Onyekachi Akuchukwu Onwenu MFR (1952-2024), popularly known as Onyeka Onwenu, was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, into the respectable family of Dixon Kanu Onwenu from Arondizuogu, Ideato North LGA in Imo State.
A child of destiny, Onyeka Onwenu lived life to the brim. The Elegant Stallion, as she was dubbed, was subtly beautiful, strong and brilliant. Like a conqueror, she boldly galloped on many fields, drank from many fountains of life, and won many battles. She was an excellent broadcaster, singer, songwriter, actress, social critic and politician.
Onyeka’s father, an educationist and politician, died on December 10, 1956 when Onyeka was barely four years old, after his car crashed into an oil bean tree along the Port Harcourt-Aba Road. He had been nominated the Minister of Education and was to be sworn-in January 1957, one week before he died.
After his death, Onyeka’s mother, Hope Onwenu, was denied access to his estate by her husband’s family, leaving the widow to raise her five children all alone. By a curious twist of fate, Onyeka was to similarly shoulder the heavy burden of bringing up her own two children all by herself after she had problems with her husband, problems she succeeded in keeping private, until she opened up in her memoir, titled My Father’s Daughter, published in 2020.
Onyeka Onwenu got her primary education from St. Cyprian’s and St. Peter’s School, Port Harcourt, starting from 1957. Her education at Amumara was interrupted in 1967 by the Nigeria-Biafra war, but she continued at National High School Arondizuogu in 1969 and Zixton Memorial Grammar School Ozubulu (1970) after the civil war.
She gained admission to Bryn Mawr College, and Wellesley College in Massachusetts, United States from where she bagged a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Communication. Later, she earned Master of Arts in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research, New York.
She worked briefly for the United Nations as a tour guide before returning to Nigeria in 1980 for her National Youth Service with the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, Lagos where she was later employed as a newsreader, reporter and TV presenter. She was later appointed into the board of NTA.
Although versatile, it was her musical talent, more than all other talents, that catapulted Onyeka Onwenu to international prominence and transformed her into a household name. She began her recording career on the EMI label in 1981 while still at NTA, with the album, “For the Love of You”.
Onwenu, who also served as Director-General of the National Centre for Women Development, Abuja, was noted for her strong political views. She never “sat on the fence”. She died on July 30, 2024 after singing at a friend’s birthday party in Lagos. May her soul rest in peace.
Vanguard