By Dejo Odeyinka
This day 26 years ago, I got a call from Banky, a friend of mine living in Dallas. De Dejo, he said. “Have you heard that your friend Uncle Zeal passed on today? “I was dumbfounded and didn’t say a word. The last time I saw Uncle Zeal was at Charing Cross Station in London. As my train was snaking out of the station, I saw him and Tokunbo his wife on the platform. I could not jump out of the train.
Prior to that time, he was very much against my relocating to the UK, giving me all the support to succeed in Nigeria. I just lost a mentor, my Uncle Zealinjo Onyia.
A man I admired so much. A professional musician who hardly goes anywhere without his trumpet.An upright man. A man who just liked me for my craziness. A man who introduced me to Ofe n sala soup.A man who told me stories about music. A man who confessed to me his first love is Highlife, followed by jazz and then classical. He excelled in all. A man who made Uncle Bayo Santos Martin take me as his brother.
An itinerant man that you will never find in Lagos traffic.He introduced me to a lot of greats – Mr Odion Iruoje, his neighbour in Festac. He will take me to Uncle Odion house at least twice a month on a Saturday morning where they will talk about music with musicians like Etim Udoh, Alaba Pedro, Eddy Okonta etc popping in to join the gathering.
He introduced me to Mighty Sparrow, who invited us to Sparrows Nest in Trinidad. A man I met with Manu Dibango at Eko Hotel when I interviewed Dibango, who was visiting Nigeria at the invitation of Fela Anikulapo for the opening of Fela’s Shrine on Pepple street. I met Stan Plange of the Uhuru Dance Band through him. Stan Plange remained Uncle Zeal’s main man in Ghana. A great supporter of the Nigerian Green Eagles, especially with his trumpet at maches. A well-connected and highly respected Nigerian.
I met Uncle Zeal at Bobby Benson’s place on Ikorodu Road, where a lot of Bensonites visit to pay homage to the enigmatic Papa Bobby Benson We got introduced casually. But I knew I was going to interview him at a latter stage.But my focus was on Papa Bobby, whom I was interviewing at the time. He gave me room at Hotel Bobby for 2 weeks for the duration of the interview. 2 weeks? That is a story for another time.
Our path crossed sometimes in the 80s when I attended Rev E V Badejo’s 70th birthday party in Benin. Rev Badejo was my best friend, Dr. Akingbade Badejo’s father and the first indigenous director General of NBC.
Alaba Pedro was on the bandstand, dishing out sumptuous Highlife music. In one corner sat a man I recognised to be Zeal Onyia. I rushed to get Akin scolding him for not keeping his promise of introducing me to the great Zeal Onyia. He grabbed me by the arm and took me to a great man. “Uncle Zealo, meet my good friend Dejo. He is a great fan of yours. He lives in Port Harcourt” The great gentleman that he is, he stood up and shook my hand. “I am actually going to Port Harcourt from Benin tomorrow Sunday.” He said. “ Can I ride with you” I asked. He agreed.
Meeting the great Zeal Onyia at close proximity made my year and I danced non stop to Alaba Pedro’s pulsating music that some Amebos had to go and report me to Rev Badejo on how close Akin’s wife Dr Ayo Badejo and I were dancing. Papa took one look and said Dejo is a member of the family.
As expected, Uncle Zeal rendition of Vicky Yema Afun backed by Alaba Pedro’s band, drew the curtain on a wonderful night.
Would be nice to point out that aside from Uncle Zeal’s working under Rev Badejo at NBC when he returned from England, he married Rev Badejo’s niece Tokunbo, a medical doctor who bore him two children, a boy and a girl.
I once asked Uncle Zeal why the wide age difference between him and Tokunbo? He said his mother was worried that he would marry a white woman when he went to study in Germany. He promised his mum he won’t and that explains why he got married very late to Tokunbo on his return to Nigeria.
On the ride back to PH, I was on top of the world sitting in Uncle Zeals white Honda Prelude car while he drove.We talked about a lot of things on the about 2-3 hours drive to PH. I offered him accommodation at my Silver Valley Estate house. He said he had made prior arrangements, and the friend was expecting him. But he promised, the next time he is in PH, he would stay with me. He took me home and left.
About a month later, I got a message that he was coming to PH and he would stay with me. Wow. This great man is going to stay with me? My masters bedroom is his for as long as he wanted. When Uncle Zeal arrived Silver Valley in his white Honda Prelude , he had a suitcase and one of “His Master’s Voice” grammaphone to play 78rmp Ambrose Campbell’s “Eroya” record he brought for me.I was honoured and that added to my Ambrose Campbell’s collection.
Until I left PH about 1991, Uncle Zeal’s PH rendevous was mine at Silver Valley Estate. A move that endeared me to some VIP’s in PH who could not believe this great man turned down their various luxurious private guest houses to hang out with me.
As I remember today, one of the greatest trumpeters to ever walk the surface of this earth, I would like to share a personal experience I had with this icon.
Sometime during Abacha’s regime, a friend of mine was the Military Administrator of Oyo State. Uncle Zeal has imported some physio therapy equipment and wanted to sell to the Oyo State Government. From the Governor’s office, we were asked to go meet with the Director of Health Services. I will refer to him as Dr L. The Director at the time was related to another friend whom I introduced to the Military Administrator and was made a commissioner in his cabinet. Will refer to him as Mr B L.
After exchanging pleasantries, uncle Zeal pitched the equipments and 10 minutes after, without a response from the Director, Uncle Zeal signalled to me that we should leave. My reaction was that we had not concluded the deal.
Uncle Zeal stood up. stretched out his hand and said bye-bye in some strange language.I noticed the man almost fell off his seat. Apparently, as he was pitching to him, the Director was talking to his guest, who was in the office when we got there in some foreign language, which I later realised was German language. He told his friend we were there to waste our time as he was going to buy from another vendor despite our connections with the governor. Unknown to the Director, Uncle Zeal spoke fluent German. I laughed so hard at the Director’s goof that I slipped and fell down the stairs.
I was privileged to watch the great Zeal Onyia perform a few times at gigs in Lagos and Port Harcourt but a classical performance at the newly built Muson Centre with Mr Mbanefo on piano was electrifying and still resonates with me even as I remember him today. It was a clear indication of his dexterity across three genre Highlife, Jazz, and Classicals.
Continue to rest easy my mentor Baba Chukwudalu the loyal Bensonite who at every highlife gigs will always start with “This is to the man who brought us up” And he will do a solo instrumentalisation of Bobby’s Taxi Driver. I remember with nostalgia my walk from Caban to Ikorodu dancing behind Papa Bobby’s corpse with Zeal Onyia, Victor Olaiya and I think Eddy Okonta leading the crowd with Taxi Driver and the crowd responding with different versions of the song. My favourite being “Bobby ti ku. Bobby rele. Bobby rele o lo sun. If you love Bobby Benson, raise your hand. If you love Bobby Benson, God bless you”
