Meet Me: From Masquerade to Masking

About Our Guest Speaker: Olóyè Adéyẹlá Bennett 

Olóyè Adéyẹlá Bennett is the author of Only the Strong Survive: A Womanist Journey. The anthology is a tribute to mythical and ordinary women who survived tremendous obstacles to leave indelible marks on history. She gathered these stories during a lifetime of sitting at the feet of elders and reading the stars to hone her skills as a cultural anthropologist and storyteller. Olóyè Adéyẹlá was born and raised in the beautiful 700 islands in the sun, The Bahamas.

A student of traditional cultures, Olóyè Adéyẹlá studied about indigenous cultures at the Universidad de Guadalajara in the summer of 1984. The following year, in 1985, she took her first pilgrimage to The Motherland, thanks to the invitation from the Agogomanhene Nana Akuoko Sarpong, Paramount Chief of the Asante Akyem Agogo in Ghana. Nana Sarpong named her Nana Abena Serwaa, an honorary Queen Mother of Agogo, Ghana. In 1996, Chief (Dr.) Omotoso Eluyemi, the Apena of Ife, initiated her into the secrets of Ọbàtálá, and renamed her Adéyẹlá. Three years later, during a pilgrimage to Nigeria, Chief Eluyemi recommended her to be enstooled as Ìyálájé Ọbàtálá ní Ìfẹ́, honorary Mother of Wealth. Olóyè Adéyẹlá lived and worked in the United Arab Emirates for five years, from 2010 to 2015, giving her the opportunity to study Middle Eastern traditional cultures.

Iya Ìbejì Adeyela Bennett earned a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Florida International University in 1985, and is an alumni of the University of Florida and Howard University.

As President and CEO of Women in Training, Inc., a youth empowerment organization that advocates for menstrual equity, she successfully advocated for $400,000 annually in state funding for Alabama’s Title I schools to provide period products for menstruators. In 2024, Alabama Media Group named her among Women Who Shape the State.