Christy Anyanwu

The Festival of African Arts and Culture, FESTAC, hosted by Nigeria in 1977 and the serialization of the epic movie, Roots, which was based on a book by Alex Haley, both played key roles in the rebirth of pride in Africanness in people of African descent across the globe.

That sense of pride has been deepened by Nollywood movies, which are being screened overseas. Here are at home, Iniobong Obinna-Onunkwo, founder and chief executive of Heritage Education For Youths and Little Weavers, has been doing her bit in promoting the African heritage.
Over the past decade Iniobong has worked in various capacities in investment banking, engineering, food and beverage industry and currently, in the fashion industry. She has attended various local and international institutions including the Lagos Business School, and Centro Venezuelano Americano. Her diplomatic status enable her to travel far and wide, and made it possible for her to interact with people from different cultures. She is now fully committed to projecting African culture and heritage, using different platforms to tell the world about Africa. She spoke with Sunday Sun recently.

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What inspired this campaign for Africa heritage?
I have traveled wide. And whenever I meet with people from other tribes, I’m at the point of shedding tears. I have met with Germans, Venezuelans and Australians. The way they talk about their culture is very interesting. At such moments, when I talk about Nigeria, the only thing they connect with about the country is Kanu Nwankwo and I find myself telling tell them that Nigeria has more than that. They want to learn more about us. But who is celebrating it? It goes beyond wearing Buba and Iro. When I dress the African way and talk to them about Nigeria and we now extend our discussions to other African countries like Ghana and Cameroun they are all ears. They love our outfit and admire the colourful combination. In such chats they say they would love to visit Africa because all they hear are things like lion and tigers all over Africa (so they said) and I had to tell them that we have bridges too.

Tell us more about the work you are doing with youths?
The objective of the foundation is to empower the minds of the youths about their cultural and African heritage, and, of course, to educate the global village to change their perspective of African heritage as well as revolutionize the entire cultural thing when it comes to Africa. We want to indigenize Africa. We want to make people feel that Africa has arrived and we are here to stay. African children should be able to wear our denim and afrocentric tops. I did presentations in two schools recently. I called it Heritage Friday. I told them instead of wearing the children jerseys, tell them to wear any bottom of your choice and wear an afrocentric (ankara) top. That morning the kids could do a five-to-10-minute presentation about a particular country. We need to start embracing it from the grassroots.

How do you plan to actualize these lofty projects?
We have initiated a number of programmes. We have the Minimi Show. The idea is for educationists to come on board and talk to parents about embracing the African culture/African heritage not just in line with the Nigerian culture. It goes beyond that because in schools we have people that celebrate other African countries and you hear people talking about different costumes like: Massai Warrior and they want to dress like the South African Zulu, Zimbabwean, and Ghanaian; it goes beyond that. The idea of the mini-mi show is for the mothers and the children to wear the same African outfits. The kids should be able to talk about why they really love Africa, what is so intriguing about Africa, what they understand about Africa, African presidents, African history and so forth. That is why everywhere I am, you find something afrocentric around me.

Do you practice all these things you said with your family?
Yes. I try to celebrate my African heritage with my children. We have the educational package. We have already set it up. My daughter recently traveled to Ogbunike cave in Anambra. The idea is to encourage her to make such trips anytime she’s on holiday, to travel around Nigerian and other African countries close to us. You have several tourist attractions in Europe and America and people pay a lot of money to visit those places. What about us here in Africa? Where are the tourist areas or sites that people where people could build hotels to accommodate tourists? We need to commercialize those places like Egbunike cave and employ tour guides. We are talking about bringing cultural awareness and commercializing the area. We are having that as our educational package. The other aspect is the academy. We have the little weaver academy. A number of children came to my shop; their parents brought them during the last long vacation, parents dropped their children last long vacation and they were really impressed. They practiced a lot about African arts and crafts and some did tailoring. We want them to develop this into entrepreneurship. Today, these children may not need their mum to fix a button that falls off their close. They could do a fashion project or something stylish. The idea is to empower the mind of the children. The final aspect is training the community. We want to set up a community where the young ones can come together, do some training, we have a market place and encourage people to come and buy their wares. We want to empower the women as well as the youths. Imagine if we have that around different zones in Lagos and it spreads outside Lagos, and from Nigeria, it becomes a pan-African thing.

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Tell us a bit of yourself?
I’m from Akwa Ibom State and I’m married to an Anambra man. I studied at the University of Port Harcourt, attended Federal Government Girls College, Oyo. I have a little knowledge of Yoruba and Spanish. I understand very little Ibo (but we are working hard on that) and of course I speak Ibibio. I have two gorgeous daughters, and they are ambassadors of all my afrocentric discussions wherever I am.

Can you share memorable experience growing up?
I had the opportunity to meet with ambassadors from other countries; we discussed with them, and usually they have this festival where other countries come with their native foods. We have native Nigerian meals too. Funny enough, they seemed tired with their local pastas, pastries and rice, and you would see them coming to the Nigerian stands to sample Edikaikong and Egusi soups. That really intrigued and got me thinking. On such festival days, you would see Nigerians all clad in their native costumes and the whites want to take pictures with us. Getting to know about other culture and the other tribes getting to know about the African culture is fun too.

Who influenced you more while growing up, your dad or mum?
Both of them! When it gets to getting work done, it’s my father. When it comes to administrative thing, putting things in order, that is my mum. Of course, mum will discipline you as the real African mother.

What lessons did you learnt about life?
I believe every woman should be bold in everything she wants to do. You have to be beautiful. Beauty is not just putting up the makeup; you have to be beautiful from inside. You should try as much as possible to make yourself happy. Then you have to be brave. Regardless of the environment, tribe or race, you can still succeed.

What is style to you?
I love my denim jeans trouser any day with Ankara top.

What is your definition of a fashionable woman?
A woman who has self-confidence and who is understanding and accommodating of every other woman. Your fashion style defines who you are; I cannot compare who I am to who you are as far as it suits you and makes you happy inside.

How did you meet your husband?
We met in school at the University of Port Harcourt. He saw me going for lunch with my friends. He came close and was chatting with my friends. According to him I didn’t bat an eye. A week or two, it was my birthday. He got the info from my friends and he came and even brought wine. That was how the journey began. We became friends for quite some time before we got married.

You are from a background different from your spouse, how did your parents take it?
My father was not certain about the relationship. He was like, where would this relationship lead to? He has traveled much and seen a lot. It actually took my mum time to enlighten him that things have changed. People are inter-marrying and after some time he realized it was a serious calling and there was nothing he could do about it.