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Introduction

This chapter is about returned female migrants who lived in Lagos in the 1940s. Their return to the Bamenda Grassfields saw the introduction of new things and thus they distinguished themselves from their peers not only because they had introduced new things but also because these led to the development of the region. Migration has received attention in recent debates while internal migration has received even more significant attention in terms of the numbers of people involved and perhaps the quantum of remittances and poverty reduction potential of these. This has become an important livelihood strategy for many poor groups across the world (see McDowell and de Haan 2004; Nelson 1976; Murton 1997; Oberai and Singh 1980; Deshingkar and Start 2000). While it is no panacea for the poor it can likely bring many benefits and this is recognized in some policy and research circles. For example, a recent Club du Sahel report states unequivocally: “Population mobility is a necessary condition of sustainable development and poverty alleviation in West Africa. Any policy, program or action which tend to restrain mobility or to provide incentives for people to stay on their areas of origin would, in the long run, lead to unmanageable situations.”(ILO 2015)

In a study in Asia, based on secondary data from Bangladesh, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, Anh (2003) has concluded that migration is a driver of growth and an important route out of poverty with significant positive ramifications for people’s livelihoods and well-being. Anh further argues that attempts to control the geographical mobility of people will likely be counterproductive. In another incisive study, Afsar (2003) argues that migration has reduced poverty directly and indirectly in Bangladesh, as remittances have expanded the area under cultivation and rural labor markets by making land available for tenancy. Ping (2003, 23) draws our attention to the huge contribution of migrant labor to overall development in China and concludes that “without migrants there would be no Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou or Shenzhen”. The potential of migration is also attracting attention in Latin America. For instance, Andersson (2002) has argued that rural–urban migration can bring many benefits to Bolivia where the low population density, poverty and mountainous terrain make it expensive and difficult to provide services in rural areas.

The root causes of migration therefore are numerous and complex. The push–pull framework gives insight into the different forces at work to explain migration. In Africa, poor socioeconomic conditions, such as low wages, high levels of unemployment, rural underdevelopment, poverty and lack of opportunity fuel out-migration (Bakewell and de Haas 2007). These factors are usually brought about by a mismatch between the rapid population growth and the available resources, a low level of requisite technology to exploit the available natural resources and lack of capacity to create employment and jobs in the countries of origin. In addition, various political and social factors induce migration. Among these are poor governance, nepotism and corruption, human rights violations, political instability, environmental factors, conflict and civil strife. The real or perceived opportunity for a better life, high income, greater security, better quality of education and health care at the destinations influence the decision to migrate. Lower costs of migration, improved communication, greater information availability and the need to join relatives, families and friends are among the factors that amplify push-pull factors (Nkwi 2015). Whereas well-managed migration may have a substantial positive impact on the development of countries of origin and yield significant benefits to destinations states, mismanaged or unmanaged migration can have serious negative consequences for states’ and migrants’ welfare, including potential destabilizing effects on national and regional security. In response to the challenge posed by migration, the Eighth Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union in Khartoum from 16 to 21 January 2006 adopted decision EX.CL/DEC.264 (VIII). In this context, Council decided to convene an experts meeting on migration and development in Algiers, Algeria at the invitation of the Algerian government in order to prepare a common African position.

Africa is experiencing important development which is rendered likely by its migratory flows. Some of these movements have occurred and are still occurring essentially within the continent. African migrants have recently been noted to be moving towards Europe, North America and some Middle East countries and this movement could be voluntary (as a result of pull factors in destination countries) or involuntarily/forced (due to push factors in countries of origin) (Mohielden & Ratha 2014). These movements have been legal and/or undocumented and encompass all social categories that could be imagined. They include refugees as well as internally displaced persons, nomads migrating in search of pasturelands, young men and women setting off from the countryside in search of job opportunities in the city, employment seekers and, increasingly, qualified persons, women and children under the age of 18. Migratory flows are occurring everywhere in the continent. Of the 150 million migrants in the world, more than 50 million are estimated to be Africans (Adepoju et. al. 2007).

Given that the number of migrants is rising and that this trend is likely to persist in the foreseeable future, the management of migration has necessarily become one of the critical challenges for states in the new millennium. In recent years, migration has been making its way steadily towards the top of the continental and international affairs agenda and now calls for the urgent attention of governments, whatever the nature of their involvement or interest in the management of migratory processes. There is a need for a comprehensive and balanced approach to migration, taking into account migration realities and trends as well as linkages between migration and other key economic, social, political and humanitarian issues. Another contemporary aspect of migration in Africa is the growing number of women who have also started to migrate in search for greater employment/economic opportunities (Orozco et al. 2015). However, there is an important relationship between migration and development which scholars have not failed to pay attention to in their various debates.

Migration and Development Debate Revisited

Migration and development are closely related. Migration and development discourses have recently appeared to be leaning much on remittances (Orozco et al. 2015; Klapper and Singer 2014; Jureidini 2014; Global Migration Group 2014). These discourses have displayed near neglect of historicizing the role of migrant women in the development of their regions.

At the same time development has become a buzzword with many-sided processes. This is both at the individual and collective levels. Each social group comes into contact with others and thence there is cross pollination of ideas and goods and also creativity. Development as employed in this chapter means the introduction of new things into society which helps to further the process of social change. The migrants whom we are dealing in this chapter are those who were at the forefront of introducing things like health, bakery, sewing, education and the brewing of local liquor. In concrete terms these are social remittances (Levitt & Lamba-Nieves 2011). Levitt (1998) was one of the first scholars to use the concept of social remittances. According to this author, social remittances collectively mean ideas, behaviors and social capital that flow from receiving to sending countries. This chapter further maintains that social remittances merit attention because they play an important yet understudied role in transnational migration. Secondly, social remittances bring the social impacts of migration to the fore and, finally, they are a potential community development aid because they travel through identifiable pathways to specific audiences. According to the Levitt, social remittances flow from the North to the South. In this chapter, although I will largely draw from Levitt, the view that social remittances flow from the North to the South is not taken seriously. South–South migration and its developmental implications seem not to have attracted serious attention.

There is no shortage of work on migration. Broadly speaking the red lines of the scholars could be categorized into three major parts. First, these scholars have shown us that migrations are not new to Africa and have been rural–rural; rural–urban, and urban–rural. Secondly, that Africa is a continent of considerable migration and people movements are dictated by political, social, economic and religious factors. Thirdly, since the imposition of colonial rule in Africa, most migration has been dictated by labor. But what has not been done relates to the returned labor migrants as viewed through visual representations (Amin 1974; Adepoju 1998, 2008, 2010; Harris 1994; Van Onselen 1980).Footnote 1 On the other side of the spectrum, return migration has also received considerable attention. The International Organization of Migration (IOM) in 2004 simply defined returned migration as a process of a person returning to his or her country of origin or habitual residence. However, scholars have handled this phenomenon from multifarious dimensions. This chapter hopes to contribute to this literature.

This chapter is about migration and its development implications for Africa. Migration is a major issue affecting Africa whether through mass emigration, immigration, remittances, policy backlashes or conflicts. A major issue, however, is the poor historicity of many existing works on migration and Africa. This chapter will therefore adopt a richly contemporary historical approach to understanding the nexus of migration and development in Africa. It will be comparative and pragmatic in exploring the migration and development spaces of Africa as a continent and body of countries. An empirical case study approach is also adopted through returned female migrants in Bamenda Grassfields, Cameroon, who lived in Lagos in the 1940s. This is to link the recent gendered migration paths of Africa to the current situations for very enriching chaptered discourse of the problematic. The return of the female migrants in Bamenda Grassfields, Cameroon to this sub-region saw the introduction of new things and thus they further distinguished themselves from their peers not only because they had introduced new things but because these led to the development of the region. The chapter has the following broad research questions: What are the mobility norms and discourses around migration in Africa? What are the migration norms, values and trajectories of women in the region? What was considered the norm in terms of women moving with or without a male (husband or chaperone)? What were/are the economic, social and cultural ramifications of such return migrations in Africa? Were the women then and now breaking new ground in terms of their move? Was/is what they were doing was the norm? What were/are the socioeconomic conditions they left behind and after their sojourn and what type of a society did they find on return. Did/does migrants’ return intervention fit in with the broader social processes taking place at the time? What specific conditions trigger migration and return? Was/is it a life course? The methodology of this chapter includes secondary data on migration and development of African women and primary interviews with migrant women who were implicated in migration processes and those who only witnessed the returned migrants.

Female migration needs further attention. The female dimension of migration is striking but has not received equal attention in academia to that of men. According to some scholars the migration of women is stated in the literature that it came much later than that of the male. For instance, the anthropologist, James Clifford, observes that: “Good travel (heroic, educational, scientific, adventurous, ennobling) is something men should do. Women are impeded from serious travel. Some of them (women) go to distant places but largely as companions” (1992). In other words, women always travelled in conjunction with men. This does not, however, mean that scholars have not studied the labor mobility of women as independent agents in Africa (Barnes 2002; Kihato 2009; Clifford 1992). What is indeed relevant here is that these authors have not seen these women in terms of independent migrants and their role in societal development, a lacuna which this chapter sets out to fill. This chapter therefore helps us to start by examining the migration of women who returned to the Cameroon Western Grassfields and further reinforces the historical perspective of migration.

Situating the Bamenda Grassfields

The Bamenda Grassfields is the present-day northwest region of Cameroon. Politically, it is organized around Fondoms. A Fondom is ruled by a Fon who exercises judiciary and executive powers over his people. There are centralized Fondoms of which the largest is Nso. The second largest is Kom while Bali and Bafut are third and fourth respectively. The Fons exercise quasi-religious functions and are the custodians of traditions (Chilver 1981; Nkwi and Warnier 1982; Rowlands 1978). Geographically, the Bamenda Grassfields is located at the point where the long West African coastline turns sharply south to run down to the Congo. The native population comprises a variety of ethnic and linguistic groups. The main ethnic groups are of Tikar origin: the Tikar, Widikums, Fulanis and Moghamo. They are found east of the Greenwich meridian, approximately between longitudes 5° 3′ and latitudes 9° 5′, 1′ north of the equator (Terretta 2014; Dillon 1990). According to Chilver and Kaberry (1967), the region covers the former administrative divisions of Bamenda, Wum and Nkambe, which in 1953 had a total population of 429,000 including 10,000 nomadic Fulani (Chilver and Kaberry 1967). It covers a land surface area of 17,300 km2 (6680 m2). Following the 2005 census the population of this stood at 1,728,963. The dominant geographical feature of this area is the Bamenda High Plateau, which stretches from the north east and east of the Bamenda Grasslands over the center of the area at an average height of 4500 feet above sea level. It is studded with peaks, the highest and the most spectacular of them being the Akuafo Mountains between the Bamenda station and former French Cameroon frontier and the Oku Mountains which is 7357 feet above sea level (Nkwi 2010; Chilver 1981).

Economic, political and social globalization seem to have laid the foundation upon which the interconnectivity of people and places became possible and hence migration (Portes 1996; Appadurai 1990). The connection between Bamenda and Lagos is worth appreciating, with a distance of more than 1723 km between them. After the First World War, the Germans were expelled from Cameroon and the British and French partitioned the territory. Britain took one-fifth while the French took four-fifths. The British administered their portion, of which the Bamenda Grassfields was part, as an integral part of the eastern provinces of Nigeria with their headquarters in Lagos. Therefore this region was administered from Lagos. There were preexisting communication networks there that had been established over centuries of human contact and these were transformed by the British administration through colonial networks such as pre-colonial trade between the eastern portion of Nigeria and Bamenda Grassfields. Bamenda and Lagos also shared socioeconomic connections. The English language was the official language and was introduced in the Bamenda region by the British to replace the German lingua franca. The two countries shared similar administrative systems, educational institutions and economic policies.

Methodology

Methodologically, the data used in this chapter was collected, firstly, during my PhD fieldwork which I conducted in Kom between 2006 and 2011 (Nkwi 2011). Secondly I spent more time in various areas of the Bamenda Grassfields between 2015 and 2016. During the fieldwork I used several methods ranging from archives, photographs and interviews. But mainly my research included just talking to people. Although the research was not on women per se, I happened on their itinerary and thought that I should make a deeper study of this class of women who had been to Lagos during the heydays of the colonial period in the 1940s for various reasons and were back now in the region. It was through talking to and interacting with them that I came to know the women. This method appears to have been very useful. In his piece ‘Fishing in troubled waters’, Nyamnjoh (2005, 295–324) observes that one of the fieldwork methods which he used was talking and interacting with people. He writes:

The ethnography used in this paper has been harvested as I went along, propelled by a fascination with the theme in question and a background of similar interests pursued among students and youth elsewhere in Cameroon and Botswana. Over twenty-five years of research have taught me this: if you are passionate about a theme and have a way with people, rich ethnographic insights flow your way through interactions with others anywhere, anytime. One is always doing fieldwork, even when not formally in the field. While confining social research to formal field situations might yield ‘hard facts’, it detracts from those realities that may not immediately fit our practised instruments and scholarly manière de faire […].

Like Francis Nyamnjoh, I realized that the more one talked with people about the work, the more it was enriched and the more the researcher was also directed to other people. So obsessed was the researcher with the work that he practically talked with almost everybody who seemed at all relevant to the study. For instance, my research interest was shared with Andreas Ngongbi, a friend and classmate in primary school, who directed me to his mother who had lived in Lagos in the 1940s but was back in Kom. Her mother granted me an audience and narrated her experiences in Lagos and what she studied there and introduced to Kom. During the interview, she also spoke about the glamorous life in Lagos and how she had travelled there. She said she met with other women in Lagos from Kom, whom she directed me to. These women included Elizabeth Ngebo who lives at Mugoegoe and who was the first woman to introduce a bakery and tailoring in Kom. Elizabeth not only recounted her experiences in Nigeria but also showed some of the things she brought home, like the umbrella which she used in Surelele Stadium when the Queen of England visited Nigeria in 1956 and part of the luggage which she had brought home from Nigeria like the relics of the bakery. After the interview, she directed me to another friend, Grace Wuyum, whose husband worked with the military in Lagos.

Through this method I came to know these Lagos women and how they contributed in their own way to the social change of this region. In total I talked and interacted to more than thirty women and also tried to sketch their biographies. This was because generally in biographies, historians attempt to decipher the behavior of individuals and their influence on history. However, in this chapter, I work according to the views of the Georgian novelist, Henry Fielding (1973, 218), who once remarked that he depicted species and not individuals. While in the field I followed the people and their itineraries that together formed the Bamenda Grassfields region. The informants cited in this chapter are a representation of Bamenda/Lagos women’s’ geographical and social mobility and its ramifications for this region. This chapter depicts not only individuals but also processes and the dynamics of a society. The individual however matters. Individual and life history stories are significant but only when linked to the process and how they ignited development within their own society. The fundamental interest here is how the society has functioned over time and space with the focus on social change with women being the agents and conduits of the social change.

Historical Evidence

Health has been held as one of the key features for development and some of the migrants to Lagos introduced health facilities. For instance, the Kom women migrants who moved to Lagos also introduced health facilities in Kom after their sojourn. One of these migrants was Benedicta. Her profile will help us to understand her itinerary and how she came to introduce a medicine store in the region. Benedicta was born in 1937 at Njinikom. At a tender age she went to St. Anthony’s Primary School, Njinikom and was one among a few girls. When she got to standard 4 the manager of the school, Rev. Fr. Groot, decreed that girls were to further their education at the Convent School at Shisong, Nso, Cameroon, some 140 km from Kom. She and other girls went to Shisong. At that time there were no drivable roads (ndzi kfaang). There were no vehicles (afuem a kfaang) as one would find today. There were no post offices and there were no telephones (fincha fi kfaang). Benedicta and the other girls trekked to Shisong. The journey to Shisong took Benedicta and her friends three days. A school of Nursing and Midwifery was opened in Shisong. Benedicta’s parents preferred her to go to Shisong. She spent one year at Shisong and returned to Nigeria again for one more year. There she graduated from Abakiliki Nursing School. After graduating from Abakiliki, she got her first appointment in Cameroon with the Wum Rural Council in 1957 and her next job was in Tiko, Southwest Region of Cameroon situated some 450 km from Kom with the Cameroon Development Cooperation (CDC) hospital. She worked there for eight months, and then applied and was admitted to the University Teaching College, Ibadan, Nigeria. She studied in Ibadan for three years, obtained her diploma and then went to Lagos where she joined her elder brother. At Lagos she practiced there as well.

Back in Kom, Bendicta worked first at a government health center and then opened her own medicine store which she called the Royal Diamond Chemist. In this medicine store she sold palliative medicines such painkillers and also provided first aid for patients who visited the medicine store. She ran her medicine store to the admiration of those who felt the immediate impact of it. In her store she employed a night watchman and two girls whose jobs were to clean the store. She also employed a sales girl who generally helped to sell the medicines. Benedicta’s movements and the opening of her health center was something out of the ordinary as she had grown up in an environment where the place of women was secondary. Women played second fiddle in the area as they were largely seen as child bearers and labor on the farms. Migration for a long time was thought as the affair of men, as Clifford (1992) maintained. Benedicta and other women had started breaking new ground by demystifying the notion.

Closely linked to Benedicta was Mamma Mumbang. She was born in 1930 in Fundong, another village in the Bamenda Grassfields. She attended preliminary school and then went to Lagos with her maternal uncle who was cook to a colonial officer. She was enrolled in a nursing school in Ibadan where she studied midwifery for four years. Upon her graduation she gained employment in a private maternity home in Lagos. When her uncle retired she stayed behind in Lagos and raised some money. Back in Fundong she opened her own maternity home. Although no documentation exists for the maternity home, from which I would have been able to gather how many women gave birth per annum, she testified that there were no less 150 women who gave birth in her maternity home. It meant that many women did not have to make a 13 km journey to the nearest maternity hospital. Mamma Mumbang also taught anti-natal lessons. In her maternity home she employed people whose job descriptions ranged from dry cleaning the maternity, watching the place both in the day and night and other auxiliary nurses who helped her out during the periods of women’s delivery.

Another woman who migrated to Lagos was Elizabeth Ngehbo. Unlike the other women whom we have mentioned above who were unmarried, Elizabeth actually followed the husband first to Jos and later to Lagos. According to her,

I was born in 1932 in Njinikom and grew up with catechist Ngongbi who was my uncle. I never went to school because in those days school meant nothing to a woman. Very few women went to school. During catechumen doctrine I fell in love with my husband who was a houseboy of Rev. Fr. Ivo Stockman. When Father Stockman was transferred to Mamfe he took him along. While in Mamfe negotiation started for our traditional wedding. Before the wedding came to an end my husband Ngehbo, was already in Jos and so I had to go and meet him in Jos. He had left Mamfe because the white priest had annoyed him. So I got married in St. Augustine’s parish in Jos Nigeria. I was conducted to Jos by the eldest brother of my husband. I was taken alongside with one other small boy. We went on foot. We passed through Abuh, Achain, Bum, Misaje. From there we went through Takum, Wukari, Ibi and cross the Benue River into Jos. It took us more than three weeks and was constantly entering and staying in missions … After staying for a very long time in Jos, my husband left me there and went to Lagos. While in Lagos he was cooking for a one Whiteman. I was alone in Jos till he settled down in Lagos and called for me. I left Jos for Lagos by train. That was my first time I entered a train and it was very interesting. I was with my small son. I gave birth to all my children in Lagos and one of my children has remained in Lagos. I was always coming home on leave because the Mamfe-Bamenda-Kom road was opened to traffic. It was very difficult coming home because I had to carry children in a narrow lorry which was constantly galloping. From Lagos we stopped at Onitsha and from there we stopped at Ikom. From Ikom we took the lorry from there to Bamenda. While in Bamenda we were already tired and had to stay at Kubou’s compound. That compound was really a Kom compound and all the Kom had to rest there before continuing. In Lagos I learnt how to bake bread and while in Kom here I opened a bakery and people were buying from it. In the bakery we employed several boys and some few girls who were working for us. I also learnt how to sew clothes and came home here with a sewing machine and taught many girls how to sew. My husband taught me how to bake cakes and make bread. I was a star when I came home here. The queen’s visit was wonderful. When he was visiting the foyn of Kom was selected to be one of those who were to have an audience with the queen. The fon, Alo, came down to Lagos with many carriers and guards. There were more than 30 people following the fon (Elizabeth Ngebo, Personal Communication, 9 July 2012).

While in Kom Elizabeth and her husband opened a bakery and this was the first bakery in the region. They employed labor, mostly boys, who were working for them. These boys performed very robust jobs. They were charged with cutting wood since the local bakery survived through the use of excessive wood fuel to keep the temperature of the oven ready to bake the bread. In total they employed ten boys and three girls. The next thing Elizabeth did was to open a sewing shop in which she taught the girl child how to sew. This was very creative and more girls over the years learnt how to sew. The opening of these places with the subsequent employment of youths to work in such areas led to an increase in their standard of living. Living on a monthly wage and also gainfully employed ultimately led to the development of the area no matter how small.

Unlike Elizabeth and Benedicta, who introduced health facilities from Lagos, Grace Mandofi introduced a kindergarten school which was hitherto unknown in the region. Grace was born in 1946 at Abakwa in Markurdi, Northern Nigeria, of Nigerian and Cameroonian parents. She grew up and was schooled in Nigeria at Markurdi where she attended the St Louis Primary School between 1952 and 1954. In Lagos she attended the Oriel Girls School at Ebute Metta, Lagos, where she successfully obtained a standard 6 certificate in 1959. She then enrolled at a clerical school after which she gained employment as a sales girl with a petroleum company. While at the clerical school she got married to a husband who did not believe in the empowerment of women. But he had a family friend who was British but married to a Nigerian, Priscilla St Ledger Igiega. The wife of this British man introduced her to nursery school education and when they went to the United Kingdom, she made Grace the headmistress of the Hillside Nursery School.

In 1978, her husband retired to Cameroon and so Grace had to follow him and leave her job. When in Cameroon they settled in Bamenda which was the administrative capital of the Northwest region of Cameroon. While in Bamenda, Grace started the process of opening a nursery school. Both the administration and her peers found this very strange as it was a new idea coming above all from a woman. “I encountered a lot of bottlenecks when I started the procedure of opening a school. People did not understand why a woman should be opening a school and in some offices I was told that it was impossible,” Grace said (Grace Madoff, Personal Communication, 12 August 2016, Bamenda). However, the difficulty was soon overcome and in September 1982, the Minister of National Education, Rene Ze Nguele, authorized that the school should go operational. Consequently, at the start of the academic year, the school opened its doors as Ngi-Vichi Nursery School with five pupils. That was the first nursery school in the Bamenda metropolis. The number of the pupils increased with time; by 1985 the school already boasted 100 pupils and in 1993 the school had 400 pupils and a staff complement of 28 (16 women and 12 men) (Grace Madofi, Personal Communication, 2 July 2016, Bamenda).

Conclusion

Migration and development have been intertwined over time and space. In Africa migration has often been linked to remittances which are sent back to their areas of origin by migrants. This chapter has departed from this conventional position, stressing the role of women who migrated to Lagos as either married or single women. Their sojourn in Lagos led to the introduction of health services, bakeries and sewing shops that further led to the social transformation of the area. The concept of social remittance which has been borrowed from Levitt has largely been used in this chapter to buttress the fact that migrant women from the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon were also torchbearers of development in their various regions. Their employment of people in itself led to an increase in the standard of living of these people no matter how negligent their wages. This chapter made use of a myriad of methods and, building on my previous work, has offered fresh interpretations for the role of women in migration and development. The introduction of such services to their areas of origin put the role of men in migration in perspective and their over emphasis in the domain of remittances in further debate.

Health and education have been earmarked as prime drivers of development not only in Africa but the world over. The women discussed in this chapter contributed in their small way to the development of the region. Those who opened bakeries and tailoring shops helped in the employment of youths. Yet we should not lost sight of the fact that what these women were doing has also been done elsewhere. Petterson (1988), in his study of the Atlantic System, notes that return migrants to the West Indies repatriated change while inducing ideologies which they had learnt from the Black Power movement in the United States., The Bamenda Grassfields women, like the returned migrants in the West Indies, repatriated what they acquired from Lagos. Accordingly, the position and the role of these women changed. Again, drawing from Petterson (1988), migrant women modified their ideas about women’s role in response to their more active engagement.

This chapter concludes that these women of Bamenda Grassfields brought back new ideas to their areas of origin while the ramifications of what was introduced in the society was telling. Far from what the literature has provided thus far on migration and history and development, this chapter shows that women have played a role in development just like men have done over time and space. Furthermore, the chapter has contended that these women broke away with the traditional patriarchal norms of their societies which hitherto maintained that migration was not meant for them. More research therefore needs to be done on migrant African women and development than the literature has provided. On a final note, these women became ‘new women’ who further distinguished themselves from their peers and the durability of what they introduced to this society has caused it to continue to linger in the region to this day.