Veteran actress, Nnenna Nwabueze–Okonta is fondly called Merit, following the visible role she played in the pioneering Igbo movie, ‘Living in Bondage’. She is one of the pioneers of Nollywood who starred in one of the first ever home videos. ‘Living in Bondage’ gave birth to what is known today as Nollywood.
If you were born during or before the 90s, I’m sure you were spellbound by Nollywood pioneer movie, ’Living in Bondage’. It was the rave of the moment in those days. One of the major characters that made that movie very interesting was Merit; she was the wife of Andy in that movie.
According to documentation from Wikipedia, ‘Living in Bondage’ is a 1992/93 Nigerian two-part drama thriller film directed by Chris Obi Rapu, written by Kenneth Nnebue and Okechukwu Ogunjiofor. It was produced by Ogunjiofor, and sponsored by Jafac Wine. The film was shot straight-to-video and starred Kenneth Okonkwo and Nnenna Nwabueze as the main couple in the movie.
For those of you that were not born before the early 90s, you might not recall but the movie; ‘Living in Bondage’ was the movie everyone talked about in that era. Although it was acted using the Igbo language, it was subtitled in English and this helped to spread it farther to non-Igbo speaking parts of the country and it was wildly received. If you watched Living in Bondage in the 90s, you will remember that it is a very powerful story everybody in Nigeria can relate to at some point or the other.
‘Living in Bondage’ revolved around Andy Okeke (Kenneth Okonkwo) and his wife Merit (Nnenna Nwabueze). Andy wanted to get rich by all means and was always comparing his poverty status to the success of his peers, especially best friend, Paul (Okechukwu Ogunjiofor).
His wife, Merit tried to shower her husband with love, support and patience but that didn’t stop Andy from being lured into the get-rich-quick syndrome by accepting the slick-talking Paul’s persuasions who revealed his secret – a satanic cult where members pledge their loyalty to satan and kill their loved ones as sacrifice; gaining enormous wealth in return. After much hesitation, Andy reluctantly agrees to sacrifice the person he loves the most – Merit. She dies in the hospital days after the ritual, but not before she cursed her husband for the betrayal.
Nnnenna also starred in other movies such as: ‘Evil Passion’, ‘Beyond the Vow’ and ‘Alusi’ before she finally disappeared from the screens but the story of Nollywood today cannot be complete without references made to that premier move, ‘Living in Bondage’ and of course, Merit’s role as well.
See what she looks like now 28 years later after the movie became a hit.
Ever wondered what happened to Nnenna Nwabueze-Okonta, after she disappeared from the Nigerian entertainment industry when the ovation was loudest for her? Why did she stop acting when she could have used the success of that movie as launching pad for her acting career?
Well, she was married off! Her heartthrob, Chief Okonta practically stole her away from our screens because of her beauty. According to her, she met her husband for the first time on February 28, 1994 and on March 12 that same year, they had their introduction party in Lagos and on the 26th of the same month, they did their traditional marriage in her village. Nnenna Nwabueze is from Uzuakoli in Abia State but her husband is from Delta State.
Her husband didn’t want her to continue with her acting career for fear of losing her to another man.
In an interview she had with Punch Newspaper years ago, she said her husband was a very jealous and possessive type who wanted her all to himself all the time. She would have had a broken home or probably divorced if she had wanted her career to come first. So she made a decision to sacrifice her acting career in order to build her marriage and has no regrets about it.
Nnenna Nwabueze recalls that shortly after their 20 years wedding anniversary, her husband gave her the go-ahead to go back to acting. Unfortunately, her husband died few days to their 22nd wedding anniversary, on March 7, 2016.
Concerning whether she is willing to remarry, the widow and mother of six said she’s okay with her life and not searching for now.
She has a Masters Degree. She studied Environmental Education at University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT; after she left UNIPORT, she did her masters in Administration and Planning.
A lot of people taught that with the huge success of ‘Living in Bondage’, that she will be seen more in other movies but that was not to be.
Her comeback to Nollywood was in 2018 and since then she has acted alongside several top actors in the industry as a lot of people still respect her as a veteran actress despite not acting in movies for almost three decades.
Since her return to Nollywood, she has acted movies mostly with the Nollywood crew in Asaba. She has also been seen with some veteran actors and actresses on several movie locations.
27 years after the first ‘Living in Bondage’ was released, Veteran Nollywood actor, director and producer, Ramsey Nouah and a team of talented actors and crew did the sequel-‘Living in Bondage: Breaking Free’ to this much talked about pioneer movie and tried to bring back some of the old cast and succeeded in arousing nostalgia as some of the old cast members like Kenneth Oknonkwo, Kanayo.O.Kanayo and Bob Manuel Udokwu also featured in the sequel.
Nnenna didn’t feature in the sequel but her ‘ghost’ was brought back into the movie and people remembered her all over again.
Nnenna Nwabueze-Okonta has simply matured like fine wine. She still managed to retain her fair complexion and has grown to become an ageless beauty. She’s also stylish and has maintained her beautiful body shape.
Scroll down to see more of her pictures and what she looks like now.
What do you think about this lady who captivated the hearts of those born during and before the 90s with her beauty and acting skills? Do you also miss seeing her on your screen?
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Picture credit: Instagram, famous naija.com, nairaland.com
