Rafiatu Adunni Oyelade
Premium memorialLovingly known as “Iya Alata”
2 June 1948 — 9 January 2022 · aged 73
Iyaloja of Mushin's pepper sellers who fed a neighbourhood and schooled sixty girls
Lagos, Nigeria Born in Abeokuta, Ogun State Resting at Family burial ground, AbeokutaAbout Rafiatu
Before the first call to prayer, the lamp at stall 14 in Mushin Market was already lit, and Alhaja Rafiatu Oyelade was already arguing happily with a lorry driver about the price of tatashe. For more than fifty years that was the rhythm of her life, and half of Lagos learned to season its stew by her measure.
Born in Abeokuta in 1948, Rafiatu was the fourth of nine children of a cloth dyer and his wife. She left school after primary six at Ansar-Ud-Deen so that her younger brothers could stay in class, and at nineteen she travelled to Lagos with one basket of dried pepper and an address written on a torn piece of paper. By 1970 she had her own stall, a husband in Alhaji Lateef Oyelade, and a reputation: she never cheated a scale and never turned a hungry child away.
Her fellow traders made her Iyaloja of the Mushin pepper sellers in 1992, and she held the title for twenty-seven years. She settled quarrels over stall boundaries, negotiated with the local government when levies rose, and quietly paid the school fees of more than sixty apprentice girls, each of whom was expected to learn to read, to count and to speak up for herself. 'A woman who can count,' she liked to say, 'is never cheated twice.'
She performed Hajj in 2004, and the photograph from Arafat stood on every shelf in her home. She loved ofada rice, old Fuji records, and the Friday evening hour when her grandchildren crowded onto her bed to hear the same three stories again. She died peacefully at home in January 2022, surrounded by her children, having spent her last week on the telephone reconciling two feuding traders.
She is survived by her sons and daughter, nineteen grandchildren, and a market that still keeps a lamp lit at stall 14.
“A woman who can count is never cheated twice.”
- Faith
- Muslim
- Place of birth
- Abeokuta, Ogun State
- Resting place
- Family burial ground, Abeokuta
- Passed away
- 9 January 2022, Lagos
Janazah Prayer
Monday, 10 January 2022 at 12:00 UTC
Add to calendarMemorial fund
Funeral & apprentice scholarship fund
Help the family cover the funeral and fidau costs and keep Iya Alata's scholarship for apprentice girls going.
$2,413 raised of $4,000
60%20 recent contributions
- RK
Rev. Hone Kupa gave $47.50 · 4y ago
- LB
Liya Berhanu gave $190 · 4y ago
“In honour of a great man.”
- JB
Janet Barasa gave $142.50 · 4y ago
“From your old classmates.”
- SH
Salim Hamad gave $190 · 4y ago
- RN
Rosa Navarro gave $142.50 · 4y ago
Life journey
Primary education
Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School1954 – 1960 · Abeokuta
Left after primary six so her younger brothers could stay in school.
Moved to Lagos
1967 · Lagos
Arrived with one basket of dried pepper and a scrap of paper with an address.
Pepper and condiment trader
Mushin Market1968 – 2020 · Lagos
Stall 14, open before dawn for fifty-two years.
Married Alhaji Lateef Oyelade
1970 – 2011 · Lagos
A marriage of forty-one years.
Iyaloja of the Pepper Sellers
Mushin Market Traders' Association1992 – 2019 · Lagos
Settled disputes, negotiated levies and sponsored apprentice girls.
Performed Hajj
2004 · Makkah
Travelled with her sister and two of her daughters.
Community Service Award
Mushin Local Government2011 · Lagos
For decades of support to young women in trade.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Rafiatu is survived by
- Kafayat Oyelade-Bello· Daughter
- Dr. Wasiu Oyelade· Son
- Hassan Oyelade· Son
- 19 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Rafiatu.
Knew Rafiatu? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- HO
Grandson, Houston
Grandma told me when I left for Texas that a stall is just a table until you give it your name. I run a small logistics firm now and I still hear her voice every time I sign an invoice. Rest well, Iya Alata.
- CO
Tomato supplier from Nnewi, customer of thirty years
A Yoruba Muslim woman and an Igbo Catholic man, and we never once disagreed on the price of a basket, because she always told me the fair one before I could name it. Nobody in the market was ever more honest, or more loved.
- RO
Cousin, London
Every Eid she would send a parcel to London with ata rodo packed so tightly in newspaper that the whole flat smelled of Mushin for a week. My children grew up on her pepper. We could not make the flight in time, but we prayed with the family on the live call.
- AB
Former apprentice, now owns a shop in Ikeja
She paid my fees at secondary school and then told me to open my own stall instead of working for anybody. 'Be your own Iyaloja,' she said. I now employ four girls, and I tell each of them the same thing.
- AL
Chairman, Mushin traders' union
In thirty years I never saw her lose an argument, and I never saw her hold a grudge afterwards. When levies doubled in 2009 it was Iya Alata who walked into the council office with a calculator and a flask of zobo. We went home with the old rates.
- FA
Fellow trader at Mushin Market
Iya Alata gave me my first ten kilos of pepper on credit in 1998 when all I had was a sick husband and a loud voice. She told me to pay when I could. I paid in two years and she hugged me like I had won a prize. She never mentioned it again.
