Kelechi Deca wrote this piece below about the “lady’s motorcycle” and how it empowered the Igbo women in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and I found it nostalgic. Because my dad bought my mum this type of motorcycle in the 70s, I learnt how to ride a motorbike at 10 years old in Nnewi before I learnt how to ride a bicycle. And because virtually every Nnewi woman had this type of motorbike, it was also nicknamed “Nwaanyị Nnewi” (Nnewi woman). Nnewi also ran the biggest motorcycle market in West Africa then, with people from Lagos, Kano, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, etc coming to buy motorcycle spare parts in Nnewi. No matter how many cars in any family, there would be this motorcycle for ease of movement.
Enjoy this beautiful piece of history by Kelechi Deca:
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Love Nwantịntị…. Reminiscences.
That was the name we called this motorcycle in the 80’s.
It was one of the most powerful liberating forces for the Igbo women of my mother’s generation. It was called Love Nwantinti after Nelly Uchendu’s song because it became a way husband’s express their love for their wives by getting them one.
Ladies Machine….
My Mum taught me how to ride a motorcycle when I was 12. I still remember every detail. My Dad didn’t approve initially, but my Mum told him that unless he agrees to be running all her errands. That caveat settled it.
It was a Honda 50, and if you grew up in Igboland from the 80’s to the year 2000’s, you can attest that it became a tradition for most women to own and ride motorcycles.
I think that that single shift in our local personal transportation system provided an unexplored lead and yet to be studied development and economic impacts in our communal and personal lives, especially the women.
The very sight of a woman riding a motorcycle in the early 80’s was something to behold. It was a conflict between fascination and beffudlement, and some more conservative minds weren’t in approval.
But it was liberating.
But before it, was the bicycle.
As a kid in the 70’s, I noticed that ordinary bicycles were gendered. We had “Igwe nwoke” and “Igwe nwanyị”, the bicycles with High-frame were tagged men’s bicycles because of the ease of scaling unto it like mounting a Horse.
In those days, it was a subtle taboo to see a woman riding a bicycle with high frame. And in the village,few of the women who defied such appendages and ride such were seen as “Oke Nwanyị”, interestingly they were the no nonsense women that villagers avoided.
My young mind was thrilled by such. There were even taboos on how a woman should sit on a bicycle if she wasn’t the one riding, and most especially if the rider was a man.
She’s expected to sit sideways. Prim and proper. Yet we had tough women who defied such unwritten rules. Dem no send. We’ve always had them in Igboland, and I believe such women got their contrarian DNA from their mothers who were possibly the ring leaders of the 1929 Aba Women’s War.
But Love Nwantinti took it to another level.
It was a propulsive liberator.
It marked the second phase of certain independence the Igbo woman had after the, pains , scars and challenges of the Biafra War thrusted huge responsibilities on her laps.
Our mothers who couldn’t go anywhere, or run their personal errands unless their husbands had time for them or were gracious enough to tweak their own schedules just to accommodate them, now had the opportunity to do their runs.
I watched my Mother dress up in the morning, start her bike, and zoom off to school without waiting for my Father to drop her. The feeling was exhilarating. Same for church, unless when the entire family is going together.
It gave our mothers in the rural communities wings to fly. A mobility that helped uplift their economic statuses in life in no small way. Its liberating impacts were phenomenal.
On market days, you’d see hundreds of women tie up their wares on the back and zoom off to the market. It helped them take their businesses to farther markets, and women buyers ride to the markets in their bikes too.
Social functions were filled with arrays of these motorcycles. In the 80’s, we had basically Japanese made bikes then, Honda C-50, Honda C-75, Yamaha 50, Suzuki 70. I still wonder why Kawasaki didn’t join the trend. Then in the 90’s we started seeing influx of Chinese products. Just like in every area of our lives.
I think Igboland has the highest number of women who can comfortably ride bikes of all sizes and capacities. Till date.
The role of Love Nwantinti in the socioeconomic lives of Igbo people was huge.
Babangida and his wife came up with their Better Life for Rural Women which was an avenue to settle their cronies in the cities. But there is no better life for the rural Igbo woman than Love Nwantinti.
It was a game changer.
Life saver.
Marriage saver.
Our untold stories….
#igbostories #lifestories #kelechideca
