Mama Mudi Africa Goes Home By Sunny Awhefeada

By Sunny Awhefeada

Part of the European strategy of erasing Africa from the scheme of knowledge was to proclaim it a region of darkness, no apologies to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and denude the continent of the least claim human rationality. The European colonizers wrote off Africa as a region that was inhabited by inferior beings who were incapable of reasoning, lacking discretion and even cohesive expression. For that reason they saw themselves as “the first Whiteman acting on God’s behalf” to deliver Africans as Chinua Achebe masterfully puts it in “The Novelist as Teacher” A trope he was to foreground in Things Fall Apart, his counter-discursive text to Conrad’s racial agenda. Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong’O, Ayi Kwei Armah among others, quite early in their writing career, exploded the Whiteman’s lies about Africa and put the continent on the global map of knowledge and full being.

In spite of this feat which came less than sixty years after the colonial inanity, my generation of pupils was still taught the deprecating topic “Why Africa remained a dark continent for a long time” in our primary school social studies. Innocent children that we were, we glibly memorized the topic and also effusively wrote about it in the examination in anticipation of passing. It was not until we read Things Fall Apart in our third year in secondary school that some of us began to think more seriously about our past. The very illuminating introduction by Aigboje Higo was an appetizer that made my generation not only to be drawn into the politics of being in that novel, but also to devour it. The novel, Things Fall Apart, did relieve us of the crisis of cultural memory, an insight we owe to Abiola Irele.

The most significant indicator of the profundity of African knowledge and its protean and variegated character is in its proverbs and Achebe deliberately deploys them in Things Fall Apart which gives us ennobling vistas of Igbo worldview before the colonial plague orchestrated by Europe arrested its development. The Urhobo people also enjoy similar cultural aesthetics which is manifested not only in proverbs, but also in their names. Urhobo verbal arts forms manifest beyond proverbs and they easily and aptly fit into different contexts of life and existence. One of such sayings is the rhetorical question “onocha akpo odeje kpo?” roughly translated to mean “who comes to this world without going home?” Urhobo ontology bestride akpo and erivwin, the former being the world/life and the latter being the abode of the dead.  Life also manifests as a marketplace where we go, buy and sell, and then return home and home in this context being erivwin.  When the Urhobo say “onocha akpo odeje kpo” they do so with wistfulness and that rhetoric is only reserved for those blessed with the gift of longevity. Yes, some people live so long that people would think they will not die. Conversely, some people lived so long that people thought they had died a long time ago. For the latter, people often exclaim “ohwo ye na jakpo?”  translated to mean “is that person still alive?” on hearing about their demise.

The foregoing scenario played out when Mama Margaret “Maggie” Enajemo, matriarch of no mean repute and mother of Mudiaga Enajemo, best known as Mudi Africa, passed on early this year at the very ripe old age of ninety-two! Mama Enajemo whose father fondly named Mama Lagos in childhood was born in 1932 at Egbo-Uhurie and lived through the topsy-turvy of our social evolution. Her father was Chief Rhemighen Tadafe, while her mother was Mama Kiyere Tadafe from Orhuwhorun. Born into colonial Nigeria, she grew up hearing echoes of rapid changes and transformation which jolted her generation. Her generation marveled at the Whiteman’s magic which to them was everything good. Her name Margaret is a pointer to how well our people embraced what was European. Besides Margaret, her generation bore names like Elizabeth, Victoria, Helen, Queen, Comfort, Rosaline, etc, reverencing the imperial reality that was upon them.                

Mama Enajemo got married to Richard Okeme of Arhagba-Okpe in 1952. Sadly, Richard died in 1962 leaving Mama with their three children. Mama was to remarry in 1964 to Prince Johnson Enajemo of Ododegho-Ughelli with whom she had six children. Among these children is Mudiaga Enajemo the globally acclaimed fashion designer popularly called Mudi Africa. Mama was a true embodiment of the Urhobo woman known and celebrated for her industry, tenacity and virtuous disposition. Mama was into a lot of informal vocations to earn resources that helped her support her husband and in raising nine children. She was involved in a variety of businesses of buying and selling. She also ran a restaurant 

Part of the socio-cultural change that came with colonialism saw Mama embracing Christianity and later becoming a devoted member of the Abraham African Church in Ughelli. Mama held the view that to show love to people was to show love to God. And she was never tired of talking about the goodness of God in her life and children’s. Throughout her lifetime, she ran an open home where everyone felt welcome. Her home was always thronged with people, especially children who came to watch movies since the family was among the only three that owned a video player in those days in Ughelli. It was difficult to distinguish between Mama’s children and others who came to live with them at various times. She never discriminated against anyone. They ate the same food, did the same household chores and received equal measure of discipline for infractions committed. 

Mama was a very famous cook and the restaurant business that she ran in the 1970s and 1980s was among the best known and most patronized in Ughelli. Interesting stories abound of how many chiefs sent their wives to understudy Mama’s cooking skills so that they could offer similar cuisine at home. Some of the chiefs also paid Mama to cook in large quantity for them if they were hosting special guests. Mama’s fame as a good cook spread beyond Ughelli as her clientele came from far and wide from places like Lagos and Benin-City long before the age of mobile telephony. Those who knew Mama in those days attest to her neatness which accentuated her beauty and statuesque looks. She was a good dresser and all her children and those who stayed with her took after her.

Mama exiting at ninety-two lived a phenomenally long life. She embodied a dual world view, the relatively pristine world into which she was born and the now dizzying world of the 21st century. Her passing like that of anyone who lived so long often leaves a void and also a colossal loss in view of the indigenous knowledge, wisdom and information at her disposal. Mama by virtue of her age reflects Hampate Ba’s equating the death of an old man with a library set ablaze. If only Mama’s life and times were curated in the form of a book or documentary, it would have made our world better with the lessons to be learnt from such an engagement. Mama birthed nine children, eight boys and a girl. But she was survived by five namely; Sunday, Daniel, Gabriel, Mudiaga and Akpofure. Many grandchildren and great-grandchildren number among those who survived Mama. As Mama Mudi goes home, her spirit must be dancing joyously as she lived the key words of Urhobo traditional prayer viz: emo (children), otovwe (long life), omakpokpo (good health), ufuoma (peace)…sleep well Mama Mudi. Akpo kedefa…