Chuka didn’t understand the Igbo proverbs woven into the lyrics, but he understood the feeling: the song refused to bow. Years later, in Lagos, Chuka worked as a sound engineer for a fading radio station. Every night, he played the old records: Celestine Ukwu, Oliver De Coque, Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe. But the station manager wanted Afrobeats, not “grandfather music.” One evening, as he packed the vinyl into a cardboard box marked SCRAP , his hand paused on Osadebe’s “Osondi Owendi.”
The song was by Oriental Brothers International. It spoke of a farmer who lost his yams to flood but still bought his wife a new wrapper because “obi uto bu ego” —a happy heart is wealth. igbo highlife songs
That night, Chuka didn’t scrap the records. He drove to a small club in Surulere called The Palm Wine Spot . The owner, a stout woman named Mama Ifeoma, agreed to let him host a Saturday night— Igbo Highlife Revival —for just three weeks. Chuka didn’t understand the Igbo proverbs woven into