a picture showing moyo okediji sitting next to his artwork

Iyalode: Before the Invention of Women

ByMoyo Okediji

Iyalode: Before the Invention of Women

My grandmother, Iya Oyo, belonged to the generation of women who didn’t experience what the sociology scholar, Professor Oyeronke Oyewumi described as the “invention of women.”

What Professor Oyewumi means is that nowadays, there are lots of rules and regulations that appear to specify what a woman is supposed to do, and what she is not supposed to be.