Ofum dioooooooo [efik: calling forth the wind]

I don’t know where to start but if Chimere Ikoku was killed by an Eboe, then there is trouble in paradise. For those who might not appreciate my interest in this man, allow me to explain. The Ikokus are Efiks. Okay.. I know it is hard to understand, but I will try. They speak the language like natives, they were originally from Arochukwu and settled in Calabar with their dad Alvan, when the latter taught in Calabar… let the Eboes tell you when and where.....

Ofum diooooooo

Where was I?….. For those of us who have fished around the Backassey Peninsula... Ofum dioo is a simple but potent invocation. Cut a palm frond, affix it to your dug out canoe, and call forth the wind to take you across the sea. Who sends forth the wind you might ask........the Gods, of course…Afia Anwan, Anansa Ikang ..Idebe etc…. I digress....

Ofum diooooo……….

I happen to have had the misfortune of being at Nsukka at the time of Kodilinye  and Njoku Obi, even Eni Njoku didn’t think it fit to leave us then, and Ikoku reigned at the chemistry department. This was during the student days of Alfred Kalu Uduma alias 'Prof'., Bassey Ekpo Bassey., Akpu Dede [Hope Waddell]., Chukwumerije [late]., Chairman P., Nduka Onum., Etta Ibok., Queen Barber and Nwodo etc.. What else is new? So someone shot Ikoku, youthful Eboes I believe, who arrived on motorcycles, and as the story goes, a government hospital which did or did not refuse him treatment, got involved ….hmmmmm

Ikoku’s Chemistry!!…….Don’t get me wrong, everybody dies. Let me just take you back to a time when there was Hope. Alfred Kalu Uduma like Chairman P, was not actually of the generation mentioned above, having spent over eighteen years moving all over the world from one university to another, from one department to another and finally settling down to study Biology/Chemistry Combined Honors, but he ended up under Ikoku. Nothing could compare with the sight of Kalu, who was popularly known as 'Prof', marching back and forth, across the campus with a white lab coat on, and his pocket full of God knows what., whistling a tune only he could decipher. When asked how he was doing, he would exclaim ….Ikoku’s Chemistry!! I remember once asking 'Prof', how come he dresses like that, he answered, " Orok, for you to succeed in my department, you have to look serious!"

Ofum diooooooo

The last time I saw Ikoku alive, was in London. He was then Vice Chancellor of University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I was in the company of one Telema Princewill. I remember Ikoku telling me about his experience in America, and how the Chinese intelligentsia left to develop their land. I laughed at him. Nigeria…who sigh? I teased him about our space program. So we are going to launch satellites next year? He replied that thieves had come in the night to steal the cables!

Ofum dioooooo……

So they killed Ikoku? How many of the present living Eboes could communicate with me through the Nsibidi signs? Tell me. What do they call this?…the end of an era? Today, I cannot go to Item in Ohafia and pour libation 'to call forth the Gods'. Would they even acknowledge my greetings in Abiriba land? Can I pass through Abia State without Orji Kalu having me flogged. Don’t get me wrong, Ikoku was not meant to live for ever, but dying at his age through an assassin’s bullet? Ahhh death…. The bane of the Efiks!

Ofum diooooooooo

How old was Ikoku when he died? Could they not have left him to die in his sleep? Couldn’t they have used witchcraft? Why didn’t they just poison him quietly? They had to come on their motorcycles, shooting into the air. Did they know that Ikoku was an Efik? Not that the Efiks do not die, but a violent death for a seventy year old man! What in the world is happening in Eboeland, the land of the Ukpabis, the Nnana Kalus, the Njemanzes, who else is left when only traders and Uju Afulezi survive?

Ofum dioooooo...

Why do I keep invoking the wind? Because, the earth is becoming so greedy that it is beginning to eat chalk!! Not that the Eboes of this generation would know. What else can I say but to tell you to watch and listen as the Ekpe masquerade crouches, looks up, picks his ritual dance steps, as the song would surely wail out…..

Namondo osop…oooo

Ekedoho Mutaka

Namondo osop …ooooo

Ekedoho Mutaka....

Hmmmmmm Chimere Ikoku....Please could somebody tell God, if this is a joke, he should stop it.

Oct 2002