The Arts Editor and Deputy Chairman of Editorial Board of Vanguard Newspaper, Dr. Osa Mbonu-Amadi, has released his debut single song, Ngwongwo. The song is a combination of highlife and Afrobeat genres sang in Igbo language.

Ngwongwo was officially released on November 23, 2023 in music streaming platforms, such as, Spotify, Boomplay, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, You Tube Music, Napster, Anghami, etc.
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Speaking on the meaning of the lyrics of Ngwongwo, and the inspiration behind the song, he said: “When we were growing up in Southeast Nigeria after the civil war, things were tough. There were no jobs and hunger was rife. But people refused to be idle. In the afternoon, we would hear some people hawking ngwongwo (pepper soup) and anu (meat).

“Sounds made by those hawkers of ngwongwo and medicines were so musical that they stuck to my mind. When I started writing songs, I used the sounds to preach against idleness and encourage the virtues of hard work and resourcefulness even in time of unemployment. That’s what the song, Ngwongwo, is all about — To be idle is not good; who wants it? An idler is a sinner,” he said.

“There was a particular man who came from a far place to our village in those days to hawk his local medicine. We always heard him shouting ‘Onye ogwu nwoko oma, o abiala n’ebaa!’ (The handsome man that sells good medicine is here!).

Dr. Mbonu-Amadi, who has a PhD in Communication Studies, studied music at the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife. Before joining Vanguard Newspapers, -he had taught piano in schools and in private homes.
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