Being Born in the Age of Chinualumuogu Albert Achebe

Being Born in the Age of Chinualumuogu Albert Achebe

 

Plato, who became very passionate about wisdom and his teacher and Master, Socrates, in a tribute to the old gad-fly, as Socrates called himself, once wrote "I thank God that I was born Greek and not Barbarian, freeman and not slave, man and not woman; but above all that I was born in the age of Socrates".  I simply thank God that I was born in the age of Chinualumuogu Albert Achebe.

I was uniquely privileged to meet my Master, Uncle Chinua, always in the company of Auntie Christie, his lovely wife, as I fondly call them, a total of seven (7) times, with the first meeting being in 1979, on the grounds of our alma mater, Government College Umuahia (GCU), on Ikot Ekpene Road, Umudike, Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria.  It was during the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Old Glory, a metaphor employed by Ancient, Medieval and not so contemporary Umuahians to contrast the college's present dilapidated dilemma with their nostalgic reminiscence of what has largely become their GCU of the mind. 

Ancient Umuahians, Uncle Chike Momah, Prof. Achebe's best friend and classmate from their Class of 1944, told me, were GCU alumni from the groundbreaking class of 1929 to 1939 while the Medieval Umuahians included those of them from the Class of 1940's to the 1950's, whose Umuahian patrician curriculum was unfortunately interrupted by the Second World War as the college was closed and used as a quarantine for German Prisoners of War.  The contemporary and not so contemporary Umuahians, he affirmed, are the rest of us who came after them, who progressively insist that their generation of Umuahians are the last of the Mohicans. 

I was frolicking, in idle horse play, in the company of my friend and fellow Upper 6 student, Nnaoke Kalu Lekwa, on that Umuahian Golden Jubilee day in 1979, when our attention was  suddenly captivated by the fleet of ultra modern and expensive cars and their larger than life occupants that included the Prof. and his wife and such other Umuahian Greats as Jerry Enyiazu, Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike and Senator Jaja Wachukwu, as they careened  through the GCU main gate towards the acclaimed college Quadrangle.  Even though the sight of expensive cars was nothing novel on the Umuahian ground for the children of anybody that was somebody in Nigeria, included the Prof., constituted the Umuahian student roster, but the sheer number of expensive and posh cars on campus on that Jubilee Day that could have competed with any expensive Car Fair any where in the world was a testimony that the Ancient, the Mediaeval and the not so Contemporary Umuahians were indeed accomplished men, who belonged with Prof.'s fictional character, Obi Okonkwo, in his novel "No Longer at Ease",  in the club of "how is your car behaving." 

The  second time I met the Achebes was during the World Igbo Congress 4th Annual Convention in New York City in 1997 as the Prof. delivered the Convention's Keynote address. 

  

My third meeting with Prof. and Auntie Christie, and of course other members of the Achebe family in the U.S., was during his 70th Birthday anniversary on the Bard College Campus in New York on November 16, 2000.  To refresh my recollection of this date, I had to retrieve the Grand Chateau New York State Champaign Souvenir, with the inscription "exclusively bottled for the 70th Anniversary of Chinua Achebe, November 16, 2000."  This miniature bottled Champaign, as far as I am concerned, remains for the ages.

My fourth and most momentous meeting with Uncle Chinua and Auntie Christie,  affectionate and endearing prefixes I adopted for them after this meeting, was in 2001 in their home, and once again, on the Campus of Bard College in New York, during a Meeting of our Government College Umuahia Old Boys Association, USA (GCUOBAUSA), as we  planned our inaugural  Ball and Convention on Saturday, October 6, 2001.

I was the Vice President of the New Jersey/New York/Connecticut Chapter of GCUOBAUSA and Uncle Chinua was our Grand Patron. Also present at this eventful Meeting were Uncle Chike Momah and his lovely wife, Auntie Arunne Momah, who is endeared to us, the younger GCUOBAUSA members, as our "Sr. Young Girl", the Chapter President, Prof. Ike Ukeje and his lovely wife and Young Girl, Mrs. Chibuzor Ukeje, our Chapter Secretary, Late Princewill Imo and his Widow and Young Girl, Lillian Imo, our Chapter Financial Secretary, Mr. Azubike Ogala and our Publicity Secretary, Attorney Sebastian O. Ibezim, Jr. While there may have been more Umuahians at this epochal Meeting, the above names are the ones that my burdened memory can presently recall without the aide of the attendance record of our then prolific Secretary, Imo P.K., who has since transited to Glory, to refresh my recollection.

With the exception of Uncle Nnabuenyi, Auntie Arunne and Ike Ukeje, whose father, Late Prof. Ukeje, was a friend of Prof. Achebe from their days at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), the rest of us were noticeably conscious of the fact that we were not just attending an Umuahian Old Boys Meeting in the house of just any other Umuahian, but that we were almost on "Sacred Ground" as our demeanor reflected the wariness and agility of young Umuahian kids awaiting inspection by the paramilitary School Captain or House Master at the Quadrangle in Umudike until the gentle Prof. methodically enabled us to be "at ease" with his informality and simplicity.

After we settled in, the Prof. handed kolanut to Uncle Chike, who in turn passed it to me as the other titled Chief in attendance, the Ikemba 1 of Avor na Ogele, as Ukeje, Ibezim and Imo concertedly and simultaneously exploded into hysterical laughter, to the surprise of Uncle Chinua, Uncle Chike, Auntie Christie, Auntie Arunne and the two other Umuahian Young Girls, Mrs. Ukeje and Imo and Ogala A, to a limited extent.  As Uncle Chike inquired, "but is Ikemba not a Chief", Ike in his classic Fumoristic comical parlance responded "Prof. and Nnabuenyi, not only is Ikemba a Chief, but he also has Blue Blood.  You see, if you cut his vain, you will not see red blood as with the rest of us, but Blue Blood", he responded, obviously to the amusing delight of the two respectable elderly Umuahians and our "Young Girls", who saw and appreciated us as the happy bunch that we were.

I joined in the comedy train, to amusement of all, as I explained to Prof. and Uncle Nnabuenyi that my three peers and Umuahian brothers, Ukeje, Ibezim and Imo, were jealous of my Chieftaincy title because they are "just ordinary citizens."  I however subsequently explained to the Prof. and Uncle Nnabuenyi my personal moral quandary  from my Chieftaincy title as a sharp contrast and paradox to my publicly professed criticisms of the trend of title mania among ndi Igbo in my June, 1996 Article in the Nigerian and Africa Magazine titled "Chiefs Without Chieftain." 

Chiefs Without Chieftain was a lamentation and scathing indictment of a people, Ndi Igbo, through the work of an anonymous humorist, titled  "How Tables Came To Umu Madu", which captured the essence of the Igbo persons misplaced value system by introducing the author as "Chief-Dr.-Gen.-Sir-Lord-Prof. Efanim Ekeh (Iyanga 1 of Uwa Dum)", who in his back cover biographic information further described himself as a "fabulist, a concoctionist and a fabricator of great international obscurity, whose work had never appeared in any place else."  (Amadi Press, 1984).

In that pains-taking political satire, the author of "How Tables Came To Umu Madu", dissected the none seriousness of the people of Umu Madu and their silly and limitless proclivity for vain status symbolism and penchant to merry and celebrate the most trivial of events, even in the face of danger lurking at their border.  In Chiefs Without Chieftain, I agonized at the wave of the hocus-pocus of useless titled Igbo men, and in some cases women, that had also besieged the United States shores, along with Efanin Ekeh, as a confirmation of my dreadful fear that there is no end to my people's silliness.  A few of those titles I characterized as "the Oloro Nkuma (rock swallower) of Houston, the Isi Nkita (Dog's Head) of New Jersey, the Ultimate Eze Nwanyi (Highest Woman King) of Chicago, Sir Peter Nweke of the Knight of Saint Chinkata  and Lord Osita Boko, of the Order of the Brooklyn Bridge."  I concluded "Chiefs Without Chieftain" by submitting that "silly title consciousness among the Igbo, with its accompanying artifacts and regalia, impeded the flow of much needed oxygen to the brain and vitiated the requisite humility we need to emancipate from our present stupor as a people. 

It was in fact  at the backdrop of "Chiefs Without Chieftain" and my other similar commentaries that Ukeje, Ibezim, Imo and even myself, could not help but laugh at my introduction as a Chief, especially under that setting. I explained to Prof. and Uncle Nnabuenyi that the circumstances of my Chieftaincy conferment was when I traveled to Nigeria on December 19, 2000, during the Coronation ceremony of my father as His Royal Highness (HRH), the Onu Ga Otu 1 of Avor na Ogele, and that as soon as I landed from New York, and was picked up by my older brother's driver from Port Harcourt International Airport, and driven straight to join the coronation ceremony, which was already in progress, my father, on seeing me, announced my name as among his initial conferees of Chieftaincy titles, with my Chieftaincy Certificate and full regalia already waiting for me. My father and my brother concealed their plan from me for they knew that if I had any hint or inclination of their plan, I would not have shown up for the coronation ceremony. 

After my confession, Prof., smiled, with evident candor, and remarked, "but Chikezie, there is nothing wrong with being honored with a Chieftaincy title in Igbo land by your people, and in your case, especially by your father as I was also honored by my people in Ogidi.   Your Chieftaincy from your father is an honor and a blessing, and you must wear it with pride without any explanation to anybody."

The rest of our Meeting at Uncle Chinua and Auntie Christie's house, even after we recovered from Ike Ukeje's "Blue Blood" frolic detour, was not any less humorous as the Prof., Uncle Nnabuenyi, myself and Ukeje competed with anecdotes while Ibezim S, Imo P and the Umuahian Young Girls in attendance provided the necessary laugh tracks.  After our Secretary, Imo P, may God continue to bless his gentle soul, read the Minutes of our previous Meeting, Uncle Nnabuenyi, without formally saying so, but symbolically moved for the adoption of the Minutes by nodding his head approvingly and affirming "Imo, you are indeed a pleasure to read, and all I can say is just continue to write", and I exclaimed "seconded!" as the President, Ukeje, responded with "having so moved and having so seconded, the Minutes is adopted!", as everybody busted out laughing.  I recall asking Ogala A, who neither laughed nor supplied any punch line why he looked like the trader in the Nigerian TV Commercials in the '70's who frowned and appeared gloomy because he sold his wares on Credit as opposed to the other trader who laughed boisterously, and professed "I sold on cash", and finally succeeded in extracting a sustained open jaw laugh from him with all and sundry.   

The Meeting at Prof.'s house adjourned with Uncle Chinua's anecdote of a soccer match between Government College Umuahia (GCU) and the College of Immaculate Conception, (CIC), Enugu, garnering the loudest and most protracted laugh track.  According to Prof., in their day, "the soccer champions were CIC and Christ the King College (CKC), Onitsha, where Irish Fathers were said to flog their students after every unsuccessful match, and where gifted soccer players were reputedly allowed to stay in school  even if they were "yam- heads" in class, according to A.B. Cozens' famous classification."

"One day", Prof. continued, "CIC accompanied, on account of its fame, by a few of their Enugu, fans, played against Government College at Umuahia.  As Samuel Izuora scored the first goal for Umuahia, one of the CIC fans exclaimed "biali dianyi, umu aro a ewulu trigonometri gbaa bol!" (my friend, these boys are playing ball with trigonometry!).  

That was vintage Prof. and as the Singer, M.C. Hammer, would say "you can't touch this."

 Prof. however explained that the victory over of CIC was mercilessly avenged by their brother Catholic School, CKC, Onitsha, on July 3, 1948, when GCU suffered a 10 to 1 defeat in the hands of the then soccer giant of their time.  He explained, in an Article in the 1979 Golden Jubilee publication "The Umuahian", which he edited, that GCU's unenviable soccer record in their day  was partly because "soccer was described as a game for gentlemen, played by ruffians, and rugger as a game for ruffians played gentlemen," and that "[i]t was perhaps not accidental that in the early days when Umuahia paid particular attention to the cultivation of gentlemen, it had a dismissal soccer history, more or less."  He concluded by further writing that "[a]lthough we had a chance at rugger, we didn't take to it.  We seemed to hanker after the game made for us but usurped by barbarians!"

I met Prof. and Auntie Christie again and for the fifth time also in 2001 as he addressed us at the inaugural Convention of GCUOBAUSA, as our Keynote Speaker, at the Robert Treat Hotel, Newark, New Jersey on Saturday, October 6, 2001.  The theme of that speech was how blessed we were to be products of Umuahia, and a reminder that as Umuahians, a school that once accounted for the highest level of talents in all aspects of the Nigerian labor force, ranging from the Civil Service to private enterprise to academia, that we have a responsibility to the Old Glory.  He reminded us, as he wrote in his Golden Jubilee Editorial in "The Umuahian" in 1979 that GCU's values anchored on "love of excellence and of quiet service that can be distilled down to two fundamental ideas - the pursuit of excellence in work and behavior and the desire serve without ostentation."  He urged us to be always humble and to imbibe former Principal, William Simpson's doctrine of "turning away from the temptation of empty showiness in the boxing field of life" and to always emulate former President Teddy Roosevelt's maxim of "speak softly, but carry a big stick", which according to him was also a Simpsonian philosophy, albeit it being primarily an intellectual stick.   The Prof. concluded by tasking us to preserve the dream of our founding Principal, Rev. Robert Fisher, by ensuring that GCU remain a Unity School for the catchment area that the school is located in rather than the local community school that it has become. 

I must, of necessity, pause at this time, and also pay tribute to three other Great Umuahians who were also at that GCUOBAUSA Inaugural Convention with Prof., and who have also since slept in the Lord.  Dr. T. Erokosima, the son of our first indigenous Headmaster, Mr. Erekosima, Imo P and my History Master, Mr. Okechechukwu Ihukwumere.  May the Good Lord also grant them eternal repose. 

I met Prof. Achebe for the sixth time during the Launching of Uncle Nnabuyenyi Chike Momah's, I believe third or fourth novel, "The Shining Ones" at the Essex County Community College Auditorium in Newark, New Jersey.  I was the Moderator of the event and Prof. Achebe was the Chairman of the event.  As the Publisher of "The Shining Ones", Dr. Ugorji O. Ugorji, handed me Prof.'s profile to introduce him to the audience, the Prof., who noticed my dilemma of how to read the over one hundred honorary doctorate degrees from over one hundred Universities on the multi page document, timely intervened and bailed me out by saying, "Chikezie, I don't we have the time to read all those awards on the C.V.", as the enthusiastic audience applauded the distinguished Don and his wife, Auntie Christie who were already seated at the high table in the company of such other notable Igbo New Jerseyians as Dr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Ofodile, Iddi Dr. and Iyom Ambrose Mgbako, Mr. and Mrs. Julius Arinze, Dr. and Dr. (Mrs.) Julius Sea, Engr. Nzeamalu and Dr. (Mrs.) Oyibo Achebe, Engr. and Mrs. Emeka Ezidiegwu, Eze and Ugwueze Austin Egwuonwu, Dr. and Mrs. Bertram Okpokwasili, Dr. and Mrs. Justin Ogbonna, Lady Esther C. Ohen, Mr. and Dr. (Mrs) Oseloka Obazie, and Prof. and Mrs. Chike Nwadiogbu, to mention a few.  

My seventh and last Meeting with Prof. Chinua Achebe, as with most of his admirers, was during the last 2012 Achebe Colloquium on Africa from Friday, December 7, 2012 to Saturday, December 8, 2012 at the Perry and Marty Granoff Center of Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island.  As always, he was graceful and manifested no obvious outward sign of ailment besides the pride of place as our elderly father and sage, whom we all gathered to honor and celebrate. At the end of the Colloquium on Saturday, I spent the rest of the evening with my two fellow Umuahians, Prof.'s first son, Dr. Ike Achebe, Prof. Obi Nwakanma, and my friends, Dr. Chido Nwangwu, Prof. E.C. Ejiogu and my brother, Mr. Udo Ephraim Jacob, a resident Rhode Islander, to unwound with conscious distractions, facilitated with beer and wine after the two day colloquium and intellectual feast, before setting sail back to our respective ports of embarkation. 

Prof. Achebe was born on November 16, 1930 to the union of Isaiah Okafor Achebe and Janet Anaenechi Achebe, nee Ileogbunam, in Ogidi, Anambra State, Nigeria.  He was the fifth of six siblings, which included his oldest sibling and brother, Frank Okwuofu Achebe, who died in 1992.  His second sibling and older brother, John Chukwuemeka Ifeanyichukwu Achebe, with whom he lived, died in 2000.  His third sibling, Mrs. Zinobia Uzoma Ikepeze, nee Achebe, is 94 years old, and is the mother of Lolo Uzoma Ogbonna, who lived in New Jersey with us with her husband, Dr. Justin Ogbonna and children, until they moved to Texas some few years ago.  Prof. Achebe's fourth sibling and immediate older brother, a retired Engr, Mr. Augustine Nduka Achebe, who is 89 years old and his older sister Mrs. Ikepeze are his two surviving siblings.  According his nephew, Engr. Nzeamalu Frank Oyibo Achebe, "the death of my uncle's fifth sibling and younger sister, Aunt Grace Nwanneka Okocha, four years ago, took a lot out of him. That was his baby and he was never the same after Aunt Grace died."

As my phone rang about 5.30 A.M. on Friday, March 22, 2013, I was least prepared for the message from Nzeamulu, when he called out "Ikejimba!" as he calls me, when I picked up the receiver and exclaimed in return, "Ah!, Oga Oyibo!", with my usual excitement wherever I hear his voice, as I however wondered, on this occasion, to what I owed the honor, which would have been the inconvenience if that early morning wake up call had been from anybody I did not revere as much as I revere him.  As I paused, he dropped the bombshell, "I called to tell you before it hits the Internet and airwaves that my Uncle died last night because I know how you feel about him." 

As I struggled and grappled with a mixture of emotions that ranged from anger to pain to confusion to weakness and to overall emasculation, Nzeamulu enquired if I was still on the phone, and I managed to regain my composure and rhetorically enquired of him"wasn't it only in December as we traveled back to New Jersey from the Colloquium at Brown University in Rhode Island that we discussed how urgently we needed to approach Uncle Chinua to help us bring our plight in Nigeria as ndi Igbo to the serious attention of the United States Government for we concluded that if any Igbo had the ears of President Obama, the Prof. did?"Nzeamalu responded, "well, man proposes and God disposes."

Uncle Chinua understood and exemplified the tenets of the Passion of Christ, which appeals for strength:

When under the pressure of temptation;
When principle is at stake;
When suffering;
When lonely;
When in depression;
When prompted by weakness from human respect;
When desiring to be popular through hope for human distinction;
When overburdened and weighed down with accepting our cross and carrying it generously to the end;
When tempted to become a traitor in  the ranks in the battlefield of life; and
When tempted to be dazzled by the glitter of the enemy camp.

He debunked the evil mantra of "if you can't beat them, join them."  As James Garner's character in "Murphy's Romance" responded to the defeatist and permissive cliche that "you can't fight City Hall" by answering, "then wrestle it", Uncle Chinua, without fanfare, both fought and wrestled City Hall, by remaining committed to the Passion of Christ.  

He resisted the pressure of temptation and never compromised principle for convenience, despite the dire consequences as he gracefully bore his cross to the generous end.  The noble Prof. was not a traitor in the battlefield of life and he was not dazzled by the glitter of the enemy camp, which, publicly, included National Awards and of course countless other, not so public, entreaties from successive corrupt Nigerian Governments. 

When I called Uncle Chike and Auntie Arunne to condole with them over the death of Prof. and expressed my despair over the demise of their best friend, which I told them was, in my opinion, "the eclipse of the last meaningful and authentic Igbo voice", Uncle Chike laughed and disagreed, as he admonished that our generation of Igbo must then reinvent our own Chinua, even if it has to be me, to ensure that Igbo voice is not eclipsed, for life, according to him, is and must remain a rite of passage.  He paused and then summed up with "onye me ike ya, ka Chinua mere, ona ba" (after every person's best, as Chinua did his, he or she will move on). 

While I am encouraged by Uncle Chike's admonition, only God knows how an Uncle Chinua can be invented from this vanishing generation of ours where the three branches of government, and even including the Church, are manned by pimps, hoodlums and kidnappers.  I told somebody in Nigeria in 2007 that I was seeking nomination to run for the Federal House of Representatives in the General Elections, and to assess my testicular fortitude, to borrow from former Secretary Hilary Clinton, and to appraise the seriousness of my aspiration, he assertively inquired from me "can you kill?." As I stood there and moped at him, he repeated "I asked, are you ready to kill?!"  Don't even worry about my answer to this character for I am still dazed from that bestial and satanic inquiry, but believe it or not, this is the generation that must, of necessity, reinvent a Chinualumuogu Albert Achebe to avert "the eclipse of the last meaningful and authentic Igbo voice."

   

My vanishing generation notwithstanding, I simply thank God that I was born in the age of Chinualumuogu Albert Achebe.  Uncle Chinua, you stood on the path of conscience and the truth, and because you lived, our flame of hope, even as it flickers with my sacrilegious generation, cannot be dimmed. May you find the eternal peace and the enduring justice, that you fought so hard for all men on this earth, in the bosom of the Lord.

Glory Alleluia! Glory Alleluia!! Glory Alleluia!!!

Adieu my Master, Uncle Chinua!.

C. C. Chikezie