Article Citation: Aisha Balarabe Bawa & Umar Aminu Yandaki (2019). Reflections on Aminu Kano's Contributions towards Empowerment of Women through Education. DEGEL: The Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1. ISSN 0794-9316
REFLECTIONS
ON AMINU KANO’S CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN THROUGH EDUCATION
By
Aisha Balarabe
Bawa & Umar Aminu Yandaki
Department of History
Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto
Abstract
Women constitute
a very important component of every society. Besides being approximately half
of the population in most societies, recent researches show how they form part
of the less privileged groups in most societies. As the call for empowering
women in being intensified by many feminist scholars, this paper argues that
the empowerment of women could be best done through ensuring their education.
This is because education is not only a means of empowering women by liberating
them from the shackles of ignorance but also a means through which they could
get a sense of direction to empower themselves even economically. To support
this argument, examples are drawn from northern Nigeria on the development of
female education since independence. In doing so, however, special reference is
made to the contributions of the First Republic politician from Kano, Mallam
Aminu Kano, towards empowering women through education, to encourage
contemporary politicians to take a similar course. The paper is based on a
qualitative method of historical enquiry.
Introduction
Women’s issues
have become a special area of interest to policymakers, researchers, educators
and human right activists. This is because women have been marginalized and
deprived in many ways. For instance, in many customary laws wives are required
to undergo harsh and burdensome rites at widowhood to prove that they did not
kill their husbands. They are also denied property rights in some areas and
periodic ritual seclusion of women is prevalent. Other forms of customary
practices affecting women include Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and early
marriages. Women are still not as educated as men. They do not enjoy power,
opportunity, privilege and recognition as men. They are inhibited by
restrictions imposed by tradition and culture (Edewor, 2001). Education is
considered a basic human right vital to personal and societal development and
well-being. Education is both a human right in itself and a necessary means of
realizing another human right. Education is a vital tool for empowerment that
allows meaningful contributions to society.
It is in
recognition of these values that the United Nations Organization, the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) among
others, called for equal educational opportunities for all sexes (UNESCO,
1960). The National Policy on Education (2004) states among others that
education is an instrument for national development. Empowerment according to
Weidemann (1989) reduces vulnerability, decreases dependency, and implies
action not passive and it means being at the centre, not on the periphery of
affairs. By this, it means that individuals who are empowered will be involved
in the crucial issues of the nation. Educational empowerment goes beyond the
acquisition of literacy. In the case of women, it involves skill acquisition to
be able to participate in all spheres of the national economy.
Esu
(1996) maintains that, when women are effectively empowered, they will
participate actively in issues of national concern. Empowerment will afford
women the ability to organize and create awareness on issues that have a great
impact on the economic development of society.
Given this,
Akande (1998) opines that empowerment should be the hallmark to alter the
balance of power by giving women the ability to act, being emancipated from
oppression and old patterns of interaction. This stems from the fact that the
marginalization and the exclusion of their issues in national development
policies as part of the reasons largely responsible for their unrealized huge
potentials as human resources. For instance, women in Northern Nigeria were not
allowed to vote during the First Republic. They were not involved in national
development efforts and public affairs generally. For many years, female
involvement in formal schooling in northern Nigeria has been extremely low.
Eight states in Northern Nigeria have the country’s worst girl-child education
and health indices, the latest scorecard by a group of non-governmental
researchers, report that Kebbi, Sokoto, Bauchi, Jigawa, Yobe, Zamfara, Katsina
and Gombe states have Nigeria’s worst girl child education, highest female
illiteracy, highest adolescent girl marriage, highest under-15 childbearing and
highest risk of maternal death and injuries (Ovuorie, 2017).
A combination
of factors including colonial pejorative notions about women, their prior
gender notions about the role of women in society, parents’ reservations about
exposing their daughters to foreigners, parents’ attitude to marry off their
daughters, and limited financial resources all accounted for women’s low
educational status (Falola & Anponsah, 2012). Falola and Anponsah,
reiterate that the capitalist market economy introduced by the colonial rulers
accentuated discrepancies in the income levels of women and men with the same
level of education and led both the differential treatment of women at the
workplace and the subjugation of their work roles. However, the North-east and
North-west zones commonly referred to as the “core north”, have a predominantly
Muslim population and long history of contact with Islam shaped the
socio-economic and political framework long before British colonialism. It is
against this backdrop, that this paper examined the educational empowerment
programme of Mallam Aminu Kano.
The Interface
between Traditions and Colonialism in Women Education
In Kano and
other parts of northern Nigeria, the emphasis of the traditional Hausa culture
remains an inherited family status, stratification of classes, the ascription
of roles, continuity of institutions, and conformity of behaviour to prevailing
interpretations of Islamic doctrine. In this culture, women are positioned in
effect as the minor words of their fathers and husbands; they are induced to
marry early, to confine their activities to the domestic sphere of social
relations and functions, and to observe postures of deference and service
towards men. Girls marry young, generally at the onset of puberty. Upon
marriage, most women enter kulle or seclusion (Charlton,
et’al, 1989). Kano was one of the Hausa States to be affected by Islam. The
introduction of Islam into this area is generally associated with the coming of
the Wangarawa – a group of Mande Dyula Muslim merchants and
clerics from Mali (Balogun, 1980). The Kano Chronicle puts the coming of Wangarawa to
Kano and the introduction of Islam during the reign of Sarkin Kano
Yaji (1349-1385). The Wangarawa in Kano along with indigenous
scholars and Muslim traders saw to it that Islam continued to spread steadily
into various parts of the areas (Balogun, 1980).
The spread of
Islam in the Hausa States reached its climax in the 15th century the period
when some important changes in the development of Islam took place due to the
policies of Muhammadu Rumfa (1463-99). Rumfa introduced seclusion for women
(or kulle in the Hausa language) and decreed that his thousand
concubines be secluded in the enlarged palace that still occupies the centre of
the city (Charlton, et.al, 1989. Thus, by the end of the reign of Rumfa, Islam
was firmly established in Kano, and women of high social standing (both wives
and concubines) were secluded.
The belief that
the home must be more closely ministered to by females than males to nurture
the young in the Islamic way of life and that women must be educated,
particularly in obtaining knowledge of the Qur’an to nurture the young is a
constant theme in this culture. In spite of the right to education and the
right to vote, Islam as practised in Kano and other parts of Northern Nigeria
presents a major constraint upon any state effort towards dramatic change in
the public role of women. This, however, limits the freedom of choice and
movement by gender and according to privileges to men while defining
restriction for women (Charlton, et.al., 1989).
Before the
jihad of 1804 led by Sheikh Usman Danfodiyo, as established by Kaura (1989) the
conditions of women were largely confined to the issues of marriage,
enslavement and concubinage. The jihad, therefore, culminated in the rise of
several women scholars particularly within the Shehu’s family. Among these
women was his daughter Nana Asma’u whose contributions were what laid the
concrete foundation of women education in Northern Nigeria. The main
contribution of Asma’u was the formation of YanTaru organization
in 1930 to facilitate women education. Nana Asma’u referred to Islamic
education as women’s political space one that empowered women, not hindered
them (Bawa, 2018). With the onset of British colonialism in Nigeria, it marked
the beginning of the end of most structures of the traditional societies. Rufai
(2005) pointed out that, women did not participate actively during the colonial
era as few of them had the opportunity to attend the British school and thus
obtained Western education and its associated skills.
The
marginalization of women was institutionalized through the construction of
British schools in the Northern provinces. It was only in the 1930s that
western education for women started in the north with the establishment of
Katsina girls craft centre (1933) and Sokoto Women Training Centre (1938).
While the Katsina College (established in 1921) exclusively for boys came much
earlier than that of the girls (Bawa, 2018). During the later part of the
British rule, the type of education provided for the girls was used as a
vehicle for promoting domesticity. For instance, in the curricular areas of the
Katsina Girls Craft Centre included hygiene, welfare work and domestic science
that had born with their domestic work.
Arising from
the foregoing it reveals that, women in northern Nigeria has experienced double
barrel of traditional conservatism and colonialism with serious impact on their
public participation. Thus, although encouraged to go to school by Islam women
face a multitude restriction, their roles are more closely defined, and their
access to social and economic institutions is more limited than men’s so that
their families may be the focus of their lives. It is because of the interplay
of tradition and colonial policies geared towards women exclusion from the
public that led a group of intelligentsia under the leadership of Mallam Aminu
Kano to rise and challenged the status quo.
A Brief Note on
Malam Aminu Kano
Aminu Kano was
born in Sudawa quarters of Kano city to the clan of the Genawa Fulani. He was
one of the high-profile politicians of Nigeria’s First Republic and was the
founder-leader of the radical political party, Northern Elements Progressive
Union (NEPU) and later People’s Redemption Party (PRP). Aminu’s influence on
Nigeria has been great, especially among women, the common people, and the
intellectuals, in large part due to his life of personal sacrifice, leadership
by example, and his participation in the political process. For almost four
decades he had challenged colonial administration and the emirate system
championing the cause of women, at first through teachers’ organizations and
other existing structures, then as the leader of Northern Element Progressive
Union (NEPU) (Feinstein, 1987).
A combination
of several factors was responsible for the revolutionary and radical approaches
of Malam Aminu against old-centuries customs and traditions bedevilled women in
northern Nigeria. The early life of Aminu must have been influenced by the
education he received. The Genawa clan to which he belonged is renowned for
having educated members. His father Yusuf was a mufti (court scribe) in the
court. He was said to have received his early education from his mother Rakiya
and his grandmother Ummah who were both learned and could read and write in
Arabic (Dooba, 2011). This explains how women influenced greatly in the
historical event revolved around individual and society in the pre-colonial
era.
In view of
this, Aminu Kano combined the aristocracy of his birth with the aristocracy of
his intelligence to forge an ideological agenda for the emancipation of the
common man from the clutches of ignorance, exploitation and poverty and this
greatly influenced his struggle to eradicate ignorance amongst girls and boys
(Bako, et.al, 2014). As a teacher, Aminu had a closer relationship with Sa’adu
Zungur the foremost critic of the system of native administration in northern
Nigeria. This relationship exposed Aminu to being a challenger of the status
quo. He questioned every authority, policy or power that had a semblance of
oppression; be it from the colonialist or from the native authority (the emirs)
(Nike, 2008).
In his early
years, Aminu had, of course, come in contact with the ideas of western
ideologies of French and American revolutionaries as well as those of Ali
Jinnah and Gandhi of India through scholarship (Feinstein, 1987). Thus,
considering the revolutions in America and French both were supporters of
women’s rights which were influenced in each case by enlightenment ideas. In
both America and France, equal educational opportunities were greatly
advocated, by comparison with other types of rights, like political rights,
which were considered to be less consensual claims. These ideas helped mould
Aminu Kano in developing his ideology on the emancipation of the common man.
For almost four decades he had challenged colonial administration and the
emirate system, championing the cause of women and the common people.
As a graduate
student in London from 1946 to 1948, his term papers usually revolved around
topics like “the problem of girls’ education in Kano”. Malam Aminu was that
time awarded a two-year government scholarship to attend the University of
London Institute of Education (Sklar, 1963). During his political activism,
Aminu Kano was joined by other progressive Muslim intellectuals in Kano such as
Isa Wali, Malam Abba Maikwaru, Malam Lawan Danbazau. Paden (1973) comment that
many of the critics of the emirate system in the 1950s in Kano, were
intellectual reformers like the nineteenth-century jihad leaders, and in both
cases, arguments for reforms were based on “Islamic grounds”.
NEPU and the
Question of Women’s Right and Educational Empowerment
NEPU ideology
and political stance represented opposition position with that of other
political parties in Nigeria. Aminu Kano and his NEPU political party believed
that Islam is in support of the empowerment of women as against the prevailing
cases of mass poverty, diseases, injustices, unemployment, human rights
violation and backwardness. Aminu Kano, together with radical members of NEPU,
urged northern women to “escape the state of total subjugation” in which
Hausa-Fulani women found themselves and to react against centuries-old concept
deference and their “proper place.”
In his views,
the Islamic conception of equality for women, and their proper role and place
in society is outlined in the Qur’an and the sharia (Islamic
law). Muslim scholars maintain that the Qur’an explicitly demands the same
standard for men and women thus they are equal before God. The Qur’an speaks of
equality of man and woman in the following verses:
O people keep your duty to your lord, who created you
from a single being and created its mate of the same (kind), and spread from
these two many men and women. And keep your duty to Allah by whom you demand
one of another (your rights), and (to) the ties of relationship. Surely Allah
is ever a watcher over you (cited in Imam, 1997).
In Islamic law,
as posited by Callaway, women are afforded explicit rights and protection,
particularly regarding inheritance, marriage, and support. From 1950 to 1966,
politics in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim northern region was dominated by the
conflict between the Conservative Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and NEPU.
Perhaps no particular area of conflict brought the parties ideological
differences into such sharp contrast as did the question of women’s political
rights and roles. Although the debate was most vehement on the issue of whether
women should be granted political rights such as suffrage and the holding of
political office, it expanded to involve women’s wider social roles and their
status in the society (Reynolds, 1998). The debate was opened when Isa Wali
wrote an article for the Newspaper Gaskiya entitle “Makamin
Mata a Musulunci” (The position of women in Islam). The article dealt with
all aspects of women’s political and social rights. Wali’s assertions were
quite radical in the context of the northern Nigerian community
(Reynolds,1998). Wali argued that:
Nowhere is
stated in the Holy Qur’an and the Hadiths that we should isolate our female
population as we are doing in Northern Nigeria. Certainly, the verses are
misunderstood by our Nigerian Ulama. What is required is to keep
themselves covered when they are to go out (Wali, 1956).
Wali also dealt
directly with the issue of whether social restrictions such as kulle and
the nature of women’s proper education should limit women’s ability to take
part in political activities. Wali stated that Islam called for women to be
educated equally to men in all areas of scholarship.
The
conservative NPC however, resisted the granting of real political rights to
women and called for the maintenance of women’s ‘traditional’ roles. In
contrast, NEPU declared that the time had come in northern Nigeria for women to
be freed of traditional roles to take up new (political) responsibilities. NEPU
was the first political party to involve women in the political process with
its women’s wing being opened in Kano in 1953 (Sklar, 1963). This inclusion of
women in the party helped draw other women into the political process. The
female members were very influential in challenging the tradition of wife
seclusion. They sought to be moving from house to house in the region around
Zaria and other cities to speak to women. Such activities helped NEPU recruit
more female political activists.
Many of those
women were attending school as well as political subjects, at the newspaper
office in Zaria, where the Daily Comet of NEPU was produced.
This indicated NEPU’s wide stance in favour of female education. As a result of
this, members of NEPU women wing such as Hajiya Gambo Sawaba became actively
involved in the politics of Aminu Kano due to educational empowerment of NEPU.
She attended NEPU classrooms taught by Mallam Aminu Kano. Inspired by the
teaching and ideology of NEPU Gambo Sawaba committed her life to the struggle
of women’s equality, justice, and freedom for the common man, she earnestly
championed the cause of women in northern Nigeria where she agitated for the
female franchise. She condemned the practice of early girl child marriage. She
was also a great advocate for girl child education. The combined political
forces of Gambo Sawaba and that of Mrs Funmilayo Ransome Kuti culminated in the
unfavourable atmosphere that finally led to the granting of Independence in
1960 by the British (Bawa, 2013).
In the
post-independence period, the political activism of Gambo inspired other women
in the north to champion women’s rights. Activists such as Chief Ayo Bello, Mrs
Comfort Dikko, Mrs Ali Akilu, Madam Shehu, Hajiya Joda and Hajiya Laila Dogon
Yaro we all influenced by the activism of Gambo Sawaba. He was to politicians a
role model of excellence and unique political relevance, and to the masses, a
formidable vanguard against tyranny, blatant persecution and injustice. Usman
(2001) explains that:
The spirit of inquiry, permanent search for knowledge
and its dissemination to awaken the overwhelming majority of the people
(including women) of their condition rights, duties and potential, as the most
important aspects of his legacies. The position of women in education NEPU
constantly maintained that there should be no distinction between male and
female education as dictated by the Qur’an.
Malam Aminu
Kano became committed to education and raising the status of women in northern
Nigeria. He argued for women’s full enfranchisement supporting their position
with Islamic injunctions on women’s rights. Aminu’s support for female
education was evident in his establishment of the first Islamiyyah school model
in Kano, an integrated Islamic school with modern education for girls and boys
(Williams, 2003). Although adult education has existed in Kano and other
northern cities for decades, there was a great increase with the commitment to
education and raising the status of women by Malam Aminu Kano (Yusuf, 1991).
Malam Aminu
Kano encouraged women to participate in not only the politics of the State but
the nation in general. The orientation of Malam no doubt is one of the factors
that encouraged Kano women to become active in political activities in the
region. This was evident in an interview by Sunday Trust with Aisha Ismail. She
lamented that:
One of the things that Mallam Aminu Kano did was to
change our concept as regards women and their education. It was a priority for
him to get women educated and compete in the labour market. He worked very hard
on the issue and that is why you find married women during his time go to
school and participating in politics (Abdallah & Alkassim, 2014).
Aisha Ismail
was Minister of Women Affairs during President Olusegun Obasanjo administration
(1999-2003). She was with the National Commission for Women before her
appointment as Minister. She rose to the rank of Professor at Bayero University
Kano. Although the radical politics of NEPU died a long time ago it left behind
some fraction of it in People’s Redemption Party (PRP), while a semblance of
its practice, manifested by some individuals across parties and stratum of the
larger society. Naja’atu Bala Muhammad is an example of a few of the surviving
foot soldiers of NEPU, who still wear that badge of courage, self-denial and
extreme sacrifice. She was born and bred by NEPU looking at her pedigree and
the profile of her late father who was popularly known as a staunch NEPU
kingpin. Naja’atu was the first woman to contest a Senate seat in Kano State
(Kano Senatorial seat in Central District). She was also one of the first women
to have served as President of the Students Union at Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria (ABU). Hajiya Naja’atu is renowned for being a vocal, radical activist
especially in defence of democracy, women and human rights in general. She was
the widow of Dr Bala Muhammed, political adviser to Second Republic Governor of
Kano State, Malam Muhammad Abubakar Rimi of the PRP. Naja’atu actively
participated in the electioneering campaign for President Buhari in 2003, 2007,
2011 and 2015. She superseded many men in expressing her fearlessness to
campaign for Buhari even when her State (Kano) was ruled by the ruling party
People’s Democratic Party (PDP). She boldly rejected her appointment as the
Chairperson of the governing council of the Federal University Dutse (FUD) by
President Muhamadu Buhari.
Other women
like Hajiya Kande Balarabe and Hajiya Azumi Bebeji were very prominent in the
politics of Kano and recently, Dr Baraka Sani and Barrister Zubaida Sherif
Lawal. Baraka was appointed as Commissioner for Agriculture by Governor Rabiu
Musa Kwankwaso and not long after she quit the appointment, President Goodluck
Jonathan appointed her as Special Adviser. Unlike what obtains in many States
of the north women in Kano State are playing a significant role in the politics
of the State.
Conclusion
Education has
always received wide acclaims as an important engine for the development of
human potential. As such, Education of women is a very crucial factor in
ensuring that women are provided with the opportunity to make their
contributions towards the overall development of society. The argument of the
paper reveals that Malam Aminu and NEPU have helped to improve the awareness of
great portion of the northern populace regarding the rights of women in Islam
and helped weaken the hegemony of the conservative interpretations of Islamic
sources. Decades before the Beijing Declaration on women, Malam Aminu Kano was
already an advocate for women’s full emancipation to enable them to actualizing
their full potentials through education. The contemporary challenges facing
northern Nigeria on girl-child education especially the insecurity situation
requires that stakeholders and religious leaders emulate Mallam Aminu to
advocate women’s education contrary to the belief and misinterpretation of the
religious knowledge.
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