WORKING MOMS AFRICA MAGAZINE: A REVIEW

Working Moms Africa, The Access Media, Lagos: 2012, 84pp
At last, here is a gender-specific magazine for a gender-specific class! Most newsstands in Nigerian cities and towns have their own sheaf of all-women magazines for readers to choose from. For instance, there is Genevieve, Today’s Woman, Everywoman, Woman’s World and dozens more. But none of them is devoted entirely to celebrating working mothers as Working Moms Africa hopes to do. Judging by the content of this maiden edition, it is a welcome addition to the more popular publications on and about women.
Genevieve and Today’s Woman belong to a class of their own. Both of them are published by famous Nigerian women, Mrs Irabor and Adesuwa Oyenukwe. Mary Ikoku, publisher of WMA, is no less famous. A public relations consultant who was once media aide to former Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, she has since nursed an ambition to publish not just an all-female magazine but one that will take a holistic view of a certain class of women. This is what she has done with WMA. It is commendable.
In case you were ever in doubt as to the aim of this specialized publication, the publisher clears your doubt from the onset. “Are you in the habit of rushing to work and equally rushing home because there is so much to do both at home and at the office?” she pointedly observes in the editor’s page. “Do you sometimes wish that you could be in two or three places all at once?” Most married working mothers in Lagos and elsewhere in Nigeria where traffic is perennially choked will answer a definite yes to those questions.
But beyond that is the content of the magazine itself. Three quarters of the stories and articles are about working mothers: their day-to-day activities, how they balance their professional and private lives, their hopes and dreams. More important, the women cut across all classes. Thus, there is a cover story on Funmi Gbemudu, a renowned architect and first among equal of the known female architects and builders in Nigeria. Contrasting that is a piece on an otherwise unremarkable roadside bean-cake seller. In-between are snappy sketches of middle-class women, all of them working mothers.
How do working mothers really juggle between their careers and spousal duties without as much failing in either? That question is answered by a number of women interviewed by the publisher herself in “Walking the tight rope.” They are quite revealing.
Take, for instance, Nina Archi’s counsel to working mothers. An employee of an oil and engineering company in Lagos, she insists that working moms should “do as much preparation the night before so in the morning you just need to dress up and take off.” For Amaka Victor Nwosisi, who works with a leading telecommunications company, she says that “the fact that my children (four boys) can look up to me and learn from my experiences motivates me to work.”  There are many more of such mother talk to engage readers.
Like most women mags, WMA has sections on women-related topics such as health, fitness, style and fashion,  even nutrition.
Grace Eessen’s sisterly advise to working mothers to consider themselves first is not as selfish as you might think. First love, so it goes, is self love. With that in mind, readers can better appreciate Eessen’s take on motherhood. “Moms being what we are, want to give it all, making sure the  home is functioning properly; kids are ok and daddy too,” she writes in her Mom 2 Mom page. “Meals are planned, cooked at the right time, laundry is done and ironed properly. We eat after everyone has, go to bed after everyone does and wake up first…But if you truly love your kids and am sure you do, do them a favour and put yourself first. It is only when you give attention to you that you can give more to your kids and husband too.”
Another plus for this first edition is the array of columnists, experts, if you like, readers will come across. Dr. Akinyemi Olaleye is a consultant obstretician and gynaecologist. Expectedly, he writes on abnormal uterine bleeding. Funmi Adeniran, a fitness counsellor, focusses on fitness, a growing concern among African women especially while the problem of indecision is decisively tackled by Nelda Chioma Efughi.
Even male spouses get their say as well, as they recount their experiences of coping with working partners. And then, there is the kiddy corner, this time funny things youngsters do. In a way, it brings to mind the one time popular programme, Kids Say, anchored by African American comedian Bill Cosby.
WMA is not just about the lighter things that concern women or children. There is serious stuff, too. Dr. Goomsu Afiong Obasi is sure to have a lot of working mothers thinking in her contribution entitled “The Remake of the Post-modern Woman.” What is the role of women – married or not – in a post-modern, global village?
If you think WMA is all about women, you’ll be wrong. A male contributor tells readers of his experiences as a single father, taking care of his only child at home and doing school run. And talking about kids, several pages are devoted to them. There is a useful article on child depression, a rare topic for discussion in a Nigerian publication.
For a magazine that boasts coverage of issueson African women, coming out four times a year is somewhat insufficient, considering the enormity of challenges/ problems womenfolk in Africa face daily. Also, there are no interviews on women from the rest of the continent. Where is stuff on women in the horn of Africa? What about their counterparts in other parts of the continent – east, west and south Africa? There is a gnawing feeling that Working Moms Africa should really have been Working Moms Nigeria. 

Even so, WMA will have a shelf-assured life on any coffee table in most homes. Besides, this first edition is sure to hold readers attention for long, far longer than existing magazines of similar genre. For one, there are several publications on and about women as there are different shades of mascara. While a few hold and rivet your attention as an elegantly dressed beautiful woman walking down the street, some are as forgettable as a dowdy dowager since past her prime. With this edition, WMA will not lose its readership anytime soon. 

Reviewed By Mustapha Jimoh Michaelz