ISIUWA: The Middle of Progress

ISIUWA: The Middle of Progress

The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of ISIUWA AIGBUREBO dig into their memories of this princess of the Edo Kingdom of Nigeria in this profile. The accounts are as colourful as they are endearing. Mrs Aburime remembers that, “She used to smoke ukoko , a pipe, and would frequently ask us children to fetch her cinder from the hearth in the kitchen in the backyard. She also had a walking stick that we called Ukpokpo. ” Aigburebo never knew any limits to her ability. Even as far back as her time, when women were limited to very few roles in society, she defied society’s definitions of a woman’s role in the home. Mrs Manuela C. Iyahen is impressed by the memories of her grandmother-in-law . . . “I remember something my husband once told me about his grandmother,” she says. “There was a time, he said, when the roof of the house at Osadebamwen Street was leaking. His grandmother, a very strong woman, climbed up to see it and repaired it by herself.”