Abigail Eebudola was born on the 28th of October, 1909 to Chief Kelani Afuwape and Madam Banjoko Afuwape in Oba village, Egba Kingdom.

Her father was a successful produce farmer who owned vast cocoa and kola nut plantations. He also owned a forest of palm trees and founded a successful palm oil manufacturing business. Her mother was a trader involved in marketing the produce from her husband’s farm.

The family relocated to Balufe compound, Ago-Oba, Abeokuta, when her father became the Balogun of Oba just before Mama Eebudola's eighteenth birthday. She was one of eight children by her mother for her father and the first daughter with five brothers preceding her and a sister and brother after her.

Early Years

Mama spent her early life assisting her mother with her trade. While her brothers were enrolled in school, the long, daily trek was a deterrent to mama who concluded that what those who went to school earned as wages was not worth the trouble.

At about twenty-one, the very year the Centenary Hall was opened in Abeokuta, Mama Eebudola switched gear from selling farm produce to selling imported chinaware - awo tanganran - which she sourced from Lagos. According to her, the journey to Lagos took her and fellow traders three days by foot, but upon returning, her turnover made the arduous journey worth her while. She made sufficient money from her trade to eventually acquire two mammy wagons to transport her wares.

Marriage, Divorce & Re-Marriage

Mama was so successful in her business that men her age were too intimidated to approach her with a marriage proposition. However, she eventually settled for a man popularly called Baba Ajura who sold plots of land in Ajura village. Mama acquired several plots through him and built her first house.

This first marriage did not last very long because Mama was barren; she eventually opted out of the marriage when her husband and his family alleged that she had scarified her “eggs” in exchange for wealth. In agony, she left the house for Baba Ajura, sold some of her land, gave some to her friends, and returned to her father’s house as the reproach of barrenness caused her significant grief and sorrow as well as subsequent business setbacks.

Career Change

Upon returning to her father’s house, Mama learnt the art of Art Rire and Adire (Indigo Dyeing and Tie-an-dye) form her mother who had become proficient in the trade. Mama’s sister, Falilat, was a fellow apprentice, and they both went on to establish successful businesses of their own. In addition to bouncing back business wise, God had another plan for Mama Eebudola then in her mid-30s without a husband or child.

In 1944, during one of the Muslim festivals, Chief Sanni Adekunle Bakare, the Anibi Juwon and Otun of Iporo Sodeke Muslims, and the first son of the first Chief Imam of Iporo Sodeke mosque, visited his friend, the Balogun of Oba, Chief Kelani Afuwape - Mama’s father. Chief Sanni was served a sumptuous meal cooked by Mama for the guests at the occasion.

In the course of their discussion, Chief Sanni expressed his interest in marrying Eebudola whose father had told him of the circumstances surrounding her failed marriage. Marriage rites were concluded within that year and Mama was given a new name, Wulaimot, amidst an outpouring of prayers and hope that her barrenness would be reversed.

Mama was well-received in her new home and she became the “official chef” to a wealthy farmer with vast cocoa and kola nut plantations in the South as well as a large cotton farm in Sokoto, Northern Nigeria, which earned him the nickname Sanni Arewa.

In spite of the turn of the tide in her favour, the reproach of barrenness remained for another eight years, after which she gave birth to her first child who passed away shortly after delivery.

She contemplated returning to her father’s house once again due to excessive sorrow and humiliation, but she had nowhere to go because her father died around the same time. This was a particularly difficult period because her father was her formidable pillar of strength. However, like Hannah of old, God had mercy on Mama, turned her sorrow into joy and her mourning into dancing by opening her womb again and blessing her with a son, Gbolahan Babatunde Bakare, the 22nd and last child of Chief Sanni Adekunle Bakare, born on the 11th of November, 1954.

The profound joy in the family occasioned by the new addition was again short-lived as her husband, Chief Sanni Adekunle Bakare, died on September 7, 1957 after a prolonged illness. Following the death of her husband, Mama became even more enterprising as she was entirely responsible for herself and her son, and she established three different streams of income. In a storey building in Kobiti, she opened a shop where she sold garrison and plantain at wholesale and retail prices; at the Itoku market, she maintained her Adire businesses; and at Isabo market, she had a store for her kola nut trade from where her produce was regularly transported to Northern Nigeria.

A major breakthrough came for her in 1975 through her Adire trade when she participated in a workshop co-ordinated by Augusta Sandstrom, a lecturer in the Fine Art Department at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, who also acted as a translator. Mama was selected to travel to America exclusively for the purpose of showcasing her textile artistry.

Over the course of several weeks, Mama creatively displayed her Adire wares and taught master classes on several university campuses in several cities, demonstration how Africans made their clothes before the advent of Europeans. Mama was the first to travel to Europe and America in the entire Afuwape and Bakare clans.

Upon her return to Nigeria, she performed a holy pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina as a devoted Muslim to thank God who gave her the breakthrough.

In 1985, Mama left her shops for others to run and relocated to Lagos, her maternal grandmother’s homestead, to live with her son and help his family when his first child, Olubunmi, was born.

It was the dedication of her granddaughter at the Redeemed Christian Church of God Headquarters, Ebute Metta, that Mama encountered Jesus Christ in a spectacular way and received Him as Lord and Saviour in 1985.

She was subsequently baptised by immersion at the same church during their 1985 Annual Convention at the Redemption Camp and was christened Abigail. From that day till she breathed her last, she remained a devoted Christian. The testimony of her steadfast faith and compassion exemplified her godly character and encouraged others in the Lord.

Upon her return to Abeokuta in 1993, after assisting with raising her grandchildren, Mama returned to the helm of her various businesses and also became a member of Victory Life Bible Church, Abeokuta, where she was subsequently ordained an elder in April 2006.

On the 23rd of March, 2017, at the Nigerian institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Mama received the Adire Celebrity Award (2017) in recognition of her immense contribution over the decades towards the growth and development of Adire fashion in Nigeria and worldwide, on the occasion of a public presentation of a book titled Adire Eleko Fabric Art: A Vanishing Nigerian Indigo Impression by Prof. Tunde M. Akinwunmi.

Mama slept in the Lord aged one hundred and eight years old on the 5th of May, 2018 at 2:00pm. In her son’s house. Her exit was peaceful and glorious. She is survived by her son and his wife, Pastor and Mrs. ‘Tunde Bakare, her daughter, Deaconess Titilayo Bakare, stepson, Mr. Similoluwa Bakare, grandchildren, great grand children, and nieces and nephews.

May her gentle and illustrious soul rest in perfect peace. Amen.