Reclaiming Women’s Leadership through Yorùbá Orature

Abstract

This paper interrogates the notion that the indigenous African culture enables the marginalisation of women in the leadership composition of Nigeria. Anchored on Mary Kolawole’s Womanism, it focuses on selected Yorùbá folkloric texts to highlight icons and models of women leadership in prehistoric Yorùbá societies. The uninterrupted twenty-six years of democratic governance in Nigeria has not yielded equitable representations in leadership for the Nigerian women and the indigenous cultures of Nigeria are often implicated by relevant stakeholders as being largely responsible for the underwhelming involvement of women in politics. Beyond the popular examples of Ìyálóde and Ìyálọ́já, statutory positions reserved for women in every Yorùbá town, kingdom and city-state, the study draws on relevant Ifá stories as well as related Yorùbá proverbs to underline how Yorùbá cultural heritage promote and institutionalise women’s active involvement in leadership. By contrasting these Yorùbá folkloric resources with other literary and historical resources, the study foregrounds that Yorùbá culture is not an enabler of the dearth of women in leadership. Rather, the abandonment of the culture is a reason women are denied access to leadership positions.