The Man, Joseph Ozoemezie Esogbue (1895-1959) With His Odor Cocoa (Cocoa Plantation)

- Emeka Esogbue

The land of Ibusa was rich in cocoa that it easily grew on its land as seen in Joseph Ozoemezia Esogbue (1895-1959) of Isieke who was a cocoa farmer. He maintained a large cocoa plantation that the people referred to as “Odor Cocoa” in their local parlance. Odor Cocoa was well-known to indigenes in Umuafene, Ibusa where the cash crop was heavily grown on a large scale and also managed by local paid workers. The occupation elevated Joseph Ozoemezie Esogbue’s wealth and status but it is important to stress that he was also a train driver who had become somewhat wealthy even before venturing into the cocoa business. It was the presence of wealth that drove the people to nickname him, “Gbaa Ka Nkwua” meaning demand your debt from him and let me pay you on your behalf. It is therefore safe to conclude that it was money generated from the operation of train that he invested into the cocoa plantation.

The cocoa plantation existed until late in the 1980s when it started to give way to the houses of family members. Gradually, what was an extensive landed property of crops, lying on an estimated 3 acres of land, retained by the owner for his occupational need, gave way to a number of family houses that can be found on the land today. He owned a housing estate in Enugu and in 1940s or thereabout built a personal house in Umuafene area of Isieke. The structure was colonially mottled with bricks and it shared resemblance with that of his Isieke kinsman, Pa Okonji, the grandfather of Ikenna Okonji who was his close ‘friend’. Until recently when it was cut down, the Esogbue family house of Joseph Ozoemezie Esogbue was easily marked or identified with a single ‘African Apple’ tree planted directly in front of the house which widely gave out the house as “Unor Apple” in the knowledge of the people.

Culled from the book, "Human and Infrastructural Developments of Ibusa Since Foundation", by Emeka Esogbue (unpublished)

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