- Highlifeng: You Searched For Ozoemena Nsugbe Aguleri Bu Isi Igbo

“E muo gbara m aka… the spirit called me home.”

“Ozoemena Nsugbe, Aguleri bu isi Igbo...”

She spent the next week digging through the digital graveyard of HighlifeNg, a blog dedicated to preserving forgotten vinyl records. She found comments under the song: “My grandfather said Ozoemena’s shrine is still there.” “The British feared him more than any king.” “They say his skull is buried under the new courthouse.” “E muo gbara m aka… the spirit called me home

The dibia smiled. “Because your father is Ozoemena’s great-great-grandson. And the last line of the song says, ‘Nwoke a na-efu efu ga-alọta’ —The lost man shall return.”

Nneka felt a chill. The song wasn’t just music. It was a political manifesto encoded in melody. And the last line of the song says,

He leaned closer. “But before he died, he cursed them. He said, ‘Aguleri bu isi Igbo’ —Aguleri is the head of the Igbo nation. Without the head, the body wanders. And for a hundred years, we have wandered. Civil war. Endless arguments. No true leader.”

It was a praise song, but not for a living man. It was an oriki , a praise epithet for a hero. Nneka had grown up in Surulere, far from the dusty hills of Aguleri. She knew she was Igbo, but “Isi Igbo”—the Head of Igbo? That was not a nickname. That was a title of war. He leaned closer

The Search for the Head of Igbo