Book Review
Oseloka Obaze
Between three worlds – An Autobiography
Emeka Geoffrey Olisa, M.D.
(Epic Press, Bellville, Ontario, Canada, 2002; pp. 494; Price, $29.95.)
Professor Emeka Olisa, a renowned Ogbaruan, has written an invaluable book that is transcendentally true to its title and faithful to his roots and history. Between Three Worlds encapsulates not just his royal pedigree, nobility, and academic excellence but adds very much to the genealogy of the Ossomala people and Ogbaru people as a whole. If the book finds no other merit, let it be said that it has eroded immeasurably the dearth of written works about the rich historical genealogy of the ancient Kingdom of Ossomala and its contribution to the cultural and civic emancipation of Ogbaruans and indeed the Igbo.
Olisa, like many of his peers, especially those whose families valued education, writes about the challenges of straddling three worlds – African, European and American – an awesome challenge for an otherwise rural boy who benefited immensely from a loving but peripatetic father, who roamed colonial Nigeria and the world in service of humanity. Although Olisa could have looked at life as a poignant narrative and written his own life experience from that prism, he elected wisely, the path of nobility, candor and incisive analysis and dissecting of issues. In so doing, he unwittingly showed a bias for his chosen professional sub-specialty – pathology. Between Three Worlds is a keen dissection of people and events; an odyssey that traverses Olisa’s rich childhood which began in Owerri, through Okigwe, Degema, Bende, Umuahia, Calabar and Lagos, and in adulthood, the great cities of Hamburg, Cambridge and Washington, DC before an eventual sojourn in Jos, the ancient Kingdom of Benin City and Ossomala.
Perhaps more important to the reader, is the book’s admix of western civilization and the myths and realities of traditional Ossomala and Igbo beliefs, in the normative, cultural and medical contexts. Seemingly fabled to the untutored, the parallel tracks of traditional and western medicine converge easily with the lucid explanation Olisa offers. For instance, the prophylaxis of cleansing sauna or ikpu ogu is easily explained just as cupping or ochi. Even alusi and Black Juju are addressed. This book of “contrasting backgrounds” is grounded on diverse experiences and brings a vivid picture of different times and places to the life in the readers’ mind’s eye.
As Olisa himself admits in the opening line of his preface, the book contains the story of his forefathers, and indeed, that of many Ogbaru forebears and “how they lived, what they did, and the contributions some of them made toward the building of modern Nigeria.” The implications of colonialism are neither flogged ad nauseam nor treated with levity. Everyone who comes across this book must read it. For the people of Ogbaru, Prof. Olisa has thrown a challenge – that we transcend our lethargy to document our history in its fullness and richness – not just orally, as is the norm, but in written form. He has taken Ogbaru history and folktales (atita and akiko iro) and elevated them to the revered level of the white man’s way. This task was one he owed to his ancestry and to posterity.
In this book, Olisa also demythologized some of the misconceptions about Ogbaru people, by generously furnishing in uncertain terms and with clarity, the quasi-historical ideology that is the root of the olu people -- Ogbaru Igbo -- as distinct from the rest of Ndiigbo. For the scientist in him, he adduced evidence, written facts, correspondences and philosophical tidbits to anchor his points. He also writes with humility and in the commanding language of royalty.
This book was a labor of love. But then, for a Regent Atamanya (Traditional Ruler) of Ossomala, leadership is rooted in the service of the people. And in this sense, Prof. Olisa is a true acorn and son of his father, HRH Robert Odili Olisa, of blessed memory. He has indeed acquitted himself honorably.
One oversight and glaring omission of the book was the non-inclusion of a glossary. It would have been an invaluable help for researchers in alternative medicine and non-Igbo that might peruse this gem of a work. Otherwise, “Between Three Worlds” is a valiant account of personal triumph and sagacity; of a proud people and culture and of three worlds bound by a common destiny and human desires.