By Nze Tobe Osigwe (Ezeikolomuo)
Chief Azuka Michael Efoagui, popularly known as Ajofia, is a totally different being once you meet him one on one. Those of us who have been privileged to have a sit down with him always marvel at his intellectual depth and organisational skill. These are qualities not easily recognisable if one judges him solely by his esoteric music and festive performances.
As he said in one of his songs, masquerading is often regarded as a vocation for charlatans. Having this impression impressed at the back of his mind, he struggled for precisely forty-one years after he stepped into the mask of Ajofia to correct this erroneous conception. Today, everyone is seeing and agreeing that his brand of masquerade is not an adventure into charlatanism, vulgarism or gangsterism. He personally acknowledged this achievement in his latest album where he boasted that there was a time he was just an acorn, but today he is an oak with many branches.
I count it a great privilege as a writer to outline the three major ways Ajofia devised to ensure that his masquerade performance was not reduced to negative and damaging labels.
Ajofia as an administrator: There is probably no masquerade in Igbo land that goes out with a larger retinue of young people than the Evil Forest. The average number of youths that accompany Ajofia to an event is forty. The maximum number ranges from one hundred to one hundred and fifty. What many people may not know is that all these young men, down to the least of them, are paid. This means Ajofia masquerade is a business concern, a performance troupe run with structure and discipline.
Whenever people hear the cost of inviting Ajofia to an event, they often shudder. However, the greater part of the money goes to hiring a big truck and paying the many youths who accompany him. According to him, the glory of Ajofia masquerade lies in the crowd the mask steps into an event with. He calls this crowd Mba, which means a nation. To him, Ajofia masquerade is a nation and must therefore be accompanied by an intimidating number that reflects the stature of a nation.
Managing these hot-blooded youths to ensure they do not go haywire is where his administrative instincts come to the fore. First, he makes sure that no youth smokes or drinks once they are inside the moving truck or during the performance at an event. To ensure these instructions are obeyed to the letter, he stays inside the truck with them.
One of his firm rules to his comrades is that once they enter a town, they must respect the rules of that community and must not attempt to intimidate the people with their numbers. This is why there has never been a case of Ajofia masquerade getting into any form of fight or altercation, whether in distant communities or within the Nnewi metropolis. As he sang in one of his songs, he does not want altercation to spoil the very important mission he carries on his head. Indeed, he fancies himself as an emissary from the spirit world.
Many prominent musicians have been accused of collecting money without showing up for events they were paid to perform. Ajofia, however, has never been called out for such misconduct. Ajofia masquerade is usually booked several months ahead, with a down payment made. He ensures that once a date is booked, it is properly documented alongside the exact amount paid.
This administrative discipline has helped him avoid controversies that could smear his brand. Chief Azuka may not have attended school to study secretarial or administrative sciences, but he has mastered all the administrative tools needed to distinguish himself in his calling.
Ajofia as a cultural ambassador: Chief Azuka believes that Igbo culture has been widely misunderstood, even by the Igbos themselves. For him, his music is a deliberate way of saying that Igbo culture is ours to appreciate, promote and preserve. To achieve this, he ensures that his music is more explanatory than merely salutary. He devotes considerable time to extolling the virtues of Igbo culture while also warning against evil vices perpetuated in its name.
At times, he uses English in his songs so that non-Igbo listeners can also appreciate the wisdom and philosophical depth embedded in Igbo culture. Ajofia uses his music for cultural advocacy and dialectics. In one of his songs, for instance, he asks why any Igbo person should say that the white man taught them about God when there were already many Igbo names bearing the suffix Chukwu long before the arrival of Europeans.
He understood early enough that being a cultural ambassador would attract demonisation. He acknowledged this reality in a track from his third album where he sang that no child is born without travails and that the sacrificial lamb must carry a heavy cross.
The burden of being a true Igbo cultural ambassador is indeed heavy, heavier even than his mask. Yet, for forty-one years, he has carried this responsibility without subvention from state governments or patronage from wealthy Igbo elites. The only car he owns was bought through his sweat, not as a gift. The house that took him close to ten years to build was also funded solely by his labour. Today, many Igbos are proud of this gigantic masquerade that emits smoke. Ajofia masquerade has become a pride not just of Nnewi, but of Igbo land as a whole. Indeed, Ajofia is now an oak with many branches.
Ajofia as an intellectual: Once one gets close to Chief Azuka, what becomes immediately noticeable is his voracious appetite for books and his unquenchable hunger for knowledge. This drives him to seek the company of knowledgeable people from whom he can learn. He describes himself, half in humour and half in conviction, as a doctorate degree holder in the underworld.
Despite the fact that his formal academic journey was cut short at the junior secondary level on this earthly plane, he believes he is an academic professor in Ani Muo. The intellectual depth evident in his songs lends credence to this claim. Any discerning mind cannot but marvel at the structure and richness of the language used in his music. This becomes understandable when one realises that he is a devoted reader of poetry. He draws inspiration from great poems, studying them closely for insight and form.
Nothing captures his intellectual curiosity better than the fact that he found the inspiration to bring Ajofia to life while reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. His calling was discovered through a book, and he continues to sustain the fire and tempo of that calling through continuous reading and research.
Conclusively, Igbos are yet to fully appreciate the totality of what makes Ajofia a success. When they eventually do, they will realise the immense importance of this great man to the present Igbo generation. Once Chief Azuka Michael Efoagui departs this scene, there may not be another like him for a long time to come. I have reconciled myself to the fact that the phenomenon known as Ajofia Nnewi, the Evil Forest, is a rare gift from unseen hands to the Igbo people and to Africa.
Nze Tobe Osigwe (Ezeikolomuo)
Afor
Nkpoka, Nnewi
January, 2022
