Efunsetan Aniwura Pioneer Yoruba Feminist, What You Never Knew About Her.

 

When we talk about feminism, most people believe it is a term that only the recent or "woke" generation brought up for women who agitate of gender equality, but you shouldn't be surprised when I say it feminism actually started long ago, it might not be an agitation like it is these days but it was an act. Efunsetan Aniwura was one of the women who acted in feminism, even in the days of women subjugation, her story comes with a lot of twists and turns. 

According to oral history, Efunsetan was born around the late 17th century, she hailed from the Egba kingdom, as her father was an Egba man, although she lost her mother at a young age, then she and her father moved from Egba to Ibadan, but soon after he died also. 

Growing up, Efunsetan worked hard to be as successful as she was then. she ventured into various businesses, but the ones she was popularly known for were the slave trade and arms/weapon trade, which were booming back then.

It was said that Efusetan dined and wined with kings, she was the second Iyalode of  Ibadan, it was said that Latoosa, the Aree Ona kakanfo of Ibadan and Efunsatan were friends and business buddies, that was one of the factors that influenced her coronation as Iyalode of Ibadan.

Although rich, Efunsetan was known to have only one child, a daughter, many said because she had only one child, she was really good to her slaves, she had about 2000 slaves or more, she would feed, encourage them to get married, and she at a point adopted a child whose mother was a slave that died at childbirth. 

After years of business prosperity, and harmony in her home, a dark twist comes into Efunsetan Aniwura's life. Her only child dies, many say it was during childbirth, but the particular cause of death is not well known, the only thing known from the incident is that the death of Efun's child, caused a lot of heartbreak and turned her into the wicked slave master.

If it were in this age and era, she would have been advised to see a therapist or go in for some mental health check, but these facilities were not available then, so Efun went into a dark place. She began to make horrible decrees in her compound, she would instruct her slaves never to get married or get pregnant, one of her slaves who has a child before the death of Efunsetans' was instructed never to let her child cry, but as children will always be children, the child cried one night, and Efunsetan asked her military slaves to behead the baby. 

Many terrible acts came recorded about Efunsetan, another event was when she found out that one of her slaves was pregnant, she killed both couples for disregarding her decrees. her once bubbly compound now became a horror camp. she arrested anyone who came into her yard to play evening games, anyone caught passing through her farm would also be arrested, those who were highly affected were those who stole from her, if caught, she would punish them. 

Her wicked acts went on and on, till it caught the attention of the community, and that of her buddy, Latosa. As the Are Ona Kakanfo then, he summoned her several times but she declined his call and declared battle between them for interfering in her business, in return he withdrew her title as Iyalode of Ibadan. 

Her wickedness grew, and so did her hatred for her friend as she would walk around the town, shouting and threatening the Aree, she, was bitter. 

Eventually, Efunsetan Aniwura died in the late 18th century, the cause of her death has always been argued about, some said she poisoned herself, while others said she was killed by her head of the guards and her adopted child who she had once offended during her several altercations with slaves and outsiders. 

Even though she turned dark along the way, Efunsetan will never wipe off Yoruba history, she made a maximal impact in her generation, she competed with big businessmen then as she traded up North and even in Ghana, she got equal rights as she got to be part of the chiefs in Ibadan. Her story comes to show that nobody is perfect, and we all need someone to help us out of tragedies. 

Writer: Idowu Elizabeth
Editor (s): Idowu Elizabeth & Awe Olufunso
Publisher: Awe Olufunso