Power Mike is a household word in Nigeria, Africa and even beyond. .To most people he is a colossus, a titan, a mythical figure. How can a person use his sheer physical strength to stop two cars from moving? Win a tug-of-war against twenty hefty and able-bodied men? Carry with ease several bags of cement placed on his belly? Become a heavy-weight wrestling champion in a matter of months? And eventually turn out to be a revered promoter of sports? These facts baffle the imagination of lesser mortals. In pondering their significance, one is at a loss to remember that Power Mike is, in fact, Michael Okpala born in 1939 at Neni Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State in Nigeria. A mortal like all of us! The bewilderment is compounded for his kinsmen from Neni who know hini intimately, especially as a keen participant. in the various festivities marking the various stages of human development in the community festivities of birth, growth and death. They see him as a prodigy who is paradoxically human enough to reveal the -attributes of an average person. The experience must have helped them to understand why in the bible of the Christians the people of Nazareth found it difficult to believe that Jesus Christ whose parentage they knew very well could perform such marvels in their midst.
This biography is overdue because Power Mike's achievements merit to be properly documented since they are of national and international significance. As one of his kinsmen myself, I have been dreaming of salvaging them from possible extinction by putting them down in written form. I am happy that this has now been done. I realize, of course that the quality could have been better.
SOURCE OF POWER MIKE'S POWER
Power Mike is a prodigy, an extraordinary cultural hero. It is therefore not unexpected that one should wonder how he was born, where he was born and who his parents are. Questions flood the mind: Are there some unusual incidents associated with his birth, parentage and childhood develop-ment? Was he fed normally like any other child? Did his day stretch beyond the twenty-four-hour period? Is it reasonable to believe that he is after all as human as any other average person? The sense of wonder elicited in each of us by his exploits is vividly expressed by Sally Scott of Darlington, a contributor to Radio Times, one of the British newspapers: When I saw Power. Mike carry John over his shoulder and lift a 50-Ib bag of cement in his teeth all at the same time I couldn't believe my eyes. Please can you send me a photograph of him? (March 13, 1969)
To many, Power Mike cannot but be a favoured child of satanic principalities. instance, in Northern Nigeria it as believed that he was "lgbo juju" and in Ghana "Black Nigerian uju" in achieving his feats. A Senegalese journalist while reporting his phenomenal displays at Saint-Louis wondered if the power did not come from Satan's Kingdom. As he put it,
in the face of the fantastic displays of this ascetic, one is tempted to ask if they are not products of magic., (My. translation) In interview after interview, Power Mike was con-strained to correct the impression. To the journalists of the Graphics-Sports of Ghana he asserted that his "Power was a gift from God" and that he was "prepared to explain to anybody who doubts it". To the reporter of London Press Report (February 14, 1969), he forcefully declared that he"... was born with this power. I don't have to train. No amount of training would give you the power or strength I've got". And then in Champion of Champions.. Power Mike of Nigeria prepared by the management of "Daily Times" of Nigeria, he gives more details on the issue:
Whatever anyone may say I have natural powers endowed me by Almighty God. I cannot see how I could believe in juju when I was never taught how to believe in it. I know I have real natural powers: - But at any rate, one cannot stop people from saying what they want to say.
All I say is that I have a code of conduct and a way of life which gives me much aid in accomplislung my assignments. For instance, 1 do not drink or smoke or do anything too much because I know that doing anything to the extreme is had. 1 am a strict Chnstian.and I have no belief in juju or any magic, for God is my power.
To understand what he is saying one has to refer to an African philosophical concept called Akara aka ("lines of the hand or destiny") by the Igbo; that is, something that is endowed to the individual by God - it is not from the devil; if it is from the devil it will he considered unnatural and therefore viewed nega-tively. According to Power Mike, this special gift from God has blossomed through rigorous training. Thus; he somehow stands midway between the extreme positions of a controversial issue discussed by educationists and philosophers: What is responsible for the success of the great achieyers in life (eg. artists, athletes, orators, leaders, thinkers) - talent? training? or both? Some say it is talent: the skill is in-born: no amount of training can make anyone a possessor of the skill (in other words, anyone born with the talent can exercise it satisfactorily whether he/she is subjected to training or not); others, that it is training: the skill is acquired through exposure to experience, or acquired through diligence in master-ing the constitutive laws of the art; and others, that it is both innate and acquired: the skill is inborn.
But it has to be developed; if not, it will lie dormant in the person. Killwee Nwachukwu, the well-known Nigerian superman, championed the first position for, as his biographer Agwai Nwogo tells us, "he believes that he is always in top form to display and exhibit his super power even if woken from. slumber (since) his strength is inbuilt in him and as such he needs no fitness exercises as other sportsmen and women do". The Zambian., Aram Mulepga, who admired Power Mike and would have liked to challenge him if he had got all that it took to do so belonged to the second category ( or is it the third?), for he refused to share the belief that Power Mike had magical powers; rather, he confidently asserted that "Given good training, I could do 'miracles' just like Power Mike". It is clear that Power Mike himself belonged to the third category for, as he said in the interview, "I have a code of conduct and a way of living which gives me much aid in accomplishing my assignments". He believed in, and made the best use, of training in his career. What he told the British reporter suggests, however, that he was of the first school of thought, but this is not so because he made the statement in the euphoria of his victory over Peter O'Brien who was the British record holder in dead lift and all - England power champion in 1969 As is usual among sportsmen in pre-, and post-contest interviews, he used the rhetoric of exaggera-tion in making the point. Still many people would prefer to see Power Mike as a beneficiary of special.
favours from the gods of the spiritworld; if not, how could he, in the words of our elders, have climbed the iroko tree with bare hands and not with agbu - the instrument used for it by the Igbo - like any other person in society? An attempt has to be made to explain the basis for such a belief system.
BASIS FOR BELIEF IN METAPHYSICAL POWERS
Tragic experiences in life drive human beings into the realisation of their limitations as mortals. Impotent, they feel helpless in the face of an incomprehensible universe. The problems of death, ageing and incapacity to easily attain one's desires in life turn them into paltry figures almost manipulated at will by the forces of fate. Desirous of transcending their limitations, they celebrate life by using their imagination incarnated in the institutions of litera-ture and religion to dream of the infinite by ascribing special powers to special heroes. Thus in European literature Aeneid's Orpheus, the great musician who is so accomplished in his art that he can make trees stand still and listen to his music, goes underworld in quest of his dead wife Eurydice and succeeds in using his art to tame the wild and dangerous creatures guarding the entrance to the world of the gods. Mwindo, the hero of the epic of the Nyango "was born laughing and also speaking". And Amos Tutuola in Palmwine Drinkard creates a protagonist, the drinkard, who, because of his unusual travels into the world of the spirits in search of his palmwine tapster has to be imbued with a phenomenal personality. As the drinkard tell us; ... my father gave me a palm-tree farm which was nine milcs square and it contained S60,000 palm-trees, and this palm-tapster was tapping one hundred and fifty kegs of palm-wine every morn-ing, but before 2 o'clock p.m., I would have drunk all of it; after that he would go and tap another 75 kegs in the evening, which I would be drinking till morning Orpheus, Mwindo and the drinkard are products of human imagination shaped by the lore of man's metaphysical quest for the world of the spirits. In Africa, the world is dominated by gods which can be reached through sacrifices and. potent charms nor-mally prepared by privileged priests and medicine-men. Power Mike reacts against the practices of this world and prefers those of the Christian one which are perceived as antithetical to the activities of the priests and medicine-m&n. However, it is erroneous to believe that the Europeans do not believe in the world. of such spirits because of the pervasive presence of science and technology in their various societies. Julien 'Ilondriau has clearly demonstrated in his book The Occultism (written in French) that the European is equally attracted to such occult practices as homscope, palmistry, necromancy, numerology and astrology. It is not surprising that it was recently widely reported that an American President retained the services of an astr()loger in the White t louse to help him decide when it was safe for him to travel. Occult activities are, however, more pervasive in Africa because science and technology have not been developed to the point of significantly weakening the African's faith in metaphysi-cal powers. This explains why Christianity and Islam have strong roots in Africa. The supernatural powers associated with Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary and Prophet Mu.hammed - all important figures in the Bible and the Qu'ran - are held sacrosanct by the adherents of the two religions. As is reported in the Bible (Luke 1:26-38), Jesus Christ who was sent by his Father to die for mankind was born in a way that is beyond the comprehension of mortals. The Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that she would beget a divine child through the intervention of the Holy Spirit:
The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; hence, the holy offspring to be born will be called Son of God ( verse 35). Virgin Mary herself was also born mysteriously, although not all Christians Helieve fervently in this. A curious mind may consult "The Gospel of the Birth
of Mary" in The Lost Books of the Bible (pp. 1-24) to see how her parents Joachim and Anna received ministrations from God (through angels) on her birth, as well as the nature of her extraordinary infancy and her subsequent mysterious betrothal to Joseph. The angel told Joachim that: ... Anna your wife shall bring you a daughter, and you shall call her name Mary. She shall, according to your vow, be devoted to the Lord from her infancy, and be filled with the Holy Ghost from her mother's womb. (chapter 2:9-10).
As for Muhammad, the founder of Islam, there are many extraordinary but controversial accounts about his birth and childhood (e.g. the appearance of two angels to him. when he was three years old), but the most widely accepted one is recorded in Haykal's The Life of Muhammad (pp. 40-52) which deals with The year of the Elephant, 570 C.E., generally re-garded as the year of Muhammad's birth. It is the year of the miraculous victory of the Makkans over the advancing, formidable and predatory cavalry of Abrahah. Since the year was sacred to the Moslems, the date of Aminah's delivery of Muhammad was historically recorded as 57() C. E. The Qu'ran cel-ebrates the event in the chapter of the Elephant,- 105:1-5:
Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with-the possessors of the elephant? Did He not cause their war to end in confusion? And send down. (to prey) upon them birds in flocks? Casting against them stories of baked clay? So He rendered them like straw eaten up? Mythic figures throng the imagination of the various peoples of the world, hence the psychic urge in people to often see the exploits of the Power Mikes in terms of fantasies beyond the reach of average persons.
We still remember the fabulous stories woven around the personality of the legendary political figure, Nnamdi Azikiwe: for instance, he could metamorphose into a butterfly or person from another ethnic group like Hausa or Yoruba when-ever he was being targeted for destruction by political adversaries. The old woman who forged him into an insuperable, metaphysical figure died immediately after preparing the concoctions - that is why "he is beyond human destruction"; or even that he could clisappe-ar at will whenever he was boxed into near -fatal Political situations in life. When the first Nigerian military head of state, Major-General Aguiyi-Ironsi was assassinated in July 1966, it was firmly believed that he was still alive because folk imagination endowed him with the metaphysical power of being bullet-proof. We can now understand the nature of the ideology informing Mr Yunusa .Akee's report in Evening Times of September 18, 1975 on Power Jack of New Zealand. Power Jack was the praise name of wild Beard Elizah, the New Zealand's heavy-weight wren ding champion who met Power Mike of Nigeria iSeptember 26, 1975 at the National Stadium. We are told that the 27 years old Power Jack was born during an eclipse of the Sun and that, He's a keen bull fighter. This accounts for the reason why he developed the habit of drinking freshly killed bull's blood.
We can also understand what the reporter of the British newspaper Radio Times did while trying to present the extraordinary Power Mike to the British public (March 13, 1969). He went into the archives and dug up the history of Daniel Lambert who was born a muscleman in 1770 - over 200 years ago. Lambert was 5 feet 11 inches tall, with a 112-inch waist; he weighed over SO stone - in fact, at the age of 52, he weighed 52 stone 11 pounds. To practise one of his hobbies (riding), he rode Monarch, "the largest horse in the world, who was over ... 7 feet high". He could lift any colossal weight with ease. One day he hit a bear on the head with his bare hand; out of fright, the bear yelled and ran away.
When he died, "his body could only be moved by knocking down a whole wall of his ground floor room and it took more than twenty men to lower his coffin into his grave in St. Martin's churchyard, Standford". The items he used are displayed as relics at Leicester Museum: "his chair, with a seat 2 feet 11 inches wide, an enormous waistcoat, and stockings so big each could be made into a dress". What an abnormal natural phenomenon! He is just like Pantagruel and Gatgantua, the giants in the fiction of Rabelais. The comparison with Power Mike is indeed significant. Power Mike is only 5 feet 8 inches tall. He weighed at that time 121/2 stone. His size belies his claim of being a superman. It is not surprising that All Baba called him a "rat" and that the manager of a gymnasium centre in Sweden who invited him to perform there could not reconcile himself to what he saw - accordingly. He had to insist on his displaying his strength before he could believe that Power Mike was the person about whom he had been reading in the papers. And yet Power Mike's prowess was equally phenomenal: Just as Lambert dumbfounded a bear by forcifully hitting it on the head with his hand, Power Mike tamed a big cow with his bare hands in the house of his kinsman, Chief Lazarus Chidolue ("Omemgboji"). The cow which was bought for a festivity broke away and virtually ran amuck. Power Mike coolly ran towards it, caught it and tamed it to. the joy and admiration of the panic-stricken kinsmen.
In fact, his kinsmen who knew
him do all that he him very well shuddered at amazement and shock, for they saw him grow up like a normal child in the neighbourhood.
FAMILY LINEAGE
Power Mike was born as Michael Okpala on 8th August, 1939 at Neni, Anaocha Local Government Area Anambra State. He is the first of a family of three. His grandfather, Okpala Echeobi, brought the Anglican Church, St. Thomas' C.M.S. to Neni. He gave out the lands where the church buildings were erected. This was in keeping with the practice at the time when the colonialists were busy subduing Africa with the gun and the bible. The converts - the Anglicans, Catholics, Methodists, etc - piously sur-rendered their lands to the various churches with the ardent hope of getting blessings for themselves, their families and their descendants, as well as eventually occupying a prominent place in God's paradise. Ferdinand Oyono, who, like Achebe, Dadie and Ngugi, used their novels to attack the hypocrisy of the colonialists for bringing Christianity to the Afri-cans but 'perpetrating unchristian acts on them, successfully dramatized this point in the character of Meka, the protagonist of his novel The Old Man and the Medal. Meka was a friend of the whiteman because he had given his land to the Catholic priests to build their church at Doum and had, in addition, got his sons enlisted into the French army where they
him do all that he him very well shuddered at seeing had clone, for they saw him grow up like a normal child in the neighbourhood.
FAMILY LINEAGE
Power Mike was born as Michael Okpala on 8th August, 1939 at Neni, Anaocha Local Government Area Anambra State. He is the first of a family of three. His grandfather, Okpala Echeobi, brought the Anglican Church, St. Thomas' C.M.S. to Neni. He gave out the lands where the church buildings were erected. This was in keeping with the practice at the time when the colonialists were busy subduing Africa with the gun and the bible. The converts - the Anglicans, Catholics, Methodists, etc - piously sur-rendered their lands to the various churches with the ardent hope of getting blessings for themselves, their families and their descendants, as well as eventually occupying a prominent place in God's paradise. Ferdinand Oyono, who, like Achebe, Dadie and Ngugi, used their novels to attack the hypocrisy of the colonialists for bringing Christianity to the Afri-cans but 'perpetrating unchristian acts on them, successfully dramatized this point in the character of Meka, the protagonist of his novel The Old Man and the Medal. Meka was a friend of the whiteman because he had given his land to the Catholic priests to build their church at Doum and had, in addition, got his sons enlisted into the French army where they
died fighting for the glory of France. As Oyono tells us in the novel.
He had had the special grace to be the owner of a piece of land, which,, one fine morning, had proved pleasing to the eyes of the Lord. A white priest had revealed his divine destiny to him. How could he go against the will of the Lord-who:giveth? Meka, who in the mean-while had been reborn in baptism, humbled himself before the messenger of the Almighty. Full of enthusiam he followed the raising of the house of the Lord on the land of his forefathers. On the eve before the church was inaugu-rated by the Bishop he was asked to choose his place in the church.
Then we are told how he was perceived at Doum:
For the Christians of Doum, Meka was the great favourite in the Paradise stakes, one of those rare mortals who would have no more than a mere appearance to put in at purgatory.
Okpala Echeobi might have received the bless-ings, since one of his grandchildren became a world celebrity in the person of Power Mike. Power Mike's
father was the only person among the brothers who agreed to be an Anglican as demanded by their father. His mother, Janet Okpala, was the first woman to be wedded at St. Thomas's Anglican Church. As usual, all the children became Anglicans because the internecine rivalry among religions or sects within them tends to make people believe that it would be injurious to the soul for children to be allowed a free choice of religious affiliation. As Michael Okpala reached the school age, he was enrolled into the Anglican primary school at Adazienu, a neighbouring town. It would have been otherwise because the C.M.S. worshipping community at Neni 'had no primary school system reaching up to primary six and it was not the practice at the time (when there was an intense competition among the Christian denominations) for a child to register as a pupil in a school belonging to another denomina-tion. That would tantamount to abandoning one's faith - a case of allowing Satan to triumph over Christ. His stay at Adazienu Primary School was eventful in many respects. There he put his robust, athletic build to maximum effect by being active in sports. For instance, he was so highly interested in boxing that he had to make a boxing glove for himself. He later became not only an amateur boxer but also a boxing coach. This is intriguing because at that time there was no television to help fans become ac-quainted with the dynamics of the sport; one had to make do with pictures.
Was later warned I against continuing with the sport because of the injuries he inflicted on people - there was a great fear that he might one day kill somebody. It is important to recount a memorable event that happened in 1950 ( when he was 12 years old) which not only dramatized his penchant for avenging wrongs against him but also pointed to his being imbued with superhuman powers. One clay he entered into a quarrel with four of his classmates (who were older and bigger than himself) over the issue of who should play football in the school's playground. lie was successfully prevented from participating in the game. I Ic vowed to avenge it and succeeded in doing so. What did he do? lie aston-ishingly beat up the four boys and inflicted injuries on them. When the headmaster got the news, he became furious and raged at Michael:
I understand you fought these four boys Who are bigger and older than you and you even injured them. Don't you know that I have ordered that no one should fight in this schooP (Champion of Champions, p.7)
The young boy shocked the people around by flexing and displaying his muscles as if he was going to fight the headmaster. What an effrontery! The headmaster immediately decided to instil discipline into him and restore his threatened authority. He accordingly ordered take him to his platform. I will give you 24 strokes of the cane for fighting pupils who are older and senior to you.
Twelve huge boys moved with alacrity to lift and put him on the platform but could not do so. Bewilder-ment everywhere! The headmaster, stunned by the spectacle, gave in and uttered in resignation: You must be a little devil of a powerful kid (p.8) However, he made him realize that he would discipline him later. This incident makes us think of a parallel one that happened in the life of another superman, Killwee Nwachuh.-wu. One day when he was in Port Harcourt struggling to make it in life, a taxi driver annoyed him by splashing water on him and refusing to show remorse for it. He ran after the.car and held it at the back. As we are told by his biographer, That hold caused a vigorous halt to the movement of that car which was in motion.
The driver alighted from the car and furiously charged on Kiliwee with a rod. Killwee overpowered him and ordered him to take him home in the car. Subdued, the driver did so. As Nwogo, the biogra-pher, asserts, It was only that day he realized he could 1101(1 a car in motion and make it not move, ,V • matter ho MUCH 01 an eXpert the driver was or how high he tuned and fired the engine. This too was much of a surprise to the driver (p.33). Later the owner of the car invited Killwee to his house for hiin to demonstrate that the news he heard from his driver was true. "He pledged to give his Morris Minor car to him" if he succeeded in stopping the car from moving in his presence, for "he couldn't imagine any human being performing such a feat" (p.33)-Killwee did not know whether to accept the invitation or not because he was sceptical of his being able to do it again. This self-doubt metamor-phosed into confidence when the taxi driver talked him into it. He went there and succeeded in perform-ing the feat again. The incredible news spread around, and from then on he became famous and eventually got enough money to conquer his pov-erty. He found out during his tour of Europe that people with such a gift abound in various cultures.
of the world. For instance, there was a white woman with phenomenal powers who mounted displays at Las Palmas, Spain. According to Agwu Nwogo, Killwee Nwachukwu's biographer, One of the things the woman did which thrilled her audience and which stunned Killwee, was the item in which she put a long heavy rod across her shoulder and on it carried a total of hundred people, fifty in front and fifty behind and still moved (p.68) Killwee Nwachukwu felt "stunned" at seeing the display because it is generally believed that women are delicate eggs that can easily be broken by any man, however feeble. The gift of physical prowess cuts across sexes and races. Power Mike happens to be one of the greatest among them. Michael Okpala discovered his own hidden talent after finishing his primary education at Adazienu. In order to understand how this came about, it is pertinent to briefly discuss the philosophy of life of his kinsmen of Neni, for it influenced him in choosing his career during the exercise of which he noticed that he had a special gift from God.
NENI AND HIS CHOICE OF CAREER
Neni is the headquarters of the Anaocha Local Government Area in Anambra State. It is often confused with Nnewi which is about 13 kilometres away because Nnewi is a very important commercial city and the birth-place of prominent public figures and wealthy businessmen. Whenever this happens, it is expedient to invoke the name of Power Mike who is equ2nly well-known throughout the country:
--- "Where are you from?
"Neni",
"Ah! You are from the same town as Chief Odumegw-u Ojukwu!"
"No, not Nnewi but Neni - the home of Power Mike"
"I see. So, Power Mike is from Neni?"
"Yes"
The influence of another national figure, the wizard of Nigerian soccer and one-time Sportsman of the Year, late Mr. Matthias ubianika has also helped to project the town. Sportsmen and \\ omen are usually very influential in giving 1)uhlicity to places and events. As in most Nigerian villages, the value system of the traditional Neni 'community is perversely being corroded by the obsessive quest for material wealth by the average Nigerian.
Consequently, the town is gradually embracing thy philosophy of crass mate-rialistn prevalent in contemporary Nigerian life. Young men have the col isuming passion of becom-, ing wealthy busiiiessmen. I k)wever, Power Mike has helped to promote the iinportai ice Ot r i taking careers in sports, especially in INA.ing and wrestling. l'ot instance, when lie came back to Nigeria, he had to pay hotaage to Mr. Nkwodike lgwilo, a famous traditional wrestler who was wd1-k110w11 at Neni and surrounding towns. it is unfi wtut late that his brother, Mr Anthony lgwilo who was twice the heavy-weight boxing champion of Eamt Central State did not have the Opportunity to advance further in boxing be cause of lack of assistance from the family For the same reason, the son who wanted to take to the career could not realise his -ambition. it is hoped that in future young men who want to distinguish themselves in this area of humaii (liter-prise will get full support from people. When Michael Okpala finished his primary educa-tion in 1952, he danced to the tune of what was happening II) the town by giving up the ambition of becoming a teaclwr and going to Onitsha to learn how to organize and run business companies in the area of buying and selling products. When he was at Onitsha, he joined the Dick Tiger Boxing Club as a middleweight amateur boxer. He cherished the inspiring words and practical help from Dick Ihetu Tiger. This may explain why he held promotions in his honour later in his career. On leaving Onitsha, he left for Kano to specialize in the business of tyres. Thus Power Mike grew up like a normal child at
Neni where he was born. His unusual prowess was a gift from God which he had to develop fully on noticing it when he was in Kano. Popular imagina-tion normally invests such talents with mythical
powers.
Source: Throwback Times Nigeria
