Feminism Is Not A Western Culture; Taking a look at Iyoba Idia

For as long as there has been patriarchy, there has always been women who challenged the status quo and fought for their rights to exist independent of men.

These amazing women were never spoken about in social studies growing up or even in history.

All that was put out of women were how they supported their husbands and how well they raised children.

But we as women exist for ourselves.

Women have accomplished a lot and it’s high time our children are taught of the amazing things women did in history instead of unrepentantly wiping our amazing work from history or attributing these wonderful deeds to men.

In the coming weeks, we would be looking at three women from history who were feminists and challenged every status quo relating to politics, economics, art, culture, tradition and even the definitions of their sexuality.

Firstly, taking a look at this amazing woman, Iyoba Idia.

Iyoba Idia popularly known as “Idia ne Iye Esigie” was renowned warrior-queen, skilled administrator and the first Iyoba (Queen Mother) of the Kingdom of Bini (Benin) in the present-day Nigeria.

 Iyoba Idia's visage is the most widely known face of an African royal woman after the Egyptian Queen, Ahmose-Nefertari or Nefertiti.

Iyoba Idia took active centre field of Benin history when her husband, Oba Ozolua, died. 

She fought for the right of the Obaship of the great kingdom by allowing Esigie, her son, to be king. 

She fought for life by rebuking the tradition where every king’s mother is put to death. She redefined the political structure of the Benin Kingdom, empowered its trade with the Portuguese and also invented the art of the day.

Idia’s social and cultural accomplishments such as her invention of the Ekassa dance for royal funerals and the ukpe-okhue, a distinctive curved, conical hairstyle covered with a network of coral beads and resembling a parrot’s beak, have been recorded in numerous writings. 

Economically, culturally and spiritually, she fortified the kingdom under Esigie’s rule. 

She later became a symbol for arts when her figurine was chosen for the FESTAC ’77 celebration.