Remembering Our Founder!

Last year, our founder and chairman of the board of trustees of Grundtvig Movement of Nigeria died. This was a sad event that all of us at Grundtvig Movement of Nigeria felt deeply. However, months after, we grow in admiration of his vision which was fundmental to the founding of Grundtvig Movement of Nigeria. In a tribute to late Dr. Ozumba, Ole Toftdahl, chairman of Danish Friends of Nigeria and Ry Højskole of Association of Danish Folk High Schools (FFD) quoted from Ebbe Kløvedal Reich’s book, Sunshine and Lightening: Grundtvig and His Song for Life:

[quote]…We are all captivated by a man walking back and forth, speaking in front of us. He is tall, strong and very black, dressed in a robe with a wealth of embroidered golden patterns. The year is 1994. We are attending a seminar at Awudomo College [Ghana], founded several years ago as a Grundtvigian folk high school. The seminar is about the economic crisis at the college. The name of the speaker is Ozumba and he has just arrived after a gruelling journey from Nigeria. In this huge country scarred by civil war and crime, he created Grundtvig Institute – a folk high school meant to help reorientate a country. He must be exhausted after the journey. Nevertheless he seems to bubble with the same kind of courage that he speaks about. At the end of his speech, everyone has forgotten about crisis. It is clear as the sun that he is speaking the truth. He is not just speaking it, he feels it and he does it. [/quote]

On March 11th 1992, the Danish Ambassador to Nigeria together with His Excellency the Governor of Anambra State, layed the foundation stone of the Grundtvig Institue, Oba. Since then, the movement has grown establishing Grundtvig International Secondary School. And presently working towards establishing a polytechnic. Indeed as Ole Toftdahl and Ry Højskole wrote: “Kachi E. Ozumba founded in Nigeria a movement that has had tremendous impact on many people’s lives. With the Danish folk high school as his model, he formed on Nigerian ground a school with the Grundtvigian goal: “Education for life”.

Dr. Kachi Ozumba’s legacy lives on. And the Grundtvig Movement of Nigeria is ever determined to rech more Nigerians with the vision and mission of “Education for Life”.

With the death of Dr. Kachi E. Ozumba, Grundtvig Institute lost its founder and the Grundtvigian movement lost a charismatic and important international figure.