The evening’s excitement was building up to a crescendo when Onyeka was called to sing. Before she sang, she spoke of how much she loved and admired the lady everyone was here to celebrate. Don’t be beguiled by her beauty and her soft voice, she said mischievously, cradling the microphone and looking in the direction of Stella Okoli, who was eighty years old today, sitting resplendent in a shimmering white gown that overflowed around her ankles.
Under the soft veneer, Stella, her role model, was as hard as nails, Onyeka disclosed. She reeled off a list of the ladies she admired with that precise combination. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala .
Chimamanda . Erelu Abiola Dosunmu . Over the years, Onyeka had made no secret of her passionate support for strong assertive womanhood, especially when it was accompanied by great accomplishment that was often despite, and not because of, the men in their lives.
She admired Winnie Mandela, the indomitable symbol of the struggle through the years of her husband Nelson’s incarceration on Robben Island. When Nelson decided to put Winnie away shortly after his return, her disappointment with him and her solidarity with her were total. Onyeka Onwenu, songstress, actress, journalist, saw herself in the mould of the strong women she admired.
She endeavoured to live the part. ‘I don’t give a damn’ she said in a revealing television interview she held with tele-anchor Chude, which has now become an archival treasure for people searching the record.