By Dike Chukwumerije
In the song ‘Ekwueme’, Osinachi calls The Almighty by many names. In truth, they are all deeply moving. But the one that struck me the first time I listened was the name, ‘Ga Ga N’Ogwu’. He who tramples on thorns. Ga Ga N’Ogwu. It struck me because, up till that moment, I had only ever heard that phrase in my hometown, Isuochi. You see? When I was a child, there was a masquerade by that name. Yes. In the masquerade culture of the time, Ga Ga N’Ogwu was one, and a powerful praise name too. But I thought it a coincidence. Till I learned, after her death, that Osinachi – like me – was from Isuochi.
Because, in truth, it is impossible to separate the artist from her art. I tell you. It is not possible to examine a person’s art and not find traces of them. Always, we leave clues. Of who we are, where we come from, what we are going through, how we cope. But if you don’t know our story you will not see the clues. Yes. Now we know, that when a powerful gospel singer from a broken and battered home clutches the microphone, and, with an unnerving tremor in her voice, refers to God as, ‘Anya n’elete onye emejoro n’uwa’ – He who watches over those this world is treating badly – it is a cry for help.
I wish she knew she could have reached out, not just up, for help. You can reach out, not just up, for help. I know that many times ‘How are you?’ is said in mindless courtesy. But sometimes, in answer to your prayer, God sends someone to you who will ask ‘How are you?’ in true love. For not all miracles are preceded by lightning. Some miracles come with the soft beeping of your phone. A friend, a brother, a sister, a mother, reaching out in the middle of the night to ask, ‘Nne, o di kwo mma?’ Will it not be sad to die and get to Heaven, to see God and begin to quarrel Him for not coming through for you, only for Him to pull up that memory, to show you that text – Nne, o di kwo mma? – and say, very sadly, ‘That was me’…Would this not be sad?
Still, in her worship – in those fleeting minutes when she lost herself in worship – I believe Osinachi knew peace. For her sister tells the painful story of how, after one of the many episodes of abuse, Osinachi clutched her chest in her husband’s presence and cried out, ‘Peter, i na gbawa mu obi!’ Peter, you are breaking my heart… And there on stage, in the presence of the thousands watching her live, and the millions who have watched her since, she cried out, at the tail end of her iconic song, she said, ‘I medawo mu obi, Chukwu oma…’ Dear Lord, you have brought comfort to my aching heart… Before descending back into the waiting arms of her trauma. Yes. This is how personal performance can be. I tell you. If the art moves you deeply it is only because it has moved its maker…deeply.
True. Osinachi, the thorn-bush you spent your marital life trudging through tore your skin to pieces. You bled, and bled, and bled to death. For Ga Ga N’Ogwu is not the spirit for abusive marriages. No. For no matter how much anointing you return with from the presence of God, to shield and protect you, the abuser’s slap will pierce straight to the bone. Yes. It is that other name you called the Lord – Agu batara ohia mgbada awara oso – that is the one for abusive marriages. That at the sight of the leopard, the deer flees for dear life. I know. We all fancy ourselves the lion, forgetting Jesus was half-lamb. I tell you, at the manifestation of abuse, children of God, be the deer and get out of there. For there will be no couples standing before God on Judgement Day. No. On that day, we stand alone.
Yes. Osinachi, nwanne m, you? You will live on in that voice that moved multitudes to tears. This is the immortality the creator of enduring art will always enjoy. That in the grip of trouble bigger than us we will remember you called God ‘Oloro ihe loro ihe loro enyi’ – the One who swallowed that which swallowed that which swallowed an elephant. And when things happen that confound us, we will remember you called God ‘Amama masiri amasi’ – the all-wise One who cannot be confounded. And when we are confronted with situations that require tough choices, like to stay in an abusive relationship – for fear of what people will say, of what we will lose, of how we will start over – to stay in such a relationship, or to walk away, we will remember you called God, ‘Oke mmanwu n’eti onwe ya’… Yes. The Great Masquerade who is not afraid to walk alone… This is the truth.
Osinachi, nwanyi oma, nwelete, la l’udo.
• Dike is a popular performance poet.