Activism in Nigeria has long been a dangerous pursuit, demanding unyielding courage and resilience. For women, however, the challenges are exponentially magnified. When they dare to challenge the status quo, they are met with a toxic mix of misogyny, intimidation, and backlash.
Despite these daunting obstacles, Nigerian women refuse to back down. Their voices grow louder, their resolve stronger, and their impact undeniable.
One such woman is Hajaratu Amarteifo, better known as Hajiya Gambo Sawaba. Like the fearless women behind the Aba Women’s Riot, who defied oppression despite the consequences, this political activist stood up for what she believed. Her courage came at a steep cost—she was publicly flogged, had her hair shaved with a broken bottle and endured imprisonment 16 times.
The young activist
As a young girl, Sawaba developed a stubborn and protective nature, often standing up for her bullied peers and mentally challenged individuals. In her own words, “I could not stand by to watch a weak friend or relation be maltreated.” Whenever she got to the scenes of such fights, she would immediately say, “OK, I have bought the fight from you” to the weaker person and take over the fight.
The fights came frequently, leaving her with torn clothes. To save on constantly replacing her daughter’s damaged outfits, Sawaba’s mother, Malama Fatima, resorted to making them from durable tarpaulin.
She began her education at the Native Authority Primary School in Tudun Wada. However, her schooling was cut short by tragedy—she lost her father in 1943, and three years after, her mother passed away as well.
Becoming “Sawaba,” the political activist
Sawaba’s political journey began when she was 17 when Northern Nigeria was controlled by the Northern People’s Congress (NPC), backed by the Emirs and the British Colonial Authority. She joined the opposition party, the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU). Founded by a school teacher in Kano City, Malam Aminu Kano, NEPU championed progressive ideals such as women’s education—religious and secular—and their right to active participation in political and economic spaces.
This starkly contrasted with the NPC, which upheld patriarchal norms, and whose leadership was quoted as saying: “We in the north are happy, our women are happy about their condition. There is not a single Northern woman who has told anyone that she is unhappy. We know what is right for women, and our men know what is right for themselves.”
NEPU’s messages resonated with Sawaba’s sense of justice, so she became an early member of the party’s women’s wing. She grew to become the women’s leader in Kaduna, the Sabon Gari district.
By this time, there were already calls for women’s rights in other parts of Nigeria, led by renowned feminists like Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti in the West and Margaret Ekpo in the East. Inspired by their efforts, Sawaba travelled from Zaria to Abeokuta in 1950 to meet Ransome-Kuti after reading about her advocacy for women’s tax rights.
Back in Zaria, she made a name for herself when she boldly climbed the podium at a political lecture and spoke out in a room full of men. As the crowd waited for the official speaker, a Zaria council member known as Alhaji Gambo Sawaba, she took to the stage to talk about voting and education rights for women. There, she was given the name “Sawabiya”, the feminine version of “Sawaba” meaning “redeemer.” She later adopted the masculine version, Sawaba, a move some claim was an intentional act to defy misogyny.
In 1956, the activist marched with other women to the office of the regional premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello, in Kaduna to demand that women be allowed to vote during parliamentary elections in the north.
Throughout the First Republic (1963-1966), she relentlessly fought for women’s voting rights and social justice. This often made her the target of violent opposition thugs. She was also elected chief of the women’s wing of the NEPU.
During the Second Republic (1979-1983), Sawaba joined the Great Nigeria Peoples’ Party (GNPP) and served as the Deputy National Chairman.
Enduring imprisonment and injustice
Sawaba openly advocated against underage marriages, forced labour and unfair taxes for women. She also promoted Western education in the North and met with women who were not permitted to engage in political activities on account of their gender.
As a result, she attracted the ire of the authorities. She had her first political incident with the law in 1952 when she was sent to help NEPU canvass for women’s support in Kano. As many women in the north followed the practice of purdah, a form of social seclusion, Sawaba went from house to house to speak to them. But as soon as reports of her activities reached the emir, she was arrested and tried by the Shariah court on charges of “drawing out women who were in purdah”. The activist was convicted and sent to prison for three months, where she accused a warden of misusing her powers. She managed to get the warden fired. After her release, she went public with the appalling prison conditions, but that also got her and the reporter arrested again.
Sawaba was imprisoned 15 more times throughout her lifetime, earning her the title of “Nigeria’s most jailed female activist.” Her frequent incarcerations became so routine that she had the words “Prison Yard” inscribed on a blanket, which she always took with her whenever she got arrested.
“If I don’t know book, I know rights… I have not been a member of any House of Assembly. I have not held any office except that I was a member of the House of Prison.”
– Hajaratu Gambo Sawaba.
Sawaba was later banished from Kano by the Emir, who ordered her to be escorted by law enforcement to ensure she complied with the order. She continued her political activism and was imprisoned for her actions in her hometown, Zaria, as well as Kaduna and Jos.
The activist was often harassed, sometimes beaten up, and sometimes suffered humiliating punishments from opposition thugs and law enforcement. According to Tayo Agunbiade, an individual who closely followed the life traits of Hajiya Sawaba, “On two occasions she was stripped naked and given eighty lashes in Zaria Central Prison. She also endured the indignity and pain of having her hair shaved off with a broken bottle.”
After an impactful run, Sawaba announced her retirement in 1998, telling the New Nigerian newspaper, “Politics in the country has lost its flavour and is no longer a game of ideology, but a game of self-aggrandisement.”
In an interview with the New Nigerian newspaper in 2000, Sawaba recalled some of her worst moments, describing how she “was beaten up by six men and left to die in a bush” on her way to a meeting. On another occasion, she was quoted saying: “There is no opening in my body – mouth, nostrils, eyes, or anywhere else – from which blood did not gush out from because of torture… My front teeth are artificial. The originals were broken and pulled out.” She also confirmed that as a result of the torture she endured, she had surgery to remove her womb to save her life.
Her tumultuous marriages
Sabawa was married four times in her lifetime. First, she married Abubakar Garba Bello when she was 13 years old. Bello was a veteran of the Second World War, but he disappeared around the time of her first pregnancy and childbirth. Her second husband was a railway worker, her third was a Cameroonian boxer, who allegedly was regularly threatened with deportation by her political opponents, and her fourth was a businessman. After her last marriage ended, Sawaba devoted her life to caring for the children she had taken in.
Sawaba’s death and legacy
Gambo Sawaba on the proposed ₦5000 note, via Channels Tv
Around 5:00 am on Sunday, 14 October 2001, Sawaba passed away at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria, after a protracted illness. She was survived by her daughter from her first marriage, Bilikisu.
Despite her limited education and the cultural barriers women face in Northern Nigeria, the fearless activist fought through obstacles to emerge as a dynamic, independent political activist who helped to educate many women in her lifetime.
Deeply nationalistic, Sawaba despised ethnic discolouration, regionalism, and all forms of discrimination. As Al Jazeera described her, she was unpretentious but proud of enduring the adverse repercussions of upholding the rights of the oppressed.
In recognition of her legacy, the Federal Government of Nigeria attempted to honour her in 2012 by featuring her portrait, along with Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and Magaret Ekpo, on the proposed ₦5000 note. Her name lives on through institutions like the Sawaba General Hospital in Kaduna, and a hostel at Bayero University.
