Onyeka Onwenu was a renowned personality whose image cut across journalism, music, acting, activism and politics. Like a colossus and, with her unique hairstyle, she bestrode the Nigerian landscape with her style of music and personality, thus aptly earning the appellate, the Elegant Stallion.
Onyeka Onwenu was simply elegant in every sense of the word. While on this part of the world, she was a notable personality: her voice resonated with both the rich and the poor, the low and the mighty, cutting across both genders. Put differently, Onyeka was a voice that cannot be ignored or stifled.
The sad news filtered in, in the early hours of Wednesday, 31 July, 2024, that Onyeka Onwenu, the lady with the golden voice, the woman whose face Nigerians are familiar with for about four decades has gone the way of the mortals, at the age of 72.
Onyeka reportedly died on Tuesday, 30 July at the Reddington Hospital, Lagos after performing at the birthday party of Mrs Stella Okoli. As the report had it, the Elegant Stallion went back to her seat after performing. She however later slumped and was immediately taken to Reddington Hospital. Alas, the golden voice can no longer be heard. Onyeka was confirmed dead; the Elegant Stallion has shedded mortality for immortality.
Onyeka Onwenu was a woman of of many parts. A renowned singer/songwriter, actress, human rights and social activist, journalist, politician and a former X Factor series judge. She made positive impacts on the society.
Onyeka was a voice that rose against oppression, maladministration and the rising insecurity across the country, particularly threatening the peaceful and hospitality reputation of her home state, Imo.
Birth And Education
Onyeka Onwenu was born 31 January, 1952. She hailed from Arondizuogu, a small town in Ideato North, Imo State, south-eastern Nigeria, but was raised in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Onyeka She is the youngest daughter of a Nigerian educationist and politician, D. K. Onwenu, who died in an auto crash when she was four years old. Thus, the widow, Hope, single-handedly raised Onyeka and four other siblings.
Onyeka Onwenu had BA (International Relations and Communication) from Wellesley College, Massachusetts, and MA (Media Studies) from The New School for Social Research, New York. Onyeka worked for the United Nations as a tour guide before returning to Nigeria in 1980 to complete her mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Lagos.
Onyeka Onwenu As A Broadcaster
As an employee of NTA, Onyeka made an impact as a newsreader and reporter. In 1984, she wrote and presented the internationally-acclaimed BBC/NTA documentary, Nigeria: A Squandering of Riches, which became the definitive film about corruption in Nigeria, as well as the intractable Niger Delta agitation for resource control and campaign against environmental degradation in the oil-rich region of Nigeria.
A former member of the NTA Board, Onyeka also worked as a TV presenter, hosting the shows, Contact (1988) and Who’s On? (1993), both on NTA Network.
Life As A Musician
Onyeka Onwenu began her recording career in 1981 while working with the NTA. She released the album, For The Love Of You, a pop album which featured an orchestral cover of Johnny Nash’s “Hold Me Tight”, produced by Berkley Jones.
Her second album was Endless Life, produced by Sonny Okosun, and included another cover – the Everley Brothers’ “Walk Right Back”. Both records were released under the EMI label.
Onwenu’s first album with Polygram, In The Morning Light, was released in 1984. Recorded in London, it featured the track Masterplan written by her close friend Tyna Onwudiwe, who had previously contributed to Onyeka’s BBC documentary and subsequently sang back-up vocals on the album.
In 1986, Onyeka released the monumental hit, One Love, which contained an updated version of the song, (In the) Morning Light, from the previous album. Another song, You and I, was re-recorded for the 2001 film, Conspiracy, starring Nkem Owoh and Onwenu herself.
For the 1988 album, Dancing In The Sun, Onwenu adopted a more Afrocentric sound. In the album, she collaborated with the mercurial King of Juju Music Chief Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye (aka KSA) veteran jùjú artist Sunny Ade on the track, Madawolohun (Let Them Say). This was the first of three songs the pair worked on together. The other two included Choices and Wait For Me (1989), which centred on family planning, and were endorsed by the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN) who used Choices in their PSA.
Dancing In The Sun, Onyeka Onwenu’s final release on Polygram, was dedicated to Winnie Mandela, former wife of the late South African President Nelson Mandela.
Onyeka Onwenu moved over to Benson and Hedges Music in 1992. She released the self-titled album, Onyeka, which was her only album with the label.
Thereafter, she made the transition from secular music to Christian/gospel music. Her collection, Inspiration For Change, focused on the need for attitudinal change in Nigeria.
Onyeka was in partnership with the Paris-based La Cave Musik, headed by a Nigerian cultural entrepreneur, Onyeka Nwelue and a UK-based Jungle Entertainment Ventures, headed by musicologist David Evans-Uhegbu. La Cave Musik is said to have worked on her collection titled Rebirth Of A Legend.
Onyeka Onwenu made the transition to gospel music in the 1990s, and most of her songs are self-penned. She continued to write and sing about issues such as health (HIV/AIDS), peace and mutual coexistence, respect for women’s rights and the plight of children.
In recognition of her contribution to music and arts in Nigeria, Onyeka was celebrated by professionals in the arts industry, including Mahmood Ali-Balogun, Laolu Akins, Charles O’Tudor and former PMAN President Tony Okoroji, among others.
Dubbed the Elegant Stallion by the Nigerian press, she was a former chairperson of the Imo State Council for Arts and Culture. In 2013, Onyeka Onwenu served as one of the three judges on X Factor Nigeria.
Acting Career of Onyeka Onwenu
Onyeka Onwenu’s first movie role was as Joke, a childless woman who adopted an abandoned baby in Zik Zulu Okafor’s Nightmare. She featured in numerous Nollywood movies. In 2006, Onyeka Onwenu won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in the movie Widow’s Cot. She was also nominated that same year for Africa Movie Academy Award for “Best Actress in a Leading Role” in the movie, Rising Moon. In 2014, Onyeka Onwenu featured in the movie, Half Of A Yellow Sun, with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandiwe Newton.
Filmography
The list of films in which Onyeka Onwenu featured in also included Nightmare Joke with Pete Edochie and Franca Brown; Not Your Wealth with Peter Bunor and Charles Okafor; Conspiracy with Nkem Owoh; Chain Reaction with Pete Edochie and Liz Benson; Government House; Women’s Cot with Joke Silva and Zack Orji. The film received four nominations and won one award at the Second Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2006; The Tyrant with Pete Edochie; Rising Moon with Stephanie Okereke; Every Single Day; Different World with Ramsey Nouah; To Love An Angel with Ramsey Nouah; The Trinity with Kanayo O. Kanayo; Lion Heart with Genevieve Nnaji, Phyno and Nkem Owoh; Muna Ndidi with Adesua Etomi, Adam Huss and Falz, among others.
Onyeka As A Politician
Onyeka Onwenu was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). She twice contested for and lost the bid to become the chairman of Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State, and lost at both attempts.
In 2013, Onyeka was appointed Chairperson of Imo State Council for Arts and Culture by former Governor Ikedi Ohakim. In September, same year, former President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Onyeka as the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the National Centre for Women Development.
Onyeka As An Activist
In 2000, Onwenu protested against her former employer, NTA for its refusal to pay royalties on her songs. NTA 2, Channel 5 had used her song, Iyogogo, a track from the album, Onyeka!, without asking for her permission. Thereafter the then NTA Director General, Ben Murray-Bruce, blacklisted her from transmission. Onyeka embarked on a hunger strike outside the station’s premises.
Onyeka Onwenu’s activism attracted widespread support from various artists, including Charly Boy, who lambasted Nigeria’s reluctance to pay royalties when songs are broadcast on television and radio. NTA resolved to settle the issue amicably but denied barring Onwenu from appearing on their channels. The protest was called off after six days when Onyeka Onwenu and NTA came to an arrangement regarding royalties.
Onyeka, A Core Private Person
Though always in the klieglights, and her fame and popularity notwistanding, Onyeka Onwenu, for most part of her lifetime, kept her personal life private. The late Elegant Stallion notably refused to disclose information regarding her marital life. She was only known to have had two children, Tijani and Abraham.
Onyeka Onwenu And Her Last Wish
While celebrating her 70th birthday in January, 2022, the veteran musician and actress ,Onyeka Onwenu, was reported to have asked her family to make her burial quick, quiet and private whenever she dies.
“I’ve told my family how I want to be buried. Do it quickly, quietly, and privately. Celebrate me with prayers, lunch or dinner afterward. Share some jokes about me and laugh. Mourn, but not excessively. Make merriment and then go about your business.
“If my friends want to celebrate me, they should do so while I’m alive, so I can enjoy it with them, not when I’m gone and have no idea,” Onyeka reportedly said.
As the world mourn the passage of an enigma; as Onyeka Onwenu dropped mortality for immortality, oblivious of happenings around her, the questions are: Can she be granted her last wish?; Would a people and a culture that feast on elaborate and lavish burial ceremony accept the last wish of a woman who put smile and hope on the faces and in the hearts of many people across Nigeria?
Adieu Onyeka Onwenu, the Elegant Stallion.
•Additional Report: Wikipedia
