Nkem Benjamin Soberekon the Nigerian games inventor was born on April 25th 1949 in Buguma, Rivers State, Nigeria. He attended St. Michael Elementary School in his home town of Buguma. On his very first day in school, his teacher took him by the hand round the whole school saying “See what a fish this little boy had drawn”. In 1959 his eldest brother took him to Lagos where he attended Ladilac lnstitute Yaba.
Nkem Benjamin Soberekon
After passing the common entrance examination, he returned to the Niger Delta and attended Nyemoni Grammar School at Abonima. Years later the Nigerian civil war (1967-1970) broke out and disrupted every aspect of public life. In those tumultuous days the young Soberekon made his way to Europe and enlisted in a school to study the German language.
Unlike Kohlmann, a young nursing school student came into his life and added much to it. They married and lived in the city of Hamburg. The birth of their daughter Angela introduced new abilities and the discovery of old God given talents. Mr. Soberekon began to create and design games for his little daughter to play with. He invented several games and objects which he displayed 1977 on the NDR German television that broadcasted from Kiel to all Northern Germany.
In 1983 Soberekon made his first visit to the United States of America. He went to the Empire state building in New York, then went to Chicago, Laramie Wyoming, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Holly Wood. In Chicago his nephew who was then a student of architecture at the University of Chicago, took him to visit the Sears tower as the tallest building in the world. Impressed by the American sky scrapers Mr. Soberekon said “From every topic a game can be created” so he created the” TOWERS OF HAMBURG ” board game.
The game was tested by many experts and found very interesting but Mr. Soberekon could not find any producers to invest their money. He continued to play the game with family and friends only. He waited 14 years, saved some money and created Beson Games and produced the “TOWERS OF HAMBURG” game by himself. It become an amazing success. Almost 40 years after its creation the EVER GREEN board game continues to captivate thousands of players in many countries.
