Rosemary Inyama

Rosemary Inyama (born Rosemary Ike; 11 November 1913, date of death unknown) was a Nigerian Igbo educator, politician, businesswoman and community developer from Arochukwu, in what is now Abia State, Nigeria.

Early life and education

Inyama was born on 11 November 1913 to Mazi Okoronkwo Ike and Madam Otonahu Ike in Arochukwu, Igboland, Nigeria. She attended the Mary Slessor Memorial School, where she later became a teacher. She married fellow teacher P.K. Inyama in 1934 and resigned from formal teaching upon marriage.

Business career

In 1935, Inyama established a Domestic Science and Business Training Centre, which became a profitable enterprise teaching women practical skills for both employment and home management.

In 1942, she obtained a licence for buying gold and began importing gold from Ghana to create jewellery, becoming one of the first women in her area to hold a bank account, at the African Continental Bank in Aba. She subsequently entered a trading partnership buying and selling foodstuffs, a business that continued until the Nigerian Civil War (1967 to 1970).

Community and political work

Inyama founded the Girl Guides in the Arochukwu district and helped establish a motherless babies home in 1965. During the Nigerian Civil War, she brought together the Ututu, Ihechiowa, Isu, Ewe and Arochukwu communities under the banner of the Association of Arochukwu Women.

She was a member of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) and organised the women's wing of the party in her district. She was a successful businesswoman who educated all her children at university and dedicated herself to improving the lives of women in her community, receiving several awards for her service.

Family

Inyama and her husband P.K. Inyama had four children. Their daughter Hycientha Inyama Nwauba became the Consul-General for Nigeria in New York, United States. Their other children were Nnenna Inyama, Jennifer Inyama and Okoro Inyama.