The shocking story of Igbo M & why they are going North
They are referred to as “Hausa”, “Boko Haram”, “masquerade” and “saboteur”. Fresh converts hide their identity for fear of attack. Some young women alter their names in order to fit in, and a few women now prefer the scarf to the hijab. One respondent even inquired whether Igbo Muslims would enjoy freedom in the 21st Century. Another thinks that a new dawn has already formed as the trend now is for Igbo Muslims to travel up North seeking work and education. Movement to the North is a symbolic protest against years of exclusion, rejection and denial of rights. Spokesmen to some of the state governments who responded to interview requests, indicated that they are not aware of discrimination of any sort.
Ummi Okoro (not real name) thinks that the culture of sneering at Muslim women will last for many years. “We are called Hausa, masquerades; it’s normal here.” Okoro lives in Umuahia, capital of Abia State.
She recalls“They say to me, ‘A beautiful woman like you will take a rag and cover her body.’ They ask why I do that. We don’t listen to them because we know what we are into.”
“We have masquerades in the East. The nature of the masquerade is that there is a veil on the face and a small slit from which the person beneath can see. There may be a resemblance to the hijab,” says Rev Fr Emeka Ngwoke of the Department of Religion and Cultural Studies of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), providing a cultural background to the widespread comparison with masquerades.
The cleric points out “Igbo Muslims are simply a few people, and democracy is the rule of the majority. They cannot be asking for a voice completely out of proportion to their number. Igbo Muslims are just whipping up sentiments to see how much they can get from the North that has political power, by playing on the fact that they too are Muslims.”
Not true - Journalist
Chinedu Aroh, a journalist in Nsukka, counters “It’s not true that Igbo Muslims are being referred to as masquerades and Hausa in Enugu State. I say this because I have many of them as friends and relatives. There is absolutely no difference between Igbo Muslims, Igbo Christians and Igbo traditional religious worshippers. We do everything in common.”
Hijab
In Alor-Agu, Enugu State, Aisha Ibrahim Eze reveals that girls are not allowed to wear the hijab in school.
Hassana Suleiman holds a similar view, and numerous women present nod their heads in agreement.
Alor-Agu is famous for its large number of indigenous Muslims. Islam took root in the Nsukka area in the 19th Century; brought by
Nupe horse and Hausa kola nut traders.
Children play along the road near the mosque in Alor-Agu, with a few of them wearing hijabs. Ahmed Ugwuanyi, son of the first indigenous Imam in the community, says although it is true that students might not be allowed to wear the hijab in school; they could freely do so in their homes.
Are you male or female?
“One day I was in a bank in Afikpo dressed in a hijab and a security man asked whether I was a man or a woman. When I tried to let him know that what he was doing was wrong, he wanted to get physical, until some people came and talked to him. Those of us who cover our faces are referred to as Boko Haram openly in the market,” explains Khadija
Harun, a teacher at the Islamic Centre, Afikpo.
Hausa are coming
“Anytime we are going out they begin to say the Hausa are coming. Even children say so. When children see us coming, they run away as though they have seen something they had never seen before. Some call us masquerades. We are called Boko Haram and a number of awkward names. It can be so demoralising,” laments Basirat Tijani who also teaches at the Islamic Centre in Afikpo.
Aisha becomes Asisko
Years of exclusion and rejection have had impact on identity. Umar Musa Ani who recently graduated from the Department of Geography and Environmental Management of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, opens up on some of the challenges Igbo Muslim youths face.
“Some of our young girls here in Enugu don’t like putting on the hijab. Some of them tie the scarf instead. At a point some of them felt that their Islamic names were driving friends away. A girl named Aisha will change her name to Asisko. Maryam will alter hers to Mary Anne. This is to make the name less Islamic, and somewhat Western. I have seen a lot of such names on Facebook, and I know that those ladies are Muslims,” Ani explains.
Neither here, nor there
Azeezat Jimoh, the ameera or leader of the Muslim women in Abia State, comments on her experience, saying, “I can’t say they love Muslims, and I can’t say they hate Muslims. Once there is a little crisis, they will turn against us. That is the challenge we have.”
Salma Ibrahim, another lady in Afikpo, recalls “I got married here in the East. I had some sisters with me among those that attended the Nikkah (Islamic wedding ceremony). We were all together, and we had