In Honor Of The Great Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike

Chukwuemeka Ike (1931-2020)

BY PRINCESS MIKKY ATTAH

I mourned within me late last year when I read of the death of Dr Ore Falomo, late Chief M.K.O Abiola’s personal physician. That was because I had a secret to share with him I would never again be able to. But concerning this demise now, I will not keep this secret so that, possibly, a grieving widow’s multiplied pains would be eased. In a most unsavoury way, I have stumbled on news that has led me to conclude that Professor Chukwuemeka Ike died from a grieving heart; one that was not only broken, but shattered by sorrows and pains of tragedies, in addition to family issues gone terribly wrong.

This is how it all went for me – upon hearing of the demise of one of Africa’s greatest novelists, Chukwuemeka Ike, as many people heard too, I ‘clicked online’ to sympathise with my lifelong “Big Brother” , Prince Osita Ike, the only son of Chukwuemeka Ike. As I was browsing, I was making mental plans to support Prince Osita and travel to Anambra, their homestead for his famous father’s burial, once he let me know the date.

The page on my phone opened and I was hit by what seemed like thunderbolt that struck me right in the forehead – Prince Osita Ike Dead! What? When? How? I was filled with grief, and was confused. I scrolled further down only to find out that he had even passed on since December 2016!

Where in the world have I been then? In the midst of my sorrow, my mind flew to his precious parents. Oh no, the trauma of losing your one son, I thought. And just three years later, Prince Osita’s mother now becoming a widow! It was simply tragic. However, I got thinking and, knowing that Chukwuemeka Ike was also an Igbo monarch, his burial would not be done in a hurry. My resolve to attend, whenever announced became even stronger, in honour of the memory of Prince Osita.

A few days back, I went browsing again in search of news of the great wordsmith’s transition arrangements. Firstly, I reckoned I should check for the Anambra airport, and flights going there. Big shock there – there is NO AIRPORT at all in Anambra – an old, old state, a state of renown; a bastion of national productivity! I was astounded. The nearest airport is Asaba Airport in Delta, state-built; even though that’s a federal preserve. Worse, it’s 32km away from Anambra, on federal roads that are notoriously dangerously dilapidated! Pressing on with my main task nevertheless, I got to discover a much sadder state of affairs with the Ikes, much worse than I ever imagined. In fact, reading through people’s responses on social media to the whole scenario, l saw one saying that it all sounded “more like a movie script”- Tookool (Nairaland.com). One pointedly asked why the Prince’s estranged wife would kill a son and also kill the father! I was reading from bottom up, so MORE questions came to my mind- estranged wife? Who is killing who, and killing who else?

But before all the mystery:

His Majesty, Eze Professor Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike OFR, Eze Ikelionwu XI, Ugwu Aro- foremost Nigerian novelist passed away in Nnewi, Anambra State on the 19th of January 2020 at 88. Chukwuemeka Ike was a distinguished scholar, renowned author, former Registrar of WAEC, university don as well as administrator; and visiting professor at the University of Jos. He was also the traditional ruler of Ikelionwu Kingdom of Anambra. Chukwuemeka Ike was a prolific novelist and author of: Sunset at Dawn, The Potter’s Wheel, Toads for Supper, The Naked Gods, Expo 77, and Our Children Are Coming, among several others.. He was married to Bimpe; Ugoeze Professor Adebimpe Ike, librarian emeritus. They met as students in the then University College, Ibadan. Chukwuemeka Ike later lectured at his alma mater. He was the first Nigerian to hold the post of Registrar of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). He was also the first indigenous Registrar of UNN. He co-ordinated the Nigerian Book Foundation for many years. His wife, a library scientist, has a doctorate degree. His grandson, Chukwuemeka Junior, is named after him.

Prof Ike was just three months to his 89th birthday when he passed on in January 2020. Reports say his health went downhill after the sudden death of his son, Prince Osita in 2016. It gets even more tragic. The Ike family had for over a decade been denied access to their only grandson! Chukwuemeka Ike died of the heartbreak of it all!

What really happened was that Prince Osita had gotten married to Princess Osaru, the daughter of Professor Emmanuel Emovon , and they had a son as earlier said. Prof Emmanuel Emovon – CON, FAS – is the Ogbayagbona of Benin Kingdom. I also know that his wife is the daughter of an Edo king, as well as being an academic herself. But Prince Osita’s marriage ended in bitter separation and he was in the process of getting a proper divorce before he died suddenly in 2016 of an asthma attack. When they separated, his wife took their son away to an unknown destination; this happened when the boy was 11 years old ( he is now 21). I never knew any of this till three days back when I made another attempt at getting any burial information, online and then through phone calls.

Attah can be reached via Twitter @mikky_princess

The Nigerian King Who Served Toads For Supper

BY NDUKA OJINMO

Nigerian author Chukwuemeka Ike, who died last month at the age of 88, helped define Nigerian culture, but never received the international acclaim he deserved, writes the BBC's Nduka Orjinmo in Lagos.

Ike will be remembered for his novels but his legacy will also live on in an important word in Nigeria's lexicon.

Say "expo" to anyone here and they immediately know what you are talking about - exam malpractice.

Ike helped popularise the term when he penned Expo 77, a novel based on the true story of how top secret school-leaving exam papers were leaked twice in 1977.

Ironically, he was in charge of the exam board when the leaks happened, and chose to vent his frustration about the way society encouraged malpractice - from parents to students to school administrators - through his literary work.

His writing gave voice both to contemporary concerns and also to a defence of African - and more specifically his Igbo - culture.

While the literary themes of the time were focused on the conflict that existed between the West and Africa, he was one of the earliest writers to capture the tide of the emerging cosmopolitan Nigeria.

He did not just excavate the ethos of Africa from bygone times, he also reflected the present: bringing to life everyone from the politicians to the prostitutes, and prophesied the palavers that were to come.
Morphing into a leopard

He was satirical, lampooning institutions with humour that was acerbic and he enjoyed it. He poked fun at the foibles of modern Nigeria.

In Toads for Supper, his first book, he dealt with the theme of love in a beautifully humorous way that exposed the tensions in multi-ethnic Nigeria.

Set in a Nigerian university in the west of Africa's most-populous state, it tells the story of a new student, Amadi, who is the first to go to university from his village in eastern Nigeria.

The book captured what it meant to be an Igbo student in western Nigeria before the civil war, sparked by the creation of a breakaway Igbo state, Biafra, in 1967.

Ike responded to the civil war - a defining period of Nigeria's history - with Sunset at Dawn.

He would later try to distinguish between Biafra and Biafranism. He described the latter as representative of "those things that made us great in Biafra".

But in the book, he described the tragedy that unfolded through Fatima who is fleeing enemy planes with her young son.

In the magical-realist Bottled Leopard, he managed to hold a generation spellbound. It was no doubt helped by the fact that the book was compulsory reading for secondary school students studying literature.

It is the story of a schoolboy who has been chosen by his ancestors to bear the mystical power of his lineage: the power to morph into a leopard.

Most people see Bottled Leopard as Ike's defining work, but this could be down to the fact that it was forced on a generation of readers.
Achebe's influence

Born into a royal family in the eastern part of Nigeria, Ike was a student at the famous Government College Umuahia, a breeding ground for the country's finest post-colonial writers.

Literary icon Chinua Achebe was his senior at the school and Ike once told an interviewer that Achebe had inspired his writing.

"In fact, I never thought of writing novels until Chinua Achebe published his Things Fall Apart in 1958," he said.

Maybe it was not such a good thing to be an Igbo writer in the same generation as Achebe.

Some believe this short-changed Ike and that his writing deserved a larger audience.

The same could be said of the other gifted Nigerian writers of that generation: Cyprian Ekwensi, Mabel Segun and Elechi Amadi. Their brilliance seems to have been overshadowed by literary giants such as Achebe and Wole Soyinka.

It was a generation of writers that had the difficult task of transferring oral aspects of indigenous languages into loose English translations with sometimes inchoate outcomes.

It is in this regard that Ike's legacy cannot be denied, his place in literature stands as tall as the others.

For he more than most, succinctly captured the conversation style of a people in a multi-ethnic, multilingual nation.

He reflected their ability to switch from simple English, to bombast, to peer-group slang, to pidgin English and native language.

In Expo 77, a policeman's reaction to a girl using a sanitary pad to help cheat in an exam, captured Ike's writing style fittingly:

"'Jesu Christi Oluwa wa!' the assistant superintendent exclaimed. He was Yoruba. 'Jehova Witness dem people say Armageddon go come in five year time. 'E don' come patapata! Olorun!' He snapped his fingers."

In 2008, he would go from defending his culture in the pages of a book to defending it on the throne as the king of Ndikelionwu in eastern Nigeria. He took the throne following the death of his father.
Tackling animal sacrifice

The Ike family has ruled Ndikelionwu for decades but his people were yet to encounter one who wanted to preserve the monarchy by changing things.

In 2018, he asked his people to stop offering animal sacrifices to the land goddess Ala during the new yam festival.

Instead, he wanted a Christian thanksgiving service at the Anglican church where a front row seat was usually reserved for his family.

The writer, who spoke up for African culture in his work, and wrote about men transmuting into leopards, felt animal sacrifices should no longer be associated with his people and many of them agreed with him.

As a king, he respected the egalitarian nature of his people and was largely democratic, working with a small council to reach decisions.

They describe him as humble and the peace-maker who ruled with a firm hand.

His people say he is not dead as a king does not die, but rather goes to be with his ancestors. They refuse to speak of his death, neither do they refer to him in the past.

It is the sort of attitude that Ike may have been proud of.

This king may be dead but he lives on in his writing.

SOURCE: BBC

CHUKWUEMEKA IKE: NO MORE TOADS FOR SUPPER

Chukwuemeka Ike

BY OKECHUKWU UWAEZUOKE

Could something about his poise have elicited so much awe? When Indian-born Professor Kanchana Ugbabe described Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike as a “gentle giant”, she had intended the words to be understood not only metaphorically, but also literally. The University of Jos-based professor did indeed specifically allude to both the author’s impressive literary stature and his imposing physique as well as his calm, cool and collected mien. This was while she was delivering a keynote address at the Authors’ Forum, organised in 2015 by the University Press in Ibadan as one of the nationwide events commemorating the 50 years of the author’s literary odyssey since he wrote Toads for Supper. First, there was a literary fiesta, featuring drama, music and prose presentations at the Princess Alexandra Auditorium of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Then, Learn Africa held a Jubilee Book Programme in his honour at the Nigerian International Book Fair, held at the University of Lagos.

Ugbabe had also in her address regaled the audience with the impression the Indian poet, novelist and short-story writer Lakshmi Kannan had of Professor Ike when the duo met at the International Writing Programme held in 1987 at the U. S. city of Iowa. Ike, she quoted Kannan as saying, “paraded with dignity, holding his head high unmindful of the petty goings-on in the jungle”, much like a “black panther”.

According to Ugbabe, Kannan had not only talked about Ike as “soft-spoken, his voice low and well-bred, his language bearing an unmistakable stamp of refinement and culture”, but also as “incredibly modest” and with “a natural inclination to respect the person he was speaking to.”

Perhaps, it was this placid disposition that helped Ike survive the emotional upheaval that assailed him when his only son, Osita, died towards the end of 2016. A little more than three years later, the first generation Nigerian novelist would also breathe his last a few months to his 89th birthday. This was on Thursday, January 8 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital in the Anambra State industrial town Nnewi.

Expectedly, an outpouring of tributes from the literary community trailed his demise. For he was indeed a leading first-generation Nigerian writer, who Sentinel Literary Quarterly said had “produced more novels than many of his contemporaries.”

Yet, the publication of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart in 1958 was the prodding he needed to become a novelist. It took another seven years for his first novel Toads for Supper to be published in 1965. This was after several rejections by publishers. He had since written other works like Toads Forever, The Naked Gods, The Potter’s Wheel, The Chicken Chasers, Sunset at Dawn, Conspiracy of Silence, The Search, The Bottled Leopard, Our Children Are Coming and Expo ’77. He had, besides, published an instructional book, titled How to Become a Published Writer and founded The Nigerian Book Foundation, in a bid to advance the cause of literature, creative writing and literacy in Nigeria. These latter endeavours attested to his interest in grooming young writers and fostering a book reading culture in the larger society.

Even before the publication of his first novel, Ike once told Sentinel Literary Quarterly of October 2008 that he wrote short stories because none of his contemporaries believed they could write novels. The novels they used to read in those days were written by British authors. Hence he said: “What actually made me feel that the time had come for me to attempt writing a novel was when my friend, Chinua Achebe, published hisThings Fall Apart in 1958. We were friends during our secondary school days, university days and even after graduation. The fact that he could do it encouraged me to start a novel. Things Fall Apart inspired me. And by 1962, I had completed a novel, which I titled, ‘ Toads for Supper.’ But it took some times of rejection before it was eventually published in 1965.”

The novel, Toads for Supper, which was published by Longman, is an engaging novel set in the fictitious University of Southern Nigeria. Laced with humour, it delves into the issues that confront lovers and couples from different ethnic backgrounds in Nigeria. Its plot is woven around the main characters: a first-year history student of the university, Amadi Chukwuka; his campus friend and second-year history student, Chima; a Yoruba-speaking female undergraduate of the same university, Aduke Olowu; a semi-educated Lagos street girl, Sweetie M. Akpore and Nwakaego Ikwuaju, a girl from his village Ezinkwo in the Igbo-speaking south-eastern Nigeria who was betrothed to him from childhood years.

Amadi’s desperate bid to woo Aduke’s love triggers off a series of events that spiral to a tragic conclusion of the novel’s comic storyline. Ironically, Ike was able to surmount the challenges of inter-ethnic relationships and marriages he described in the novel with his marriage to a Yoruba woman. “A perceptive reader of the novel might go away concluding that the author supports inter-ethnic marriage prohibition,” a Lagos-based cultural activist and brand management consultant Ernie Onwumere writes. “His personal marital life contradicts that assumption.”

Unresolved issues in Toads for Supper were later addressed in a sequel titled Toads Forever, published in 2008. “To resolve some of the issues, I have recently published a sequel to the novel,” he told Sentinel Literary Quarterly of October 2008. “People from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya etc. have been pressurising me over the years, so I have now tried to resolve the issues. It is titled Toads Forever and published by Longman. You will find that the end is different. In the novel, I tried to stress the fact that ethnicity should not be allowed to ruin this country. There is nothing wrong with an Igbo person befriending a Hausa person or even marry each other, in case of the male-female relationship. That is the main message in the novel.” In response to the accusation that his novels are obsessed with the past rather than focus on the present social realities, he told the publication: “Some issues are timeless. But, I’ve also written novels that do not follow that pattern, novels that are written for the period in which they are published.” One of such novels, he explained was Conspiracy of Silence, which – published in 2001 – dwelt on the social consequences of estranged, illegitimate, fatherless children born out of wedlock and incest.

Then, there was also his only detective novel, Expo ’77, which was based on his experience as the head of the West African Examination Council (known by its acronym WAEC). He wanted, through the novel, to draw attention to the fact that the problem of examination malpractices was an environmental one rather than one that could be fought in isolation.

Perhaps, Sunset at Dawn, which documents his eyewitness experience of the horrors of the Nigerian Civil War and The Search – an exposé on the Nigerian society’s endless search for solutions to issues bordering on military coups, corruption, ineptitude, neo-colonialism and ethnicity – also qualified as novels, which focus on the present social realities.

The late patriarch of Nigerian literature, having served as the WAEC registrar, became the first Nigerian registrar of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. After the Nigerian Civil War, he concurrently served as both the pro-chancellor and then vice-chancellor as the chairman of the university’s management committee for 18 months. Later, after a stint as a professor of English Literature at the University of Jos, he also became the pro-chancellor and chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Benin.

Ike, who studied history, English and religious studies at the University of Ibadan and had a master’s degree from the Stanford University in the U.S., was also the traditional ruler of his native Ndikelionwu, which is an Aro settlement in Anambra State. He held the title Ikelionwu XI until his death.

In a condolence message to his family and the people of Ndikelionwu, the Anambra State Governor Willie Obiano described him as one of the state’s greatest assets and totems of excellence, adding the state “shall find strength and consolation in his examplary life and the legacies he left for mankind through his literary works and stellar contributions to the traditional institution in Anambra state.”
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, in Abuja on Saturday, the President condoled with family, friends and associates of the traditional ruler.

Similarly, President Buhari said in a statement by his special adviser on media and publicity, Femi Adeshina, that the late author will always be remembered for his exceptional creativity in communicating wisdom in simple ways through his books.

SOURCE: THIS DAY LIVE

Tribute To HM Professor Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike

Chukwuemeka Ike.

BY EMEKA ANYAOKU

I am saddened by the news of the passing of HM Professor Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike. Vincent Ike was one of the creative writers celebrated all over the world.

After the publication of his first novel, Toads for Supper in 1965, and seven other successive works - The Naked Gods (1970); The Potter's Wheel (1973); Sunset at Dawn (1976); Expo '77 (1980); The Chicken Chasers (1980); The Bottled Leopard (1985); and Our Children Are Coming (1990) - Vincent Ike unquestionably entered into the African pantheon of literary fame.

I first met Vincent Ike at the then University College of Ibadan when I enrolled as a student in 1954. He was one of my seniors whose conduct I sought to emulate. His wife, Ugoeze (Prof) Adebimpe Ike was my contemporary in Ibadan. She is in her own right a distinguished literary figure having attained her professorship in library science. She now speaks Igbo more fluently than many Ndi Igbo.

Vincent Ike's life was much more than writing. He was a long-standing University Professor and administrator, and also served for many years as the Registrar of the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

He was a distinguished traditional ruler, HM The Ikelionwu XI of Ndikelionwu in Anambra State and until his death unflinchingly devoted to the sustenance of Igbo culture and history. The resuscitation of society through the vehicle of history and culture was one task that he as a traditional ruler never shied away from, a task that he uncompromisingly deployed his literary creativity to serve. His writings, I dare say, justify the theory that a people without definable culture has no identity.

Unfortunately, the efforts of our heroes like Vincent Ike appear now to be threatened by the increasing deterioration in the standard of teaching and education in our primary and secondary schools; and even also in our tertiary institutions. I refer here especially to the decline in the teaching of the English Language.

As is well known, English Language is now increasingly the universal means of communication. This is notwithstanding the fact that there are different versions and dictions of English - the American English, the Nigerian English, and other national versions of English. However, Vincent Ike and people of our generation were taught England's English; that is, the English language as written and spoken by the educated English men and women; his novels have attested to that. It is the English language as written by Vincent Ike that I urge our schools and colleges to learn.

On the issue of the decline in the quality of education in our nation, I continue to question the rationale that led to the stoppage of the teaching of history in a developing country like ours. We must insist on the full restoration of the teaching of history, especially Nigerian and African history, in all our secondary schools and colleges. As Cicero, the great Roman philosopher cum orator and statesman said, "to be ignorant of the past, is to remain always a child".

The importance of learning our own history from our own perspective is that it not only gives us confidence, it also makes real the concept of equality in our relations with other peoples. The perspective of Africa from Europe is essentially condescending which does not build a sense of equality, or make for mutual respect between African people and other peoples, especially those in the Eurocentric world.

I mourn HM Professor Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike, Ikelionwu X1, as an illustrious novelist and Africanist, a great lover of his people and country, and an exemplary patriot and public servant.

My wife and I convey our deepest condolence to his widow, Ugoeze Bimpe, his grandson Chukwuemeka, the family and the people of Ndikelionwu. We pray that his soul will rest in perfect peace.