CORA hosts book reading, signing for Olugbile’s ‘Pelewura’

By Editor

THE Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), as part of its Book Trek series, will host Mr. Femi Olugbile, as he engages with booklovers and signs copies of his book Pelewura tomorrow, Friday, December 29, 2023 at RovingHeights Bookstore, Retail Boulevard, Landmark Events Centre, Plot 263 Water Corporation Drive, Oniru, Victoria Island, Lagos. The event will take place from 4-6 pm. The event will feature a live interview with the author, to be conducted by writer and critic, Mr. Kunle Ajibade. The author will be available to answer questions from the public. Pelewura was launched at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, on November 15, 2023.

Pelewura is a book about the life and times of the founder of the Lagos Market Women’s Association, written by Femi Olugbile, Alimotu Pelewura. It is a work of ‘faction’ that celebrates one of the greatest heroines in the history of Lagos. It captures the essence of Lagos life in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and brings to life such notable figures as Herbert Macaulay and Esugbayi Eleko, as well as Henry Carr and Bernard Bourdillon.

Femi Olugbile

Pelewura describes famous battles such as the resistance against the Pullen Regulations of the colonial government which sought to control the price and supply of garri and other local staple foods, and the fight against the taxation of women. It also captures the battle to wrest control of land from the hands of government back to the traditional landowners, a battle that went all the way to the Privy Council in London. There is also the story of the deposition of the Eleko by the colonial government, and the struggle to ensure his re-instatement. In all of these, Pelewura and her market women played a leading role alongside the indefatigable Herbert Macaulay.