Onyeka Onwenu, the Nigerian singer, songwriter, actress, activist, journalist and politician, died at the age of 72 on July 30 in Lagos, the economic capital of Nigeria. The information relayed by the Nigerian media was confirmed by her children, Abraham and Tijani Ogunlende.
“It is with heavy hearts that I and my brother wish to announce the passing of our mother, the much loved Onyeka Onwenu. She passed away last night, Tuesday 30th July 2024, in Lagos, Nigeria.”the siblings announced, reports the Nigerian newspaper The Vanguard. VSShe, nicknamed the “Elegant Stallion” by her compatriots, left her mark on the musical, cultural and socio-political scene of her country for several decades.
The famous interpreter of one Love (1986), an ode to unity in a country torn apart by inter-community tensions and political crises since its independence, died in a hospital in the Nigerian megalopolis.
She had been rushed there after collapsing at a friend’s birthday party, where she had just performed some of her famous songs.
“Onyeka Onwenu was a national treasure, an icon and a legend who inspired many generations of Nigerians and people around the world through his music, his acting, his philanthropy”his sons wrote.
In a message relayed on X, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu paid tribute to the memory of “the queen of songs” to “uplifting and melodious words”. He recalled that his title Wait for Me, chaunted in duet with another veteran of Nigerian song, King Sunny Ade, had served as the soundtrack to official announcements of family planning. The two artists are the first to have initiated a musical duo in Nigeria.
Onyeka Onwenu was born on January 29, 1952 in Obosi, Anambra State in Igbo country, in southern Nigeria. Her father Dixon Kanu Onwenu was a teacher and politician. She never missed an opportunity to recall her pride in being an Igbo woman, one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria while calling for living together. She married a Yoruba, another large ethnic group with which the Igbos have strained relations.
The tribute by her friend, the writer Onyeka Nwelue, underlines what she thus embodied. “The Igbo nation has lost its daughter (…) and the Yoruba nation has lost its wife”he said on X.
In his memoirs, My Father’s Daughter (My Father’s Daughter), published in 2020, she recalls her birth on the land of her mother, Hope Onwenu, who raised her children alone after her father died in her early childhood. Throughout her life, the artist was a champion of women’s rights. She advocated education for young girls, campaigned for the financial autonomy of women, encouraging them, including through her own experience, to get out of toxic marriages.
She also dedicated a song to widows, a tribute that was close to her heart, because her mother was one. Her social commitment translated into politics when she became, in 2016, Executive Director of the National Centre for Women Development.
After her higher education, particularly in communication in the United States, Onyeka Onwenu returned to her country in 1980 where she did her civil service at the Nigerian public television (NTA). She became a star presenter there. For the BBC and the NTA, the journalist leads the investigation in the documentary Nigeria: A Squandering of Riches (Nigeria: A Waste of Wealth1984), a dive into the corruption that undermines this rich oil country.
The film’s release coincides with the 1983 coup d’état. As she points out in the documentary, the observation became an explanation for Nigeria’s political upheavals. The journalist and activist knew the ins and outs and turned to politics to try to change things. In Imo State, where she would get involved in local governance, she would not hesitate to denounce political corruption. The setbacks were numerous, but they would not succeed in silencing the woman who had made the fight against social injustice her hobbyhorse.
Activist Onyeka Onwenu has rarely been silenced, even in the 1980s when it was suicidal to criticize the military in power. In one article, she does so in defense of the father of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti.
Anything goes to stop public enemy number 1, who finds himself imprisoned again in 1984. Her gesture will earn her a marriage proposal from the artist, which she will decline. Onyeka Onwenu had confided that Fela Kuti knew she would refuse, but that it was his way of thanking her for having taken his defense. Onwenu will also defend the right of artists to keep the intellectual property of their works. An approach that she undertook very early by creating her own production company, Ayollo Records.
Her musical career, where she explored thefropop, the gospel or even the R&B, started in 1981 with the album Endless Life. It will be followed by many others and hits like Iyagogo. Singer, composer and producer, Onyeka Onwenu was also an actress. Her filmography includes films such as The Other Half of the Sun (2013) by Biyi Bandelé, an adaptation of the eponymous and successful book by the famous Nigerian writer Chimanmada Ngozi Adichie on the Biagra civil war, a marker in the political history of Nigeria.
In this film, which tells the story of a conflict that personally brought her grief, she shares the bill with the British Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandiwe (then Thandie) Newton, John Boyega and the Nigerian actress Geneviève Nnaji. She will meet the latter in Lionheart (2018) which the actress directed. The film was a candidate for Nigeria, but was not selected in the Best International Feature Film category at the 2020 Oscars. “Today, we mourn the loss of an icon, a legend whose voice and presence resonated deeply with all of us,” Geneviève Nnaji said on X.
The news of Onyeka Onwenu’s death comes as Nigerians protest against the high cost of living. She had repeatedly expressed her concern about the socio-political future of her country. In an interview with Nigerian media outlet Radio Now in 2021, on the occasion of the release of her biography, the singer could not help but hold back tears as she read the lyrics of a song, One Nationwhich she had composed to call once again for national unity.
The singer took advantage of the airwaves to launch a vibrant plea to politicians to make Nigeria a country of peace where the multiple talents of their fellow citizens flourish, many of whom have conquered the world with their music and Nollywood.