IANA Blog- February 2022 Part I

Happy February everyone. As you all know, February is Black History Month…

Every Black History Month, we look back, honor, remember and recognize the important people and events in African-American history, but also in the history of the African Diaspora. While others try to erase Critical race theory in different parts of America, it is always important to keep our history alive and remember our history, especially since Black History is American history. I’ll even go further and say it’s World History.

If you celebrated Black History Month, you probably hear the usual Black icons mentioned (or as I like to call the usual suspects):

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Baptist Minister, Civil Rights Activist, One of the leaders/voices of the 1960s Civil Rights movement, Nobel Peace Prize winner)

-Malcolm X/El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Muslim Minister, Human Rights Activist, Former Spokesman for the Nation of Islam, Pan-Africanist, Founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity and Muslim Mosque, Inc.)

-Harriet Tubman (Abolitionist, Activist, Suffragist, Helped Rescue Slaves with Help of the Underground Railroad)

-Rosa Parks (Civil Rights Activist, Best Known for her Role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott)

-Frederick Douglass (Abolitionist, Orator, Statesman, Writer)

-Muhammad Ali (Professional Boxer, Entertainer, Poet, Activist, Philanthropist, Considered One of the Greatest Boxers/Athletes of All Time)

Depending on the teacher/educator you had or whoever taught you about Black History Month, you may have also learned about:

-Marcus Garvey (Jamaican Political Activist, Pan-Africanist, Black Nationalist, Founder of Universal Negro Improvement Association)

-Black Panther Party for Self Defense (Black Power Organization, Led by Dr. Huey P. Newton & Bobby Seale, Advocated for Class Struggle & Liberation for Black and Oppressed People)

-Angela Davis (Political Activist, Philosopher, Author, Professor at UC Santa Cruz, Advocate for Prison Abolition, Black Liberation, Black Feminism)

–Kwame Ture/Stokely Carmichael (Organizer in the 1960s Civil Rights movement & Pan-African movement, Prime Minister of the Black Panther Party, Leader of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party)

-Fred Hampton (Activist, Revolutionary, Chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party, Founder of the Rainbow Coalition)

-Shirley Chisolm (Politician, Educator, Author, First African-American Woman to be Elected to the U.S. Congress, First African-American Woman to Run as President)

-Maulana Kaurenga (Africana Studies Professor, Activist, Author, Active during the Black Power Movement, Co-Founder of the Us Organization, Creator of the Holiday Kwanzaa)

-W.E.B. DuBois (Sociologist, Historian, Civil Rights Activist, Pan-Africanist, Author, Writer, Editor, One of the Founders of the NAACP)

-Booker T. Washington (Educator, Author, Orator, Founder of the United Negro Business League)

-Carter G. Woodson (Historian, Author, Journalist, “The Father of Black History,” The Creator of Black History Month)

-Assata Shakur (Revolutionary, Political Activist, Former Member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army)

Since we are IANA and because it is Black History Month, I figured that we can look back, recognize and honor some of our icons to come from Issele-Uku and Delta State:

-Zulu Sofola (Playwright, Dramatist)

Nwazuluwa “Zulu” Onuekwukwe Sofola was born on June 22, 1935 in Issele-Uku. She attended Federal Government Primary School in Asaba and Baptist Girls High School in Agbor. She won a scholarship to complete her High School Education in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. After graduating High School, she went to Southern Baptist University, then transferred to Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia, USA and obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1959. She then obtained her Master of Arts Degree in Drama (Playwriting and Production) from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 1966. 

She then returned to Nigeria in 1966 to be a lecturer in the Department of Theater Arts at the University of Ibadan (where she would also complete her PhD in Theater Arts (Tragic Theory)). She became the first female Professor of Theater Arts in Africa. She continued to write plays, which ranked from “tragedy to comedy with traditional and modern African settings.” Her plays also covered many different issues such as gender, culture and community and used “elements of magic to examine conflicts involving male supremacy,” including her most performed plays, Wedlock of the Gods (1972) and The Sweet Trap (1977). She also represented Nigeria in the first International Women's Playwright Conference. She continued to write plays until her death on September 5, 1995.  Sofola was considered one of the most distinguished women in Nigerian literature and is still considered a key artist in the development of modern theater in Nigeria. 

-J.P. Clark (Poet, Playwright)

J.P. Clark (John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo) was born on April 6, 1935 in Kiagbodo, Delta State. Clark received his education at the Native Authority School, Okrika in Burutu, and the prestigious Government College in Ughelli, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English at the University of Ibadan. After graduation, he worked as an information officer in the Ministry of Information in Nigeria, as features editor for the Daily Express, and as research fellow at the Institute of African Studies for the University of Ibadan. He was also a professor of English at the University of Lagos, until 1980 and also was co-editor for the literary magazine, Black Orpheus. 

Clark was well known for his poetry. A lot of his poems focused on violence, protest, corruption, European colonialism and the inhumanity of the human race. Clark also dealt with these themes through interweaving indigenous African imagery and Western literary tradition. Many of his poems include A Reed in the Tribe (1965), State of the Union (1981) and Mandela and Other Poems (1998). He was also a dramatist and his work consists of plays such as Song of a Goat (1961), The Raft (1964) and The Boat (1981).

He became known as one of Africa’s most distinguished authors and continued to play a role in literary affairs. In 1991, he received the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award for literary excellence. He also received publication by Howard University of his volumes, The Ozidi Saga and Collected Plays and Poems 1958-1988. In 2015, the Society of Young Nigerian Writers founded the JP Clark Literary Society, aimed at promoting many of his works. Clark died on October 13, 2020.

-Ben Okri (Poet, Novelist)

Ben Okri was born on March 15, 1959 in Minna. He is of Igbo and Urhobo descent. He attended primary school in Peckham, London, England.  He and his family moved back to Nigeria in 1966 and he attended schools in Ibadan and Ikenne. Exposure to the Nigerian Civil War helped give inspiration to Okri’s fiction. In 1978, Okri moved back to London to study Comparative Literature at Essex University with a grant from the Nigerian government.

After struggling with homelessness during his college years, he published his first novel in 1980, called Flowers and Shadows and rose to international acclaim. He also served as poetry editor of West Africa magazine and contributed to BBC World Service between 1983-1985.

He is considered one of the foremost African authors in postmodern and postcolonial traditions. He also has focused on magical realism, Yoruba folklore, and existentialism. He has been compared to authors such as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His best known work, The Famished Road won the 1991 Booker Prize and has won many other awards including being given the Order of the British Empire in 2001 and the Honorary Doctorate of Literature in the University of Essex. In 2012, Okri was appointed as Vice President of the Caine Prize for African Writing.

-Obi Henry Ezeagwuna II (Nigerian Royal)

Obi Henry Ezeagwuna II was a Nigerian royal and was the traditional leader of Issele-Uku. He continued his reign as king until he was killed in a traffic accident on August 9, 2014.  Ndudi Elumelu, a member representing Aniocha/Oshimili federal constituency in the House of Representatives said that Obi was “the forefront of lasting peace in Aniocha North and Anioma.”

The reign of the king was passed down to his son, Nduka, who was ordained on December 29, 2016, taking over for his late father.

-Rev. Dr. S.W. Martin (Baptist Pastor)

Reverend Dr. S.W. Martin (Olisemeke Samuel Nwadei) was born in Ogboli Village in 1875. He followed his father’s footsteps and became a farmer. He then worked for a river boatman named Tom Lewis. They traveled to distant places around the Niger River. 

After that, he was approached by a White missionary named Rev. A.E. Martin, who was stationed in the Benue River and asked to be a steward. He then learned Hausa language by freed slaves and formed a habit of praying. He would soon accept Jesus Christ as his savior. Rev. Martin took Olisemeke to America, first to New York and later he attended Washburn College in Kansas, then studied at a Military Academy, then attended the University of Chicago, then transferred to the Moody Bible Institute to study theology. 

In 1910, Rev. Fishbank baptized Olisemeke at Topeka Baptist Church giving him the name Samuel Wadei Martin. He was ordained in 1918 and was called to be associate pastor at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago. In 1921, he returned to preach in Nigeria. Not only did he preach in Nigeria, but he also opened primary schools in Issele-Uku, taught evangelism, and built hospitals.

He was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth, the Order of the Niger (OON), and was given an honorary doctorate degree by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He continued his work until his death on February 22, 1976 at the age of 101. 

There it is. Some of Issele-Uku and Delta State’s icons to honor and celebrate for Black History Month. This is just Part I, we will continue with our special BHM Blog for Part II. Hopefully, we will have icons that will be remembered just as other great Africans like Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Haile Selassie and even Fela Kuti. As I said before, it’ll be important to teach our future the history of our icons not just from Issele-Uku or Delta State, but the whole Diaspora, because Black History is World History.