The Adventures of Cosmic Yoruba
& Her Flying Machines too
If there’s one thing that came out from reading about Nana Asma’u, it’s more women who we will probably never know more about outside a few sentences in diverse literature. Let’s share this frustration together. Nana Asma’u wrote in 1837 of “Joda Kawuuri, Quranic scholar who benefited people in many towns…Yar Hindu the Quaranic scholar…
A Month in Western Sudan Beginnings: Degel and the Hijra Nana Asma’u was just one among other women who wrote in her time. Five of her sisters, and her cousin were writers and their works remain today but there may be countless others whose works have been lost in time. Nana Asma’u’s name is remembered…
“Muslim women! Do not listen to the speech of those who are misguided and who sow the seed of error in the heart of another; they deceive you when they stress obedience to your husbands without telling you of obedience to God and His Messenger (May God show him bounty and grant him salvation), and…
Did you know that “Sudan” was the term used by Arabs historically to refer to lands south of the Sahara? Ah, it seems this north/south divide is older than I thought. “Western Sudan” refers to north of the river Niger. In this context “Western Sudan” will be the area in what is now Northern Nigeria.…
Another one from the drafts. In an earlier post I shared what I had read from Renee Pittin’s research on gidajen mata in Katsina, Northern Nigeria. Here I will share another aspect of these houses of women, that of the connection between ‘yan daudu, karuwai and the bori “cult”. Unfortunately, bori is often described as…
I saw this post on Cracked; 5 reasons ‘traditional marriage’ would shock your ancestors, and I knew I had to something similar. Nigerians today have ideas on marriage in the past, especially about how women behaved as wives, that may not be the reality. I’ll be focusing on Yoruba people here because that is what…
This is such a disturbing practice akin to kidnapping brides, I’d never heard of it until this. The post is eye-opening and shines a light on a part of Yoruba (Muslim?) culture that sadly remains to this day.
I rolled my eyes when I stumbled across a link to an article in which a faux intellectual accused me of promoting prostitution because of these posts on (historical) sex work in indigenous African societies. I refused to click on the link, no point in giving views, but really one post on a tiny part…
I know I have written on Efunsetan Aniwura before (where I horribly misspelled her name for which I have been told off *haha*) but once is not enough! The more I learn about this amazing Egba woman, the more I am amazed. I went from not knowing anything about her, to learning that she was…
Ahebi Ugbabe’s life story is to me, equal parts fascinating and frustrating. Fascinating because Ahebi Ugbabe was a woman ahead of her time, and her story provides incredible insights into pre-colonial Igbo attitudes towards gender and sex. And frustrating because of the exact same reason; that is pre-colonial Igbo attitudes towards gender and sex. Ahebi…