BOOK REVIEW – By Oseloka Obaze, Email: selonnes@aolcom

(ISBN 978-2030-07-4, Ibadan, Nigeria: Bookcraft Ltd . 2001, pp. 192,  Price: Not Stated)

 At a time when the discourse and history of the Nigerian women in the international media is dominated by the travails of Amina Lawal and the likelihood that she may face death by stoning under the Sharia law, it is refreshing to read something riveting and ennobling about Nigerian women. But then, that is the way it ought to be.  The history, perspective and contribution of the Nigerian woman to motherhood, family building, nation building and indeed politics is well-rounded and ought to be glorified. Nobody can tell the challenges of the Nigerian women than the women themselves. And this is what Nigerian Women –A Historical Perspective sets out to do.  One could hardly ask for a better editor to put this volume together than Professor Bolanwe Awe, herself an epitome of the struggle, challenge and fulfillment of the Nigerian woman. 

Chinua Achebe once noted that Nigerians have lost their reading culture, and by that, their habit to regularly read and acquire new knowledge through reading. This work, is therefore, an important addition for those who still read and need to understand Nigerian women, who have not only come of age, but are emerging in Nigeria’s democratic Fourth Republic as a force to be reckoned with. Nigerian Women –A Historical Perspective is not an entirely new publication. First published in 1992, the New Edition printed in 2001 has just hit the international market.  Beyond whatever I or any other analyst and reviewer may have to say, the soul of this book is aptly captured in Lady Adetukumbo Ademola’s preface in book. As she notes,  this  “collection of essays written by some outstanding historians, “is an instructive tapestry of the history of centuries past…these Nigerian women were not lacking in vision, and participated (actively) in the political economic and social (life) of the rigid male dominated societies under which they lived, and they have left indelible footprints for successive generation.” 

Nigeria, unlike Ghana is not matrilineal society. In the Nigerian society, male dominance is awesome; hence the unceasing efforts by women to rise above societal and cultural norms. Also, in different parts of the country, cultural, religious and even tribal norm dictate different levels of emancipation for women, as well as whether they have a liberal or conservative social and political orientation. More importantly, this book soundly rebuts the notion that Nigerians have no sense of history. The books greatest strength and  contribution to the bodywork of written treatise on Nigeria, is perhaps its facilitating the Nigerian man’s better understanding and appreciation of their partners’ contributions to nation building. For indeed one recalls that in The Angel in the House, Coventry Moore wrote, “A woman is a foreign land, of which though there he settle young, a man will ne’er quite understand the customs, politics and tongue.”  Let it be said unapologetically, that the Nigerian man for all his machismo, still has a few things to learn from the women about wielding clout and power.  

The ten contributors to the book, which include Professor Gabriel Olusanya, late Professor Felicia Ekejiuba, Nina Mba and Professor Bolanle Awe herself, cover a wide historical span and personalities that include Queen Amina of Zaria, Queen Kambassa of Bonny Omu Okwei of Osomari (Ossomala), Mrs. Olufunmi Ransome Kuti and Lady Olayinka Abayomi. Some of these great women of Nigeria, who Awe in her opening piece calls the “Savior of Their Societies,” remain pertinent to Nigeria’s modern history and ways of life even though many of them are “virtually legendary characters who existed in the dim recesses of Nigerian history.”  Even those well versed in Nigerian oral and documented history will be captivated by the recall and narration about hitherto unstudied Nigerian women like the Inpki of Igala, Moremi of the Yoruba and Duara of the Hausa.  What one can add here, even if only as a matter of conjecture, is that these women and their achievements can be extrapolated to different areas of Nigeria as I am sure that their counterparts and likes can be found in virtually every tribal nation in Nigeria.  Only the dearth of written history mitigates their deserved tribute from becoming manifest. But thanks to Awe and her colleagues, such history is beginning to unfold.   

No amount of extensive quotation from this collection will ever substitute for picking up and perusing this page-turner.  This book, even for the non history buff is an easy read both in its elegant writing style, flow and content.  The insights offered are alluring, as they are captivating.  Furthermore, for the personalities that lived in what we would otherwise deem ancient times, it is inexorably difficult to conjure how astute and well-adjusted they were for people who had no formal education. Here are some samplers. Of Omu Okwei of Osomari, Ekejiuba wrote: “ Madam Okwei, the Omu of Osomari, is a remarkable woman. It is due to her force of character, that by sheer ability, hard work and single-minded attention to business, this resolute woman has won for herself a name.”  “Queen Kambasa of Bonny,” E.K. Allagoa wrote, “was a remarkably liberated woman, to use the expression of the modern champion of women’s equality with men. She did not allow anybody to tell her what she could or could not do. She did not believe certain things were reserved for men and barred to women.”   

Of the cast of characters profiled in this collection, Nigerians are possibly most conversant with Mrs. Ransome-Kuti. Apart from being the mother of Nigerian Women’s Union, an Educationist and the wife of a renowned clergy, she bequeathed to Nigeria and posterity, three famous activists sons: Late Professor Olukoye Ransome Kuti, late music maestro Fela Anikulapo Kuti and human and civil rights activist,          Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti.  If Mrs. Ransome-Kuti were not progressive in her views and aspirations, she would have been labeled an “objectionist”.  Her dossier is full of objections entered in the interest of the people. Notable among these, was her objection to setting up of the “Sole Native Authority” to the exclusion of the members of the Egba Native Authority.  She also objected to the female poll taxes in Ijebu the British had put in place in 1914. While hardly a scofflaw by any stsndard, she was said to have “shown courage in facing the police and judges and even had a physical fight with a district officer in February 1948. For this to happen in British-ruled colonial Nigeria was unprecedented. Mrs. Ransome-Kuti is described as an “eloquent and compelling speaker” who efficiently used “expressive, idiomatic languages and very sharp wit.”  Nigerians still recall her that last public outing of sorts was when her son Fela attempted to deliver her coffin in April 1978 to President Obasanjo at Doddan Barracks. Fela believed that the beating and manhandling of his mother by Nigerian soldiers who attacked his home some months earlier has precipitated her death. To her lasting tribute, Nina Mba wrote, “ Within Abeokuta, she occupied a high status position because of her education, her profession and marriage to a highly regarded public figure, the Reverend Ransome-Kuti. She was thus able to capitalize on the traditional Yoruba respect for status and seniority.”  

A general saying in Nigeria is that behind every successful man is a woman. Indeed, within the soul of the nation are many overachieving women. Nigeria remains a grossly underdeveloped state, perhaps because it has not given its women the opportunity to mold the fate of the nation. But then, segments of the Nigerian nation still frown on women aspiring to leadership positions. A lot can be achieved by a nation that taps the resourcefulness of its womenfolk as illustrated by these “Heroines of the Women’s War” in Nigeria.  I could not help but notice the non-inclusion of some contemporary Nigerian female political firebrands; Margaret Ekpo and Adamma Okpara to name a few.  In the nation’s evolving political history, there is also  still a nearly clean slate for women activists who may wish to carve their name on the marble. Senators Ita-Giwa, Stella Omu, Mrs. Koforiji Olubi,  Gina Onyejiaka, Dora Akunyili, Judge Rose Ukeje,  Onyeka Onwenu, Ambassador Sefi Attah and a few others readily come to mind.

All said, Nigerian Women –A Historical Perspective is a gem and collectors’ item. I am glad I have a copy in my library. It is certainly a must read for my children somewhere down the line, and indeed for every Nigerian child, if only as a way to honor and celebrate the lives of these “Sweet Mothers”.  

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