Theodora Obafunmilayo Manuwa occupies an important place in the history of education and women’s advancement in twentieth-century Nigeria. Born in Lagos in 1907, she became associated with a network of schools whose origins reached back to the colonial period and whose best-known name, Aunty Ayo, survived long after her death in 1977.
Her importance lies principally in institution-building. In 1946, Manuwa established Girls Modern Academy, a primary school for girls. Her educational activities later expanded into additional schools, while Girls Modern Academy became part of Lagos’s growing educational landscape.
Her work also extended beyond education. In 1960, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for public services in the Federation of Nigeria. The following year, she was involved in the establishment of the organisation that developed into the Nigerian Federation of Business and Professional Women.
Together, these activities place Manuwa within a generation of Nigerian women whose careers crossed the final decades of colonial rule and the formative years of independence.
Theodora Obafunmilayo Manuwa and the Beginning of Girls Modern Academy
The history of the Aunty Ayo schools begins in 1946, when Manuwa founded Girls Modern Academy.
The school began as a primary school for girls during a period when access to formal education was expanding in Nigeria, although educational opportunities for girls remained uneven.
Colonial Nigeria already possessed prominent girls’ schools, many established by Christian missions, but participation in formal schooling was still shaped by gender, location, social class and family attitudes. Manuwa’s decision to establish a school directed towards girls therefore belonged to a broader movement that was gradually enlarging women’s access to formal education.
Girls Modern Academy developed into an established part of Lagos’s educational system. By 1960, it was listed among non-government post-primary schools in Lagos, with its location given as Keffi Street, Obalende.
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By 1964, Girls Modern Academy was also listed among recognised secondary schools in the Federal Territory of Lagos.
Its continued presence in educational records during the 1960s reflects the growth of an institution that had begun almost two decades earlier.
The Expansion of the Aunty Ayo Schools
The educational project grew beyond Girls Modern Academy.
Manuwa established Aunty Ayo Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in 1956. This was followed by Aunty Ayo Preparatory School in 1962 and Aunty Ayo Girls High School in 1970.
The schools developed during a major period of transformation in Nigerian education.
The 1950s witnessed accelerating constitutional change, regional political development and increasing Nigerian participation in public administration. Independence followed on 1 October 1960. The country’s expanding professional and administrative sectors created greater demand for educated Nigerians, including women.
Education was therefore connected not simply to literacy but also to social mobility, professional opportunity and participation in the institutions of the emerging nation.
Manuwa’s schools formed part of this changing environment.
Girls Modern Academy, Aunty Ayo Girls Comprehensive Secondary School and Aunty Ayo Girls High School were particularly associated with educating girls, reinforcing Manuwa’s wider commitment to female education.
Over time, the institutional structure changed. Government education policies, school takeovers, subsequent management decisions and later reorganisations altered the original network.
Yet the Aunty Ayo name endured.
A Place in Lagos Educational History
The survival of the Aunty Ayo name illustrates how institutions created by individual educationists could become embedded in the wider educational history of Lagos.
During the military era, Lagos State, like several Nigerian governments, took control of many privately established and mission schools. Aunty Ayo schools were among institutions affected by changing education policies.
Decades later, ownership arrangements changed again.
Aunty Ayo Senior Secondary School in Eti-Osa was eventually returned to missionary ownership as part of wider changes affecting schools previously taken over by government.
The surviving Aunty Ayo International School also continued operating in Lagos, preserving the name associated with the woman who began Girls Modern Academy in 1946.
That continuity is historically significant. Many private educational initiatives established during colonial Nigeria disappeared, merged into other institutions or changed identity. The continued presence of the Aunty Ayo name created an enduring connection between contemporary education in Lagos and a school enterprise that began before independence.
Theodora Obafunmilayo Manuwa and the 1960 MBE
One of the defining milestones in Theodora Obafunmilayo Manuwa’s public life came at the beginning of Nigeria’s independence year.
On 1 January 1960, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, commonly known as the MBE, for public services in the Federation of Nigeria.
Her name appeared officially as “Theodora Phillipa Obafunmilayo, Mrs. Manuwa.”
The honour recognised the public contribution she had made by that stage of her career.
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It also came at a symbolic moment. Nigeria was only months away from achieving independence from Britain on 1 October 1960. Manuwa’s educational work had therefore developed largely under colonial government before continuing into the era of an independent Nigerian state.
By the time of independence, she had already spent more than a decade developing educational institutions in Lagos.
From Girls’ Education to Women’s Professional Organisation
Manuwa’s public activities did not end with schools.
In 1961, she and a group of women established a Business and Professional Women’s club in Lagos.
The Lagos club became an associate club in 1962. Clubs were subsequently established in Ibadan and Enugu in 1964. In 1965, these organisations came together as the Nigerian Federation of Business and Professional Women.
This development reflected another important aspect of social change in early post-independence Nigeria.
Women were increasingly entering professional employment, business, public administration, education and other sectors. Professional associations offered opportunities for networking, leadership development and collective organisation.
Manuwa’s involvement in this movement complemented her educational work.
Both activities centred, in different ways, on expanding women’s ability to participate more fully in Nigerian public and professional life.
A Family Connected to Education and Public Service
Manuwa came from a prominent Lagos family with strong connections to Christianity, education and the professions.
Her parents were Bishop Isaac Oluwole and Abigail Oluwole. Isaac Oluwole became an important figure in the Anglican Church in Nigeria and belonged to an influential generation of educated Lagos Christians whose careers developed during the colonial period.
Among the notable members of the family was Dr Isaac Ladipo Oluwole, a physician who became an important figure in Nigerian public health.
Theodora Manuwa’s own career nevertheless developed a distinct identity.
Rather than being remembered simply through her family connections, she became associated with schools bearing the Aunty Ayo name and with organisations concerned with women’s advancement.
Her life illustrates the emergence of an educated Nigerian professional class in Lagos during the first half of the twentieth century, and the increasing role that women within that class played in education and organised public life.
Four Milestones in Manuwa’s Public Legacy
Four dates help place Manuwa’s contribution within Nigeria’s twentieth-century history.
1946 marked the establishment of Girls Modern Academy in Lagos.
1960 brought official recognition through her appointment as an MBE for public services in the Federation of Nigeria.
1961 connected her with the beginnings of Business and Professional Women Nigeria.
1977 marked the end of her life, but not the end of the educational institutions associated with her name.
Seen together, these milestones reveal a career that stretched across two distinct political eras.
Manuwa began building educational institutions while Nigeria remained a British colony. She continued her public activities during the country’s transition into independence and participated in women’s professional organisation during the early years of the new nation.
Her career therefore belongs to more than the history of one school.
It forms part of the larger history of education, women’s advancement and institution-building in modern Nigeria.
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Conclusion
The historical significance of Theodora Obafunmilayo Manuwa rests on the institutions she created and the public activities with which she became associated.
Beginning with Girls Modern Academy in 1946, she developed an educational enterprise focused strongly on opportunities for girls. The school became part of Lagos’s educational system, while later Aunty Ayo institutions carried the educational legacy forward.
Her appointment as an MBE in 1960 recognised her public services at the very moment Nigeria was approaching independence. Her participation in the beginnings of Business and Professional Women Nigeria in 1961 placed her within another important development: the organisation of women for greater participation in professional and economic life.
Manuwa died in 1977, but the name Aunty Ayo continued within Lagos education.
Her story is therefore one of institutional continuity. What began with the establishment of a girls’ school during colonial rule developed into a legacy that remained visible in Nigerian education many decades later.
Author’s Note
The life of Theodora Obafunmilayo Manuwa shows how educational change can outlive the person who begins it. Her work emerged at a time when Nigeria was moving towards political independence and when opportunities for women in education and professional life were expanding. By establishing schools and participating in women’s professional organisation, she contributed to structures through which later generations could pursue education, careers and public participation. The continuing association of the Aunty Ayo name with Lagos education is a reminder that national development is shaped not only by political leaders and major constitutional events, but also by people who create institutions capable of serving communities long after their founders are gone.
References
The London Gazette, Supplement to Issue 41909, 1 January 1960, New Year Honours list.
Federal Government of Nigeria, Official Gazette, 6 October 1960, notice listing non-government post-primary schools in Lagos.
Federal Government of Nigeria, Official Gazette, 15 April 1964, recognised secondary schools in the Federal Territory of Lagos.
Federal Republic of Nigeria, Official Gazette, 1965 and 1966 education records relating to Girls Modern Academy, Lagos.
Aunty Ayo International School, History of Aunty Ayo International School.
Lagos State Ministry of Education, 2017–2018 Annual School Census Report, August 2018.
Business and Professional Women Nigeria, institutional history of the organisation and its establishment in Lagos in 1961.
