BOOK REVIEW
PAGES: 128
Among the books I read last year, one that made the most impact on me was the story of a Northern Nigerian girl-child who got abducted from her Fulani village of Gola in Yola in the late 1920s before she was even a teenager and kept as a sex slave by her abductor who happened to be a British official. The book is titled ‘It Can Now Be Told’.
The most inspiring part of her story is that despite all she went through, Maimunatu Dadasare Abdullahi was the first woman in many fields of human endeavour in Northern Nigeria. She was the first female writer in Northern Nigeria as she penned her autobiography with the instructions for it to be published after her death. She also wrote other books that helped in teaching adult classes of ‘Yaki Da Jahilci’.
Dadasare was also the first female reporter in the region, having served as a judicial correspondent for ‘Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo’ and was also the first female columnist for having a health column in both ‘Gaskiya’ and ‘Jakadiya’ newspapers in the early 1940s.
She was also the first female educationist from the north; she was engaged by the British to be in charge of female mass literacy in Zaria in the 1950s.
This great woman was also the first female health officer from the region and probably the very first to study nursing in England and America, which she did between 1946- 1975.
She was also the first female indigenous trainer of women health supervisors and had opened centres for women learning handcrafts in the urban and rural areas of Northern Nigeria.
She also ensured that the government recognised women as the prime educators of the young which, according to the writer, was a strong tradition that transformed many homes today.
Dadasare was awarded one of the highest national honours (MON) by the Federal Government of Nigeria in the 1970s and was appointed a member of the Operation Feed the Nation programme of the Federal Government in 1977.
Sadly, despite such monumental achievements, Dadasare had remained generally unknown and unsung throughout the years but thanks to Dr Aliyah Adamu Ahmad a story that stayed untold for many years has finally been revealed.
I recommend the book to everyone. It is indeed a great read.
* Dr. Bagel is a lecturer at Bauchi State University, Gadau
