‘Perceptions…’: A festschrift in honour of Afam Nelson Ebeogu berths

By John Otu

THIS festschrift in honour of Prof. Afam Nelson Ebeogu, our former lecturer at the old Imo State University, Okigwe which was rechristened Abia State University (ABSU) in 1991 at the creation of Abia State now in Uturu, and edited by Godwin I.N. Emezue and Chinwendu A. Nwizu, is long in coming. Years have passed since I first learnt of its conception but thank goodness the editors, principally Prof G.N. Emezue, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of ABSU and others kept it in view, as could be seen by their acknowledgement of Prof. Austine Akpuda, current HOD of English for “safeguarding and retrieving the work from limbo,” among manifest efforts by colleagues. Nonetheless, as Ndigbo would say, the duration of pregnancy is not as important as the eventual delivery of a baby. This is because a pregnancy might not last long but the result could be stillborn.

Prof. Ebeogu is a unique scholar of profound hue who has all his adult life after graduating from the University of Ibadan in the early 1970s been involved with research, teaching and mentoring students and young scholars. For those of us who were his undergraduate students and later became his junior colleagues, Ebeogu means different things to us – a mentor, benefactor, indefatigable and workaholic academic, ever resourceful and engaging in general intellectual discourses. So, the idea of a festschrift in his honour is appropriate and timely as he earned it by the many years of intellectual exertions in and outside of the academia. Not many who started with him on this journey were able to finish gloriously and retired into more active work.

The book, Perceptions in Oral literature, language and Igbo Studies is comprehensive in scope, encompassing diverse brilliant vignettes of Ebeogu’s remarkable life, scholarship, vocations, family and faith. The thirty two chapters are spread out expertly into five topical sections, namely, section A: ‘Ebeogu’s Background and Interviews, B: ‘Oral Literature,’ C: ‘African Literature,’ D: ‘Language’ and E: ‘Igbo Studies and Others.’ And in addition to the photo pages, the work comes up to a total of 490 pages, covering wide fields of interesting and engaging scholarship, a pointer to Ebeogu’s givenness to interdisciplinary intellectual culture.

Since it will be an uphill task to touch on every chapter in this short review, I will dwell on the kernels of each section as regards the celebrant’s accomplishments and various life endeavours. The first section is about Ebeogu as a human being, a humanist, his beliefs, comportments and his choice field of oral literature, which he has taught over the years with rare profundity and panache. First from the essay by M. Chibu Onukawa, which describes Prof. Ebeogu as an academic gem, Onyechigoziri Chikere’s piece which captures the literary icon as mentor of mentors and of course, the chat or interview with Ebeogu as anchored by Chinwendu Nwizu which highlights some aspects of the scholar’s life, scholarship and progress. It is actually from this interview that Ebeogu is unveiled to the reader in his ramified hues. We are able to penetrate his thoughts and predilections about features of benign human existence, a comparison of the academia of his time as a young scholar and the prevalent situation in contemporary times with regard to ethical practices and responsible academicism, among others. For the graduates of Abia State university in general and English department in particular, the interview is a treasure trove that affords them the privilege to learn of the history of the founding of the university and the early beginnings of English department and the faculty, which then was school of Humanities and Social sciences. When I read Ebeogu’s contribution in the book of tributes for the foremost Professor of the department and exceptional scholar, Prof. Ben Obumselu in 2017 when the great man passed on, I gleaned part of the story of the background to the initial stages of the department in an interesting piece, Ebeogu had entitled, “Ben Obumselu: An Inscrutable Mask.”

But in the current book, Perceptions (for short), Ebeogu is more detailed, describing and mentioning names of the few academics who joined him in drawing the curriculum of the department from the outset. From the story, besides the Vice chancellor of the university of the time, in fact, the pioneer VC of the institution, the world celebrated thinker and literary scholar, Prof. MJC Echeruo and later Prof. Obumselu, Ebeogu was easily a great patriarch of the department, with Prof. Kalu Ogbaa and others joining after. This is an eternal corroboration of that Achebean wise words,” he that does not know where the rain began to beat him will not know where it stopped or ceased.” When younger generation of scholars and students learn and understand their history, they will not treat with levity the memories and contributions of their ancestors and precursors in humanity’s march to civilization.

It is also important to point out Ebeogu’s philosophy that guides his existence and interactions as encapsulated in that interview and hinted by writers who dwelt on him or his works of fiction. Prof. Ebeogu is an upright man who treats cheating, exams malfeasance and other forms of underhand engagements with loathing. He frowns on sorting or receiving of bribes and kickbacks or sexual molestations of students by unscrupulous lecturers. In his words, “…some of the issues that are raised are very immoral and unethical issues, issues that have to do with conscience: you have a book, you use your book to give assignment so you are saying that students must buy this book… The moral dimension is questionable.” From the book and the exemplary lifestyle of Ebeogu right from our university days, Ebeogu is a father figure in the classroom and does not brook extortions of students and life of indolence. As a good, practising Christian – note that he is a knight of St. Christopher of the Anglican Church, and of course, a devoted member of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship – he leads life according to biblical tenets.

Now that I have mentioned the latter, I cannot but recall my sweet encounter with this great scholar, Prof. Ebeogu in Ebonyi state when he attended the national convention of the Full Gospel that held in Abakaliki during the first term of my then principal, the first Executive Governor of Ebonyi state, Senator Sam Ominyi Egwu. This event held at the Unity square venue of state’s programmes of the time where, as I looked from the podium where I was making preliminary remarks as a state commissioner before inviting my boss to the stage to address the brethren gathered for the programme, I saw Prof Ebeogu and his dear wife. Without delay, I announced to the audience that my former university teacher was in the audience and this attracted some applause for him. My governor, himself an ardent member of FGBMF was, from the telltale signs impressed with that outing. There is truth in the adage that a golden fish has no hiding place, and honourable teachers and leaders of men like Ebeogu would always be identified even among a throng because as the Holy writ states, we shall be remembered by our good deeds.

Section B is particularly significant in that the seven essays therein address the pivot of Ebeogu’s scholarship, which is Oral literature. However of the articles here, two of them, Ebeogu’s and Isidore Diala’s, discuss the contributions of Prof. Echeruo as a scholar of folk Igbo Drama. For me, besides the depth of their research in this vein, there is implied a structural chain of bequeathal of legacy from one generation to another. Echeruo had taught Ebeogu at UI as an undergraduate, brilliantly imparting knowledge of the classics, including the course on Shakespeare to him and his peers. Not only that, Echeruo also supervised his doctoral thesis at UI as well, in the process of which he had identified Ebeogu’s talent for academic work, and did not hesitate in getting him employed as a young research fellow in the same university, after he had bagged his doctorate. When coincidentally within this period that Imo state university was established by then Imo State Governor Chief Sam Mbakwe and Echeruo emerged as the vice chancellor, he naturally got his loyal and suitable mentee along to start as one of the pioneer staff of the university.

So, the symbolism of Ebeogu’s scholarly analysis of Echeruo’s contributions to folk literature is to underscore the wisdom in Igbo aphorism,” he that pays respect to the great paves the way to his own greatness.” Perhaps, this is why Prof. Isidore Diala’s piece on Echeruo features at this point to show the unbreakable chain of influences. While Echeruo taught Ebeogu, Ebeogu then taught Diala, the latter a brilliant and intellectually accomplished scholar. Both Ebeogu and Diala in their assessments of Echeruo’s primal essay “Dramatic Limits of Igbo Ritual” credits him with far-reaching insights on the difference between western drama and African rituals as drama with specific references to indigenous rituals like the Odo festival of Enugu state. The scholars do not gloss over the disagreements with Echeruo’s thesis by some other respected scholars like Obiechina, Enekwe and even the Chinweizu troika but made robust arguments to underscore the dynamism of African rituals in incorporating some globally recognised features of standard drama or performance literature. Ebeogu goes further to laud Echeruo’s pioneering work on Igbo- English dictionary, which took quite some time to birth. This is to show Echeruo’s patriotic service to Ndigbo and Igbo scholarship in general. It is noteworthy that the grandfather, Echeruo is still alive, the son, Prof. Ebeogu also going strong and the grandson, so to speak, Diala, is still in the full flush of academic dawn.

Other interesting essays in this section include, “Strong Women behind Weak Men” by Prof. Chinyere Nwahunanya, one of the early lecturers in the department. Through close references to some known myths surrounding some legends in such epics as Mwindo, Sunjiata, etc. Nwahunanya exposes the metaphysical underpinnings of African epics. The rest of the essays here by F. U. Chima, Uchenna Oken et al , Peter E. Omoko, and Psalms Chinaka expose the adaptability of orature to specific cultural entities in Nigeria such as the people of Edda in Urhobo and Iwa Akwa festival of Obowo in Imo state.

Most of the essays in Section C cut across different genres of drama, prose fiction, poetry and literary criticism. Perhaps, this accounts for the large number of articles herein compared to other sections. Indeed, it contains 16 articles which are thoroughly researched and presented. Leading the pack is the essay by Prof. JOJ Nwachukwu-Agbada, my first degree project supervisor. In the piece entitled “The Structure of Protest in South African Drama of Apartheid Era”, Nwachukwu-Agbada illustrates the tension and racial discriminatory tendencies prevalent in this period with the work of H. I. E. Dhlomo titled, The Girl Who Killed to Save. It is interesting to note that Dholomo has also been studied and anthologized in many earlier collections of poetry as one of the pioneer African poets. Notable also is that more than half of the articles in this section are based on the writings of women authors, including an eco-critical reading of Akachi Ezeigbo’s Violated Ogoni Women, Chika Unigwe’s On Black Street Sisters and Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah, Tess Onwueme’s Shakara and Irene Salami’s Sweet Revenge, Flora Nwapa’s works, etcetera. Prof. Uzoma Nwokocha’s deconstructive reading of Ngugi’s The Trial of Dedan Kumathi, a la reader-response theory of criticism is engaging. Iheanachor Vitus Obi’s critical perspective of Ebeogu’s poetry is thorough and refreshing. He is able to define the subgenre of poetry in which Ebeogu’s poems belong, seeing it as a cut from the common ideological backdrop of Odia Ofeimun’s poetry as seen in his work The Poet Lied. He establishes the fact that Ebeogu’s poetry is “audience driven poetry not seduced by the beauty of ordering for its own sake”, further stating that the poet “avoided the predilection for esoteric language..”

Similarly, Uchenna David Uwakwe brilliantly examines Ebeogu’s play, Madmajor which is a reflection of the Nigerian civil war. He argues that the description of the majors who were involved in the coup d’etat of 1967 which culminated in the outbreak of the genocide that led to the mindless extermination of lives was a result of madness but alas, this is apparently a positive affliction of Agwu, going by Igbo metaphysics. In the play the characters come alive through apt deployment of the device of allegory and symbolism in which some of them approximated some key personalities during the war such as Dim Odumegwu (Yakubu) Gowon, (Chukwuma) Nzeogwu, and a host of others.

In Section D there are five well- written articles bordering on language and it’s deft application to texts or social issues. First is a critical discourse analysis of Prof. Ebeogu’s drama, In the Light of Change by Prof. Godwin Emezue. Using Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), he is able to demonstrate the various linguistic, relational, existential and behavioural processes involved in the analysis of the text to show the predicament of Ugomma, a woman who suffers punitive measures in the hands of the Umuada who accuse her wrongly of the death of her husband. Other essays in this section such as ‘Pragmatic Language and Meliorism’ in the speeches of Bush and Obama, Ethnic Stereotypes Reference terms in Nigeria also expertly applied standard rhetorical elements of meliorism and humorous nomenclatures in stereotyping different ethnic groupings in Nigeria.

Obinna Ibezim and Uchechukwu Agbo’s piece, “Language and Technological Backwardness in Third World Countries: The Nigerian Example” addresses empirically the sensitive issue of a Lingua Franca that should be in use in the public spaces including in the educational and technological sectors of Nigeria. This article by Ibezim, as I read it, spread goosebumps on me given that the author, a Venerable of the Anglican Church and a former HOD of English department at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu- Alike (AEFUNAI) had passed on to eternity over two years ago. This was certainly one of his last academic efforts before his demise. Interestingly, he was also one of the former students of Afam Ebeogu. Agbo, for his part, is our former student at AEFUNAI who is a doctoral student in the US.

In the concluding section E, two major essays dominate namely, “Plagiarism: The Hemlock of Intellectual Indiscretion” and “The Igbo: Reflections on their Origin and Nascent Cultural Nationalism”. These essays remarkably have contemporary relevance, and I recommend it to all scholars operating in the academia and the larger society. With regard to the Igbo history and the contentions thereto in addition to the proper perspectivization of Igbos place in history and plausible and acceptable narratives, the last chapter is germane. In fact some of the issues raised by the writer were addressed by the recent Ohanaeze Ndigbo retreat that held in Enugu, especially in the keynote presented by Engr. Chris Okoye titled, “The Ohaneze We Desire in the 21st Century.” The new leadership of the apex Igbo body, headed by Senator Azuta Mbata, announced the inauguration of professorial chairs in seven universities in Ala Igbo where Igbo history, language and culture will be studied as academic programmes.

However, as good and relevant as the content of the book is, a revised edition will benefit from further editing to improve on the quality of the work. For me, what is lacking in the work is a chapter devoted to the peculiar pedagogy of Prof. Ebeogu in the classroom. This deserves a closer study, seeing that many of us who passed through Ebeogu were greatly influenced by his unique style of teaching. In the classroom, Ebeogu is a performing artist, who sees classroom from the perspective of the Romantic poets who saw a tryst with nature as a heroic act. Would I ever forget to replay in my mind’s eye, Ebeogu’s poise and posture before the class as he bellowed to a student, the last to saunter into his lecture room, “Shut the door so that there will be no disturbance as I perform…”, as he punched the syllables for stress and emphasis?

To this end, I strongly recommend this compendium produced in honour of our great teacher to all lovers of wisdom, knowledge and experience garnered over many years of devoted services to one’s fatherland, vocation and profession. It is recommended to the academia, research institutes, governments, curators and librarians and indeed all curious minds in quest for more illumination.

* Dr. Otu teaches English at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu- Alike, Ebonyi State