Oyinkan Abayomi

Lady Oyinkan Abayomi (* 1897 , † 1987 ) was a Nigerian politician , feminist and teacher .

Life

Born to a wealthy family (her father held a senior position in the colonial judiciary), she was sent to Great Britain to study in 1909 , where she graduated from the Ladies Academy in London in music, drama and literature. In 1920 Abayomi returned to Nigeria to initially work as a teacher at the Anglican Girls School in Lagos .

In the 1930s she joined Obafemi Awolowos Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM), a party striving for Nigeria's emancipation from the colonial power of Great Britain, where she headed the women's wing in Lagos. In 1944 she took over the leadership of the women's organization Lagos Women's League , which had previously been headed by her cousin Charlotte Obasa . This she formed into a party that was henceforth called the Nigerian Women's Party . The party consisted exclusively of Yoruba women from the rich and educated upper class in Lagos. Abayomi campaigned for the improvement of the social situation of women in Lagos, for expanded training opportunities for young girls and for the cause of the market women, a strong lobby that she wanted to involve in the activities of her party.

During the anti-colonialist campaigns of the 1940s, which were launched by the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) of the later first President of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe , Abayomi demonstratively sided with the Colonial government. As the second woman in Nigerian history, she was given a seat in parliament in 1955 in the western region of Nigeria's colonial self-government, the Western House of Assembly .

Abayomi was also known for her charitable work and her educational work. She founded the Nigerian branch of the Girls Guide Movement , an international organization that looked after adolescent girls, and chaired the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) in Nigeria.

meaning

Conservative in her way of life, elitist in her leadership style and always loyal to the colonial power of Great Britain, Abayomi did not necessarily convey the image of a feminist activist in the third world. Nonetheless, their activities provided significant impulses that led to legal equality for women in Nigeria. Along with Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and Margaret Ekpo, she is one of the most important women activists of the late colonial era.

Abayomi was honored by Great Britain with the Order of the British Empire (OBE), which is associated with the title of Lady . She received the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (OFR) from the Nigerian state

literature

• Folarin Coker: A Lady: A Biography of Lady Oyinkan Abayomi. Evans Brothers (Nigeria Publishers) 1987.