Some Ndi-Onicha Exemplars of "Style"

Some Ndi-Onicha Exemplars of “Style”

In this page, I provide a list — with links — of Esssays I have written regarding various Onitsha People who i encountered in Onitsha during 1960-62 (and to some extent later),, and who seem to me to exemplify some significant patterns of Onitsha character.

This is in no way a full depiction of Onitsha characters — quite the contrary! I could not begin to form such a list. It is also not a list of the Onitsha people” I admired the most”, though in some sense I have admired all of them, since I’ve taken the trouble to record my impressions in some detail (drastically incomplete though thse impressions are). Had I sought to depict people I most admired, they would include (for minimal example) Okunwa T.B. Apom, Akunne F. I. Oranye, T.C. Ikemefuna, Ifekandu Umunna, Merci Erokwu, Byron Maduegbuna”s mother Priscilla (Nne-Ukwu, to her offspring), and a considerable nnuber of others I won’t try to list here.

Nor have I tried to pick people who in some sense struck me as outstandingly peculiar regardless of “character quality”. Had I donne that, I woul dfor example include Akunne Ediboss Okolonji, a person so spectacularly distinctive that I have wondered about him ever since. He was surely a marvel to behold, but I stayed as far away as I could for fear he might make of me some kind of public joke. (He was one version of what Onitsha people cal a l “Clown”, impulsively entertaining people with his unpredictable, often ribald humor.)

With that (perhaps rather distracting) introduction, I present this list of characters (and stories).

Some Ndi-Onicha Exemplars of “Style”

Byron Maduegbuna, a Native Anthropologist

Obiekwe Aniweta, Pretean Man

Peter Achukwu (Ochanja)

M. O. Ibeziako (Onoli)

Scatterings of Truth: in Memory of Mbanefo Odu II

Barrister Emejulu’s Ini-Ozo

Onuora Nzekwu’s Creaative Imagination