The Grammar of Fortitude Abide with me; fast falls the eventide; The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee Help of the helpless, O abide with me…. Tokunbo Awolowo Dosumu. A sudden rush of water at the beachfront gathers in a multitude of crests as if in a choreographed salute to Providence. As the crests crash by the beachfront with salty water gently wetting her, Hannah raises her voice in supplication.
She is here to beseech the One whom she believes is omnisciently regulating the world and everything that happens therein; His help, mercy and grace are especially needed at this period of misery when all forms of comfort seem to have suddenly departed.
As the ocean rumbles again in eagerness of yet another of its endless rushes, Hannah ends her prayer that morning and walks back to the house. The wind is coming. She has to brace herself by spreading her wings. She is going to fly, but would never let the wind of adversity carry her away…. A while after Hannah returns to the small house, an abandoned Government Reservation House where her husband, Obafemi Awolowo, is under restriction, the man takes his usual early morning walk by the beachfront and the bush path, partly to reflect again on his fate and to exercise his body.
The events of the last few weeks are on his mind as he contemplates the intrigues of his political adversaries who had crashed him from the heights of formal gravity and personal dignity to the grimy small house in the mosquito-infested island of Lekki, accessible only by canoe.
Whatever comes, he assures himself, he would remain unbowed in his self-possession and unyielding in his convictions that his country deserved better; Nigeria, he further reassures himself, is in painful need of the kind of visionary leadership and egalitarian rule that he, more than any other of his contemporaries, could offer…. Whoever thought of making this a guest house must have had only unwanted guests in mind. It is the break of dawn still and the villagers would start to come to the house to help in any way they could.
She needs to prepare for the new day…. The tempest was rising all over the Western Region. Also, the situation in the country at large was tense. It was an opportunity to show the woman of fortitude in Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo. The world had come to know her husband as resolute, forbearing and resilient. But the world was yet to know the stuff that she was made of.
Would the coming tide wash her away or give her the opportunity to prove her worth too? She will stand by him like a Rock of Gibraltar….
His opportunity to prove that the ideas of egalitarian rule and decentralized national governance that he had championed in his writings could be accomplished was his premiership of the Western Region from After his widely acknowledged success as premier, in his bid to become the prime minister of independent Nigeria, Awolowo relinquished the position to his deputy in the Action Group, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola.
However, he lost his bid as his party could not secure an alliance with the National Council of Nigerian Citizens NCNC , which could have made it possible for him to have a shot at the headship of the government as Nigeria moved towards independence in October However, the immediate events that led to his restriction to Lekki were the crisis in the Action Group….
Longe and one other in a toast to Chief Awolowo. The restriction order was dated May 29, Awolowo and Hannah arrived in Ikenne in the evening of May 31, His restriction formally began on June 1. HID had started to bear the heavy burden of the crisis engulfing the Western Region. She too had been under immense pressures to mollify her husband as the AG crisis erupted. Some wanted her to persuade him against taking a principled stand.
They wanted her to convince him to compromise with his adversaries in the region and the rest of the country. But she refused. She was convinced he was fighting a just cause. She had watched the events unfold, not from the ring side.
She was at the centre of things. She was resolved that no matter what happened, she would stand wherever her husband stood. They started their mutual life together with little or nothing and they rose together to the pinnacle of power in the Western Region and as Leader of Opposition. She will remain steadfast, come rain or shine. What they wanted to achieve was to isolate him, and cast him as a belligerent, intransigent and disruptive element who should be avoided by all.
But they realised that to be able to vanquish Awolowo, he had to be quarantined. They had assumed that the restriction would help to diminish him and reduce his popularity. Therefore, a decision was taken that Awolowo had to be moved to an inaccessible place. After they considered a few options, Majekodunmi ordered that the isolated island of Lekki not too far from the Epe beach was the best place to restrict the man.
There was an abandoned Government Rest House there. On June 19, , shortly after noon, the order for restriction in Lekki was delivered by a British officer of the Nigerian police force to Awolowo in Ikenne.
From experience, Awolowo knew there was nothing to eat in the island apart from fish. But he had little time to prepare for the journey. Therefore, Hannah went to work with the women assisting her. Within three and half hours, she was ready to accompany her husband to Lekki with sufficient provisions for feeding him there. She would have none of it. She would go wherever he went, unless she was legally prevented from doing so.
Even though she was ready to brave the odds, yet Hannah kept asking herself what her husband had done to deserve being tossed around like this. They were both despondent as they drove out of their house in Ikenne. There was uneasy silence in the car.
After a while, Hannah broke down in the car and wept. But her husband hugged and consoled her. She eventually took care of herself. She even began to smile and so they began a discussion about their destination. He was trying to make light of their burden. What can we do? Go there, we must. The decree has come from His Excellency, the Administrator…. He acknowledged that and added that he had called the Administrator to tell him about his rheumatic pains which were usually acute in that part of the year, the raining season.
How cruel! Instinctively, they knew they were in this together. After shedding tears as they left Ikenne, she stilled her nerves and figured out in her mind how to take command of the space they would occupy and make their time there as convenient as possible in what would clearly be an unpleasant environment…. Obafemi and Hannah Awolowo with a white couple. When they moved back to Ikenne, it was obvious to Hannah that her husband was being tossed around in preparation for something more sinister.
For a young lady who had never known want all her life, marrying this promising young man was a gamble. At his point, Obafemi was hovering between striving and thriving.
He had experienced much turbulence in his short life. Even though he started out with a lot of opportunities under the watch of a father who had invested much hope in his future, the death of his father seventeen years earlier, that is, in April , meant that Obafemi was pushed hither and thither in the course of life until he became a man. However, the meticulous and prudent young man did not plan to bring his beautiful wife into a matrimony beset by financial worries.
But realizing that he could not make enough money from this to travel to England to study law, he got into motor transport business and produce buying. Hannah and Obafemi Awolowo arriving at a campaign rally in the Second Republic. In the season, the profit was good enough for his business associates to either get the profits due them or for such profit to be ploughed back into the business for further gains.
Things were even better the next business season. Now he must have considered the fiscal comfort which Hannah would enjoy after they were married. Obafemi had enough in this season to proceed to England for his life-long ambition to study law. His decision to delay his journey was made even more sensible by the forecast for the cocoa season shared by most people in the business.
After making lots of profits in the following year, he projected, he would sail to the London with his wife to begin a new life. Obafemi and all others engaged in the business of produce buying were terribly wrong about the forecast for the following year. Cocoa business experienced a slump and not only did he lose everything, he also became terribly indebted. Therefore, as he exchanged vows with Hannah on Boxing Day of , all he held onto was hope for a better future and a firm belief in the goodness of God….
He was inflexible. She was not feeling too strong this afternoon in June , so I spoke with her as she reclined on a sofa chaise in her room. Will you be able to cope with this stubborn man if you marry him? As an only child, her mother was over-protective when it came to the choice of a spouse.
She was happy that she wanted to marry an Ikenne young man so that she would not be taken too far away from her. But she wanted an easy-going and unassuming man. Most of those who knew him in Ikenne only knew him in his younger days. He never suffered fools gladly and was eager to pick a fight with anyone who threw down the gauntlet. When Hannah returned to Ikenne from Lagos in , the cute 13 year-old that left the small town five years earlier, had become an attractive year old young woman.
She was turning heads in the small Remo town. Her beauty was complemented by her charm, modishness and cosmopolitan skills. Even though Hannah was unaware of the young Ikenne man living in Ibadan who had moved from public letter-writing into transportation business and then produce-buying, he was aware of her. He knew of her family background and had heard so much about what a beautiful, amiable, conscientious, and disciplined lady she was.
The skills he had deployed as a public letter-writer came in handy in the process of expressing his affection for Hannah. Hannah was not interested in a relationship; she was not even interested in dating a man she had not met. There were a few others who had expressed interest in her. They were mostly non-Ikenne indigenes. Even though the latest suitor was an Ikenne indigene, she was still not interested. But the letters continued to arrive from Obafemi in Ibadan. One day Mr. Olutunda spoke glowingly about this man.
Olutunda promised to bring the suitor as soon as possible. He sent a message to Obafemi in Ibadan. It was a message of optimism, or more precisely, of possibility. Here, at last, was the man behind the sweet words. And here was the object of his desire, the much-sought after beauty. Obafemi introduced himself and added that he was the one behind the letters. He had come to re-affirm his craving for her love. He asked for her hand in marriage. Having satisfied her curiosity, Hannah again repeated her rejection of his request for a relationship that could blossom into marriage.
She told him she had someone else in her life. It was just a ploy to shake him off. He had written to me, as was the pattern in those days…. I rejected his offer saying there was a man already in my life. It was an old war-camp turned city-state which became a trado-modern city.
It was not only that she would be wasting her skills, she had become used to earning money on her own and not depending on anyone, including her father; therefore, this new regime would mean total financial dependence on her husband.
More important, she was already being put under some social pressure because she was yet to conceive. She was not tending a pregnancy or taking care of a child. It was an untenable position for a young married woman in late s Nigeria. Yet, as pledged, she had to abide by the wishes of her husband. She visited Ikenne regularly and therefore was open to being constantly taunted alternatively by those who advised her against marrying the rascal and those who advised Obafemi not to marry an abiku.
However, regarding the issue of whether his wife should work, the transporter and produce-buyer was convinced that, as in the tradition of his people, it was his exclusive responsibility to take care of his wife.
At that point, he could not imagine that it was possible for his wife to combine the administration of the home front with commerce. He would learn later that she could do so brilliantly and still support him in his proposed political life. One day I want to be one of the first class lawyers in this country. Contrary to the doubts, on January 20, , the Awolowos welcomed their first child, a son. He was named Olusegun, a telling name, the full meaning of which was Oluwasegun God is victorious.
It was a strong response to their traducers…. Because of her charm, humility, generosity and ever-ready sympathy and helpfulness for others in distress, she is beloved and respected by all our friends and acquaintances…. Since he read Robert G.
In all this period, Hannah remained a steadfast Christian. However, he eventually returned to Christianity. Her constant admonitions and steadfastness did more than anything else to restrain me from going beyond the point of no return….
Given that she belonged to the Liyangu family, one of the three ruling houses that could access the Akarigbo throne, and the Obara family, also one of the three ruling families of the Alakenne throne, her heredity held the potentials for a significant social and political life for her husband.
She also has a matchless capacity for recollection and detail, an intrinsic facility for identifying and understanding the social order of things and a unique aptitude for tracking loyalty and treachery.
Therefore, within the first five years of their matrimony, it was already evident that theirs was a perfect harmony that blended. For a few months short of fifty years, they were to enjoy a mutuality that melded so well as to become storied…. She and three soon to be four kids were not going to depend on a man who would be struggling with his studies in the UK for subsistence in Nigeria.
She was going to exhibit her entrepreneurial skills while he was gone. She will be so successful before he returned that he would be convinced that she should be allowed to operate a business. That money formed the foundation of what turned out many years later to be a multi-million naira business empire called Dideolu Enterprises and Ligu a shortened form of Liyangu Stores.
She used the twenty pounds to start a business in buying and selling. She bought some agricultural items such as tomatoes and onions from traders who brought them from the north of Nigeria. She also bought some food items from the north and resold them. With her natural talent for business, in no time, Hannah was doing very well. He later told me the money reached him at a time he had no money. But the law student assumed that his forbearing wife had again displayed her eagerness to sacrifice everything for his success.
He wondered how we would survive now that I had returned the money. But I replied that I was working and that home was alright…. Characteristically for a man who was a stickler for details, by the time Hannah sent money again, he started raising questions. What is the source of the money, he queried? She always sent me good news every week about herself and the children; but when I returned home I leant that she had passed through many anxious times with four children the oldest of whom was only five when I left home, and the youngest of whom arrived four months after my departure….
Also, he must have realised at that juncture, more than ever before, that he had found gold, the inestimable value of which will become much more apparent in their future together…. Exchange of letters continued between the couple in the two years and four months that Obafemi spent in London.
He eagerly gave him details about his life in the UK, including the formation of a pan-Yoruba organisation, Egbe Omo Oduduwa A Society of the Descendants of Oduduwa — Oduduwa being the popularly-acknowledged progenitor of the Yoruba in Before he returned to Nigeria in December , Hannah had sent money to her husband four times.
It was a measure of how well she was doing in her business that she could take care of four children, expand her business and yet send money to the UK. By this time, she had given birth to their fourth child, a daughter, Ayodele. Therefore, she was bearing a heavy burden, which included not only feeding the family, but also clothing everyone and paying the fees of two of the kids in school.
Obafemi, HID and one of their grandchildren. He returned to Nigeria the next year to the embrace of his wife and four children, Olusegun, Omotola, Oluwole and Ayodele, the last of which was born while he was away on December 29, Tokunbo, was born after his return on February 20, ….
By the time Ayodele and Tokunbo were ready to travel to the UK to study, Awolowo was already in jail. Her fierce loyalty to her husband, which became increasingly evident over the years, even after his death, meant that she regarded her life and possessions as all in the service of her soul-mate. She took care of the home and concentrated on her business while doing her part to entertain guests and complement her husband during official events.
Therefore, she was guided by what she thought a woman in her position should embody. She knew her husband was going to be a politician and usually women constitute some kind of obstacles, but she vowed that she will never be the reason for her husband not doing what he had to do. If they had to travel together, she stood by the car and waited for her husband, her husband never had to wait for her. Hannah also supported her husband morally and financially.
Their houses in Ibadan and Ikenne were not places of influence peddling for her. On the contrary, she gladly fed the people, both the distinguished and the hoi polloi, who visited constantly. She stood unflinchingly by his side for almost fifty years. Hannah Dideolu constantly replenished Obafemi Jeremiah.
At the same time, she was a powerful influence on him in many ways. She was very loyal; she gave papa peace of mind. Even Hannah herself has never articulated this publicly. It is perhaps one of the reasons why people, including even some members of their immediate family, fail to understand the deep and abiding love between the two and their unbroken bond, a space on mutual love and enduring trust into which not even their children and grand-children could intrude.
All the surviving children and the grandchildren all attest to this, affirming what Ofeimun articulates. If they took a stand on something, they both subscribed to whatever it was. Hannah Awolowo quietly announced to her husband around eight in the morning on November 2, He was shaving at a wash-basin just by the side of the door to his bedroom. He still had shaving foam on his chin.
PART Toyin Falola. Photo: Late Mrs. Chief Mrs. Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo nee Adelana was arguably one of the most impactful women and wives of Nigerian politicians of all times. Born in , a year after the amalgamation of the Southern and the Northern protectorates, Mrs. Awolowo was raised under a colonial philosophy that dominated their political and economic landscape during the period.
Living a purposeful life, Hannah Awolowo decided not to become a mere cannon fodder to the political activities and involvement of her husband, whom she had lost to the cold hands of death. So, decades before she passed on too, she got herself ready to meet up with the challenges and cluster of responsibilities that came with ascending political offices. In this spirit, she equipped herself with the necessary education and information to support her family in the course of their political engagements.
With determination, she engaged in different business activities, made maximum results from them, and because of her high-level gift of discernment, she had great financial breakthrough. Hannah Awolowo was that spectacular woman with a stellar performance in whatever she engaged in. Even when there was a mixed definition of an African woman in the wake of the colonial adventure, which changed many of the people's social and cultural traditions and facilitated the redefinition of gender and the associated roles, she was not immersed in the complicated attempts to radicalize women.
She was an African woman in the real sense of its traditional definition—supportive of her husband, armed with intelligence to manage a family structure, financially sensible to make maximum use of available socio-economic opportunities, and confident enough to make independent decisions. Having married a figure who was irredeemably married to politics as his first commitment, Hannah Awolowo was diplomatic and very strategic on the best ways to make her marriage functional and productive.
Anyone married to a political stalwart, either male or female, understands critically the inherent sacrifices needed for their marriage to succeed. She saw opportunities where many people saw challenges. This was the guiding philosophy she embraced, and which became the compass of her marriage.
Within the first ten years of her marriage to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, he had to go study abroad, which meant that there would be some emotional distance between them for a specific period. However, the burning desire to make essential marks in her life and the society where she was inspired to engage in business so that there would be an opportunity to contribute to her environment's social and political affairs, prevailed over how unbearable and psychologically torturing the separation from her husband was going to be.
Barely two years after her husband left the country to pursue further education and qualifications abroad, Hannah Awolowo established two major firms, both of which became the source of constant financial assistance to their family, periods after the return of her husband.
Photo: Chief Mrs Hannah Awolowo in front of their car. For instance, when she dabbled into business, the post-colonial African woman would have depended mainly on the proceeds of politics and relied on public resources for her personal use. At least the political history of the country is enough to validate this assumption.
But Hannah Awolowo planted in the rainy days, and it yielded immensely in the sunny years that came after. Hannah Awolowo. It is essential to highlight this economic breakthrough, as that was the basis for the enhancement of Chief Awolowo's political stardom. Theirs was a marital union that showcased various social philosophies that could be explored for contemporary significance.
The partnership was one between two mature minds who knew the direction they wanted to take in life, the sacrifice needed to get to their desired destination, and the discipline required to achieve their objectives.
At a point in time, Chief Awolowo did not agree with the idea of his wife sticking out her neck to assist the family financially by investing in a business.
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