Odua Spirit

So the other day I was having a conversation with a colleague, you know the usual, man, woman thing!! And he told me of this very popular Nigerian pastor who said that even though he is Yoruba, he could never have married a Yoruba woman.



The reason for this revelation was that Yoruba women have the Odua spirit!



Now for those of you who do not know what the Odua spirit means, it basically means that Yoruba women are fighters, we have no qualms about taking off our head wrap, tying it around our waist and running into the melee that is any fight which threatens our friends and family or in some cases, just because we can.



Anyway as you can imagine, the moment I heard this, I went slightly Odua!



What did he mean that Yoruba women are not viable for his marriage prospects? I mean his mother, sisters, etc are Yoruba women, does he mean that they are or were not good enough for marriage?

I now asked the colleague that who did this ‘man of God’ now marry, and he told me he had married an Ibo woman, and she was quiet, pleasant and easy to talk to.



Ok so my head sparked and I had to ask, do Ibo and Hausa women not have a fighting spirit, because I have friends from both tribes and they know how to get down like every other woman.



Incidentally another colleague of mine (Yoruba) came by and listened to our conversation, it turned out that he too had married outside the tribe because he felt that the Odua spirit in Yoruba women was just too much for him to handle.



So what did he do? He prayed to God to give him a woman who was not Yoruba, but understood all the Yoruba customs and could cook Yoruba food, and God gave him a woman from Edo state!



At this point many people had entered the conversation and the consensus was that Yoruba women are too hard and always ready for a fight. However, though an Ibo/ Igbo, south – south, south – east woman might be angry about a situation, she will cajole the man or person out. Northern women on the other hand, well they just won’t talk they will smile, look down and let the problem go away.



As for me, since I am not only a Yoruba woman, but also a returnee, I am the worst type of possible wife, I have the Odua woman spirit in me, additionally since I studied out, I must be a rampant feminist so I am a fighter on many levels.



I smiled at this analysis, and said that yes I am an Odua woman, I learnt from the cradle that when something is wrong I should fight, when an injustice is being committed I should shout. My line is one of women who give the ultimate curse by walking in public half naked to tell you, ‘ As you unclothed me, so shall you be unclothed, as you disrespected me so shall you be disrespected, as you humiliated me so shall you be humiliated’.



I have removed my head wrap on numerous occasions and tied it around my waist, ready for whatever might come my way, but this does not make me less, it makes me more, because my loved ones know I will fight for them no matter what.



As for my sisters in the south – south, south- east, north, I know that perception is not reality, as such I also know they fight the good fight, and in fact sometimes they also remove the head wrap and enter the melee!!