& Her Flying Machines too
Guess who hasn’t completed the post on high-ranking women of Dahomey? (**me**) I didn’t even realise it went live today, oops. If you’ve seen that post know it’s nothing but research notes and jumbled opinions, the real one will be up later. In the meantime, just so something goes up today, I’m sharing the books…
An interlude before the post on royal women in Dahomey in which I shed some light on the fascinating subject of women becoming men in Yoruba tradition. In the previous post, we learned that among the ladies of the palace in Oyo, two presented themselves as men and were addressed as “Baba”, meaning father. But…
I’m reading Mother is Gold, Father is Glass for the second time. I bought it first on my kindle and found it so useful I bought a physical copy too. I’ve found that though I’m reading both copies in the space of say two years, it’s the same things I’m highlighting and bookmarking. The most…
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…
*peeps from behind the curtain* Yes, Cosmic Yoruba (formerly Eccentric Yoruba) is back! A lot has happened between April 2, 2013 (when I last updated) and now. I would like to say that I have grown up in a number of ways since then. I started working a 9 to 5 that drains my soul,…
I have spent a considerable amount of time wondering how single women could have made do in West African history. The non-existent yet much spoken of “African culture” of today paints a picture that such things never happened even though there are several renowned women who we remember today that never married, whether it is…
Since I wrote this post on sex work in pre-colonial Igboland, my interest in sex work as it exists (or not) in the history of West African peoples grew immensely. I was especially pleased to come across, Emmanuel Akyeampong’s research on sexuality and prostitution among the Akan of the Gold Coast, looking through the years…