Nigeria Interviews

Hajiya Binta Abdulhamid was born on March 20, 1965, in Kano, the capital of Kano State, in northern Nigeria. She attended primary school and girls’ secondary school in Kano and Kaduna State. Thereafter she attended classes at Bayero University in Kano, where she received a degree in Islamic Studies. While she initially wanted to be a journalist, in 1983 she was encouraged to take education courses at the tertiary level in order to serve as a principal in girls’ secondary schools in Kano State. While other women had served in this position, there had been no women from Kano State who had done so. She has subsequently worked under the Kano State Ministry of Education, serving as school principal in several girls’ secondary schools in Kano State. Her experiences as a principal and teacher in these schools have enabled her to support girl child education in the state and she has encouraged women students to complete their secondary school education and to continue on to postgraduate education. She sees herself as a woman-activist in her advocacy of women’s education and has been gratified to see many of her former students working as medical doctors, lawyers, and politicians.

Keywords: academia and women's studies, education, reform of domestic/family roles

Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video

Dr. Joyce Agofure was born on April 3, 1978, in Benin City, the capital of Edo State, in southern Nigeria. She first attended primary school in Benin City and continued her education, obtaining her first degree in English and Education. She then entered the Masters’ Degree Program at Ahmadu Bello University-Zaria where she received a Masters’ Degree and subsequently a PhD in English literature. She was particularly interested in eco-feminism and the consequences of climate change on the lives of women. As a senior lecturer and the Coordinator of Postgraduate Studies in the Department of English at Ahmadu Bello University, she teaches courses which include Introduction to Literature, African Literature and Literature Theory. She assigns readings in Nigerian women’s literature, some of which consider the challenges faced by women which she discusses in these courses. She was able to expand her knowledge of eco-feminism, particularly the ways that women are seen as natural beings and the environment is characterized as feminine, during her tenure as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Idaho. This experience has enabled her to become involved in developing a course on Eco-Feminism to be taught in the Department of English at ABU.

Keywords: environment, academia and women's studies, art/writing as activism

Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video

Bolanle Awe was born in Ilesha on January 26, 1933. A distinguished scholar, feminist, and educator, she attended the first girl’s school in Nigeria, followed by the Perse School for Girls in Cambridge, St. Andrews University, Scotland (1958), and the University of Oxford, England (1964). Considered the matriarch of feminist history in Nigeria, Awe founded the Women’s Research and Documentation Centre (WORDOC) in 1985. She spent many years working on the development of higher education in Nigerian universities.

Keywords: academia and women's studies, environment

Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video

Dr. Mairo Usman Mandara was born on June 5, 1965, in Bukuru, just outside of Jos, the capital of Plateau State, Nigeria. She first attended primary school in Bukuru and continued her post-secondary education at the University of Jos. There she studied medicine, specifically women’s health issues, an interest that expanded to include the socio-economic issues associated with women’s health such as VVF (vesico-vaginal fistula), e.g., early marriage and stunting due to malnutrition. Her work as an obstetric-gynaecologist led to a broader feminist concern with girl-child education, the founding of the Federation of Muslim Women of Nigeria (FOMWAN), and with the NGO, Girl-Child Concerns. Between 2005 and 2010, Dr. Mandara was a Senior Country Adviser in Nigeria to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and more recently worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the Country Representative to Nigeria. Her current activist and scholarly work reflect her belief in the importance of working with traditional political and religious leaders in encouraging parents to enable their daughters to complete their secondary school education.

Keywords: gender and health, reform of domestic/family roles, academia and women's studies, feminist conferences

Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video

Olanike Olugboji, born in 1974, is the founder/director of Women’s Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE). While attending elementary and high schools at Command Children’s School and Federal Government College Kaduna, respectively, she developed the habit of picking up litter. Following her education in technology and urban and regional planning, she began pursuing her dream of working towards a sustainable, clean and safe environment while supporting women’s health and empowerment, through the clean cookstoves initiative. Ms. Olugbogi hopes to contribute to producing a younger generation of Nigerians that is more committed to nurturing their environment through the Women’s Initiative for Sustainable Environment (WISE).

Keywords: environment, community activism, education

Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video