Women Born In The 1940s

"Morality has gone to blazes. Everything is not about money."

"I have joined Dignitas. I have in my brain thought, well, if the next scan says nothing's working I might buzz off to Zurich – but it puts my family and friends in a difficult position because they would want to go with me. And that means that the police might prosecute them. So we've got to do something. At the moment, it’s not really working, is it?"

"When I started as a researcher in the BBC, I was working for an editor who was a self-confessed misogynist. He used to practise shooting by aiming his air gun at an aerosol can balanced just over my head. I made it a matter of pride not to flinch as the pellets whizzed by."

"The episode of February 28, 1988, was just a normal one in the BBC’s consumer series That's Life!. ... But deep in the centre of the programme, where we always placed our most serious items, we had a unique moment that 35 years later still has the power to move and inspire. Nicholas Winton was revealed for the first time to have rescued more than 660 children, most of them Jewish, from being murdered in the Holocaust. And three of those children learnt for the first time who had saved them, how he had done it and, sitting with him in our studio audience, turned to him and thanked him for their lives. It was the only time in my professional life when, as a presenter, the emotion stopped me. I had to break off our recording, leave my chair and take a moment to wipe my eyes. We were the only factual programme that would have told his story that way because we were the only one with a studio audience. And we were thrilled to be able to stage another surprise for Nicky one week later, when we invited him back. This time I asked members of our audience to stand if they owed their lives to him. Nicky was once again sitting in the front row, so I asked him to turn round to see the whole ground floor audience in the television theatre standing."

"The Nationwide editor, Michael Bunce, asked me if there was any particular film I'd like to make for them, so I asked if they would send me to Belfast to report on the Troubles. He said he would need time to think about it. Then he rang me back: "The thing is, Esther, what would you wear?" It was such a serious dilemma, he decided I couldn't film there."

"My older daughter, Emily, had ME for 14 years. Thankfully she is better now and lives with me. She recently joined Kabbalah and changed her named to a more biblical name, "Miriam" – a little hard for me as she was named after my maternal grandmother, Emily, whom I adored. But I get round it by calling her "Em"."

"She said she would invoke parliamentary rules that could result in the loss of seats for these members."

"Mum didn’t spare the rod, she beat us to shape"

"Parents should not be too harsh or too strict to avoid scaring them away and anything that concerns them should not be taken for granted. Show them love and mentor them; more importantly, always pray for them for God’s guidance and direction."

"Parents should monitor their children even though some of them try to dress decently at homes but when they go back to school especially those in the high institutions, they dress indecently. Parents, therefore, should monitor their children by ensuring that the clothing they take to school were properly checked and ensure that you ask your children questions and be close to them"

"Nigerian women should tell me what I have done wrong and how I have misrepresented them that made them afraid to vote for me."

"As a mother, it is my duty to continue to nurture the conscience of the human specie.."

"And if we choose to disobey God, to disobey the words of our mouth, of course, we will go astray."

"When you have a constitution and you don’t abide by the constitution and whatever your slogan is, they are the first steps of preventing corruption."

"The ignorance about the high sense of responsibility of claiming to be a progressive party, and only thinking of the slogan and not acting practically."

"They don’t appear to be the best but whatever happens we must have the patience and spirit of tolerance because we will not ask people to go and riot."

"My loss at the primaries would continue to haunt the women folk in the country for a long time to come."

"I will say, the best of party slogan anywhere in the world, but unfortunately the plague was philosophical understanding of the manifesto."""

"Now we are diversifying food crop production and emphasising healthy diets, bringing in water literacy, and addressing gender inequities and children’s [wellbeing]. It’s been like a whole community effort."

"Working on climate, environmental sanitation, food processing, crop growing, food allocation, gender issues – this is all connected, [but] people still operate in silos. I was very happy when the UN came up with the Sustainable Development Goals and goal number 17 was partnerships and collaboration. You have to work together to be able to achieve something tangible."

"This was my dream since my childhood days."

"When I started the journal, even getting it indexed internationally was not easy because it's interdisciplinary. So, in terms of gaps, I would say it’s that interdisciplinarity that is missing."

"The journal was premised on what I had done in the field – it is like looking at an African village and everything that goes on in there! – but ultimately, [it’s about] how to feed your family a healthy diet."

"I can't say there's just one thing that I'm satisfied with. But […] when people start to tell you that you have made a difference in their lives; when you see land policies change and companies begin to pay differently, that men and women should both be there, that is an achievement."

"This fine collection of poetry on love, nature and Sufism bursts forth with pure humanity and elegance of language. Dominated by the presence of beautiful, dignified womanhood that is tough but loving, giving and grateful, the poems peel off layers of time to reveal memories that refuse to dissipate. A celebratory voice singing the beauty of fall colors and the magic of Africa's star-studded sky and enchanted moonlit night is interlaced with a strong, unyielding moral voice that speaks against the injustice and bullying of the powerful, and the pillage and greed of empire. Amadiume's beautiful, moving, and well-crafted collection returns to nature what belongs to it--simplicity; and reminds humanity of what it has lost--the love that is divine. Love is Great!"

"I bought Male Daughters, Female Husbands on the title alone, expecting it to be an anthropological study discussing how an indigenous society had made space and roles for queer people. I was very wrong. Instead, Ifi Amadiune presents a brilliant study of how the Nnobi of Nigeria made space and roles for women, and how the Christian patriarchy took those roles away. Amadiune challenges her fellow anthropologists and western feminists about their assumptions about African societies. (Namely, that colonialism helped African women get out from under the thumb of bad African men, yet they still need western feminists to save them further. Amadiune clearly demonstrates how neither of these things are true and how these kinds of simplified views of any indigenous society are steeped in racism."

"Read for my Anthropology of Gender class. This is an incredibly thorough ethnography that traces the history, colonisation, and modern traditions of a small area in Nigeria. Amadiume doesn’t just reclaim, explain, and evaluate the customs of the Igbo people from the town where she was born, she also demonstrates the long history of how colonialism has distorted, misconstrued, and tried to erase them. It makes me wonder how many indigenous religions we’ve completely lost due to the efforts of colonisation trying to either mould them to the “White Christian ideal” or wipe them out completely. It’s a sad thought, but I’m still glad Ifi Amadiume is here to speak for herself, taking back the fierce power of anthropology from those who would use it for ill."

"Love is a many splendored thing and Ifi Amadiume spins the wonder of love in circles of memory, humor, joy and even political satire with a lyrical and often intimate voice that describes family, friends and special places. Here are poems you will want to read and remember."

"Ifi Amadiume's Circles of Love speaks with passion of love gained, love lost, love desired. These are poems which embrace the pains and joys of exile--memory, sweetness, history and a sense of peace with the landscapes of home wherever these may be."

"It was with pride that Nwokocha Agbadi returned the twenty bags of cowries to his former son-in-law and he even added a live goat as a token of insult."

"The men were no longer known by their own names, but by reference to their role as husband."

"Extremely powerful and assertive women were able to dominate their husbands."

"She is said to have had about 24 wives… the qualities attributed to her were hard work and perseverance. She was … a clever woman, who knew how to utilize her money."

"“The fact that biological sex did not always correspond to ideological gender meant that women could play roles usually monopolized by men, or be classified as 'males' in terms of power and authority over others. As such roles were not rigidly masculinized or feminized, no stigma was attached to breaking gender rules. Furthermore, the presence of an all-embracing goddess-focused religion favoured the acceptance of women in statuses and roles of authority and power."

"In the traditional society, a flexible gender system meant that male roles were open to certain categories of women through such practices as nhaye, 'male daughters,' igba ohu, 'female husbands. These institutions placed women in a more favourable position for the acquisition of wealth and formal political power and authority. Under colonialism, these indigenous institutions – condemned by the Church as 'pagan' and anti-Christian – were abandoned or reinterpreted to the detriment of women."

"A woman at this stage of her life no longer sought to be sexually attractive to men, and was no longer in sexual competition with other women. Matrons, in order to succeed economically and wield power, had to free themselves of 'messy' and 'demeaning' female domestic services, which included sexual services. Woman-to-woman marriage was one of the ways of achieving this. The younger wife would then take over the domestic duties."

"“Since women were basically seen as producers, the principals of control and protection applied to them throughout their productive period, whether as daughters, wives, or mothers. It is said when a woman outgrows the question, 'whose daughter is she?' people then ask, 'whose wife is she?' Only as matrons were women no longer valued in their sexual or reproductive capacity; matrons were, therefore, beyond control."

"Man seems to have wanted… to give the universe his own gender…anything believed to have value belongs to men and is marked by their gender…he gives his own gender to God, to the sun."

"As men increased their labour force, wealth and prestige through the accumulation of wives, so also did women through the institution of "female husbands.‟ When a woman paid money to acquire another woman, the woman who was bought had the status and customary rights of a wife, with respect to the woman who bought her, who was referred to as her husband, and the "female husband‟ had the same rights as a man over his wife."

"… a flexible gender system … meant … certain women could occupy roles and positions usually monopolized by men, and thereby exercise considerable power and authority over both men and women."

"I feel very sad that the electronic voting was not conducted fairly. In my view, the election should be cancelled. An audit should be conducted. There are too many complaints. We are Lawyers – we should give a good example to Nigerians."

"We pray that there will be more female Lawyers who will offer themselves to serve the N.B.A. in the capacity of President and other positions, in the near future."

"To change the negative narrative of gender discrimination, well qualified and competent female Lawyers need to campaign, maybe, more vigorously for the positions they want. They must continue to solicit for the votes of male Lawyers who are in the majority, as well as securing the support of their fellow women."

"Praying for those who have hurt us is vital to successfully forgiving them."

"Just deciding to forgive isn’t enough because willpower alone won’t work,we need divine strength from God."

"Forgiveness is not a feeling,it’s a decision we make because we want to do what’s right before Gode."

"One of the greatest revelations of my life is: I can choose my thoughts and think things on purpose. In other words, I don’t have to just think about whatever falls into my mind"

"I want you to know and really understand that anyone who has been abused can fully recover if they will give their life completely to Jesus."

"You can suffer the pain of change or suffer remaining the way you are."

"I heard a noise, but didn't know it was gunfire."