MBONU Ojike was born to the family of Mgbeke and Mbonu Emeanlulu in Arondizuogu, Colonial Nigeria. Ojike attended Anglican schools, he had his primary education at CMS School, Arondizuogu.

In 1925, he was a pupil teacher at Anglican Central School in Arondizuogu and Abagana. In 1929, he entered CMS Teachers Training College, Awka to train as a teacher, finishing training in 1931. Ojike soon gained employment at Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha.
At the school, he was a choirmaster, sunday school supervisor and school organist. Ojike gradually became dissatisfied with a missionary's form of education criticizing it as not paramount to African development and suppressing African culture.
Soon, he left the school and worked as an agent for West African Pilot. Motivated by the writings of James Aggrey and Azikiwe, Ojike decided to pursue further education abroad.
In November 1938, Ojike left Nigeria with 11 other students for higher education. He started college at Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) before leaving for University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and finishing his studies at Ohio State University with a bachelor's degree in Economics. Ojike subsequently earned a master's degree in education and administration.
He was the Second Vice President of NCNC and Deputy Mayor of Lagos in 1951. Ojike was known as the "boycott king" for his slogan, 'boycott the boycottables'.
In America, Mbonu Ojike spent 8 years involved in intellectual pursuit and improving non-Africans' knowledge of Africa speaking from an African perspective, while there in America he formed the habit of dressing strictly on African attires.
Upon his return, he promoted his brand of Africanisation, a persistent consumption of African forms of cloths, food, dress, religion and dances while also believing in the selective benefits of foreign amenities. Ojike made common the use of the word "Mazi" as a substitute for "Mr".
In U.S, Ojike lectured extensively about his experience living in an African cultural environment and his views about colonialism and racism. He wrote rejoinders debunking articles that portrayed Africa in a negative light in addition to writing two books and a pamphlet on African culture.
His books explained cultural practices and debunked the notion of African inferiority. In his book "My Africa", he introduced Americans to his culture partly as a way to promote a cultural relationship between the two cultures. In America, he embraced and learned about a democratic system of governance. He was also passionate about cultural and political nationalism, he rejected colonialism as detrimental to democracy and the idea that African society is a passing culture.
Though a cultural nationalist, Ojike did not believe in rejection of all forms of Western culture , he wanted a scenario where Africans borrow certain aspects of a foreign culture but still retain the core social and political values that promotes stability, progress and dignity.”.
According to an excerpt from "WHOLESALE AMNESIA WITH REGARD TO EARLY NATIONALISTS As written by Dr. Udunna Jaanna Nwafor-Orizu & Jeff Unaegbu .
-."Let it come to national memory again and again, therefore, that it was only Mbonu Ojike as a young man of 31, who stoutly represented Nigeria, without official mandate from its colonial authorities, in one of the then League of Nations conferences at San Francisco in 1945.
While the colonial government of Nigeria was indifferent to the activities of this world body of nations, Mbonu Ojike travelled incognito to the conference on a shoestring transport fare raised by Nwafor Orizu and Kenneth Mbadiwe as executives of the African Students Association in America (founded by Orizu) and executives of the African Academy of Arts and Research (founded by Mbadiwe). Ojike's mission was to focus the world's attention to the need for the independence of Nigeria.
Let it be known that in all the international conferences of the League of Nations after the first world war, and all the international conferences of the allies during the second world war, and meetings on post war plans, nothing was ever said about the freedom and sovereignty of African colonies.


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U. Want to cause problems to yorubas this hot afternoon?

Mazi Mbonu Ojike, a great intellectual