Ugbogboebebe: Miriam Makeba of Warri kingdom

Many of my readers would certainly have heard of the exploits of Miriam Makeba, the iconic South African singer who was equally a songwriter, an actress and a civil rights crusader and activist.

“Mama Africa,” as Zenile Miriam Makeba’s moniker universally defined her, died on November 10, 2008, in exile in Castel Volturno, Italy.

Miriam Makeba, also called the “Empress of African Songs” because of her exploits in music and her recognition as the “first vocalist to put African music onto the international map in the 1960s” can never ever be un-remembered in the memory of timeless time.

Ugbogboebebe, the real subject of this column today, was a no less significant African cultural artist and singer who dominated her Nigerian musical space in the same 1960s. But she was in no way as universally famous as Miriam Makeba. One reason for this cannot but be attributed to her brand of folkloric music which she rendered in her Itsekiri language which was (and still is) the language of her Itsekiri ethnic minority group. Clearly, as a singer, Ugbogboebebe of Nigeria’s Kingdom of Warri, was a far better singer than Miriam Makeba.

As a vocalist, the Itsekiri biological Princess of Songs was, in my view, super superior to the “Empress of African Songs” who was well internationally showcased and promoted by her selfless backers and sponsors. But I am not in any way endeavouring a comparison of Ugbogboebebe and Miriam Makeba. This is by no means my primary intention and goal here. You will soon find out why I say so.

Who was Ugbogboebebe? Ugbogboebebe was the moniker of Princess Agnes Onesanden Enonuwewu. But she was never ever known in our circle and generation of Warri and Sapele denizens and brought ups by her birth and given name. The moniker partly derived from her gift in the art of pre-compositional songs to fit any situation, event, occasion, mood and atmosphere. Time after time she demonstrated this right from the 1960s in her years of girl-hood and maiden-hood up to and well beyond middle age. Her voice was always melodiously melodious. Her compositions could elevate themselves to suit any kind of mood of gloom, joy, bliss, light-heartedness, gaiety, hilariousness, seriousness and more and were never lost of algebraic reverberations.

Ugbogboebebe died on the 17th of December, 2021 and was buried in her fond city of Warri on Friday, 12th March, 2022. I purposely delayed doing for her this more than deserved big public honour in the hope that someone, some art, or music writer or columnist would do so long, long before now. It was a vain hope. How many persons in prominent positions in this country your country my country our country is ever patriotically given a minority hero or heroine his or she more than deserved due?

Anyone who is capable of experiencing the pleasures of justice, patriotism and love cannot but appreciate Ugbogboebebe. As she was an Itsekiri patriot so also was she a Nigerian exemplary Nigerian patriot who sang lovingly and un-pleasurably at the same time about the good and about the faults and foibles of Warri Kingdom people and Nigeria her country. Her burst of creativity throughout our splendid epochs is worth studying in our literary, music and culture departments and centres from diploma up to PhD levels in our universities and other tertiary institutions. This was a significantly visionary singer and composer whose national wealth and greatness that General Yakubu Gowon, our military head of state from 1966 to 1975, highly and solidly thought of and respected to the extent that his government a number of times invited her and her cultural troupe to perform in several functions of the federal government both at Dodan Barracks and outside Nigeria. She graced several cultural events of Nigeria in the 1960s/1970s and United States and elsewhere outside the shores of this blessed place that are current political gems are causing raw pains with murderous wounds. No hailing for the murderous majority!

Ugbogboebebe was justice and civil and human rights campaigner of the covert mode who was particularly popular in Western Nigeria in the then years. She shared a kind of healthy rivalry and popularity with Hubert Ogunde, the very popular Yoruba indigenous dramatist, in the Ijebu-Ode, Akure and Ekiti areas and environs. Her songs and performances were not short of remarkable rhythm and the kind of drama that depicted to her audiences that a better time was coming to them for their deliverance. As a young lad, I can remember vividly her poetry and lyrics of deliverance in songs that had eyes for the future of yesterday especially in Warri Kingdom and environs and in Western Nigeria in the inglorious time of “Operation Wetie.” In vain did I try to recall the titles of such songs of the poetry of idiomatic and anecdotal richness and value that keep on resonating in one’s consciousness! I could not re-enter, as I desperately want to, the fertile boyish imagination in replaying them as I was composing this essay. Besides, many old folks, who could have all recaptured them for me, have all since gone to their earth of glowing and un-glowing worms. What a world!

What the last point awakens in me is the pain of my not laying my hands on any of her immortal songs on tape or CD or any recorded medium as I was doing this patriotic duty. Her recorded songs are immeasurably small and presently seemingly non-existent. This fact diminished her eyes of glowering popularity in later years even in her homeland and fertile and rich Kingdom of Warri. How many Itsekiris truly remember this great singer of super-melodious melody today? How many? How many Itsekiris of the 21st-century generation remember Ugbogboebebe in the absence or near absence of her waxed songs? How many Itsekiri money-bags are interested in producing and reproducing her songs? If gold rusts, what will iron do?

On Friday, 11th March, the titled Chief of Erejuwa 11, who bestowed on her Ojujimi of Warri Kingdom, entered the ground – as I have already said. In the morning of that day at her church, The African Church, her funeral service was held before a frugal audience – as one of my elderly friends informed me. At the social and cultural events which I attended, I all the time gazed at the “wide skies that bring eternity to mind” even when I occasionally admired the lure of somethings which Barrister Desmond Dudu, a relation of the deceased, worthily provided.

But my elderly friend, a highly conscious political animal, intoned in unmistakably painful pain: “Where are the Itsekiri politicians? Where are the Itsekiri internet and social media patriots? Ugbogboebebe, who has gone, is the Miriam Makeba of Warri Kingdom.” What could I say? What did I say? “Silly fools – our Itsekiri politicians and social media magicians. They don’t know the meaning of greatness. Swine!”

My last words: Itsekiris must promote Ugbogboebebe’s greatness. Their students, researchers, scholars, and filmmakers must promote her for others outside her homeland to follow their example. Nothing could be more touching than their neglect of her, and critical and creative destitution she no more must suffer. Her spell-binding elegances and graces of singing style deserve immortal attention. Our lure of nothingness called senseless wealth must cease. Sensible wealth knows the fruits of creativity. No hailing for the cruel controllers of the people’s fate and destiny.

Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.