some years before that, when Victor was High Commissioner for Sierra Leona & Ghana to the UK and Scandinavia. The company I worked for owned diamond mines in Sierra Leone, so Victor and I had a lot of mutual business acquaintances before either of us knew Sai Baba.

Victor was a lion of a man with a huge heart.  After I came back from seeing Sai Baba for the first time, I rang him excitedly about the trip. He invited me to come over that Sunday and tell him and a few friends about it. When I arrived, he whisked me into a car to go to his local Sai Centre where I was to be the guest speaker. I had never spoken in public before and was terrified. Afterwards he made no apologies, but just commented that since now I knew Swami I had to do these things. He reflected long and hard before inviting me to become a member of the SSEHV Committee in the UK as I was not a teacher. I then worked for him as a reporter and assistant.

What an amazing man! He did so much to get SSEHV started and known in his area of South London where he taught in a large secondary school.

I joined the groups that he and Genevieve took to see Sai Baba and was in Prashanti at the time Swami told them to go back to Africa to start a school.  Later when I myself was in charge of SSEHV in the UK, Victor was very supportive and always available to give moral support and advice. At the inauguration of The African Institute of Sathya Sai Education, he invited BISSE (then the British Institute of Sathya Sai Education) to twin with them, an honour which we gratefully accepted.

In times of difficulties with SSEHV I would turn to Victor for advice and he gave it clearly, no matter how busy he was, or whatever his physical condition and state of health. He always encouraged me to be focussed on Sai Baba and do His work.

Victor served others and was cheerful to the end. May he remain in bliss with his Beloved Lord.

- Carole Alderman
  Former Director, BISSE

 - Radio Sai team