Anti-women festival causes uproars on Twitter

AN order from a Nigerian traditional ruler forbidding women from being in public during a festival this week has sparked a lively debate over gender in the economic capital Lagos.

Oba Kabiru Adewale Shotobi gave notice of the Magbo festival in Ikorodu, warning that on Oro day “all female(s) are forbidden to be seen outside their homes or move around the town”.

Ikorodu was once a small Yoruba kingdom but rapid urbanisation in recent decades has seen it become swallowed by Lagos, which prides itself as Nigeria’s most progressive city.

Now the bustling suburb finds itself at the crossroads between powerful ancient customs and modern sensibilities.

The announcement went viral online and was criticised in some quarters as sexist.

One political pundit wrote on Twitter: “This is Lagos, Nigeria’s most ‘liberal state’. Nigeria is a very backward society.”

Reflecting the sensitivity of the issue, the Lagos state police met the Oba — king in Yoruba — following outrage over the ban.

During the meeting, he expressed shock that a man of his “exposure” would be seen as doing anything sexist, according to a police statement on Monday.

The monarch said the festival was an “age-old tradition” yet ultimately decreed that “the festival would hold without denying the female folks their right of freedom of movement”.

But while his words placated some, in reality the festival went on as it has for many years: women and children stayed indoors, according to local media reports.

According to Yoruba custom, women and children should never see the oro, a male deity who is considered “sublimely sacred”, priestess Adedoyin Talabi Faniyi told AFP.

On Oro day in 1999, a woman from the Hausa ethnic group ventured out into the street, triggering a brawl between Yorubas and Hausas that left over 50 people dead.