Who Was Wuraola Esan?

Esan was born in March 1909 in Calabar to the Ojo-badan family of Ibadan. Her father, Thomas Ojo-Ade, was a veteran soldier of World War I and fifth in the line of succession to the Ibadan throne. Her mother, Ajike Ojo Aina, popularly called Iya Gbogbo (mother of all), was a self-made businesswoman. As at the start of the twentieth century, the British colonial administration did not encourage the education of girls in Nigeria but Esan’s parents recognized the importance of the acquisition of Western education for their female children.

As such, between 1921 and 1923, Esan was educated at Sacred Heart Covenant School in Ibadan for her primary education. In 1927, she graduated from Idi-Aba Baptist Girls School, Abeokuta and later went to pursue her teacher training education at the United Missionary College (UMC), Molete, Ibadan. In 1935, she began teaching at Methodist Girls’ High School (MGHS) in Lagos—a school prestigiously known for the secondary education of girls in Nigeria.