Human Development in the Modern Age: Onyeka Onwenu’s Socio-Cultural Interventions in Song
Conference: ISA 22nd Annual International Conference (2025)
Presenter(s): Akachi T. Ezeigbo
Tags: 2025 Alex Ekwueme Federal University Nigeria Ndufu-Alike Ebonyi State Akachi Ezeigbo
Abstract
Onyeka Onwenu, a renowned Nigerian singer and actor, lived her life of activism, culture advocacy and making music as a consummate artist and intellectual, empowering youths, men and women, and preaching togetherness, love, peace and justice through her songs and through the roles she played as an actor. Her vision was to mobilize the people for positive change, transform society and redirect Nigerian (particularly Ndi-Igbo) and African men and women to use the knowledge of the past to reconfigure the present and shape the future for the purpose of cultural and moral rejuvenation and socio-political development. She accomplished much of this task through her songs and words, and through rekindling people’s interest in folk culture, folk songs and re-memory of culture, especially Igbo culture. In this presentation, I try to show that Onwenu drew strength from her cultural tradition, and grounded her songs in Igbo folklore and folkways and fused them with modernity and national consciousness. Using the Snail-sense Feminist theory, this presentation argues that Onwenu was able to achieve her aim because she was seeded in culture and tradition as a true Igbo woman, but at the same time was conscious of the need to promote gender equality and positive modernization of the entire Nigeria for the purpose of unity, progress, justice and development for the whole country. The solid sense of patriotism that coloured and enriched her music will keep her legacy alive.
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