Our Archive Since 2006
Cy Okonkwo: This Life of Documentary
Cyril (or Cy Okonkwo) was born and raised in Onitsha in Anambra State South East Nigeria to parents who were staunch Catholics, natives of Aguata-Ezinifite. He did not grow up to know his father who died when he was a toddler. But Cy triumphed over the adversity through the endless toiling of a mother to become a leading voice for documentary film on n the continent. His fame within the television industry in Nigeria is so widespread that he is fondly called ‘Mr Documentary’.
He worked as a school teacher and had a brief working stint at the Nigerian Customs before he enrolled to study Mass Communication at the University of Lagos under the guidance of distinguished mass communication scholars like Professor Frank Ugboajah and Professor Idowu Sobowale. This was in 1976.
He left the University of Lagos four years later with a Bachelor of Science degree specializing in Print Journalism. CY joined the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) in 1980 and rose to become the head of the documentary unit, gathering reputation as a leading documentary producer, scriptwriter and director in the national television set up.
CY is reputed to have written, directed and produced most of NTA’s significant and outstanding documentaries like The Ogbachi of Auchi, Rediscover Nigeria, Stewardship. His most popular work is Food Basket, a series which ran for so many years on national television, and eventually found its way onto international screens through such mediums as the CNN, BBC, ARTE, CHANEl.
A grandfather who is married with six children, CY left the services of the NTA just this March 24, 2008 at age 60, having worked for 27 years producing nothing else but brilliant documentaries. He has also trained so many young hands in the documentary genre, who are also flowering currently.
