The Sage and his Jewel: A society wedding in Ikenne Remo, By Tayo Agunbiade

“A society wedding took place at Ikenne Remo on Sunday December 26, when Mr Obafemi Awolowo was married to Miss Hannah Adelana according to the rites of the Church of England. The service started at 2.30 pm and Mr St Micheal A Oyewole of the Co-operative Office, Ibadan was the best-man.”

In this piece, the “Sage”, as we know, was an appellation given to the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, while the “Jewel” referred to his wife, the late Chief Mrs Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo. The term “Jewel” was his very public affectionate description of her during a birthday celebration back in the 1980s. At that time, he called her a “jewel of inestimable value.” This proved to be a memorable statement and I can recall vividly that it captured the imagination of the media then. Their lives are documented in many books and articles and we know that they got married in 1937.

But what do we know about the actual wedding ceremony? On Sunday, 26 December of that year, the West African Pilot, owned by late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, sent a reporter to cover the event in Ikenne-Remo, in the then Ijebu-Remo Province.

This narration is based in part on a faded newspaper report of their wedding. It’s a piece of history worth sharing about the day the Sage took the hand of his Jewel in marriage at St Saviour’s Anglican Church. With the headline, “A society wedding in Ikenne Remo,” the opening paragraph of the report goes:

“A society wedding took place at Ikenne Remo on Sunday December 26, when Mr Obafemi Awolowo was married to Miss Hannah Adelana according to the rites of the Church of England. The service started at 2.30 pm and Mr St Micheal A Oyewole of the Co-operative Office, Ibadan was the best-man.”

The couple were described as belonging to “notable families in the town” and Awolowo is said to have made “wide connections” as a teacher, journalist, produce trader and motor transporter owner. This was well before he became a lawyer, nationalist politician and public servant, which were what he became better known as, particularly in the Western Region, where he became Premier in 1954.

Reverend S. O. Mafe of Sagamu officiated the ceremony at the modest church and the bride’s comportment as she entered the modest church, did not escape the attention of the reporter: “The bride who wore a silver-laced dress and carried a bouquet of natural flowers, came at 2.30 pm and leaned on the arm of her father.”

A well-known bridal hymn “The Voice that breathed over Eden” was played by the church organist, Mr I. Sotire of the Health Office, Lagos, while Reverend A. Asekun of Iperu delivered the sermon.

At the end of the church service, the signing of the marriage register was witnessed by the bride’s father, her uncle, as well as Messrs M.A. Oyewole, J. A. Solanke, I. Opayemi, Mrs A. Asekun and a representative of the West African Pilot.

The couple were described as belonging to “notable families in the town” and Awolowo is said to have made “wide connections” as a teacher, journalist, produce trader and motor transporter owner. This was well before he became a lawyer, nationalist politician and public servant, which were what he became better known as, particularly in the Western Region, where he became Premier in 1954.

The reception was described as “very grand”: “After the church service, the bride and bridegroom led a procession of about one dozen cars and lorries to St Saviour’s School Hall where the bridal cake was cut and where the reception took place.”

Mr J. A. Solanke of UAC, who earlier witnessed the signing of the register, was the Master of Ceremony and Mr E. A. P. Ajagbe, Senior Tutor, Wesley College Ibadan, proposed the toast of the bride and bridegroom. Although the report states that Awolowo responded to the toast, we are not told what he said.

Going by what we know of him, we can only imagine what the Sage, already a teacher and journalist, would have stood up to say about his bride and respect for the vows of the institution of marriage.

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Years later, he became known for his penchant for making memorable speeches. For instance, when he relinquished his post as Premier to proceed to the House of Representatives in 1959, he said the following about his premiership:

“Free primary education, free medical treatment for all children up to the age of eighteen, free government cinemas, loans and subsidies to farmers…minimum wage for workers, housing scheme, television – all these were first introduced in this Region.”

In his post-sentence speech for treasonable felony, years later, he said, interalia:

“…Naturally, in the course of my long political activities, I have attracted to myself, a sizeable crop of detractors and adversaries. Similarly, I have in my time known both setbacks and triumphs and have met both with equal mind.

This is as it should be. Peter, not Peter the Apostle, but Peter the hero of Hugh Walpole’s novel, Fortitude, said: ‘It isn’t life that matters; but the courage you bring to it.’ After life had done terrible things to Peter, he heard a voice that said among other things: Blessed be these things, for of these things cometh the making of a man.’ In the words of Peter therefore, I declare: ‘Blessed be your verdict which you have just pronounced on me. And in advance I also say ‘Blessed be the sentence as it may please your Lordship to impose upon me.’ I personally welcome any sentence you may impose upon me.”

We are told the church was crowded with groups of people from Lagos, Abeokuta and Ibadan, and quite naturally as the reporter put it, “A multitude of the town’s people”. So who was at the august event in Ikenne Remo? The roll call included Messrs Oluwole Solso, R.A. Fetuga, O. Aina, O. Akande, I. Awojinrin, I. Akinsanya, O. Odedina, M.S. Sowole. Female guests were listed as C. Somolu, E. P. Ajagbe and R. Oyewole.

Hannah too was a politician in her own right. She was the national leader of the women’s wing of the Action Group and was a robust campaigner too. In the run-up to the 1960 regional elections, the rival political parties received some of her rhetoric. The Daily Service of August 1960 covered her campaigns and provided reportage under headlines and quotes attributed to her such as, “NCNC will bring confusion to West – Mrs Awo”; “NCNC, NPC want to retard progress in West;” and “Azikiwe knows NCNC will fail in West says Mrs Awolowo.”

But all these statements were some 20 plus years after. For now, the town was agog with what the paper described as a high society wedding of Obafemi and Hannah.

Next came the photograph session, which was conducted by Mr A. Eboda, described as a “professional photographer from Ibadan.”

Those who became a part of history in that day’s photo shoot by Eboda included the couple’s families, friends, as well as representatives of Ibadan and Abeokuta produce and motor unions. This is hardly surprising as these were the groups of people and communities Awolowo turned to when he sought “Freedom from British Rule” and formed the Action Group at his Oke Ado residence in 1951. They formed the bulk of grassroots membership and sent the party into power in the Region for at least ten years.

What followed is what always follows up till this day, though with a slight difference. These days, both families converge at a reception hall for merry-making, but at the Awolowo wedding, we learnt: “Then followed the general merriment and feasting in the school hall and the respective houses of the contracting parties. This merriment continued late to about midnight when the crowd dispersed leaving their best wishes for a happy married life to Mr and Mrs Awolowo.”

This means there were parties in the family houses of Adelana and Awolowo as well.

We are told the church was crowded with groups of people from Lagos, Abeokuta and Ibadan, and quite naturally as the reporter put it, “A multitude of the town’s people”. So who was at the august event in Ikenne Remo? The roll call included Messrs Oluwole Solso, R.A. Fetuga, O. Aina, O. Akande, I. Awojinrin, I. Akinsanya, O. Odedina, M.S. Sowole. Female guests were listed as C. Somolu, E. P. Ajagbe and R. Oyewole.

Thus, concluded the news coverage of the wedding ceremony of the Awolowos in the West African Pilot.

Tayo Agunbiade is the author of Emerging From the Margins: Women’s Experiences in Colonial and Contemporary Nigerian History.