Why Yesufu and Ikpe-Etim made the 2020 BBC 100 Women list

Among millions of women making significant difference in their respective countries, only a hundred were fortunate to make the 2020 British Broadcasting Corporation 100 Women list, with the theme: ‘Women who led change’. Among these 100 women were Aisha Yesufu and Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim, both from Nigeria.

The BBC 100 Women team draws up a shortlist based on names gathered by them and suggested by the BBC’s network of World Service languages team. “We are looking for candidates who had made the headlines or influenced important stories over the past 12 months, as well as those who have inspiring stories to tell,” the BBC said announced at the beginning of the exercise.

Aisha Yesufu, in a recent The Guardian newspaper article, was described as the ‘Voice of humanity’. The Edo State-born hijab-wearing activist and revolutionary has been demanding good governance and accountability from the Nigerian government for a long time now. In fact, one of the sentences in her Twitter bio is: “You would either love me or hate me, and either is perfectly okay!”

Raised in northern Nigeria where women’s voices are rarely heard, Yesufu was always making her voice heard. Her ability to speak up was attributed to her love for books. She admitted that reading made her to realise that, “There was a world beyond the ghetto that I was growing up in… and I wanted that life.”

Perhaps, Yesufu came into limelight as the co-convener of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign that was launched in response to the 2014 abduction of more than two hundred girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, by the Boko Haram insurgents. Since the BBOG, Nigerians have shown the zeal to speak up against the government.

On the other hand, she noted that there is fear that if someone speaks against the government, they might be killed. She told The Guardian that, “The worst thing anyone can do is to kill me. I’m going to die anyway. It’s another kind of death if I’m not able to express myself.”

Some of the things Yesufu dedicates her life to are feminism and gender advocacy. She once admitted that she had no female friends by the time she was eleven years old because they were all married off or dead, mostly during childbirth. She believes that relegating women to the background is not about Islam. She once said that during her time, as a girl, girls were not supposed to have a voice, adding that she often got into trouble for speaking up and that was good for her.

“When people say ‘Don’t you know you’re a woman?’ I tell them I don’t know,” she said. “If you check my Twitter, you’d see I don’t really do labels. I don’t see myself as male or female, activist or anything. I am me.”

One of the prominent figures of the recent EndSARS protests in the country was Yesufu. Even when her involvement in the protests attracted criticisms from northern Muslims, some of whom threatened to kill her, she did not back down.

After warning the protesters against distraction and division, she lamented that Nigerians have no trust in the government anymore, adding in a recent the BBC news article that, “EndSARS is a fight for the next generation of Nigerians.”

The BBC, in recognising Aisha Yesufu for the 100 Women, described her as “a Nigerian activist demanding good governance in her country.” In the BBC website, Yesufu was quoted to have said, “My advice for women is to fully and unapologetically take their place in the world. Women should stop asking for a place at the table—they should create their own table.”

The other Nigerian on the BBC 100 Women is Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim, a filmmaker, producer and activist.

Ikpe-Etim came into limelight when she co-produced a queer Nigerian film with Pamela Adie, titled ‘Ife’. The title of the same-sex film was taken from the word for ‘love’ in Yoruba. Perhaps, this is the first time such a film is coming out of Nigeria, a country that leads the African movie industry.

Speaking with the BBC, Ikpe-Etim said this about the movie. “Before now, we’ve been told one-sided stories. What we’re doing with this film is normalising the queer experience,” adding that she wanted queer people to “see themselves as represented as regular human beings who fall in love, who’ve their hearts broken, who break hearts, who love their families, etc.”

The co-producer of the film, Pamela Adie told the BBC that one rarely sees a film about queer people in Nigeria, and that ‘Ife’ was made to bridge the gap and get the conversation going in the country. She noted that the film is also a story about pain, a feeling many people could relate to.

Recall that in 2014, the Nigerian government approved into law the Same-sex Marriage Prohibition Act (SSMPA), which stipulates that anyone found guilty of same-sex marriage faces up to fourteen years in prison. In fact, a poll conducted by The Initiative for Equal Rights (TIERs) showed that 90 per cent of Nigerians supported the SSMPA law.

Like most Nigerians and Africans, the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) has frowned on the film. The Executive Director of NFVCB, Adedayo Thomas, told CNN that the board will not approve films that promote themes that do not conform to Nigeria’s constitution, morals and tradition.

In an interview with the BBC, Thomas said, “There is a standing law that prohibits homosexuality, either in practice or in a movie or even in a theatre or on a stage. If its content is from Nigeria, it has to be censored.”

Thomas stressed that if the film did not pass through NFVCB, and it is released, the filmmakers would be prosecuted. About the online release of the film, the NFVCB boss said they would pull it down because they have collaboration with Google, YouTube, and other key players.

Consequently, the criticisms and backlash have prompted the producers of ‘Ife’ not to release it locally, but had planned to release it online on December 10, on Human Rights Day. The BBC reported that the film producers are planning an online release of the film through pay-on demand.

The BBC, in recognising Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim for the 100 Women, described her as a “a feminist filmmaker, director and LGBTQ+ activist, who has committed herself to creating stories about marginalised groups in Nigeria.” In the BBC website, Ikpe-Etim was quoted to have said, “Women, please keep taking up spaces and don’t stop telling the stories of those whose voices have been taken from them.”

The BBC noted that this year’s 100 Women list highlighted those who are leading changes and making a difference during these turbulent times. It stated that the initiative was designed to allow people to think of those who have had an impact on them over the cause of 2020.

The 100 Women list included Sanna Marin, who leads Finland’s  all female coalition government; Sarah Gilbert, who heads the Oxford University research into a coronavirus vaccine; as well as Jane Fonda, a climate activist and actress.

“And in an extraordinary year—when countless women around the world have made sacrifice to help others—one name on the 100 Women list has been left blank as a tribute,” the BBC said.

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