Original title: ‘The creative world has lost a great soul’

He provided Nigerian literature and writers enabling platforms to showcase their art, and the Sentinel was one of such. Following his activities while he lived, Nnorom’s demise is a big blow on his family, friends, the Methodist church and writers’ community. The world has lost a great soul

By Editor

TRIBUTES have continued to pour in as the literary world mourns the sad and untimely passing of one of Nigeria’s emerging voices and mediator of the literary craft through his many interventions as a publisher and platform creator for emerging voices, Nnorom Azuonye. From President, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Dr. Usman Akanbi, to Prof. Obi Nwakanma of the University of Central Florida, US, and Chiedu Ezeanah, Azuonye’s passing is like a meteor – brief but streaking brightly on the creative firmament.

Nwakanma remembers him from his secondary school days at the famous Government College, Umuahia, when he wrote, “Nnorom – we called him “Tombo” – was my high school classmate at the Government College, Umuahia. He was the editor in his last year of the Nile House Magazine, while I was the editor of The Dewar, the Simpson House magazine. I was made editor of the college magazine, The Red Star, and Nnorom was called into office the same day by the college Principal and classicist, J.E. Nworgu (JP) as Assistant Editor.

“Unfortunately, we did not produce the magazine that year because of the school strikes, and it was often a quiet joke between Nnorom and I that our legacy of the tradition of the college magazine in Umuahia, which had a history of past editors including Sam Epelle, Chinua Achebe, Chris Okigbo, Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike (who were joint editors in their year), Kelsey Harrison, Beredugo, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nnorom’s own elder brother, Ike Azuonye, now based in London, as a very renowned psychiatrist, down to the poet, Obu Udeozo, and right down to us, was that we did not produce anything. It signified for us the beginnings of The Trouble with Nigeria (title for Achebe’s famous treatise on Nigeria).

“At Umuahia, Nnorom was very active in the Dramatic Society and had acted on the college stage as a woman once, in one of Ene Henshaw’s plays, staged during the famous Umuahia Drama Week. It was no surprise to me that he went to Nsukka to study drama after his A-Levels in London. Nnorom and I had plans to start a very serious publishing company with offices in London, Enugu, Owerri, Accra, Nairobi, New York and Cape Town. We had plans to meet in London this summer to put the dots on the Is of that plan.

“He called me in November when my younger brother died. That was my last conversation with him. I knew he had some lingering health issues. In fact, after the Covid-19 scare, we talked and accepted that we should henceforth cease all manner of ‘bloviations’, and begin to do real work of restoration, because our mortality was now clearly contingent. But it did not reduce the shock of his death, which I got to know, in exactly two hours after it happened, through his brother, Dr. Ik Azuonye. Nnorom now joins his eldest brother, the poet and critic, Professor Chukwuma Azuonye, who went ahead of him, two years ago. It is very sad and it is worrying to me that death now hunts me, and has harvested so much from my field in the last year alone!”

In a condolence note titled ‘The creative world has lost a great soul: Condolence message from the Association of Nigerian Authors on the death of Mr. Nnorom Azuonye,’ the association’s president, Dr. Akanbi, said, “We received with deep sense of loss the news of the demise of Mr. Nnorom Azuonye (July 12, 1967 – January 21, 2024). The news was as devastating as it was shocking to learn of the passing of the perfect gentleman.

“Nnorom Azuonye was a lover and promoter of literature. He was an author, poet, playwright, editor, essayist, and Publishing Director, SPM Publications, London. He was as well a preacher in the Methodist Church. As a talented and enterprising soul, Nnorom gave his best towards the advancement of literary creativity and more.

“He provided Nigerian literature and writers enabling platforms to showcase their art, and the Sentinel was one of such. Following his activities while he lived, Nnorom’s demise is a big blow on his family, friends, the Methodist church and writers’ community. The world has lost a great soul.

“Thus, I, on behalf of the Executive Council and the entire members of the Association of Nigerian Authors herewith convey our heartfelt condolences. We pray the Almighty God to grant his soul an eternal rest. May the good Lord console his people. May his soul rest in the peace of the Lord. Amen!”

Ezeanah waxed lyrical in mourning Azuonye and writes him a poem, but this is after explaining their near-publishing project that would not now come off as planned: “Dear brother Nnorom, you warned that you would sue me to court if I gave the manuscript of my debut collection to anyone else but you. That was almost a decade ago. Just about when we were set to release it in February, you had to answer to the call of mortality, after several surgeries on both of your eyes arising from diabetic complications, as you confided in me many months ago. But you recovered to say this was still doable. Alas, some cosmic elements are beyond our control. I am still processing this. I will surely do you a deserving eulogy to extol the extraordinary human you were and you will continue to be for me and my family who were looking forward to meeting with you last year in Abuja as we discussed.

“Certainly, more to come from me to testify to how simple and sagely you were as a person and as a poet. You remain so in the rose-tinged memory of mine… Bye for now…”

TOIL ~ For Nnorom Azuonye
(12 July,1967, Eastern Nigeria — 21 January, 2024, London,UK)

By Chiedu Ezeanah

Outside is darkness
Darkness is home
Dreams and fears flare between the two
Eyes toil between the two
It’s with the eyes the body shields its head
It’s with the eyes the heart betrays its longing
You eyes full of light who blacken light, halt
the return of light, blacken rays of new eyes…
You do not ask for light anymore, you
toil for blacker darkness,
you do not recall what light means…
Night is not so dire it does not hum
This night hums for a home in new eyes
Night-gashed eyes see
with cry-cleansed eyes
They cry with those who cry
They see for those who do not see…

https://thearthubng.com/azuonye-the-creative-world-has-lost-a-great-soul/

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Nnorom Azuonye: The Way We Were

‘He did what he did, standard, and without any expectation of reward or recognition…’

These images span several years in the mid-2000s. Nnorom and a usual suspects of UK-based Nigerian writers, some visiting: James Ene Henshaw, then ANA President Wale Okediran, Ike Anya, Obemata, Toni Kan, Chike Azuonye (artist, Nnorom’s brother), Afam Akeh, Ike Okonta, Austyn Njoku, Chinwe Azubuike, and yours truly. Chuma Nwokolo is not shown here but is almost certainly behind the camera for one of these photos. Munayem Mayenin represents the UK poetry scene within which Nnorom also flowed, building community with British poets including some very high-profile ones. These images show us at various events including – Poet’s Letter Readings & Festival, Sentinel Poetry Live, and a reading we did in March 2006 at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, where Chuma was Writer-in-Residence.PHOTO: Courtesy Molara Wood.

Nnorom was there at the heart of all these endeavours. He supported the works of many writers, especially Nigerian writers, myself included. There are directions my writing went that would not have been possible without Nnorom. He was an active member of Krazitivity and was part of the conversations we were having at the time, conversations that helped shape us. Nnorom inspired and encouraged you to do the work; he built the platforms (websites, print publications, competitions etc.) to promote our works, at a time when there were not many avenues open to us. Many were published for the first time in Sentinel; he interviewed many writers, and reviewed many. Then he organised events to showcase our works. He did so much, with no funding. And I don’t think anyone anywhere ever gave him an award or other accolade for his considerable contributions to Nigerian writing; no writers ever gathered to celebrate him in a soiree for what he did, no one ever declared him the Anything of Anything. I doubt it ever occurred to him that he ought to be celebrated. He never praised himself, he sought no praise. He did what he did, standard, and without any expectation of reward or recognition. People moved on, and many casually forgot. Too late now. But let the record show, that Nnorom Azuonye did the bit he could to get us where we are today, and it was no mean feat.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C2h4JMQs9M2/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D

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PROFILE:

Nnorom Azuonye a native of Isuikwuato, Abia State of Nigeria, was born at Enugu, now in Enugu State of Nigeria, on 12 July 1967. He was the youngest son of Stephen Onyemaechi Azuonye MON, MBE, and Hannah Egwuime Azuonye. He attended Government College Umuahia, Capital College, London, and University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he studied Dramatic Arts^.

He was a publisher, theater, director,  playwright, poet and advertising professional. He was also an accredited Methodist Local Preacher with the Methodist Church in Britain and served as Principal Networker, Global Calvary Network. He wrote Letter To God & Other Poems in 2003, The Bridge Selection: Poems for the Road (2005 & 2012) and Funeral of the Minstrel in 2015). The Founding Publishing Director & Chief Executive Officer, SPM Publications Ltd, Azuonye was the founder and administrator of Sentinel Poetry Movement and the founder and publisher of the magazines Nollywood Focus, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Sentinel Nigeria and Sentinel Champions.

In 2002, Azuonye founded the Sentinel Poetry Movement – an international community of writers and artists providing an interaction and publishing resource for poetry, fiction, drama, essays, interviews, and reviews of the Arts. He was the Managing Editor of Sentinel Literary Quarterly – a magazine of world literature published by Sentinel Poetry Movement. He was also the publisher of Sentinel Nigeria magazine – an online magazine of contemporary Nigerian writing Sentinel’s previous two publications, Sentinel Poetry (Online) and Sentinel Poetry Quarterly, were later merged into the single publication Sentinel Literary Quarterly

Azuonye has been widely published internationally in journals, newspapers, and anthologies including Agenda, DrumVoices Revue, Eclectica, Orbis, World Haiku Review, Nigerians Talk, African Writing, African Writers, Sketchbook, Poetry Monthly, Opon Ifa, Theatre Forum, Voices Against Racism: 100 Poems Against Racism, and Poems for a Liminal Age (Mandy Pannett ed.)

His books include:

• Letter to God & Other Poems(2003),
• The Bridge Selection: Poems for the Road(2005 & 2012).
• Blue Hyacinths(2010; ed. with Geoff Stevens),
• Sentinel Annual Literature Anthology(2011; ed with Unoma Azuah and Amanda Sington-Williams),
• Funeral of the Minstrel
• The Genesis of Falcon(ed.) (a play, 2015).

He was married to Thelma Amaka Azuonye (née Mbomi) in 2006. They lived in London, United Kingdom, with their children Arinzechukwu, Nwachiamanda, Obinna and Ugochukwu.

*(Adapted from wikipedia)