Tess Onwueme at 70

Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o, world-renowned Kenyan literary giant, described Professor Tess Osonye Onwueme thus: “In her work, Onwueme has shown daring in her exploration of ideas even if they lead to subjects and themes which may seem taboo. Onwueme is eminently a political dramatist, for power affects every aspect of society. She explores these themes with a dazzling array of images and proverbs. Her drama and theatre are a feast of music, mime, proverbs and story-telling… Onwueme consolidates her position among the leading dramatists from Africa.”

Professor Eugene Redmond, poet-laureate at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL, USA was even more robust and sweeping in his submission: “Among her literary soul mates are Wole Soyinka, Ama Ata Aidoo, Samuel Beckett, Derek Walcott, John Pepper Clark, Albert Camus, Chinua Achebe, Toni Morrison, Anton Chekhov, Femi Osofisan, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, George Bernard Shaw, Athol Fugard, August Wilson, Amos Tutuola, Gloria Naylor, Buchi Emecheta, Dennis Brutus, Alex LaGuma, Mariama Ba, and Sembene Ousmane.”

And Professor Ernest Emenyonu, preeminent and globally acclaimed scholar on African literature, once declared: “Dr. Tess Onwueme by reputation is a powerfully engaging speaker of oratorical dimensions.… Onwueme creates passion with her eloquence, enriching every verbal articulation with charisma and charm. She entertains even as she addresses issues of critical substance.” I was among the audience in Wisconsin USA who witnessed one of her epic performances when the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire celebrated her spectacularly and archived her works in October 2014. Emenyonu was right.

To be clear, these endorsements and many others didn’t just happen. This alumnus of University of Ife and University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria, first made her mark at home before accepting the offer to start her academic sojourn abroad at Montclair State University, New Jersey, USA, as Associate Professor of English and Multicultural Literary Studies in 1990. Onwueme’s scholarly run in America ended gloriously after three decades in Wisconsin-Eau Claire as Distinguished Professor of Cultural Diversity, English and Global Letters. Her numerous published writings, mostly plays, have been staged across continents, graced diverse curricula and anchored a large number of PhD theses worldwide.

Besides, she has to her credit an enviable collection of firsts. At 25, she was the youngest lecturer in Ife while also pursuing higher degrees in Benin. First female president of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). First African woman professor of global letters in any major American university – joining the elite tribe of authors like Achebe, Soyinka, Ngugi, Morrison, Walcott and Maya Angelou. First African female playwright whose works were dedicated and reposed in a main American university, again in the league of personalities like Soyinka, Achebe and Ngugi. First African woman dramatist whose plays were performed at elite theatres in New York. Her debut there in 1988 turned out to be a strategic gate opener to international platforms. First female winner of ANA Drama Prize and the only playwright who has done so four times.

Those exceptional outings were achieved with The Desert Encroaches (1985), Tell It to Women (1995), Shakara Dance-hall Queen (2001) and Then She Said It (2003). Her stage tours around Nigeria in the 1980s, including National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, contributed significantly to the making of what would become one of Nigeria’s most successful intellectual and cultural exports. There’re usually uplifting stories behind notable achievers. My THISDAY article titled “Mum Was My Architect” and published on September 8, 2005, the day Onwueme hit the golden age, attempted to capture her central inspiration – Maria Akaeke, her mother, who had passed on in the previous month.

It read in part: “The mother-child relationship is an abiding metaphor especially in African literature. A child is ever grateful to his mother for giving him life and seeing him through the vicissitudes of early life. But there is something that makes Tess Onwueme’s case stand out: It’s almost impossible for her to think of her fruitful life outside the impact of her mother’s care, admonition and guidance. The bulk of her earliest memories centres around the cruelty and physical assault her mother was subjected to in a short-lived marriage.”

This daughter of Ogwashi Ukwu in Delta State recounts her past emotively: “Since that night when my mother ran away from a suffocating marriage and abandoned me at six years old to find my way through the thorny wilderness of the village, my life journey became forged by one fear, the fear of failing. Before she fled, my mother had planted in me the resolve that I must not fail. So, early in life I came to embrace the realities that I am alone; that my dinner is in the forest; and that I must fetch it myself, for nobody else will do it for me. Above all, that I must do it right, and not through the backdoor.

“As I staggered and stumbled and fell along the way, limping and, yet, determined to pick up myself even while I hurt, I’ve also ingested this tablet of truth that learning is my destiny. I find myself dancing on fire to breathe and to scale my way up the Kilimanjaro, as I persist in striving to make me something out of nothing. I embraced hard work with integrity as the magic wand, charm and prop required. I also armed myself with hope and faith in my creator God Almighty while clutching on to my dignity with steadfast perseverance, even when I hurt, stumble, and fall.

“In that claustrophobic space of silence and fear, I began writing journals, and began to find shelter and relief in my writing to find and create a community to dialogue with. Then, my writing became my voice. And can I say that writing found me and saved me from choking and silence? Yes! As I strain my neck far back to carve a legacy of highways and beacons for many others coming behind, my heart keeps humming inside me: To God be the glory for performing His mercies. Thank God I made it through! For my next decade, I must fashion and make my new business: rest!”

Really, what else should this mother of optimally-established children – Kenolisa, Ebele, Kunume, Bundo and Malije – and grandmother of over a dozen kids wish for? To thoroughly enjoy the dividends of her toils, hopefully.

Ekpe, PhD, is a member of THISDAY editorial board.