Tribute to Mama Kate Anagbogu – 1927 to 2017

By Ajulu Anagbogu

When in 1925 Jonathan Nweke Obuekwe, of Umuogbu village, Awka (born 1902) and Gladys Abomezi Obuekwe, nee Aronu of Umueze village, Amawbia(born 1905), were joined in holy matrimony, the couple was no sooner blessed with a babygirl—Nwamuluana (Felicia)-the first child of the family.  The second, also a baby girl, was born on Sunday, May 8, 1927.

 Born into an illustrious family, the baby was special in many respects, for she, like the first child, added to the happiness in the lives of her parents. It was (and is still) often said that the jewel of the sky is the sun, but the jewel of the house is the child.  In like manner, Laurel Atherton, a renowned humanist, says of a girl child: “A daughter is one of the most beautiful gifts this world has to give”, and in the scripturesin Proverbs 31:10, declares that the virtuous woman is far more precious than jewels.

 In apparent agreement with all of these thoughts and philosophies, parents of the baby named her NWA-KA-EGO, which, when translated, means‘a child is far more precious than riches’. At her christening, Nwakego (as she preferred to spell it) was given the name Kate.

 Baby Kate was loved and doted on by her parents, much more so by her mom.  She enjoyed the perks of good life from an early age, but notwithstanding the love and doting, she received proper upbringing—a virtue that she carried all through her life and imparted same to her children and all the persons that came under her tutelage and care.

 Kate received her education at a time when it was rare for females in Awka (then a primordial town) to go to school. As a matter of fact, the late veteran journalist and media person of Awka, Pete-Damian Ijomah, once wrote in one of his works, that only girls of the elite families of Awka (among them the Obuekwes) enjoyed such rare privilege at the time. Young females were preferably primed for marriage, their hands often given out even in their early teens, but Kate was different.

 She went to school at Government School, Awka from 1939-1944 and some of her contemporaries were General Alexander Madiebo and Prof Onyilogu. Although she gained admission into the famous Queens College, Lagos her father chose instead St. Monica’s, Ogbunike, 1945-1946. She exhibited remarkable brilliance as attested to by her late teacher Mrs Comfort Onwunyi who was also the Headmistress at St Barth’s Primary School, Enugu in the early seventies. It was in that school that her friendship with late Mrs Chikaodi Onyedika, the mother of the renowned footballers, Emeka and Ifeanyi, sparked off .Thereafter, she taught at St. Mary’s School, Agukwu-Nrifor one year, and had another spell at St. Matthew’s School, Nibo.  In consonant with the practice among Awka parents of the time—to prepare their daughters for marriage by sending them to be mentored by older married women—the effervescent Kate was put on a different platform.  She was withdrawn from her teaching vocation, and was enrolled in a formal school for Home Management at Onitsha.  There, she learnt, among other vocations, Fashion and Designing, and Baking, all in preparation for matrimony.

 She had barely completed her training at Onitsha when Daniel Dibo Anagbogu of Umuike village, Awka asked for her hand in marriage. The handsome Dibo was then a licensed produce agent at Gashua in present-day Yobe State.  They walked down the aisle on February 13, 1950, and to the glory of God, the union was well consummated. The life of the young couple was modicum, but the bliss was large.  On account of the nature of DD’s trade, the couple moved quite around in the Northern Region, lived in Sakwaa and Gamawa in Bauchi province (now Bauchi State) before settling permanently in Kano, from where Dibo peregrinated to the hinterland during buying season (November to March/April) and back to the city during off-season.

 Kate was a woman of many parts. True to her training, she first took to ‘dress making’ (seamstress), which she combined with baking. But as baking seemed to show far more prospects, she veered rather strongly into it, and raised the bar among her contemporaries. Her modest effort at baking snowballed into quite a substantial commercial venture. Although bread making was a popular homestead vocation among many young Igbo wives in Kano of the time, Kate’s brand—Kate’s Special Loaf—stood a shoulder taller than many of the others. That loaf was her greatest selling point.  She was similarly a great team player; through her vocations, she complemented the effort of her husband and together they built their own home at Plot No. 35, Barlatt Hughes Road in Sabon Gari, Kano.

 Kate was a very strict disciplinarian: Yes, why not?  Remember she was a primary school teacher.  At that time, primary school teachers were likened to demi-gods, and truly, they did not ‘spare the rod to spoil the child’.  Mother Kate impacted so much on her children: she played the role of a mother, teacher, pathfinder, friend, mentor, and confidant, all of which culminated in raising well-disciplined and intelligent children.  This was so much so, that the DD Anagbogu children became the ‘prism’ through which the small world of children of Sabon Gari, Kano was viewed.  It was common to measure the behaviours of children, using the Anagbogus as a standard. This was evidently true, as the families of Sabon Gari, Kano, dominated by Ndigbo, was ‘one large family’; everyone knew another. The Igbo maxim: ‘onyeagha nanwanneya’ was well exemplified, not only in Kano, but in the whole of Northern Nigeria.  That was one of the tenets of the gregarious Ibo Union—the pan-Igbo cultural/political organization of the time that superintended over Igbo affairs in Northern Nigeria and elsewhere.

 In 1966, Kate, with her entire family, inevitably fled the North and returned to the East. They left Kano after the first wave of political upheavals of May of the same year. Life became a bit of drudgery way back home, but Kate, the good-spirited woman, weathered the storm all through, up to the war (Nigerian civil war, 1967-1970) period and beyond.  During the war, Kate and her family took refuge at Umuchima town, near Orlu from 1968-1970 and, to the glory of God, returned home unscathed. Every member of the family survived that intractable war, but of little concern, though, and worth mentioning here, was the apparent ‘loss’ of the family’s last son, Chuba (then a very little boy), who joined the Biafran Boys’ Company at Awka, followed the fighting troops to the theatre of war and ‘got ‘lost’, but was found and rejoined with the family. Mother Kate’s joy knew no bounds when this jewel of a child returned.  Except for Amaechi, her first son, who joined the Biafran Air Force and fought at Oguta and Ajulu who served in the Biafran Navy (both of them teenagers), the rest of the children were not old enough to go to war, so it was a great occasion when the war ended and everyone survived.

 In 1970, the family relocated to Enugu.  While the father of the house took up formal employment at the Nigerian Sports Council, Kate, as usual, engineered a number of private businesses. She worked so hard to provide for her family and complement her husband.  She put together a lounge/eatery—Cool Cats Inn—at Onu-Asata, Enugu.  The place, no sooner, became a ‘beehive’, where much of Enugu’s crème-de-la-crème, the-who-is-who relaxed after the day’s work.  The family made good progress from Kate’s ventures, and was able to put the children through education in reputable institutions:

 Kate was a devout Christian of the Anglican Communion.

In Kano, she was a pillar at the St, Stephen’s (Anglican) Church, and remained consistent in church activities, all through in Enugu and Awka, at St.Bartholomew’s Church, Asata, Enugu, the Cathedral Church of St. Faith, Awka, and at her home church, St. Andrew’s Church, Umuike, Awka.  It is, perhaps, pertinent to recall that she was the driving force in the formation of the present-day Women’s meeting at St. Andrew’s, and she held various leadership positions at different times.

 She was also severally recognized for her commitment to the Church, and accordingly won accolades and received awards. She was a member of Women’s Guild and Mother’s Union, and OtuOkwukwe—a women’s group in the Diocese of Awka. In 2012, she was among the octogenarians at St. Andrew’s Church honoured for God’s blessing in attaining the glorious age of four-score years and above. Mama Kate was a foundation member of the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (AFAC) Awka: the membership promoted her Christian life with greater verve to serve the Lord.

She was also involved in many socio-cultural organisations both of Awka and at the stations she had lived. For several years, she was the secretary of Awka Development Union (ADU) Women wing, Kano and in ADU Enugu, she stood to be counted.

Kate was adept at teaching people and she would stop at nothing to put the one who had strayed, back on track.  She was endowed with a sound body in a sound mind.

 Truly, everyone on earth has his entrance and exit. Baby Kate entered Sunday, May 8, 1928 and exited Sunday, October 10, 2017. The ebullience in the effervescent life of this woman of great virtue, Mother Kate, just vanished into thin air to remind all that life is ephemeral.

As her remains are committed to Mother Earth after a worthy and fulfilled life of 90 years, we pray Almighty God to receive her noble and generous soul in His bosom. Amen.