By Julius Bokoru
It is a damp morning at Igbedi, an Ijaw village by the river nun in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government area of Bayelsa State and history is about to be made. Somewhere by the edge of the docile village, the town hall is filled way beyond capacity and a throng of mourners are still pouring in from across the state. It is the burial of the very much loved public entertainer and Owigiri enthusisa Osirigwe.
Two days to today, Barrister Smooth, Ijaw Nation’s most experienced Owigiri icon made a public appeal on his social media handles with both English and Izon, calling for a befitting burial for Osirigwe who had died of unknown causes days before. Similarly, Alfred Izonebi (Junior Robert) made same plea. Junior Robert is arguably the most exciting addition to the impressive pantheon of Owigiri crooners both dead and alive. He was a prodigy to the late King Robert Ebizimo who until his death and beyond many termed, sometimes though it was subject of great debate in some quarters, as the King of Owigiri music.
Owigiri music which is an Ijaw High life of sorts is actually believed by many to be the origin of African highlife. A fusion of Jazz, energetic drums, trumpets, bold guitars and piano then garnished with the melody of the Ijaw language produces what is sweet, slow or fast, full of adrenaline, sometimes vulgar and with an exceedingly universal appeal that instantly makes the ijaw language danceable even to non-Ijaws.
There’s some belief that the English anglicized the Owigiri to High Life, drawing idea from the easiness of the Ijaws to sing, dance, eat and make merry with Ogogoro (local gin) never missing at the background. The English thought that this was indeed HIGH LIFE. It is believed too that the term moved Eastwards first and inspired legends like Chief Steven Osadebe and others, and then Westwords creating the Shino Peters before settling in Ghana with the returning Ghanaians who lived for decades here with us. This history is still being debated but many Ijaws stick to it. Easterners, Westerners and Ghanaians must not read this article.
Back to our funeral. As it approaches noon the hall is filled to the point one can barely move. What began as a sombre gathering has leaped to a carnival. Owigiri music is blaring and everyone is in high spirits, dancing, sweating and shouting. By the corners women sell sachet liquor in black basins. Adrenaline has overshadowed the initial gloom. It’s party time.
On the menu, Barrister Smooth and Alfred Izonebi are to perform after the smaller artists must have played. The top two artists, like the smaller ones, are to perform for free, perhaps for the first time in their careers, to honour Ozirigwe.
But who is this Ozirigwe that seems larger than life even in death?
Born as Ebikabowei Perekosufa, Ozirigwe was a twin child of Mr and Mrs Perekosufa from Egbedi town. The Perekosufa’s died when their children where still very young. Shortly after their deaths, Ozirigwe’s other twin brother died, leaving him with virtually no family.
But that was not all that tragedy planned for him. Ozirigwe suffered Polydactyly; a condition in which a person is born with extra fingers or toes. Ozirigwe had six fingers and six toes, the extra fingers and toes were abnormally shaped and his palms and feet were bigger than normal. The 80’s and 90’s were, of course, more superstitious than present day and coupled with the deaths around him, he was a victim of cruel bigotry.
As a child he was termed unclean, a curse, a taboo and so had no playmates, no friends and no school seemed very keen on having him. He learnt life and everything from a distance, isolated and must have wondered in those solitary years if the world would ever have a place for him.
The world did have a place for him. In the early 2000s another Ijaw Owigiri legend Pereama Freetown hired him to help in carrying his instruments to his different performing locations, his first real job apart from fetching firewood and running inhumane errands. It was with Pereama his interest in the Owigiri music was birthed. He followed Pereama everywhere whenever the light-skinned sensation wowed crowds.
When Pereama took a brief break in Music, Ozirigwe continued. He travelled the length and breath of Bayelsa State attending every occasion that had Owigiri on the menu.
He stole the shows with his own type of dancing, passionate, ceaseless, some acrobatics and altogether humourous. The happiness he exuded in his appearances was what stood him out even above his dancing skills which, strictly speaking, couldn’t have won a genuine dancing competition. It was that happiness, that metaphorical clap-black at the grim hurdles of life that inspired thousands and endeared him to all.
His ease and joy in life was infectious, even philosophical. It shattered the myth that money and earthly comfort amounted to inner happiness. It brought about the believe that true happiness can be procured by all, rich and poor alike, and that perhaps the mind is finally what restrains one from the bliss of inner peace and true happiness.
And by the end of his life his glorious capedieme had inspired generations of Ijaws and emphasized boldly the notion that life is what we make of it.
This man with no wife, no children, not a penny to his name had in his interment the cream of the Ijaw society from Bayelsa to Ondo state, from Rivers State to Lagos state, deputy Governors, Senators, Commissioners, captains of Industry and Owigiri stars.
The Ozirigwe Dancing Competition was instituted on his burial and it is expected to be a yearly competition. The Bayelsa State Government sent some representatives and financial donations kept pouring in for the burial.
The announcement of his death by Mr Bobby Ugo, an APC image maker in the state took the Internet by storm. And for the first time in a long time, perhaps the first time ever in the history of the state, a trending topic didn’t divide the state into Umbrella’s and Brooms. Commendations and open call for Ozirigwe’s immortalization were seen across the web, eclipsing the worry of the imminent flood, the electricity concern and the infinite internet banter between the APC and the PDP.
It’s been Ozirigwe all along on Bayelsa and Ijaw Social media for days. One must wonder how long this hype would last, if after the body gets eaten out the memories would fade for not all legends are destined for eternity or if the hype would be genuine and we would meet him in the future in our history books. Hard call.
From this writer’s end, the fact that he exposed the vainness of wealth, the affordability of happiness and the positive truth of our decreasing bigotry must persist and shine through.
High Chief Julius Bokoru, the Amapinamowei Keni of Ogbo Kingdom (Ikibiri) is the Media Assistant to former Governor of Bayelsa State H.E Chief Timipre Sylva. Bokoru writes from Abuja.
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