By Dr. Chido Nwangwu, Founder of USAfrica and analyst for CNN and SkyNews.
Houston, Texas: One of Africa’s prolific music masters, Dan Orji, would have achieved the biblical age of ‘three scores and ten’, that’s 70, this first week of December. Dan was born on a minty, harmattan day of December 6, 1945. But the music genius joined his ancestors on July 30, 2015 at 69 years. He will be buried tomorrow, Friday December 18, 2015, at the Mmawuru Court in Aro Orji in Owerri.
And, the music paused…. Yes; it only paused!
Here’s why?
For almost 55 years, as the maker of masterpieces, Dan Orji’s songs continue to inspire the boundless, creative imagination of millions, across the Igbo nation, Nigeria and parts of the African continent.
For almost 55 years, Dan Orji held a consistent delivery and exposition of what I consider his delicious trifecta of acoustics harmony, inspirational messages and merging of the subtle artistry of his Owerri ‘bongo’ music and the ‘abiriwa’ serenade. For almost 55 years, he saw and utilized music for joyful serenade.
After all, his husky baritone voice and smooth highlife style since the 1970s remain present to the new generation of highlife superstars like the supremely talented Flavour and ‘bongo’ musicians such as Sonny Bobo. I must state that Nze Dan Orji is the undisputed godfather of ‘bongo’ music.
For almost 55 years, he wrote and sang songs with a distinct cross-cultural and multi-lingual style that has not been matched. But has been copied and remixed and pirated.
For almost 55 years, he elevated his music for worthy, philosophic reflections. He always had a song or two in every album to inspire the distraught and the needy in society.
For almost 55 years, as a creative powerhouse, every one of the songs he placed on the Skylarks and Peacocks albums were hits across age groups and cultures. And, then, suddenly the music paused… in the summer of 2015.
Dede Danny — as some of us, his nephews and nieces and cousins called him, reflecting, in part, our great Arochukwu heritage of unconditional deference to older folks — 
interacted with effortless ease and sense of humour to both the old and very young.
He was the younger brother of my mother Nwakaego (child is greater than money); their oldest brother being the prolific, renaissance man of uncommon wisdom, Ugwu Aro Mazi Emmanuel Amaugo Chima Orji. This is important; to understand Dan Chukwuemeka Orji you’ll have to know the influence of this 88-years old patriarch on his life.
He was to learn later from his eldest brother that their father, Mazi Joseph Chima Orji died about 100 days after Dan’s birth.
For the purposes of securing a permanent, trans-generational digital home for his body of work, musical value and historical assessment of his profound genius of harnessing creativity and perfecting his craft, we set up the USAfrica-powered web site www.DanOrji.com. It offers an interactive platform for tributes and messages celebrating one of Africa’s music masters!
… and the music paused… at 69! But his legacy endures! And, the music plays on!! Long Live Dan Orji!! @Chido247
•Dr. Chido Nwangwu, moderator of the Achebe Colloquium (GOVERNANCE
, SECURITY, and PEACE in Africa) December 7-8, 2012 at Brown UNIVERSITY in Rhode Island and former ADVISER on Africa business/issues to the Mayor of Houston, is the Founder & Publisher of Houston-based USAfrica multimedia networks since 1992, first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the INTERNET USAfricaonline.com; CLASSmagazine, AchebeBooks.com, the USAfrica-powered e-groups of AfricanChristians, Nigeria360 and the largest pictorial events megasite on the African diaspora PhotoWorks.TV . He was recently profiled by the CNN International for his pioneering works on multimedia/news/public policy projects for Africans and Americans. E-MAIL: Chido247@Gmail.com WIRELESS 1-832-45-CHIDO (24436).
networks Chido Nwangwu. CNN anchors John Berman n Michaela Pereira. reportage book, MANDELA & ACHEBE: Footprints of Greatness, about two GLOBAL icons and towering PERSONS of African descent whose exemplary lives
and friendship HOLD lessons for humanity and Africans, USAfrica Founder Chido Nwangwu takes a measure of their works and CONSEQUENCE to write that Mandela and Achebe have left “footprints of greatness.” to Achebe. He moderated the 2012 Achebe Colloquium at Brown UNIVERSITY in Providence, Rhode Island.“I’ll forever remember having walked inside and peeped through that HISTORIC Mandela jail cell (where he was held for most of his 27 years in unjust imprisonment) at the dreaded Robben Island, on March 27, 1998, alongside then Editor-in-chief of TIME magazine and later news chief EXECUTIVE of the CNN, Walter Isaacson (and others) when PRESIDENT BILL Clinton made his first official trip to South Africa and CAME to Robben Island. Come to this island of scourge and you will understand, in part, the simple greatness and towering grace of Nelson Mandela”, notes Chido Nwangwu, award-winning writer, multimedia specialist and founder of USAfricaonline.com, the first African-owned U.S-based newspaper published on the INTERNET
, in his first book; he writes movingly from his 1998 reporting from South Africa on Mandela. http://www.mandelaachebechido.com/
