In a special interview which aired on Sunday, February 13, 2022, renowned writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, addressed shocking and highly distressing events that unfolded at the church where her mother’s funeral thanksgiving mass was held.
In an emotional interview senior anchor, Mike Okwoche, the award-winning writer revealed that she was verbally attacked by her hometown parish priest at the funeral thanksgiving mass of her mother, Mrs Grace Ifeoma Adichie held at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Abba, Njikoka LGA of Anambra State.
Shock
According to her, on that fateful Sunday, she was seated at the front pew of the church with her grieving family, who were unknowingly about to undergo a harrowing ordeal. The parish priest whom she identified as Father Christopher Eze started speaking about her in a disparaging and hostile manner, and the content of his statements left her and her family completely taken aback. “It was just really shocking”, she told Okwoche.
“I have never been afraid of criticism. Nobody enjoys criticism of course. So if this priest had written something to criticise me or even shouted at me at any other venue but the holy mass at my mother’s funeral: it would have been okay. I really would not have minded,” Chimamanda said.
And naturally, she and her family found it very upsetting that the priest was doing this in the same church where her mother, a devout Catholic, had gone to mass the very day before she died.
Chimamanda stated that she thought that she “needed to address” what the priest had said, so she asked for the microphone in order to speak, for which she had to wait for some time before the priest allowed it.
She said that she wanted to ensure that she was “very respectful”, despite his hostility. She explained to the congregation that the priest had misrepresented her and that her point was not about not wanting to support the Church.
Her point was that poor villagers who could barely feed themselves should not be pressured and ambushed into donating what little they had, “, particularly in a church where there are people who can afford it, and who are very happy and willing to give”.
Chimamanda clarified her position. “It’s not about me,” she said. She continued by saying that it was even more upsetting for her family because they felt that their mother deserved better; as their mother never did anything to the priest, was extremely devout and donated to the church.
Even more relevantly, their mother gave money personally to the same priest, Father Eze; and was also always worrying about what things they could give to the priest, and would often say things like “we should take drinks” to the priest. Chimamanda pointed out that despite all this, the same priest “did not think that my mother deserved the basic respect and courtesy of having a funeral that would not turn into a raucous market”.
Respect
After she spoke, two prominent men from her hometown, including a senior government official, also asked to speak, and said to the priest “this is wrong, we are here to mourn her mother”.
However, despite their intervention, the priest took the microphone and continued to verbally attack her, saying “Chimamanda should not be saying anything” and so on. At this point, the regular village parishioners in the church themselves got upset, shouting “Father, it is enough” – still, the priest would not stop attacking her.
Despite all these calls and requests to the priest to cease attacking Chimamanda and continue with the funeral mass, he refused. As such, her family, friends and guests were forced to get up and leave the church. “So that’s how my mother’s funeral thanksgiving mass ended”, said Chimamanda with tears welling up in her eyes.
It is important to note that even after they left, the priest continued with additional verbal attacks, clearly demonstrating personal venom for Chimamanda, quite apart from anything pertaining to the church. In the interview video, the TVC news anchor, Okwoche, was clearly shocked on hearing all of this.
Chimamanda also revealed that in the past, the same priest had during collections, demanded donations of even as low as 10 Naira from the church members, including
from the church members who are villagers struggling to feed themselves. “Why do you need to ambush poor villagers who can hardly feed themselves?”.
She stated that there were other things she could have said about the priest when she spoke at the church, but that she decided not to, out of respect for the forum. She revealed that the same priest had ambushed and harassed her family about cash when the time came to bury their father, who passed away in 2020. She said that the family presented a cow to the church, and the priest “was upset” because “we should have monetised it”, he wanted cash instead of the cow. She also explained, “when I gave money to the church for the Bazaar, because I knew that he always wants cash, I made sure to go and get cash because if you write a cheque or want to do a bank transfer, he doesn’t want that, he wants the cash”.
Emotional
With this issue lingering since May 2021, Chimamanda Adichie and her siblings have had to deal with the emotional toll it has taken on them but for Adichie, this is bigger than her family. “One of the reasons that I want to talk about this publicly is I don’t want what happened to us to happen to any other person. I don’t want that for anybody”.
“Nobody has faced any consequence. We have not received any apology. The wrong that we suffered has not been righted so how much worse would it be for the people who do not have the platform that I have?”
Chimamanda emphasised that she was not at all making a blanket condemnation of the Nigerian Catholic Church, contrary to the misrepresentation by the priest. She stated that furthermore, she has a lot of respect for many in the Church hierarchy and other priests. It should be noted that she was specifically referring to the actions of her hometown parish priest, Father Eze.
When the interviewer asked how she’s been navigating the challenging period, Adichie revealed that the actions of the priest have made the grieving process more difficult.
“I cannot help but think of one of the beatitudes, ‘Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted”. We were not comforted and the priest failed. He failed terribly at his duty. Instead of comforting us, he increased our pain”, she stated, still trying to come to terms with having to face such an incident while mourning. “I should be allowed to mourn my mother in peace but I haven’t been able to because of what this man did and I haven’t been able to because this man has not faced any consequences for his action”. She added, “It kills my spirit that this happened at my mother’s funeral.”
Efforts to reach the priest proved abortive as calls to his phone yielded no result.