Olufunke is one of the children of Nigeria’s first female doctorate holder in Philosophy, Prof. Sophie Oluwole, who died in December, 2018. She talks about her mother’s ideals with GBENGA ADENIJI
Tell us more about yourself.
I am Deaconess Olufunke Gesinde, a daughter of Prof. Sophie Oluwole. I am a school administrator. I have been running a school for about 25 years. We are six children. My older brother is an architect and lives in Germany. I have another brother who is a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God. I have a US-based sister, who has a PhD in nursing. There is another sister who is a bank worker and the last born is a businessman.
Was it your mother who influenced your interest in education?
I think it was God. There is a saying that some people were born great, some achieved greatness and some had greatness thrust upon them. I think I just had education thrust upon me because I initially wanted to be a lawyer. Thank God I wasn’t a lawyer because I would have become one of the worst lawyers in history.
Why did you say that?
I said that because I wouldn’t tell lies. If anyone is guilty, I cannot look for loopholes for the person; so, I wouldn’t be getting briefs. I wouldn’t cover up for someone who commits an offence. You know lawyers look for ways to set their clients free even when they are guilty. I would only do so if I am convinced that my client is not guilty. I got into education by chance. My mother wanted to start a primary school when I was young. That was over 40 years ago. May be that was how it came about but I don’t think I got the interest from there.
Did she encourage her children to follow certain career paths?
No, she didn’t. She only encouraged us to be educated. I recall that about 10 years ago, she told me that she was not lucky to have any child that went to school. I asked her what she meant by that since we are all graduates. She replied that we all earned first degrees and that to really go to school starts from earning a master. It was after that my brother got a master and my sister studied up to PhD. She used to tell me that I wasn’t educated as I earned only first degree even though I had diplomas in other disciplines.
What childhood memories can you recall with your mother?
My mother was a strict disciplinarian. Unfortunately, I am the first girl and she was hard on me especially. I didn’t like her at all when I was young. I recall that I confessed to her five years ago that I used to wish her dead then because I felt she didn’t like me. I thank God that He doesn’t answer stupid prayers. I started going to the market and cooking at 10.
She would give me a list of what to buy and I was in soup if I bought rubbish. I remember that then she used to tell me that she couldn’t eat baked beans ground with blender. I used to grind the beans on a grinding stone. By 7am, food must be ready. I would have woken up early to soak the beans in readiness for grinding and frying afterwards. Then, I would make pap and get everything ready by 7am.
At 10, the things I didn’t do were to pound yam or make amala (yam flour). She would tell others that whichever way I cooked the food was the way we would all eat it. I am a good cook today. I was a simple child who did whatever I was told to do. By the time my sisters were born, they had no choice than to toe my footsteps. I was a teenager when our last born came and I took care of him from when he was three weeks old. My mother would sit beside me and tell me to bathe him and that soap must not enter his eyes or slip away from me. I usually wondered why she gave birth to him if she couldn’t take care of him by herself. She used to tell me that my mates in the northern part of the country were already taking care of their children. When I had my child later, it was easy for me. As I returned home from the hospital, I massaged him with hot water, used palm oil to scrub his body and threw him up to the extent that my sister-in-law wondered where I learnt all that. My mother gave me a good training.
How did your mother discipline any child who misbehaved as a strict disciplinarian you said she was?
My mother didn’t spare the rod. She used the cane on me up till when I took school certificate examination. She could use the cane, her palms or anything in sight. I didn’t like pap, custard or any light food when I was young. She would force me to take it, saying that a child would eat whatever her parents had to offer. At lunch, she would cook rice which was a delicacy at the time. It could be dodo (fried plantain) and eggs for dinner. I wouldn’t be given any until I had taken the pap or custard. Despite that, I never went to the kitchen to steal food. But now, I like both pap and baked beans.
As an academician, did she impress it on her children to excel academically?
Yes, she used to mark scripts for the West African Examination Council. After I took the examination, she told me that she marked my scripts. I was happy that at least, I would pass most of the subjects. When the results were released, I had four credits and a pass in Bible Knowledge. I went to her and asked why she gave me a pass in the subject. She said she didn’t give me a pass in the subject but that it was what I scored. I told her she should have checked to see where I could get half mark in other answers to at least give me a credit. She said if she added a half mark, where would she tell her supervisor she got it from.
She told me she discovered that I knew the answers but didn’t know how to answer WAEC questions. She explained how to tackle the examination and the next time I sat for it, I passed excellently well.
When she was at the University of Lagos, my younger sister got below the 200 cut-off point. My mother insisted that she must make up for the mark. She had to retake the then Universities Matriculation Examination (now Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination) and it was the same situation. We didn’t bother to go to her. It was at the third attempt that she got the right score to enter the university. My mother was that strict.
Did she take the family to special places for bonding?
My mother didn’t have time for that. When I was in secondary school, she was always writing papers and attending seminars. She was already a lecturer at the time. It was because of her that I didn’t go for a PhD. When she was studying for PhD, she could wake up at night to write, saying a thought occurred to her. We didn’t have time to go on holidays anywhere. She was also a businesswoman. It is one aspect about her that people didn’t know. She had shops where she sold household items and plastics to augment her salary as we are many. All her daughters took after her in that regard. Despite the fact that we have our careers, we are also into business. My sister, who works in a bank, can sell ice to the Eskimos. My mother was not strict with the boys.
How did she relax?
My mother was always busy. I grew up to see her reading and writing and I never saw her relax. If she was not with her books, she would be at her shop. She was an academician through and through; always reading and writing.
Your mother made appreciable philosophical discourse on thinkers like Orunmila and Socrates. How would you describe her thoughts especially as captured in the books she authored?
At first, most of us were against it the moment we saw Orunmila. We didn’t want to read it as we are all born-again Christians. I told her that I wouldn’t read the book and she said that was why she said I wasn’t educated. She said if one saw a book, one should read it first to make one’s judgment about it. Later, we got to know what she was saying. People didn’t understand my mother. There was a time she wanted to sue a newspaper for calling her ‘mamalawo’ (female herbalist). She was examining Ifa (oracle) from an academic point of view. She wasn’t looking at it as a religion or cult but as a culture of the Yoruba. Through Ifa, she was able to understand the thoughts of the forbears and saw a lot of wisdom in it. It was the wisdom that attracted her to compare it with Socrates. But people like me and some others just assumed that what she was saying was about Ifa and Orunmila. She used to tell me that she knew the Bible better than the general overseer of the church I attend. She was a chorister and Sunday school teacher when she was young.
How sociable was she?
She wasn’t much of a social person. She didn’t use to go to parties like me that attend weddings. Many times when she wanted to give a speech somewhere, I would complain about her headgear. She would tell me not to bother her, that what mattered was what she would say at the event. In her later years when she retired, we enjoyed her. She especially loved her grandchildren. She was also ecstatic when she became a great-grandmother. My son’s wife gave birth and she called him for making her a great-grandmother. She was not strict with her grandchildren and they also loved her.
Did you ever watch her teach?
Yes, I was one of her students when I was at the UNILAG. I took a course, Philosophy of Mind. It was very abstract. I initially wanted to study Law but I didn’t have enough points at A level. English was my second choice and I was advised to read Education but I rejected it. Before I got admission to the school, my mother advised that I should study Philosophy.
I said okay and decided to tell my father that my mother advised me to study Philosophy as I didn’t get admission for Law. My father said, “Philo what? You can do any other course but not Philosophy. One philosopher in the family is too many.” He couldn’t handle my mother in arguments. You cannot argue with my mother and win her. I eventually studied English and Yoruba.
What was her favourite food?
She was not particular about food; but later in life, she stopped taking oil, sugar and salt. I am sure she must have liked pounded yam in her early years because she was raised in Ekiti. She was an Edo and not a Yoruba woman. She has Ekiti intonation because it was where she was raised. Her parents were Edo. Her great-grandfather was Tapa (Nupe).
Did she have music preference?
I recall that when I was in Form 2, she was learning to play the piano. She liked Fela’s songs because she felt he had something to say and they shared similar ideology. We had many of Fela’s songs at home especially Zombie.
How do people react knowing you are her daughter?
Some people brought their children to my school because of my mother. There was a man who came to ask of my relationship with her. I said she was my mother and he asked if she was my biological mother and I said yes. He said that he believed that his child would be in a safe hand in a school run by one of Sophie’s children. He said anybody my mother gave birth to would be like her.
What values did you imbibe from her?
My mother was a straightforward person. She worked with many influential people and never took advantage of that. I recall that she once worked with the late First Lady, Maryam Babangida. I told her to ask for contracts but she said she would never do that. She told me that a good name is better riches. She worked with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo when she was on the board of the Presidential Library. She was close to Senator Oluremi Tinubu and many others. I am beginning to realise that I am like my mother. I absorbed some things from her unknowingly. I detest dishonesty and don’t condone examination malpractice. My mother could kill any child who stole. If I hold any public office, I will not touch a penny and won’t allow anyone to do so.
Did you enjoy any preferential treatment in the university because of your mother?
I almost failed her course when I took it in part two. I had a friend in the university who we always studied together. If she got a B grade, I would get a few marks higher than her. When we took the examination, my mother’s secretary, who typed the results, discovered that my score was much lower than my colleague’s. She drew my mother’s attention to it.
But my mother told her to type out whatever she saw there as there was nothing she could do about it. It was at the final stage that my mother discovered that she didn’t add my continuous assessment. I did better than the girl when the CA was added. When I learnt of what happened, I went to my mother and she said it was a mistake and that anyone could make a mistake. I was shocked and asked why she would make a mistake only on my result among many other students who took the course. In year three, she urged me to take another philosophy course, Philosophy of Education. I didn’t agree but I regret it today because being an educationist now, I would have gained something from it. I didn’t enjoy any preferential treatment while in the university.
I probably escaped some things which I didn’t know. I once worked with the Lagos State Government and was sent on a course. There, I met a man who called me by my name and I didn’t like it. I was smallish at the time and preferred being addressed as Mrs. He said he was my classmate and that there was a time he wanted to ask me out. He explained that he told a friend who advised him to steer clear if he wanted to graduate from the university as I was mama’s (Prof Sophie’s) daughter. If anybody messed with anybody, nobody came near me because they knew I was her daughter. My mother was very strict. Even in the university, they used to call her a witch. I was also called a witch when I was teaching with the Lagos State Government as I didn’t condone indiscipline. I was also strict in marking.
Did she know that students called her a witch?
She was aware but didn’t care.
Tell us about your father.
My father was the late Prof Olanrewaju Fapohunda of UNILAG. My mother remarried after they separated. My mother had the first four of us for my father. My father was very brilliant but my mother was very intelligent.
What would you love to change about your mother if given the opportunity?
I am proud of my mother and I don’t think I would want to change anything about her. However, I wished she took care of her dressing. She tried to wear adire (local fabric) and beads towards the end of her life. She promoted the Yoruba culture. I used to buy her laces and gold but she would just throw them somewhere. She didn’t care.
Who were her friends?
She liked to make friends with unusual people. She didn’t see herself as a professor. She associated with any intelligent person. One could think her friends would be people in her category. Although she had people like Prof Bolanle Awe that she interacted with, she was particularly close to her nephew, Mr Akin Aloba.
What was your last conversation with her?
She called me two days before she passed on. She took ill in June, 2018 and was with me for three months. She was okay after two months and insisted on going home. She didn’t like to depend on people. After arguing over that for a month, she left for her house. There was a time she was sick. We took her to the hospital and she became well. Two day before she died, she called me that her legs were swollen, that maybe it was because she went to get herbs for someone down with malaria.
I wondered why she couldn’t tell those close to the person the leaves to get and how to use it for the person. I told her what to do to reduce the swollen part. A day before her death, I called to know the state of the legs and she told me she was fine. We usually went to her house to celebrate the New Year with her but I said we should do it on Christmas day. We were preparing for that when she died. When she died, I believed her spirit came to my house because I was not feeling comfortable that day. I decided to lie down thinking that it was because of the vigil I had the night before. I was in that state when my phone rang. The caller was the girl with my mother and she said she was dead.
She ate amala for lunch and requested bread for dinner. As they were preparing it, she went to the toilet. It was when she didn’t come out on time that the girl went to check and saw that she was dead. We went to her house that night. I took her to the hospital but they rejected her because they knew she was dead. We felt there was something they could do. She didn’t die after a prolonged illness and wasn’t born in 1936 as reported after her death. She was born on May 12, 1935.
How do you feel with her demise?
She is irreplaceable (burst into prolonged tears)
