Rev. Joseph Ekpo, a small, exuberant man from Nigeria, jumped up, his knees at least three feet off the floor, smiling from ear to ear behind his large spectacles. The Fenwick High School theology teacher had just learned that he was one of 10 to win a prestigious Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Chicago area out of a pool of 803 nominees.
Ekpo bear-hugged former Golden Apple winner Brigid Duffy Gerace, who presented the award to him. Then he led his class, who eagerly jumped to their feet, in a lively song which reverberated off the classroom walls: “Who is lord of lords? … [clap-clap-clap-clap] … Je-sus!” After the song, his students, who call him “Father Joe,” formed a line at the front of the class, and he hugged them one by one.
This jubilant scene took place far, far away from where Ekpo grew up, in the small Nigerian village of Ikot Ada Utor. His childhood was a rough one. “Sometimes you go on an empty stomach,” he recalled. “I have seen people killed, and been in shooting. I used to have a lot of nightmares about seeing my friends killed.”
Somehow, Ekpo was able to scrabble together an education under trying circumstances and was ordained a priest in 1986. That same week, he received a letter from Dominic Cardinal Ekandem, a figurehead for Christians across Africa, asking him to be his secretary.
Ekpo gladly accepted, and in the Cardinal’s service he became more deeply embroiled in the struggles between Islamic factions in the north of Nigeria and the largely Christian south. “There was a fear that Islam would be imposed on the south,” he explained. “I suffered a lot politically in Nigeria with the Cardinal. Our lives were constantly in danger.” In both 1989 and 1995, he was imprisoned for short periods on flimsy pretexts.
In 1995 when Cardinal Ekandem died, Ekpo came to the United States. Fenwick Principal Jim Quaid discovered him at Loyola University, where he was teaching a class on international relations. He became the first black teacher at Fenwick. Asked if that was hard, he smiled and laughed. “No!” he said. “I love it.” He proudly shares his heritage with his students, teaching them fragments of Efik, his native language.
And he tries to maintain his connection to his homeland. On his walls are posters with UN statistics about world hunger (every 3.6 seconds, someone dies from it), pictures of Africa, and a New York Times story about water shortages in South Africa.
“I take multivitamins, aspirin, materials for writing, and pens, and send them to Nigeria,” Ekpo said. “I use my salary to buy plots of land for women. Sometimes I will buy hens.” But the biggest problems, he said, are diseases like malaria. “That’s why personally I thank Bill Gates,” who has gotten involved in that issue, he said.
Ekpo doesn’t resent having lived a difficult life. He said it helps him bring a unique perspective to his students at Fenwick. “I thank God that I saw what I saw, to see the value of humanity, to see the value of life,” he said. “It helps me speak convincingly to my students about why they should be thankful to God for their good parents and government.”
What he offers to his students at Fenwick, more than anything, Ekpo said, is love. “God did a lot for me. He changed the pain and the hatred to tremendous love, and I bring that to my students,” he said. “Even the bad ones-you talk to them, you see the good in them, and I try to give them hope.”
Applying scripture to real life
In theology class, Ekpo encourages his students to apply the lessons of scripture to real-life situations. “I try to make them forget about me, me, me-to see the misery from the beggars and the homeless, from the people who have AIDS,” he said. “I tell them not to forget their grandparents. I just want them to share their youthfulness, their funny nature, with people.”
Those who know Father Joe at Fenwick speak glowingly about him.
Alexandra Collison, a junior, said Rev. Ekpo emphasizes real-world scenarios. “He typically tries to use situations high school students would be in,” she said. “If you’re at a party, how do you hold up your own morals?”
Matt Brooks, another junior, said Ekpo reminds him of what’s important in life. “‘Love your family, love your friends,’ he says. The words hit you and you realize how grateful you should be,” Brooks said.
Mary Pat Ryan, Fenwick’s librarian, spoke of his seemingly boundless capabilities. “He’s there no matter what, for any problem. He seems to have more hours in his day that any of us have,” she said. “He exudes love.”
Through all of the accolades-one well-wisher called him on the phone while he was being interviewed-Ekpo remains grateful. To begin with, he is grateful to the Golden Apple Foundation. “I don’t think any priest has won this award before,” Ekpo said. “This is the first time that theology has been the subject. I thank the people there that they have had the courage to see that this subject is very important.”
His gratitude doesn’t stop there. “I dedicate this honor to God, I dedicate it to my students, I dedicate it to the Catholic priesthood that I am apart of, I dedicate it to love and friendship,” Ekpo gushed. “And I have to include Nigeria and the United States because they have truly made me who I am.”