CHEERS TO AJOFIA NNEWI: A THOROUGHBRED IGBO AMBASSADOR

Chief Azuka Michael Efoagui popularly known as Ajofia Nnewi is a totally different being once you meet him one on one. Those who have been privileged to have a sit down with him always marvel at his intellectual depth and organisational skill. These are qualities not easily recognisable if you judge him based on the face value of his esoteric music and festive performances. This shallow assessment is based on the poor present day belief that masquerade is a craft for the flotsams and jetsams of the Igbo society. Azuka frowned at this present misconception when he sang in one of his songs; masquerading is regarded as a vocation for charlatans.

Perhaps having this misinformation impressed at the back of his mind, he struggled for precisely forty one years he stepped into the mask of Ajofia to correct this erroneous conception. Today, everyone is seeing and agreeing that his brand of masquerade is not an adventure into charlatanism, vulgarism and gangasterism. He personally acknowledged this achievement in his latest album(AJOFIA NNEWI, VOLUME 6) where he boasted, “There was a time I was just an acorn, today I am an oak with many branches”.

I count it a great privilege as a writer to outline the three major ways Ajofia devised to ensure his masquerade performance was not reduced to bad and negative labels often mistakenly associated with the art of masquerading.

1. Ajofia as an Administrator: There is probably no masquerade in Igbo land that goes out with more retinue of young youths than the Evil Forest. The minimum number of young blooded youths that accompany Ajofia to an event is forty. The maximum number is one hundred and fifty. What many may not know is that all these boys down to the least of them are paid. This means Ajofia masquerade is a business company, a performance troupe.

Whenever people hear the cost of inviting Ajofia to an event they shudder. But majority of the money goes to the big truck he hires and the salary of the many boys that move with him.

According to him, the glory of Ajofia masquerade lies in the crowd the mask steps into an event with. He calls the crowd, Mba, which means a nation. To him, Ajofia masquerade is a nation, thus, it must be accompanied into an event by an intimidating number of humans able to make a nation.

Now, managing these hot blooded youths to make sure they do not go haywire is where his administrative instincts set in. First, he makes sure that no youth smokes or drinks once you are inside the moving truck or during the event performance. To ensure that these instructions are kept to the letter, he stays inside the truck with them.

One of his rules to his comrades is “once we enter a town ensure you keep their rules and do not try to intimidate them with our number”. This is why there has never been a case of Ajofia masquerade getting into any form of fight or altercation with people, both in faraway lands or within the Nnewi metropolis. As he sang in one of his songs “he does not want okwu na uka (altercation) to spoil the very important mission he is carrying on his head”. Azuka fancies himself as an emissary from the spirit world.

Moving on, many big musicians have been accused of collecting money without showing up for the event they were paid to perform. Fortunately, Ajofia has not been called out for such misdemeanor. Ajofia masquerade is booked several months ahead with down payment made. He ensures that once you book a date, it is properly documented alongside the exact amount of part payment made.

This administrative ability has helped him to stay away from any form of controversy that will smear his brand. Chief Azuka may not have gone to school to learn secretarial studies but he has learnt the administrative know-how he needs to distinguish himself on the job.

2. Ajofia The Cultural Ambassador: Chief Azuka believes that our Igbo culture have been totally misunderstood by the Igbos. For him, his music is his own way of saying; our Igbo culture is ours to appreciate, promote and preserve. To achieve this, he ensures that his music is more explanatory, educative than salutary. He devotes more time to his songs extolling the virtues of the Igbo culture. He also uses his songs to warn against evil vices perpetuated in the name of Igbo culture.

At times he uses English in his songs so that outsiders who do not understand Igbo language can appreciate the wisdom and philosophical depth of the Igbo culture.

Ajofia uses his music for cultural advocacy and dialetics. For example in one of his songs he asked “why should any Igbo say that the white man taught them about God when there were many Igbo names with the suffix Chukwu before the coming of the white man?”.

Clearly, Azuka realised early that to be an Igbo cultural ambassador in this age and time will mean being demonised. This he acknowledged in the track one of his third album “No child is born without travails, the sacrificial lamb must carry heavy cross”. He also sang in the popular track, Mawalum Oji, about the daunting task facing him as an Igbo ambassador when he painted the picture of his restless climbing from palm tree to an orji tree all in his attempt to promote Igbo culture.

Obviously, the cross of being a true Igbo ambassador is a heavy cross, a cross heavier than his mask. Yet, for forty one good years he has carried this task without any form of subvention from state governments or even wealthy Igbo men. The only car he has was bought from his sweat not a gift. His house that took him close to ten years to build was built through his sweat. Today, many Igbos are proud of this gigantic masquerade that emits smoke.

Today, Ajofia masquerade has become the pride of the whole Igbo land. Indeed, Ajofia is now an Oak with many branches.

(3) Ajofia The Intellectual: once you get close to Chief Azuka, what you will notice quickly is his voracious appetite for books and his unquenchable hunger for knowledge. This makes him to constantly desire to be around knowledgeable people, to see what he can sponge off them. He calls himself “a doctorate degree holder in the underworld”.

Yes, he believes that despite his academic journey was cut short at Junior secondary on this earthly plane, that he is an academic professor in Ani Muo. The intellectual depth of his songs gives credence to this claim of his.

An intelligent mind cannot but marvel at the language construction of his words in his songs. This is understandable once you realise that he is a voracious reader of poems. Azuka enjoys poems. He scans through great poems for inspiration. No wonder you can see the popular line from one of John Donne’s poem in his song, “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind”.

Nothing captures his intellectual superiority like his finding of the inspiration to bring Ajofia to life while reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. He found his calling while reading a book, and as such, he is sustaining the fire and tempo of his calling via continuous reading and research.

Conclusively, Igbos are yet to appreciate the totality of what makes Ajofia a success. When they do, they will realise the importance of this great man to this current Igbo generation.

Once Chief Azuka Michael Efoagui departs this scene, there may not be another like him for a long time to come. I have reconciled myself to the fact that the phenomenon Ajofia Nnewi, the Evil Forest, is a once in a while gift from the unseen hands to Igbos and Africa.

(Singing)
Ewelu ajo Muo, oji isi aya oku,
Azu anu uka, obulu igu nti echie,
Isi na ebu Ogidi, Owa nku talu akpu!
(Chorus; Mawalum Oji!)

Nze Tobe Osigwe (Ezeikolomuo)
Obi Eziokwu
Nkpoka, Nnewichi-Nnewi.