She met and married a brother of a Church member in Ibadan, and they now have two young daughters. Daramola has worked as a teacher, an accountant, and also a caterer. She also has a small business producing coconut oil, a skill she learned at a Relief Society Enrichment night.
Reflecting on women’s issues in Nigeria, Daramola recounts the stigmas against divorce and the way women stay in abusive marriages. She also points to the social inequality that Nigerian women confront, saying that men do not consider women their equals in Nigeria. She thinks that far too often, husbands don’t treat wives as equal partners and don’t respect their opinions. This dynamic is present in many Latter-day Saint marriages in Nigeria, she reports, and she finds that too often women are taught to be submissive to their husbands in Relief Society classes.
Daramola loves the teachings of the Church, the community, and the skills she has been taught through the Church. Particularly important to her are the concepts of agency, personal revelation, and a benevolent God who knows her personally. If she could add one thing to current Latter-day Saint practice, she would like women to be given the priesthood so that women could have more authority to speak up in marriages and in the Church.
Read or listen to Daramola Blessing’s full oral history.
