Amoge's Archives

My name is Ifeoma Amoge Ndukwe.

Among family, I’m known as Ifeoma, but among friends and professional circles, I use Amoge.

Why?

At first, it was because the name is unique and distinguishes me from the many “Ify’s” out there. In this era, Ify is a common name among Igbo women and men. However, the reason I use it now is based on a story that takes me back to 33 years ago.

Sometime in 1991, when my mother was pregnant with me, she was told I was a boy.

I come from a traditional Igbo family in Oraifite, Anambra state. My father wanted sons because that was the norm back then. Girls married into other families and bore the names of their husbands. Sons carried on the family name. So when my older sister was born, the novelty of a new baby wore away quickly, and my dad became impatient for sons.

So impatient that his family tried to pressure him into doing all sorts of things (including marrying another woman) to get a male child.

Anyway, about a year after my sister was born, I was conceived..

The doctors informed my mom that I was a boy, and my dad was overjoyed.

I stayed for 10 months in the womb and came out a girl.

Now, I believe that there is no being on earth powerful enough to influence the creation of another being except God.
I am who God says I am
I am exactly what God intended
But my parents were convinced that I was swapped in the womb.

So when my dad saw me in the hospital, he named me Amoge.
Now in Igbo language, Ogechukwukamma is the full name for Oge, and it means, “God’s time is the best”
Amogechukwu was a derivative of that name, often given to second thoughts. It means: “Who knows God’s time?”


The reason the name is so rare at this time is that it’s often given to secondborns who are merely in the way of the desired.

I was born on February 13th 1992.
My dad walked out of the hospital.

On the 13th of March, 1993, exactly 13 months after my birth, my first brother was born.

My dad was overjoyed. But at 7 months old, he came out prematurely and very nearly died.

His name – Chukwukadibia – translates to God is bigger than babalawo (false gods).

My mom believed my dad got into dubious things to get a son.
A year after my brother, another brother was born.

When I was about 8 years old, my father changed my name out of guilt. He changed it to my mother’s name – Ifeoma – meaning “something good”

He claimed that when I was very young, I asked the meaning of my name, and on hearing the story behind it, I refused to bear it anymore.

So Amoge became my middle name.

Over time, as my walk with God grew, I adopted a new identity and a new name.

Amoge has now been rewritten to mean “God’s perfect timing” –A symbol for how God transforms his people at the opportune time, adopted from the word Kairos, where a Kairos moment means an opportune, divinely appointed time to encounter God, act on His will, or receive a transformative blessing, distinct from regular, measurable time.

Kairos: an opportune, divinely appointed time to encounter God, act on His will, or receive a transformative blessing, distinct from regular, measurable time.

That is the new meaning of my name. A divinely appointed time for transformation.

Ironic because when I received my first obvious spiritual encounter with God – a ray of sunlight blinding me in answer to my prayer – it was a prayer about transformation.

At a crucial point in my life path, where I decided to leave everything I had been doing to focus on digital transformation, I got that confirmation.

And now I’m working on both digital transformation and business transformation.

While God transforms me at his opportune time.