IBADAN, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Various military barracks across the country have one thing in common and that is the ubiquitous presence of ‘Mammy Market’, a joint where soldiers and civilians alike mingle, on a daily basis, to purchase their essentials.
Unknown to many, however, is the fact that the concept of Mammy Market is the idea of a woman whose real name is Mammy Ochefu.
She is the wife of late military Governor of defunct East-Central state, Col. Anthony Aboki Ochefu, where she sold a local non-alcoholic beverage called ‘enyi’ to support her family.
In an interview she granted Tribune in 2017, Mammy Ochefu narrated what happened when she started the business.
She said, “When I started the business, some people were complaining of flies. You know, in the barracks, they do not allow filth because they want every place to be neat. And it is not that I was dirty with the preparation of ‘enyi’, but no matter how you clean the environment, flies will still be around.
“So when the complaints were so much, I had to stop doing it for a week. But there was pressure from customers who had liked the ‘enyi’ and I told them the reason why I stopped it. But one WO2 (Warrant Officer 2) went and cleared a place for me to continue with the business.
“Later, one officer, a Lieutenant Colonel, an Igbo man, I have forgotten his name now, ordered that a local bacha, (kiosk) be built for me. Then, I resumed the business.
The ‘enyi’ was very good and soldiers were patronising me, particularly, early in the morning and during their break time. They would come and drink. But we did not stay long before we were posted out of Enugu.”
Her family was later posted out of Enugu to Abeokuta but Mammy continued the business wherever they were posted to while she added snacks that would interest the soldiers’.
Interestingly, whenever her family was transferred to another state, she would hand over the business to women who were interested in it but asked that they retain the name.
Mammy registered her business as “Mammy Market” in 1971.
She was asked how she came about the name ‘Mammy’ market and Ochefu said, “Laughter…..It is a long story but let me cut short. My father told me that at the time I was born, he (my father) was working with white men that came to our village. But on a particular day, one white man came to our village. My father went to receive him and carried his box. On getting to the village, my father was told that my mother was in labour and he took permission to go and see his wife. Luckily before his arrival my mother had given birth to me. So when my father returned to the white man, he told the white man that his wife had given birth to ‘Enem’, and the white man said ‘Mammy’. That was how I was named Mammy.”
By the time her husband retired, the business had grown into a supermarket and a transport business.
Till date, whenever a military barrack is built, a mammy market always accompanies it.
Mammy markets are also created in NYSC orientation camps.