Born on May 21, 1913, to the Egba family of the Lagos lawyer Olawolu Moore, Lady Kofoworola Ademola was a Nigerian educationalist, writer and advocate for women’s education.
She was the first Black African woman to be awarded a degree from the University of Oxford.
Kofoworola studied English Literature and Education at St Hugh’s College, Oxford from 1932 to 1935 and was set on becoming a teacher. Her time at St Hugh’s College was also significant in that she paved the way for more black women to study at Oxford. She wrote a biography during her time at Oxford about her life and experiences, a book which challenged the stereotypes of African people in 1930s Britain. Her account appeared in colonial civil servant and historian Margery Perham’s 1936 collection, Ten Africans, a book of cultural importance both at its time of publication and today. Kofoworola understood from her own experience the benefits of cultural collaboration and felt that meeting people from other cultures would improve peoples’ cultural understanding, providing the potential to create a more peaceable world. With this in mind, she suggested that at least two African women should be admitted to study at Oxford each year.
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As the only African woman at Oxford, Kofoworola said that she was regarded as a “’curio’ or some weird specimen…, not as an ordinary human being.” And that people would make “ineffectual remarks about our ‘amazing cleverness’ at being able to speak English and wear English clothes.”
Kofoworola worked tirelessly to advocate for women’s education and women’s rights more broadly. Having attained her degree from Oxford, she returned to Nigeria to fulfil her ambition of becoming a teacher. Kofoworola began teaching at a prestigious girls’ school in Lagos and co-founded two new schools for girls: the Girls Secondary Modern School in Lagos and New Era Girls’ Secondary School, Lagos where she also worked as a teacher and head teacher.
She wrote numerous children’s books, often basing her tales in the folklore of West Africa. Her stories include Tortoise and the Clever Ant and Tutu and the Magic Gourds, which form part of the Mudhut Book series.
In 1939, she married Adetokunbo Ademola, a civil servant. They had five children. As the wife of a Yoruba prince, she was entitled to the style of Oloori – and as the daughter of one, she was herself an Omoba as well – but due to the fact that her husband was also a knight, it is as Lady Kofoworola Ademola that she was best known.
In 1958, Kofoworola Ademola was elected the first president of Nigeria’s National Council of Women’s Societies where she continued to advance the rights and representation of women. She became the first Nigerian woman to be appointed Secretary of the Western Region Scholarship Board, a department of the Ministry of Education.
Kofoworola also became director of the Western Region of the Red Cross. She was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1959 by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and an Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) in Nigeria by Tafawa Balewa’s government for her ongoing work and contribution to Nigerian society. She continued her work up until her death in 2002 at age 89.
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