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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Eromo Egbejule in Zangon Kataf

‘This goes beyond the church’: the Nigerian women in a sisterhood of millions

Nigeria Kaduna
A group of Nigerian women singing together with two playing the drums
The Evangelical Church Winning All branch in Gan Gora village in Kaduna, Nigeria. The zumunta mata, or fellowship of married women, are known for their singing. Photograph: Eromo Egbejule

On a warm Thursday afternoon in May, the ululation, drumming and singing of a choir of two-dozen women can be heard across Gan Gora, a village so small it barely appears on the Nigerian map.

“We are happy you arrived safely,” they sing in Hausa welcoming the visitors to the community branch of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), hidden in the hilly Zangon Kataf, an area of half a million residents in the state of Kaduna.

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