Feminist and founder of ‘Nigeria Women’s Party’, Oyinkansola Abayomi dies in Lagos.

On this date, 19th of March in 1990, Nigerian nationalist and feminist, Iyaloye Oyinkansola Abayomi who was born on 6th of March in 1897 died in Lagos, Nigeria. Oyinkansola Abayomi was the head of the Nigerian Girl Guides and founder of the Nigerian Women’s Party.

Her father was Sir Kitoye Ajasa, a prominent Saro tribesman who was the first Nigerian to be knighted by the British, and her mother was Lucretia Olayinka Moore, an omoba of an Egba royal family. She attended Anglican Girls’ Seminary school, Lagos.

She graduated in 1909. She then went to school at the Young Ladies Academy at Ryford Hall, located in Gloucestershire, England. In 1917, she attended the Royal Academy of Music in London.

In England, she had been a member of the Girl Guides. After discovering that the first Nigerian chapter of the Guides had been established in Lagos by a native Englander who was teaching there, Abayomi joined and became the first aboriginal supervisor of the group. In August of 1923, she married Moronfolu Abayomi, a lawyer. Following a brief honeymoon, they returned to Lagos and their respective jobs. Two months later, Moronfolu was shot and killed while in court. In despair, Abayomi returned home to live with her parents.

Shortly after studying in England, Oyinkan Abayomi had joined those who demanded that Nigerian women's education be equal to that of their male peers. In particular, activists sought a secondary school for girls, an institution parallel to the boys' King's College.

As a member of the Lagos Women's Organization, Abayomi campaigned and raised funds for Queen's College, which was established in Lagos in 1927. She was invited to be a member of the two-person teaching staff, and was the only Nigerian working for the school.

Work for the Girl Guides escalated as they sought government support and recognition equal to that of the local Boy Scouts. In 1931, support was granted. Abayomi rose in administration of the Girl Guides, until she received the top posting of chief commissioner. Meanwhile, her husband Kofo cofounded the Lagos Youth Movement, later the Nigerian Youth Movement, intent upon bringing Nigerian government into native, rather than British, hands. Abayomi joined the cause and in 1944 founded the Nigerian Women's Party, which helped unite several diffuse women's organizations. They rallied for nationalism and continued recognition of equal opportunities for women.

On January 1, 1979, Kofo died. Three years later, in 1982, Abayomi retired from the Girl Guides and was given the honorary title Life President. This was not, however, her only title. In 1954, Kofo had been knighted by the king, and she was thus known as Lady Oyinkan. In recognition for her work on behalf of Nigeria and women, Abayomi was also honored with several traditional chieftaincies, receiving five chief titles in all, the last of which was Iya Abiye of Egbaland. Lady Oyinkan Abayomi died in 1990 at the age of 93.

SOURCES: encyclopedia.com wikipedia.org withinnigeria.com

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyinkansola_Abayomi