By Lillian Okenwa
As the social media continues to buzz over the arrest and detention of intimate products seller Hauwa Saidu popularly known by many as Jaruma Empire by officers of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) following her feud with actress Regina Daniels and her billionaire husband, Ned Nwoko, the demand for sexual enhancement potions continue to gain popularity as more people appear to be asking questions about kayan mata.
Literally interpreted as “women things’’ from Hausa language, Kayan Mata is a generic name for a range of aphrodisiacs. However, as women have Kayan Mata, men have maganin maza –“men things.’’
Late last year four communities in Gombe state made headlines when a sex-enhancing fruit called Gorontula turned them into a tourist attraction. Goro is the Hausa word for kolanut, but unlike the caffeine fruit commonly consumed in the tropical part of Nigeria, Gorontula is found in Tula communities in Kaltungo Local Government Area of Gombe State —Wange Tula, Yiri Tula, Baule Tula and Kaltin Tula, is famed for its aphrodisiac properties.
Until recently when Gorontula began to attract the attention of pleasure-seekers who now troop the communities to get hold of the fruits, the Tula communities were predominantly agricultural. Gorontula is an essential ingredient of Kayamata.
With all the appearances of social conservatism, many Nigerians are far from being prudes. The sexually suggestive photos and videos today making the rounds online, the explicit lyrics, and raunchy dance moves in the media suggest a raunchier side. What about tales of randy spiritual leaders, caregivers, and many more that have run sexually amok which now dominate the news? There is another category. The discreet pleasure seekers.
In an interview with the BBC, Iheoma Obibi who is said to be leading a mini-revolution in bedrooms in Nigeria revealed how she became the country’s first retailer of sexual health products and erotica after getting requests from friends to buy sex toys on her annual trips to London.
“They were asking me to buy vibrators, nipple suckers, lubricants, water-based lubricants which were non-flavoured, specifically with a pH balance for the female genitalia.”
Recognizing there was a niche market, the former development worker according to BBC set up her online shop a couple of years ago. Ms. Obibi who caters primarily for women, and some men, whose ages range from 20 to 70 also provides sex education and awareness sessions online under the hashtag #Sextalk.
In its 22nd January 2022 edition, The Economist gave some interesting insights about Nigeria, kaya mata and the paradox of conservatism. The article is reproduced below.
“Beside the food ¬sellers at a street market in Abuja, a man in a flowing white kaftan holds a brown leather bag in one and. In the other, well, is a baby crocodile, which he holds out to a potential customer. “Do you want to touch it?” he asks in Hausa, a language spoken in northern Nigeria and surrounding countries, before offering far more than a fondle of a ferocious reptile: medicines for a cold; for chest pain; for a sore back; and to improve sexual performance.
“A protracted haggle ensues. Details are discussed. Instructions are issued. Money changes hands, as do powdered herbs wrapped in paper. The trade in aphrodisiacs in northern Nigeria is old and pervasive. Herbs are sold in markets, shops, the grounds of mosques, and now on social media. How odd. This is a region that is seen as culturally and religiously conservative. States enforce sharia on the Muslim majority. Women here, who are often garbed in body-length hijabs, are thought of as sexually repressed.
“In the movies and literature of the region, mostly in Hausa, physical contact between men and women is frowned upon. Two popular television shows were banned by the government of Kano, the most populous state in the north, because of a scene in which three men held a woman in an auto-rickshaw. Since they were unmarried, the scene offended the region’s “norms, culture, values and religion”, said the head of the censorship board. (That the men were trying to abduct the woman seems to have been less concerning.)
“But this seeming prudishness does not extend to the marital bed, perhaps because people believe God would like them to procreate more. Imams may preach against adultery. But when the call to prayer ends on Fridays, a voice booms out over another set of loudspeakers advertising a somewhat earthlier elevation. “It is everywhere now,” says Muhammadu Sani, a customer. “Even practitioners of Islamic medicine now sell them.” Some draw their formula from the recommendations of Islamic texts and practices of early Muslim scholars. Their shops are often neat, with shelves stacked with bottles of herbs and decoctions. Women are not overlooked. The trade in kayan mata (literally “women’s things” in Hausa) is an old one, though it has been engorged of late by claims that goron tula (the “snot apple” fruit) boosts libido and fertility.
“Among those promoting its powers is Hauwa Saidu Mohammed, popularly known as Jaruma, an entrepreneur and sex therapist who boasts that her clients include the wives of government ministers and state governors. By offering doorstep delivery and a suave service, she has helped turn kayan mata into a major export from the north to cities in the south such as Lagos, the commercial capital. More than a million people follow Jaruma on social media. Many women are there for the scandals. In some posts she has shamed politicians who she claims bought her goods but did not pay up. In others she offers salacious gossip about celebrities whose marriages were consummated (or wrecked) with the help of her potions. Others just want to buy her tonics, which include: “Divorce is not my portion” (500,000 naira, or $1,200); “Love me like crazy” (250,000 naira); and Ecstacy9 (65,000 naira). In a country where many people earn no more than the minimum wage of 30,000 naira per month, such prices may arouse passion, even if the products themselves do not.”
