Hajiya Maimunatu Dadasare Abdullahi (1918 – August 1984) was a Nigerian writer, nurse, journalist and adult educator. She was the first female journalist in Northern Nigeria and a pioneering figure in women's education in the region.
As a child, Dadasare was abducted by a British colonial officer and forced into concubinage. Her life as his informal "wife" gave her access to colonial social circles, an experience that profoundly shaped her early life and worldview. After escaping the traumatic situation, she entered a long and formative relationship with the colonial education officer Rupert East, whom she affectionately called Jaumusare (master of the house). While with East in Zaria, she made notable contributions to his work, particularly in the development of Hausa literacy and publishing through the Literature Bureau, and received a literacy education in Hausa and English that gave her access to the city's male-dominated intellectual arena. Through her work at the Gaskiya Corporation, she became the first woman to work as a journalist in Northern Nigeria. Dadasare was an influential but often anonymous contributor to Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo, with her articles focusing on social and political issues, and also established the women's page of Jakadiya, the first Hausa-language newspaper for women, where she wrote biographical articles on prominent women such as Elizabeth Fry and Florence Nightingale, as well as pieces on relatable Victorian "feminine" topics, including hygiene and childcare.
From the mid-1950s, Dadasare emerged as a leading figure in adult and women's education in Northern Nigeria, designing and implementing large-scale programmes that gave instruction in literacy, hygiene, and childcare to thousands of women, especially those living in purdah. As Assistant Superintendent of Adult Education, she built a region-wide network of female teachers and produced innovative teaching materials that gained international recognition. She was also a trained nurse and health visitor in Nigeria and Britain and volunteered extensively in hospitals.
Scholars use Dadasare's life to explore colonial trauma, with a focus on how subalterns negotiated the brutal realities of overwhelming colonial violence while engaging with colonial networks. Moses Ochonu has examined her intimate relationship with Rupert East as an example of how colonised individuals could form affectionate connections within oppressive structures and navigate, and sometimes, leverage colonial power.
Life
Early childhood Maimunatu Abdullahi was born in 1918 in the Gola District of the Adamawa Province in colonial Nigeria. Most of the townspeople of Gola were her relatives; both her father Dewa Abdullahi and her mother Inna Demmo were related to the district head. She came from a fairly privileged Fulani family that was largely involved in cattle-rearing.
Abdullahi was the fifth of seven children, with three brothers and three sisters. By her late childhood, most of her siblings had died. The loss of so many children seriously affected her father's health, and he eventually died, "almost certainly of a broken heart," according to Abdullahi. In her autobiography, It Can Now Be Told, Abdullahi later noted that this series of deaths in her family could have been avoided had they had access to adequate medical services. She wrote that the tragedy "created in me subconsciously an awareness of the need of the people, especially of women, for help and education," and that it "founded in me a desire to do something about it."
Despite this, Abdullahi recalled her early childhood fondly, describing it as "happy and uneventful." She dedicated the first chapter of her autobiography to her time in Gola, recalling songs and games as well as lessons she received from her family. She noted "I owe so much to the guiding, sustaining influence of the home. My parents were wise, loving and gentle […] The foundations laid for me in early childhood have stood firm during the psychological earthquakes of grief and shock."
Abduction Shortly after her husband's death, Abdullahi's mother took her remaining children, all daughters, to the nearby town of Jambutu, which was largely inhabited by his relatives. In Jambutu, Abdullahi's mother reluctantly married her deceased husband's brother in order to ensure better support for her children. In 1929, Abdullahi accompanied her aunt on a visit to relatives in Gola. During this trip, she was abducted by two horsemen on the orders of a British Administrative officer and taken to the town of Pella (in present-day Hong, Adamawa State). Abdullahi was eleven years old at the time. She later learned that the abduction had been orchestrated through an elaborate plan by one of her cousins, who "wished to stand well with this bature (white man)." The unnamed colonial official, who was feared by the local population, was nicknamed Maisikeli ("the man with the scale"). He had an English wife and children in Britain and was seeking a young Fulani girl to serve as his "unofficial wife." A group of kidnapped pubescent Fulani girls was paraded before him, from which he selected Abdullahi.
Abdullahi was placed under the watch of Siddiki, a member of her abductor's colonial staff, who was to follow her wherever she went and prevent her escape. Upon learning of her abduction and forced appropriation, her family in Jambutu were enraged. They armed themselves and began preparations to invade Gola to rescue her, but other clan members convinced them to stand down. Instead, they advised that the matter be taken to the colonial authorities at the provincial headquarters in Yola. An inquiry was then launched by the Yola officials, during which information was gathered from multiple sources. In the end, the colonial authorities asked Abdullahi whether she wished to return to her mother or remain with her abductor. She was asked three times (according to local custom), and on each occasion stated her "earnest wish to return to my mother." Her wishes were ignored, and she was forced to remain with her abductor.
Realising she was stuck with her abductor, Abdullahi resolved to escape as soon as the opportunity presented its self. This came while they were encamped at Sigire. While her abductor, along with his African servants and policemen, were taking their midday nap, Abdullahi fled towards the Gola Hills, which were visible from the camp. Her escape was discovered around sunset, and a search party was dispatched on horseback to recapture her. She spent the night in the cold, wet bush while attempting to make her way toward Jambutu. Upon reaching the town, however, no one was willing to assist her, fearing reprisals from her abductor. Hungry and exhausted, she hid in the bushes between Gola and Jambutu until she was discovered by colonial policemen and returned to her abductor. On her return, he beat her, later recalling that he "slapped me hard." Suspecting that Abdullahi's family had assisted her attempted escape, her abductor stripped her uncle of his chieftaincy as district head of Gola. Several relatives later fled the district, fearing further reprisals and were "afraid that [their] daughters might suffer a fate similar to mine."
Move to Benue Abdullahi's abductor was later transferred to Ibbi in the Benue Province. He took her with him, a move that caused her considerable anxiety, as she was now much farther from her family and friends. In Ibbi, as her abductor's informal "wife", she socialised with colonial officials and their wives. One of these officials was Rupert East, who was eager to learn Fulfulde. Considering him "very attractive", Abdullahi became particularly close to East. She taught him her mother tongue, while he in turn "aroused" in her a "strong interest in Western music.
Meanwhile, Abdullahi was impregnated by her abductor. Shortly after she gave birth to a son, his term of service ended, and he was asked to retire and return to England. He told Abdullahi that he was merely going on leave and would soon be back. He arranged for her to travel back to her mother in Gola, instructing her to remain there until his return. During the difficult journey on the Benue River back to Adamawa, she lost her son to malaria. She recounts her journey as thus:I spent the night at a small place called Bajabure. Mosquitoes swarmed everywhere. My baby was badly bitten all through the night. He quickly got malaria, and as he was not very strong and I could not get to a doctor, he died in my arms at Song on the way to Gola. I shall not dwell on this event. Only a mother can know how I felt.Shortly after her return to Gola, Abdullahi's kinsmen, unwilling to allow her to return to her abductor, proposed that she marry a local man. The prospect, she later wrote, "filled me with gloom." She further wrote that she was no longer the "child who had been unscrupulously carried off," noting that "something […] had fundamentally changed and my horizon had widened." So when she received a message in 1933 from Rupert East inviting her to join him in Zaria, she accepted eagerly. She secured a chaperone, an escort, and a horse from the district head of Gola for the journey to Zaria, around five hundred miles away. While en route, she received a message from the district head ordering her to back to Gola to be married. Instead, she sent her assigned escort away, "engaged a new horseboy," and continued on to Zaria.
Relationship with Rupert East Abdullahi described her time with East in Zaria as "happy days". She affectionately called him Jaumu-sare ("Master of the House" in Fulfulde), while he called her Dadasare ("Mother of the House"), a name she later adopted. Other sobriquets she used for him included Maigida (the Hausa equivalent of Jaumu-sare) and Giɗaɗo ("Beloved"). In her memoir, Dadasare explained her apparently paradoxical decision to rejoin the colonial network and move in with East:This time I did not have to be kidnapped. I had decided of my own free will to go to a man I felt I could love and who, I was sure, had real feeling for me. I do not propose, now or later, to expatiate on the personal relationship that grew up between Jaumu-sare and myself. Those who have deeply loved will not need to be told, and those who have not, could never understand.During this period, East was serving as an education officer and as the inaugural director of the Translation Bureau in Zaria, which later became the Literature Bureau, which was the mass literacy and literary publishing division of the Northern Nigerian colonial administration. At Zaria, Dadasare encountered East's intellectual and literary world, which she initially found "a mystery". He soon arranged for her to be taught how to read and write using the Roman alphabet. She began learning Hausa in Roman script and quickly progressed, later recalling that she read Hausa books faster than East could obtain them. Because of the scarcity of Romanised Hausa texts at the time, she read the Hausa translation of the Bible three times, despite being Muslim. Noting this, East arranged for her to learn English, assuring her that once she learnt the language "it would be impossible for me to run out of books." She soon got attached to English fiction, becoming particularly fond of Jane Austen and developing a passion for detective novels. She also began keeping a diary, a practice she maintained for the rest of her life.