Mother to Many

"A widow with a skill is a widow with a future. We were not in the business of charity. We were in the business of dignity."

She led the Obudu Women Development Association in Calabar as its long-term president, and through the National Council of Women Societies she pressed, patiently, persistently, for the things she believed every woman deserved: a voice, a vocation, and a community.

She founded cooperative societies for widows. She trained young women in tailoring out of her own garage, the sewing machines humming beside whatever car happened to be parked. What looked like a side enterprise was, in fact, a quiet revolution.

Generations of women in Calabar can sew a straight seam because of her. Many can pay their children's school fees because of her. None of them call her by her name. They all call her Mama.