The Setup - "Alexander Hamilton" & The Question of Narrative Power
Hamilton opens with a question that haunts all national origin stories: "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished get up and climb?"
This is Lin-Manuel Miranda asking: WHO GETS TO BE REMEMBERED? Who gets their story told? Whose narrative survives?
Nigeria's founding story has the same problem. We celebrate Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, and Kwame Nkrumah (the "Big Four"), but how many know about Herbert Macaulay? Samuel Ajayi Crowther? Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti fighting for women's rights while the "official" founding fathers got the credit?
In "Alexander Hamilton," we meet a young immigrant with ambition. In Nigeria's founding, we meet men shaped by colonialism, educated abroad, returning to fight for independence. But like Hamilton, the question persists: who decided these men were the heroes?
The Women Who Should Have Had Songs - "Schuyler Sisters" & Africa's Founding Mothers
"Schuyler Sisters" gives us Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy. Three sisters with wit and intelligence and opinions. But here's the thing: they're supporting characters in their own lives. They're helping the men. They're vessels for the narrative.
Nigeria had women revolutionaries: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Adeyinka Gladys Folarin, Ini Edo-Obong, countless others. But their songs? The nation never wrote them. Their "shot"? Never acknowledged as equal to the men's.
The Schuyler Sisters' song is good, but it's also a trap. It makes us feel inclusive while actually centering the men. The sisters are there to be charming and smart while the men make history.
That's what happened to women in Nigeria's founding. They were allowed to be smart, to participate, to contribute, but always secondary to the men's story. Independence? Yes. But also: knowing your place. Knowing the men's ambitions came first.
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The Women Who Should Have Had Songs - "Schuyler Sisters" & Africa's Founding Mothers
That's what happened to women in Nigeria's founding. They were allowed to be smart, to participate, to contribute, but always secondary to the men's story. Independence? Yes. But also: knowing your place. Knowing the men's ambitions came first.