Uche Umolu, a 24-year-old recent graduate from Humber College, Toronto Canada with a bachelor’s in commerce [digital business management] is the voice for several women being subjected to the farfetched reality of the patriarchy, misogyny and the dangers of simply being a woman.
Uche’s journey began in 2015 with a Tumblr blog account dedicated to victims of rape and sexual assault who wished to share their stories anonymously; Youareneveraloneng.tumblr.com became a community of survivors and listeners with countless women and men sharing stories and shoulders to lean on.
Several months ago, in 2018; during a huge twitter frenzy amongst fed up Nigerian young adults, Nelo lent a voice to women and male survivors by reporting people’s stories and publicly exposing the predators. She did this keeping in mind that it was reasonably the only way to getting anything close to justice as the Nigerian legal system certainly doesn’t work in favor of the average Nigerian and certainly not in favor of women. The #MeToo movement in Nigeria there on has been rampant and certainly an everyday discussion topic for many people in the country.
Nelo’s twitter influence eventually paved a way for the non-profit she founded known as The Consent Workshop. “We are a youth led movement and we deconstruct rape culture through consent education and by raising awareness and provision of resources; consent education for us is running interactive workshops that teach kids, youth, adults and the public about rape culture, consent, ways to spot sexual violence if someone is at risk, ways to prevent sexual violence, the signs you should look out for etc.” The program is divided into two categories, one for the general community and the other being the school outreach for University and Secondary school students. The program currently runs with 20 school representatives on raising awareness and conducting workshops. Raising awareness according to Nelo is important; “people don’t talk about these things, but I DO” she tells me very passionately and secondly, she speaks on providing resources such as mental health programs in order to help people through their trauma etc.
TCW’s aim is to push the conversation further than the youth’s minds and social media and to the adults and older generation. As we know talking about it leaves less room for it to persist. TCW currently runs in Nigeria, Ghana, the U.K and Canada and has no plan on slowing down.
I asked Ms. Umolu how all this affects her emotionally and mentally, being as she has become a prominent face of activism for women and victims of abuse therefore exposing her to several comments focused on demeaning her person and just generally giving room for negativity from both men AND women.
“I literally don’t care” – Nelo. Your comments don’t affect this young visionary as she proves to be a resilient personality, focused on eradicating rape culture regardless of what individuals might have to say. She tells me of her big support system that keeps her motivated as well as the individuals and victims that seek her help and validate her purpose in their own way. Regardless of her evident strong personality, Nelo suffers from clinical depression and uses this purpose in catering for herself. ‘We die here’, she says.
Next, I asked her about her background and how her history has shaped her into being the woman she is today.
Uche Umolu grew up in a liberal household with a father that you could consider being the opposite of a typical Nigerian dad. And secondly being a survivor of rape and abuse she has turned her pain and experiences into motivation and has been her own form of feeling for a long while now.
What do you have to say for women who are very much enlightened about the patriarchy in which our society runs in but still choose to remain in that mind set? For those who are convinced that they belong 2nd place to a man.
Nelo’s response shocked me to say the least, she believes that although it is disappointing for educated and enlightened women who insist not to unlearn the culture, she completely understands the difficulty of fighting for a cause without turning your life into a living hell. She believes that the women who are blinded by the system continue to stay that way regardless of their knowledge because it is hard enough to prosper as a woman alone not to speak of prospering as a woman fighting against the patriarchy.
I followed Nelo’s response with a question on her opinion of people who continually suggest that modern day feminists are unfocused hence why they choose not to subscribe to the movement; she responded by pointing out that the feminist movement is huge and combined by different struggles be it rape culture, women’s ability to live freely, rights, abortion etc. She believes there’s not much difference between what we’re facing now to what women were facing decades and centuries ago, although modified.
I then asked the bright activist how her journey has and currently affects her romantic relationships and interesting enough for her they don’t but she understands that there might be a time where such happens but according to her boohoo.
Uche Umolu is a brilliant example of women taking control of what their histories turn out to become. In a generation where our voices are projected by social media, it is important to seize every opportunity in reminding society that women’s rights are human rights. The young visionary wishes to see more young women pursuing feminism and activism towards protecting our rights, she prays for a world where her daughter doesn’t fear for her life simply because she walks down the streets, a life where her acts are not judged by the basis of her gender, where her choices are not regulated by men, or the church, or establishments run by men and more significantly that more positions are run by women. Where women are considered ‘the heads’ and not always the tails; a world where she is not disrespected because she is unmarried at a certain age, nor one where she is “expected” to be but for her to be how she wants to be.
