Sit back and grab some popcorn as I take you on a short tour into the life of Madam Lydia Bolatito Bolade and her girl child.
She was born into the family of Pa Jacob and Ma Ruth Adunola Bolade on the beautiful 25th day of May, 1944 in Maiduguri, northern Nigeria, a country which is home to over 250 ethnic groups who speak over 500 languages. Ma Ruth Adunola was a Sierra Leonean Entrepreneur who made and sold ‘Adire’, a dyed hand-crafted traditional Nigerian fabric which first emerged in the city of Abeokuta, southwest Nigeria, in the nineteenth century.
Pa Jacob sold bags of Bitter Kola
Nut for a living, which he transported from Ogbomoso, his hometown in Oyo State to Maiduguri.
Bitter Kola Nut is traditionally called ‘Goro’ by the Hausas and Orogbo in the Yoruba language. Tito’s
family moved to Jos (about 500kms from Maiduguri) in 1948, in the year she turned 4, where she did her primary and secondary
schooling before she was trained as a Typist.
Tito, as she was fondly called by
two of her best friends: Dan Maria and Diko, grew up as an adolescent in the
few years which led to the Nigerian independence in 1960. This was the period
in the 1950’s where five shillings could buy a donkey (Ofonagoro 1979), although
a pupil teacher’s monthly salary was 12 shillings, three decades earlier in the
late 1920’s (Utuk 1975).
There was freedom to interact
with children of the opposite sex without the fear of being molested or abused.
The phrases ‘child sexual molestation’ and 'sexual harassment’ were not in their vocabulary
since the act was very absurd, back in the day.
She stood her ground and facilitated the education of her girl child in the Nigeria of the very early 80’s when
gendered discourses had not gained ground. Gender roles were very much socially-constructed and influenced by the tenets of the patriarchal system. Societal
expectations of women were skewed towards childbearing and housekeeping, since men
were historically farmers and hunters who solely met the economic needs of
their families.
She ruggedly
navigated the societal pressures back in the day amid the rather condescending and
appalling impact of the Nigerian patriarchal system on women, following the colonial
influence and associated teething problems of the independent Nigerian State.
Over and above fulfilling the
traditional gender roles, she transcended into ‘super womanhood’, which was
popularised by modernisation. Modernisation had influenced changing demand
patterns and increasing family needs, which inadvertently meant that women had
to play multiple roles in the home, including the contribution to the economy
of the family.
She garnered the courage to navigate her way through the male-dominated construction industry, where she thrived. She also traded in household items, both perishable and even non-perishable food items, as long as
her market analysis justified the need for her stock.
She should have been appointed as
a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Business School (HBS) to teach what they now call
Business Management or even Strategic Marketing. She would have offered HBS
students hands-on business tactics she learnt through the mess, thick and thin
without the intervention of Angel Investors/Venture Capitalists/Business
Incubators etc., which many successful business people of today took advantage
of.
This piece is dedicated to you
Mum, from your girl child. The girl child who is the fruit of the battles you fought amid the rising socio-political
contradictions of tribalism and unity in the very early 1980’s.
I am glad you are around in the
Nigeria of today in 2020, where the growing liberation movement and post-enlightenment discourses
on social and traditional media platforms are increasing facilitating free
thinking, social justice for the marginalised, which are all gradually redressing
gender-based violence and its cousins as well as systemic marginalisation.
Sadly, dad left us unexpectedly
but I wish you belated Father’s Day(s) Mum! You have been both mum and dad ever
since dad passed on.
References
Ofonagoro, Walter I. "From
traditional to British currency in Southern Nigeria: Analysis of a currency
revolution, 1880-1948." Journal of
Economic History (1979): 623-654. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2119685?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
Utuk, Efiong I. "Britain's Colonial Administrations and Developments, 1861-1960: An Analysis of Britain's Colonial Administrations and Developments in Nigeria" (1975). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 2525. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.2521
