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Ojo Nro: an Intellectual History of Nigerian Women's Nationalism In OJO NRO: AN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF NIGERIAN WOMEN’S NATIONALISM IN AN UMBRELLA ORGANIZATION, 1947-1967 By Maria Martin A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of African American and African Studies-Doctor of Philosophy 2018 ABSTRACT OJO NRO: AN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF NIGERIAN WOMEN’S NATIONALISM IN AN UMBRELLA ORGANIZATION, 1947-1967 By Maria Martin Gender analysis must be further developed in histories of African nationalism and also African intellectual histories. Ojo Nro is an intellectual history that speaks to Nigerian women’s ideological and practical contributions to the theory and practice of nationalism. It contends that Nigerian women articulated nationalism in a way that was distinct from the mainstream politically elite male forms. This assertion is assessed through an analysis of unrecognized tenets of their activism, especially their non-political ideology and agenda. These elements, the non-political ideology and agenda, are discussed in great detail because they were the most striking of Nigerian women’s expressions of nationalism and, as such, they constitute a large part of their theoretical and practical contributions to Nigerian nationalism. Copyright by MARIA MARTIN 2018 This dissertation is dedicated to My mother, father, brother Yusuf, grandmother, TVA Church in Nigeria, and all of the Nigerian people that allowed me to come into their homes and interview them. Thank you all for supporting my scholarly pursuits iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to acknowledge God Almighty for providing the necessary opportunities, resources, and encouragement to help me complete this PhD process. I must thank Ada and Darnell Martin for their unwavering love, energy, and support. I would like to thank every professor from African American and African Studies at Michigan State University that has aided me in completing my degree program such as Dr. Edozie, Dr. Troutman, Dr. Chambers, and Dr. Butler. I would especially like to thank those who have advocated for me such as Dr. Lee June, Dr. Tony Nunez, Dr. Julius Jackson, Dr. Judith Stoddart, and Dr. Hart-Davidson. In addition, I thank Mr. and Mrs. Ayodokun, their family, the University of Ibadan, Alhaja who worked in the archives at the University of Ibadan, and many others in Nigeria for their grace, hospitality, prayers, and concern that made my research stay an edifying experience both culturally and academically. I sincerely thank you all. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Background 2 Statement of the Problem 5 Purpose 6 Questions 7 Significance 8 Periodization: Scope of the Study 10 Definition of Terms 13 The Importance of Politics 16 Organization of the Study 23 Chapter One: Where Are the Women?: Situating the Study 26 Scholars Perspectives on Mrs. Kuti and Her Activism 28 Women in African Intellectual Histories 32 Women in African Nationalism 35 Women in Nigerian Nationalist History 56 The Ibadan School 58 Growth of a Gendered Perspective 61 Summary 70 Chapter Two: Researching African Women: Methodology and Methods 75 Theory 75 Methods of Data Collection 83 Archival Data 83 Oral History Interviews 85 Research Limitations 87 Summary 87 Chapter Three: *Awon Obinrin Je Pataki Pupo: Theorizing the Gendered Cultural and Historical Foundations of Nigerian Women’s Activism 89 Yoruba Culture and Cosmology 90 Dualism 94 Understanding Yoruba Gender 98 Nigerian Women’s Pre-Colonial Methods of Collective Activism 101 Nigerian Women’s Colonial Period Resistance 105 Rethinking Elitism 116 Towards a Concept of African Gender for African Nationalism 122 Tenets of Legbeism 124 Summary 127 Chapter Four: *E Ku Ise, No Be Small Tin: Establishing the Federation of Nigerian Women’s Organizations 129 vi Profile of a Leader: Funmilayo Ransome Kuti in Historical Memory 130 From Ladies to Radical Women: The Evolution of FNWO Ideology and Activism 141 Developing a Gendered Ideology of Nationalism 164 Summary 172 Chapter Five: *Kini Nsele: Non-Political Nationalism, Women, and the Mainstream Political Climate in Nigeria 174 Nigerian Politics in the 1940s-1950s 175 Women and the Political Parties 181 Women and the Impact of Partisanship 193 Coercion and Contention: FNWO and NCNC Relations 197 Articulating and Analyzing Non-Politicism 201 In Women’s Words: Non-Political Ideology Explained 209 Summary 226 Chapter Six: *Wetin Be Dis: Unpacking the Non-Political Agenda of the Federation of Nigerian Women’s Organizations 228 Women’s Plight, Women’s Rights 229 Education 234 Voting and Political Rights 238 Mother-Child Healthcare 242 Environmentalism 247 War 251 Summary 255 Conclusion: What Is Women’s Nationalism? 257 APPENDICIES 265 Appendix A: Research Instrument 266 Appendix B: Oral History Interviews 269 WORKS CITED 273 vii Introduction In sort, nationalism represents a constellation of ideas, ideologies, imaginaries, practices, activities, movements, and organizations, in which collective consciousness and action are mobilized to construct and promote national identity, historical agency, and cultural difference for the invented or imagined community….that may, and often does entail acquiring and defending state power. Clearly, the vocabularies and manifestations of nationalism exhibit enormous variations from one place to another and from one period to another [emphasis added]. -Paul Tiyambe Zeleza Power and Nationalism in Modern Africa It is time to put African Women in their proper place. On August 14, 1964 Constance Cummings-John, a female nationalist leader of Sierra Leone, penned a letter to Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (Mrs. Kuti), a Nigerian nationalist, calling her “My dear Funmi” and saying “You have done so much for African womanhood, you have labored to lift our heads up but you have done so unobtrusively and without any honor or recognition. Someday Nigeria will feel your worth when the History of Nigeria is properly written and publicized.”1 Cummings-John expressed the sentiment that women like Mrs. Kuti, at that time, had not yet received the acknowledgement that they deserved for their activism in African nations. She spoke to three important topics in this portion of the letter: African women’s activism, the worth of women to the nation, and a proper retelling of national history. Citing these themes, her statement supports the ideas that 1) African women’s work toward gender equality constituted a pivotal part of and had noteworthy implications to the holistic development of the nation 2) African history can never be whole without women’s stories and that 3) a revisionist history of African nations, in *The title is a Yoruba expression wherein ojo means rain and nro is a compound word where the –n represents the present active participle (-ing) while ro is fall. All Yoruba verbs are in past tense and are made present by adding – n. Infinitives are made by placing –lati (to) in front of a verb (ex. lati ro means to rain). Ojo Nro means rain is falling or it is raining. It is a play on the word umbrella and is meant to amplify the focus on women’s collective activism in umbrella organizations. It also represents the symbolic quality of rain and water as refreshing in many African cultures and has been used to signify that this research is bringing newness or refreshment to perceptions of women and nationalist enterprise. 1 Constance Cummings-John, Letter to Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, (Monrovia, Liberia 1964) 1 this case Nigeria, must be written in order to actually highlight the contributions of women to the growth and stability of new African nations. As they say in Nigeria, O ga ooo, it’s no small thing to do this work. Even so, this dissertation joins the conversation on women in nationalism and serves as a step towards crafting that “proper” history of nationalism in Nigeria that centers women as autonomous contributors to nationalist theory and practice. Ojo Nro is an intellectual history (a history of thinkers and the development of ideas)2 that speaks to women’s ideological and practical contributions to the theory and practice of nationalism. It contends that Nigerian women articulated nationalism in a way that was distinct from the mainstream politically elite male forms. This assertion is assessed through an analysis of unrecognized tenets of their activism, especially their non-political ideology and agenda. These latter elements, the non- political ideology and agenda, are discussed in great detail because they were the most striking of Nigerian women’s expressions of nationalism and, as such, they constitute a large part of their theoretical and practical contributions to Nigerian nationalism. Background Gender analysis must be further developed in histories of African nationalism and also African intellectual histories. According to Anne McClintock, in No Longer in a Future Heaven, women in histories of African nationalism have been conceptualized in specific ways that do not allow for more diverse conceptions of women’s activism in nationalist movements. One of the most prevalent and enduring of these is in the role of supporter. Safia Aidid, in Haweenku Wa Garab (Women Are a Force), agrees that women have been treated as a micro narrative to the movements, ideals, and nationalist articulations of politically elite males. I argue that the larger bibliography on African nationalism lacks more substantively nuanced assessments of women’s 2 According to Towards an Intellectual History of Black Women, intellectual history encompasses the evolution of ideas and thinkers as well as retrieving ideas and foregrounding them in historical contexts and situations to trace their development as a result of challenges to the mind, body, and women (and I would add, the nation). 2 contributions because women have been portrayed as followers and as a subtext to men’s actions in histories of African independence movements. The historiographies of women in African nationalism and women in Nigerian nationalism both exhibit the same deficiency in terms of analyzing women’s contributions to nationalism.3 For example, foundational texts on women in African nationalism such as Signe Arnfred, in her article Women in Mozambique: Gender Struggle and Gender Politics (1988) and Gay W.
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