Since I returned to Nigeria earlier, I have not met any woman who openly identified as a feminist. It almost seems as though the word ‘feminist’ is blacklisted, that is to say people don’t identify with it regardless of whether their actions and behaviour screams ‘feminist’. Now there may be many reasons for this, I understand that some women choose not to identify as feminist, yet from experience I’ve noticed  that there is something of a stigma attached to the label here that several women do not want to be identified with. I guess this is one effect of the stereotypical image of feminists as being angry unmarried women, it seems Nigerian women do not wish to be identified with this image. Also in my experience, people tend to call women ‘feminist’  to insult them and being an open-minded woman can put you in some really dangerous situations.

Likewise, there seems to be little or no information available on feminism in Nigeria and Nigerian feminists. Isn’t it somewhat distressing that there are only THREE people in the Wikicategory for Nigerian feminists? I know we have more feminists than that yet I do not know their names, I do not know who they are.

However this post is not just to lament on what I believe is the stagnant state of feminism in Nigeria but rather to propose a solution. I firmly believe that through the learning of history things can change. Thus if we Nigerian women learn more about the women who fought for women’s rights and Nigeria’s independence alongside our ‘founding fathers’ we may be able to learn that feminism is not as foreign as we’d like to think. Most people know about Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti, I knew her as the first woman to drive a car in Nigeria but at the same time she was refered to as a ‘troublemaker’ it was only after reading more about her for myself that I learnt to admire her. So feel free to talk about Feminists in your country.