The second leg of the HerStory of Nigeria School Tour was held at Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls in Lagos, deepening ASIRI Magazine’s ongoing effort to restore the largely undocumented contributions of Nigerian women to mainstream educational consciousness.

The initiative, which blends direct in-school engagements with the development of a digital archival platform, is designed to introduce secondary school students to female figures whose roles in Nigeria’s political, social and cultural evolution have received limited attention in standard school curricula.

Founder of ASIRI Magazine and curator of the project, Dr Oludamola Adebowale, said the programme was conceived out of what he described as a persistent gap in the documentation of women’s history in Nigeria, particularly for the period spanning the 19th and early 20th centuries.

According to him, many of the women who shaped communities, economies and politics during that era remain absent from textbooks and public memory.

He explained that the project operates through two complementary channels. The first is a structured in-school engagement series that brings historical content, conversations and mentorship directly to students.

The second is an online archival platform currently being developed to house photographs, documents, oral histories and biographies of Nigerian women.

The repository, he said, is intended to serve scholars, educators, students, and the general public as a central research resource on women’s contributions to nation-building.

“The very core of Nigerian history is because of these women who did amazing exploits in the 1800s and in the 1900s. So the history is not really out there as it should be. This is more like a wake-up call to preserve, archive and document this history,” Adebowale said.

He noted that schools visited as part of the tour have begun to take concrete steps to sustain engagement beyond one-day visits. Some have established history clubs, while others have invited mentors for ongoing discussions with students.

He described these developments as the initiative’s most visible measure of impact so far.

For the current cycle, the target is 10 schools in Lagos. Adebowale said plans are already in place to scale the tour nationally in subsequent editions, with the aim of reaching students across different regions and contexts.

He added that the programme is currently self-funded, sustained through personal resources and the support of a limited network of partners.

He described it as a labour of love in the absence of full-scale sponsorship, but expressed optimism that broader institutional support would follow as awareness of the project grows.

The Director of Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Olufunke Fowler-Amba, received the delegation and described the tour as timely and significant.

She said that access to women’s history had personally shaped her understanding of global events and civic realities, and that similar exposure would broaden the students’ worldviews.

“If we knew more about the history of Nigeria and the women especially who paved the way for us, I think we would understand that Nigerian women are mighty,” Fowler-Amba said.

Drawing from her personal encounters, she highlighted several pioneering Nigerian women whose legacies remain under-recognised in national memory.

Among them were Mrs Folake Solanke (SAN); Lady Oyinkan Abayomi; and Lady Kofoworola Ademola.

She described Ademola as the first black African woman to earn a degree from Oxford University, who on her return to Nigeria devoted her life to building schools for girls and expanding access to education for young women.

Fowler-Amba also paid tribute to a Vivian Fowler alumna, Farida Ademola-Seriki, who had studied law but later pursued music and went on to become the first Nigerian woman to win a Grammy Award in Australia. Reflecting on the legacy of the school’s founder, her mother, Dr Leila Fowler, the director recalled a defining moment from the 1970s. She said the late educationist and lawyer made the decision to run for the Vice Presidency of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) at a time when she was the only female practitioner in the race.

In recognition of the work, the school announced a financial donation to support the continuation of the tour. It expressed hope that the programme would extend beyond Lagos to other parts of the country so that more students can benefit from the content.

Also speaking at the event, Dr Emmanuel Ojibo, Chief Executive Officer of Achieving Greatness Limited, said he joined the initiative as a partner after learning about its impact on young people.

The HerStory of Nigeria project is positioned as both an archival initiative and an advocacy platform.