JALA Winter-Spring 2008-Vol 2 No 1 - African Literature Association

imitations were put into the market. There are examples of the romance
pamphlets such as Raphael Obiorah’s Beauty is Trouble, N.O Madu’s Miss
Rosy in the Romance of True Love, Okenwa Olisa’s Elizabeth My Love, and R.
Okonkwo’s The Game of Love. It is still hard to tell if Veronica My Daughter
had any significant influence on the extraordinary narrative of the
sexually explicit novella, Mabel the Sweet Honey that Poured Away
published by Speedy Eric. What is clear though is that the latter pamphlet
was published after the phenomenal success of the former. However,
the similarities between Veronica My Daughter and Okenwa Olisa’s
Elizabeth My Lover are striking to say the least and one can deduce that
the former influenced the latter. The success of Veronica My Daughter
encouraged Ogali A. Ogali to publish pamphlet after pamphlet. He
published the fantastic novelette, Okeke the Magician, which is described
by Sander as the story of “African magic with Indian spiritism, a subject
which he was interested in at the time” (xiii). This is clearly one of the
pre-war fictions of Ogali Ogali. Other notable pre-war fictions are Eddy
the Coal City Boy and Caroline the One-Guinea Girl. Okeke the Magician is
remarked by the regular desire of the Onitsha market authors to show
off their connection to the outside world. This knowledge is put on
display in most of their pamphlets. As one of the frontier men of the new
brave world that the Onitsha market locality was experiencing at the
time, Ogali proves his knowledge of the world by introducing a local
character who made it big in the international trade of magic and sorcery.
Ogali describes the story of Okeke as “a young man who made up his
mind to study magic and occultism and finally qualifies as an adept.”
Okeke is not brilliant but once he decided that he was going to be a
magician, nothing could stop him. Although he could not pass his
“Cambridge” and failed in many attempts to engage in other trades, his
calling is really in the business of magic. In this regard, his encounter
with Professor Gundun changed his life forever. As a stow-way, he
managed to get to the United States of America where he earned his
first degree, the MA, “with a First class Honours in Spiritism.” In London,
he acquired another degree “with a first class degree in Herbalism, and
in India, he secured another degree. Okeke took the “Doctor of Science”
in Egypt but this was after completing an unparalleled trip to Abyssinia.
Okeke gets into trouble on return to Nigeria because he was quite
frivolous with his magic. The primary source of his problem is that he
gave an “Open Sesame Charm” to the Board of Thieves. Members misuse
the charm and were brought to the presence of a judge. Although Okeke
is able to cast his spell on the judge, he still finds it expedient to leave
his fatherland for the reason that he is not “welcomed whole-heartedly
in his country. He relocates to the United States of America.
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