People · 1948–2017
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He started out in a Catholic church choir, made more than 200 songs in the masquerade tradition, and openly practised the old Igbo religion. Some of the stories about him were sung by other musicians.
Pericoma Okoye was born in 1948 in Arondizuogu, in what is now Imo State. His full name was long, Pericomo Damian Azubike Nwankwo Okoye, but people just called him Pericoma. Before he was anything else he was a singer in a church. In the early 1970s he sang in the choir of St Michael's Catholic Church in Arondizuogu.
That's worth remembering, because of where he ended up. From the choir he became lead singer of a cultural music group called Troupe. He made one album with them, then left to start his own band. From 1976 he put out an album every year, and by the end of his life he had made more than 200 songs.
His music came out of the Igbo masquerade tradition, the songs and drums that go with masquerades at festivals. It wasn't the guitar highlife that filled the hotels in Onitsha and Enugu. One writer called his work an "oral rendition of rarefied Igbo history". Put plainly, that means a man singing the old stories, the proverbs and the names, so they didn't get lost.
The names of his albums give you a feel for him: Ejezuo, Ekere Mgba, High Tension, Ikeji Izuogu, Ute Nti, Obodo Aghoka, Nduka Aku. Ikeji is the big festival in Arondizuogu, and it ran right through his life. There were many more besides, among them Aja Egbu Edi, Irigworugwo, Oderigwugwu, Ogbaghara, Awirigidi, and a two-volume set called Isi na Udoh Ga-Adi. He also had a Nollywood role, appearing with Pete Edochie in a film called Lion of Africa. After that, people started calling him the Lion of Africa too.
At home he carried titles. He was cultural prime minister of Arondizuogu until he died. He was called Mezuo Mbụ nke Arọndizuogu, the first of Arondizuogu, and Arusi Makaja 1, which is how many fans wrote his name.
What set Pericoma apart from many popular Igbo musicians of his time was that he openly practised Odinala, the traditional religion of the Igbo. Most stars of his generation sang to a largely Christian public and kept the old gods at arm's length. Pericoma praised them.
A theologian who wrote about Igbo music compared him to Oliver de Coque, the great highlife guitarist. The difference the writer noticed was that Pericoma sang the praises of herbalists and of people believed to be able to reach and work with the spirit world. He wasn't embarrassed by any of it. He made it the centre of his act.
That showed up on stage. At the Ikeji festival in Arondizuogu, his magic performances pulled big crowds. People came for the music, but they also came to see what Pericoma would do.
Think about the man's path for a second. He started out singing hymns in a Catholic choir in his own town, then spent the rest of his life as the loudest voice for the religion the missionaries had worked to push out. He didn't leave a written account of why he made that turn, so we can't say what was in his head. What we can say is that he never apologised for it.
The most famous story about Pericoma isn't one he told himself. It's in a song by another singer, Anaede Unu, titled "Pericoma na-anyi ajo aro", which roughly means Pericoma is terribly heavy.
The way the story goes, Pericoma was in Onitsha when a gang of agbero, the touts who collect "tax" from traders and drivers, demanded to see his tax receipts. He ignored them. So one of them decided to carry him off on his shoulders. Then the trouble started. Pericoma, the story says, made himself so heavy that the tout couldn't put him down. Hours went by with the man stuck under the weight, until the gang agreed to perform the rites to Pericoma's deity that he told them to do. Only then was the tout let go.
Nobody has to believe that literally, and this page doesn't ask you to. It's a legend, and a good one, because it says something about how people saw him. He was a man the market touts couldn't push around, a man with something behind him.
His work was taken seriously, too. In July 2010 the Mbari Literary Society in Owerri gave him its Distinguished Achievement Award for helping to keep the Igbo language and culture alive.
Pericoma had several wives and many children. His son Ebube Izuogu also sings in the traditional style. In 2017 the rapper Speed Darlington said Pericoma was his father as well.
Pericoma died on 16 February 2017, in a hospital in Okigwe. His final burial was planned for April 2018, more than a year later, in the village of Ndiogbuonyeoma in Ndibeuche. When news of his death came out, one newspaper headline put it simply: a big masquerade had left the stage.
