Hajiya Gambo Sawaba

The political activist was publicly flogged, had her hair shaved off with a broken bottle and was imprisoned 16 times. Stories from the life of Hajiya Gambo Sawaba, one of northern Nigeria’s most important female political activists, who was born on this day in 1933, have become the stuff of folklore. According to one, her fighting spirit was evident when, as a young girl growing up in northern Nigeria in the 1930s and 40s, she would always intervene in other children’s fights on the side of the loser, telling them: “I have bought this fight from you”, before carrying on the scuffle. The fights came frequently, and her clothes would inevitably get torn. So, the story goes, in order to minimise the frequency with which she would have to replace her daughter’s damaged dresses, Sawaba’s mother, Malama Fatima, resorted to making them out of tarpaulin. Whether or not this particular story was true, there was no denying that throughout her life, Sawaba never shied away from a fight, particularly when it was on the side of the downtrodden. A teenage activist Her story began on February 15, 1933. In 1943, when she was 10 years old, her father died. Her mother died three years later and, soon after, at the age of 13, Sawaba was married to a second world war veteran named Abubakar Dan Sarkin. At 16, she gave birth to her only child, Bilikisu. By the following year, her political activism had begun. At the time, the British ruled over Nigeria using a system of Indirect Rule, whereby Native Authorities (NA) administered colonial policies in the 12 northern provinces through local emirs and district and village leaders. The Northern Region was ruled by the conservative Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC). But in 1950, a school teacher in Kano City called Malam Aminu Kano formed a new political party, Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU). NEPU supported “women’s education in both religious and secular spheres and their being given enough space – politically and economically”. It was in sharp contrast to the NPC, which controlled the Native Authorities and whose leadership was quoted as saying: “We in the north are happy, our women are happy about their condition. There is not a single Northern woman who has told anyone that she is unhappy. We know what is right for women and our men know what is right for themselves.” NEPU’s messages resonated with Sawaba’s sense of justice and she became an early member of the party’s women’s wing. By this time, there were already calls for women’s voting rights in other parts of Nigeria – by the likes of the renowned feminists, Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti and Margaret Ekpo in the western and eastern regions of Nigeria, respectively. Sawaba would soon lend her voice to theirs. ‘Freedom and redemption’ Sawaba was not her birth name. Meaning freedom or redemption, it was given to her by her political mentor, Malam Aminu Kano, after she had been elected president-general of NEPU’s women’s wing. Although folklore gives an alternative version of how she came by the name. According to this, she became known as Sawaba after attending a political rally at Jakara Market in Zaria. As the crowd waited for the official speaker, a male Zaria council member known as Alhaji Gambo Sawaba, she took to the stage to talk about voting and education rights for women. When Alhaji Gambo Sawaba arrived, he announced to the audience that as she had been the first woman to address a political rally in the north, she would henceforth be known as Gambo Sawabiya – the feminine version of Sawaba. If this version of the story is correct, Sawaba clearly preferred the male version as that is the one she stuck to. From then on, in Zaria’s political circles, people differentiated between the two politicians by saying: “Gambo Sawaba [male]; Gambo Sawaba [female].” Whatever the truth behind her name, Sawaba became synonymous with the politics of freedom and emancipation in northern Nigeria, especially for women. Imprisonment She openly advocated against child marriage, forced and unpaid labour and unfair taxes, and canvassed for jobs for women, education for girls and full voting rights. Her husband’s family, however, were unhappy with her efforts to merge motherhood and political activism and an amicable separation soon followed. As was the custom at the time, her baby daughter was handed over to her in-laws. But she had also attracted the ire of the authorities. As many women in the north followed the practice of purdah, a form of social seclusion, Sawaba went from house-to-house to speak to them. This displeased the Native Authority in Kano and, in 1952, she was hauled before the conservative Alkali (Magistrates) Court, on charges of “drawing out women who were in purdah”. The court sentenced her to three months in prison. It was the first of 16 prison sentences she would serve during her lifetime. She was arrested so often, in fact, that she always kept a blanket with the words ‘Prison Yard’ inscribed on it nearby so that she could take it with her whenever the police came for her. Later that year, the authorities in Kano ordered her to leave the city. To make sure she complied with the order, local law enforcement agents escorted her back to Zaria. But she continued her political activism – and periods of imprisonment – in her hometown. As well as Zaira and Kano, she was also imprisoned in Kaduna and Jos. Gambo Sawaba [Nigerian Citizen, August 22, 1964] According to the Daily Trust newspaper: “Whenever she was on trial, the courtroom was filled with her supporters.” But it was not just jail time she endured. The Daily Trust reported, “On two occasions she was stripped naked and given eighty lashes in Zaria Central Prison. She also endured the indignity and pain of having her hair shaved off with a broken bottle.” In 1990, Sawaba’s political compatriot, the late Malama Ladi Shehu, told the First Nation Magazine about the abuses female political activists faced: “Gambo

The political activist was publicly flogged, had her hair shaved off with a broken bottle and was imprisoned 16 times. Stories from the life of Hajiya Gambo Sawaba, one of northern Nigeria’s most important female political activists, who was born on this day in 1933, have become the stuff of folklore. According to one, her fighting spirit was evident when, as a young girl growing up in northern Nigeria in the 1930s and 40s, she would always intervene in other children’s fights on the side of the loser, telling them: “I have bought this fight from you”, before carrying on the scuffle. The fights came frequently, and her clothes would inevitably get torn. So, the story goes, in order to minimise the frequency with which she would have to replace her daughter’s damaged dresses, Sawaba’s mother, Malama Fatima, resorted to making them out of tarpaulin. Whether or not this particular story was true, there was no denying that throughout her life, Sawaba never shied away from a fight, particularly when it was on the side of the downtrodden. A teenage activist Her story began on February 15, 1933. In 1943, when she was 10 years old, her father died. Her mother died three years later and, soon after, at the age of 13, Sawaba was married to a second world war veteran named Abubakar Dan Sarkin. At 16, she gave birth to her only child, Bilikisu. By the following year, her political activism had begun. At the time, the British ruled over Nigeria using a system of Indirect Rule, whereby Native Authorities (NA) administered colonial policies in the 12 northern provinces through local emirs and district and village leaders. The Northern Region was ruled by the conservative Northern Peoples’ Congress (NPC). But in 1950, a school teacher in Kano City called Malam Aminu Kano formed a new political party, Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU). NEPU supported “women’s education in both religious and secular spheres and their being given enough space – politically and economically”. It was in sharp contrast to the NPC, which controlled the Native Authorities and whose leadership was quoted as saying: “We in the north are happy, our women are happy about their condition. There is not a single Northern woman who has told anyone that she is unhappy. We know what is right for women and our men know what is right for themselves.” NEPU’s messages resonated with Sawaba’s sense of justice and she became an early member of the party’s women’s wing. By this time, there were already calls for women’s voting rights in other parts of Nigeria – by the likes of the renowned feminists, Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti and Margaret Ekpo in the western and eastern regions of Nigeria, respectively. Sawaba would soon lend her voice to theirs. ‘Freedom and redemption’ Sawaba was not her birth name. Meaning freedom or redemption, it was given to her by her political mentor, Malam Aminu Kano, after she had been elected president-general of NEPU’s women’s wing. Although folklore gives an alternative version of how she came by the name. According to this, she became known as Sawaba after attending a political rally at Jakara Market in Zaria. As the crowd waited for the official speaker, a male Zaria council member known as Alhaji Gambo Sawaba, she took to the stage to talk about voting and education rights for women. When Alhaji Gambo Sawaba arrived, he announced to the audience that as she had been the first woman to address a political rally in the north, she would henceforth be known as Gambo Sawabiya – the feminine version of Sawaba. If this version of the story is correct, Sawaba clearly preferred the male version as that is the one she stuck to. From then on, in Zaria’s political circles, people differentiated between the two politicians by saying: “Gambo Sawaba [male]; Gambo Sawaba [female].” Whatever the truth behind her name, Sawaba became synonymous with the politics of freedom and emancipation in northern Nigeria, especially for women. Imprisonment She openly advocated against child marriage, forced and unpaid labour and unfair taxes, and canvassed for jobs for women, education for girls and full voting rights. Her husband’s family, however, were unhappy with her efforts to merge motherhood and political activism and an amicable separation soon followed. As was the custom at the time, her baby daughter was handed over to her in-laws. But she had also attracted the ire of the authorities. As many women in the north followed the practice of purdah, a form of social seclusion, Sawaba went from house-to-house to speak to them. This displeased the Native Authority in Kano and, in 1952, she was hauled before the conservative Alkali (Magistrates) Court, on charges of “drawing out women who were in purdah”. The court sentenced her to three months in prison. It was the first of 16 prison sentences she would serve during her lifetime. She was arrested so often, in fact, that she always kept a blanket with the words ‘Prison Yard’ inscribed on it nearby so that she could take it with her whenever the police came for her. Later that year, the authorities in Kano ordered her to leave the city. To make sure she complied with the order, local law enforcement agents escorted her back to Zaria. But she continued her political activism – and periods of imprisonment – in her hometown. As well as Zaira and Kano, she was also imprisoned in Kaduna and Jos. Gambo Sawaba [Nigerian Citizen, August 22, 1964] According to the Daily Trust newspaper: “Whenever she was on trial, the courtroom was filled with her supporters.” But it was not just jail time she endured. The Daily Trust reported, “On two occasions she was stripped naked and given eighty lashes in Zaria Central Prison. She also endured the indignity and pain of having her hair shaved off with a broken bottle.” In 1990, Sawaba’s political compatriot, the late Malama Ladi Shehu, told the First Nation Magazine about the abuses female political activists faced: “Gambo