In Ebulue, culture meets hard work, godliness

A review of Chiedozie Udeze’s Ebulue; Prestige Books, 215pgs; 2017.

It’s important to celebrate milestones and this is what Chiedozie Udeze has done in Ebulue, the biography of his parents, Nze Eyisi Ozoekwe and Lolo Iyom Udeze, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2017.

It isn’t every couple that is privileged to mark their wedding’s golden jubilee in perfect health and prosperity but since God favoured them, their first child felt it was best to chronicle their compelling life stories.

Over 200 pages of text and photos, the author shares his parents’ struggles, their love for one another and their children, their dedication to God and passion for Igbo culture. He profiles a couple who overcame life’s odds through hard work, foresight, perseverance, resourcefulness and reliance on God.

Though an architect, the author deploys crisp language to narrate the grass to riches stories of his parents, who have become role models to countless young people in the Umudioka community of Neni, Anambra State and across the country

Chronological, the first part of Ebulue tells the story of Ozoekwe Udeze, the future Nze Eyisi Ebulue II. Ozoekwe didn’t have an easy childhood. His parents were indigent and he had it rough. The young boy started following them to the farm from an early age and didn’t begin schooling until age 12 in 1946, a year after World War II ended.  Sadly, he couldn’t continue to secondary school after successfully completing primary school because his parents didn’t have the money. His efforts to raise money from relatives and others failed so he becomes an apprentice to one of his sponsors, Chief Leonard Agbasi, a trader in Otukpo, Benue State. After several years of apprenticeship, the young man and passionate advocate of Igbo culture set out on his own. A resourceful and enterprising young man, he steadily established his own businesses, including Okacha Petrol which exists to date.

Part two of the biography centres on Veronica Atufunwanandu Obiesie, who would later become Udeze’s wife. Like her husband, her background in Umueze, one of the 10 villages that make up Neni, was also tough. In fact, she left the village and went to live with one of her half-sisters in Aba. It was in the commercial city that she realised the importance of education. She returned to Umueze, started attending evening lessons with adults and eventually moved to the normal school. Despite starting school several years behind her mates, Veronica catches up with them and goes ahead to qualify as a registered nurse.

Part three of Ebulue is about how Ozoekwe, having become a successful businessman and well over 30 years old, went about getting a wife. He marries Veronica on February 5, 1967, at St. Patricks Church, Enugu, months before the commencement of the Nigerian Civil War.  Like most people in the East, the couple were not spared the effects of the war. They fled from Enugu and returned to Neni where Veronica had her first child, Ogochukwu. Sadly, it was a difficult birth and the baby was impaired. Ogochukwu later died but God consoled the couple with four others; Chiedozie, Nchekubechukwu, Obianuju and Chioma.

The couple’s new beginning in Enugu after the end of the war is the author’s focus in Part Four. Here, he recalls how his father rebuilt his businesses and Veronica’s progression in her nursing career. Udeze also narrates how his siblings and himself were raised in a loving home where the rod was not spared by their mother. The author, who refers to himself throughout the book in the second person, also touches on his parents’ philanthropy, huge investments in quality education for the children, love for God and immersion into Igbo culture.

That love for Igbo culture resonates throughout the biography as seen in the book cover, the crafted hand fan of Nze Eyisi Ebulue and the fact that God is referred to as Chineke throughout the book. This, though might have had to do with the fact that Udeze’s ancestors were Nwadiokas, traditional tattooists and herbalists who gave people the ichi (mark). The NzeEyisiEbulue’s passion for culture and especially his role in the revival of NkaDioka Festival as the first President of Umudioka Community would, later, bring him into conflict with the Catholic Church which excommunicated him.

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Not one to be denied his relationship with his beloved Chineke, the Nze Eyisi Ebulue promptly joined the Orthodox Church. Fittingly, the 2016 edition of the Nkadioka Arts and Cultural Festival was dedicated to Eyisi Ebulue and Lolo Udeze for their contribution to its growth and that of Umudioka as the biographer tells us in Part Five. A traditional man to the core, Nze Eyisi Ebulue goes out till date in the full traditional attire of his office. The last part of the book tells the reader about the Udezes grandchildren, how the couple is enjoying their old age, taking each day as “a gift they unwrap together, with shaking hands and bright eyes,” and tributes.

Well written and published by Prestige, an imprint of Kachifo Limited, some of the important lessons highlighted in Ebulue include resourcefulness, perseverance, and godliness, upholding culture and celebrating impactful lives, all of which are vital in today’s Nigeria. Chiedozie Udeze’s effort to showcase these by chronicling the lives of his parents is commendable.