Proud
of his Nigerian heritage, he brought Africa to New York and, at his Brooklyn
restaurant, united a community.
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Jonathan
Adewumi grew up in New York, but he was African through and through
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From
creating a fashion company that dressed celebrities like Stevie Wonder in
clothing from Nigeria, to creating a Nigerian film festival and a Brooklyn
restaurant that became a gathering place for the diaspora, Mr. Adewumi was
dedicated to bridging the cultural gap between Africans and black Americans.
“He
was often the first point of contact to many people who never had an African
friend and for Africans who didn’t understand the struggles of black
Americans” said Adebayo Adewumi, a younger brother.
He
died at Bayonne Medical Center in New Jersey. The cause was complications of
the novel coronavirus, his brother said. He was 57.
Mr.
Adewumi was born in London on Sept. 12, 1962, to Jacob and Grace Adewumi,
physicians from Nigeria who had traveled to England to further their medical
education. When he was still a toddler, the family moved back to Nigeria to
open a maternity hospital in their hometown, Ile-Oluji, Ondo state, about a
five-hour drive from Lagos. They moved to the Bronx when Mr. Adewumi was 10.
He
graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School and went on to receive a degree
in computer science from Utica College in 1986. His favorite class was African
history. He liked playing handball and became president of the black student
union and a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. (He would later help
start a chapter in Nigeria).
His
company, Nigerian Fabrics & Fashions started almost as an accident. Mr.
Adewumi’s parents had moved back to Nigeria and would send the children cloth
and clothing. People began asking about the colorful garments he and his sister
wore. Mr. Adewumi, a natural marketer and a gregarious businessman, saw a
niche.
Although
African clothing had become popular in America as part of political movements
in the 1960s, Mr. Adewumi’s company was soon swept up in a 1980s fashion trend
that embraced the African aesthetic. He and two of his four siblings began
presenting their clothes for black student union groups on college campuses and
at bridal shows, and garnered national exposure as part of a Miss Black America
Pageant in 1989. Soon, Stevie Wonder became a customer and sent his friend
Aretha Franklin to buy their clothing. The actor Wesley Snipes was also a fan.
After
9/11, when anti-Muslim sentiment rose along with an appetite for American-made
products, business dropped and the company closed after 20 years of operation.
Mr.
Adewumi headed back to Nigeria for a few years. When he returned, he joined his
brother at Amarachi, a Nigerian restaurant in downtown Brooklyn that served
American-style chicken wings and steak and Nigerian Jollof with oxtails, all
served with an Afrobeat soundtrack. With his outsize personality, he quickly
turned it into a cultural center that attracted immigrants and a popular spot
for community events.
“Jonathan
had a unique way of making everyone feel at home, like they belong,” said Ugo Nwaokoro, a former deputy mayor of
Newark.
Mr.
Adewumi, who was divorced, is survived by a son, Jonathan Adewumi Jr. of Union,
N.J., and, in addition to Adebayo Adewumi, another brother, Samuel Adewumi,
with whom he lived in Brooklyn; and two sisters, Joyce Adewumi of Harlem and Elizabeth
Body-Lawson of White Plains, N.Y.
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