Funmilayo Ransome Kuti
She led a massive protest against the Alake
which spanned a period of almost four years culminating in the self exile of
the monarch. Following her determination, she was described as the leading
figure of female rights and the mother of Africa. She was a very powerful force
advocating for the Nigerian woman's right to vote and fought for women’s
recognition in government.
She was
the mother of the activists Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a musician; Beko Ransome Kuti,
a doctor; and Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, a doctor and health minister. She
was also grandmother to musicians Seun Kuti and Femi Kuti. Her father, Daniel Olumeyuwa
Thomas, was a son of a returned slave from Sierra Leone, who traced his
ancestral history back to Abeokuta. He became a member of the Anglican faith,
and soon returned to the homeland of his fellow Egbas. She was raised by
parents who valued education and became the first girl-student admitted to
Abeokuta Grammar School, hence, her nickname Beere which means first girl in
Yoruba. She later went to England for
further studies. She soon returned to Nigeria and became a teacher. On 20
January 1925, she married the Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti. He also
defended the commoners of his country, and was one of the founders of both the
Nigeria Union of Teachers and of the Nigerian Union of Students.
Funmilayo
Ransome Kuti received the national honour of Member of the Order of the Niger
in 1965. The University of Ibadan bestowed upon her the honorary doctorate of
laws in 1968. She also held a seat in the Western house of chiefs of Nigeria as
an Oloye of the Yoruba people. As a strong women’s rights activist, she provided
strong leadership for women in the 1950s. She founded Abeokuta Women Union
(AWU), an organization with more than 20,000 women membership and through which
she championed her fight against discrimination against women and other
anti-women programmes.
Ransome Kuti, in her vociferous nature, launched
the organization into public consciousness when she rallied women against price
controls that were hurting the market women. Trading was one of the major
occupations of women in the Western Nigeria at the time. In 1949, she led a protest against the native
authorities, especially against the Alake of Egbaland. She presented documents
alleging abuse of authority by the Alake, who had been granted the right to
collect the taxes by the colonial administrators. Oba Ladapo Ademola, the Alake
of Egbaland with 89 crowns, became the king of the Egbas in 1920. She learnt that in 1918, Governor-General Lugard had
introduced a system of direct taxation and created the Sole Native Authority
which was a form of indirect rule whereby the traditional rulers acted as
agents for the colonial government. The Sole Native Authority, equivalent to
today’s local government, was headed by the Alake of Egbaland.
It had
far-reaching powers and all the previous checks and balances on the power of
the Alake were weathered under the indirect rule system as kingmakers, chiefs
and priests who could act to limit the abuse of power of the Alake were now
dependent on the Sole Native Authority for their appointment to advisory
councils. Information
Nigeria reports that prior to the advent of the British, women had participated
in politics and had their own representatives. The most important, was the
Iyalode on state councils whose duty was to protect and promote women’s
interest. When the British came, it never occurred to them that women had any
significant role and so they never made any provision for women. Nevertheless,
some women titles like Iyalode and Erelu remained but they lacked power and
influence. The painful issue for the Egba
women was taxation. Having been subjected to tax by the colonial government,
they provided as much as one-half of district revenues. Yet, they had no direct
representation on the Sole Native Authority council, a situation they abhorred
so much.
Further,
the manner by which taxes were collected was often through insult, violence,
chasing of women, beatings and stripping of young women apparently to assess
their age. As
time went on, complaints increased, reaching a point where women decided that
their only chance to gain redress of their grievances was a more militant
approach. They considered the tax as foreign, unfair and excessive. They also
objected to the method of collection. This was the one issue which catapulted
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti into the political limelight, first in Abeokuta and then
in Nigeria.
In 1923, Ransome-Kuti organized a group of young
girls and women into the Abeokuta Ladies Club. The group was made up of western
educated middle class and mostly Christian women who concentrated on crafts and
social etiquette.
Between 1943 and 1944, the Abeokuta Ladies Club
regrouped and expanded to include market women who had approached Kuti to
explain their ordeal to her. Most of these women were uneducated and it was at
this point that Kuti began her political activism which was aimed at raising
the standard of womanhood in Abeokuta, encouraging learning among the adults
and thereby wiping out illiteracy from the land.
Funmilayo felt deeply pained after hearing the
exploitation and the hardship the colonial masters and the native authority had
subjected the people to and the harassment from the police officers in
Egbaland. Reports say she discovered that the Alake, the traditional ruler of
Abeokuta was diverting impound rice to his own stores, selling it and pocketing
the profits for himself. This rice was taking away from the women by the
government. In 1946, the burden of
taxation became unbearable and the Abeokuta ladies club transform to Abeokuta
Women Union. This was designed to challenge both colonial rule and the
male-controlled structure. Through the union, they opposed price controls and imposition
of direct taxation, engaged in press campaigns and mobilized so much pressure
against the Alake. The Abeokuta Women
Union was a well organised and disciplined organisation. Mass refusal to pay
the tax combined with enormous protest led to brutal response from the
authorities as tear gas were deployed and beatings were administered. Funmilayo
Ransome-Kuti ran training sessions on how to deal with this threat, teaching
women how to protect themselves from the effects of tear gas and how long they
had to throw the canisters back to the authorities.
Abiyamo, a Nigerian blogger, reports that under
the leadership of Funmilayo, the women demanded exclusion of direct female
taxation of Abeokuta women. They also demanded for the representation of women
in local politics and governance. Funmilayo was of the view that no important
decision could be made without the involvement of women. When her protests began, the Alake did not take her
serious. She was seen as a typical women ranting. They under estimated her believing
she would go nowhere but that was their undoing. From 1946 to 1948, she led
women in protest against women taxation, non-women representation in the native
authority. She even led protest against some of the business interest of the
Alake of Egbaland. She was persistent in
her demand for women rights and representation in the native authority. She
called for taxation of expatriate companies, abolition of native authority and
replacement with representative government where the interests of women were
well represented. She sent various
petitions to the Alake but her petition fell into deaf ears. In 1946, the group
sent a delegation to the Alake to present their demands but rather than moderate
the pains of the women, the Alake went further to increase the taxation on the
women.
At a
point of her protest, the royal court issued an edict that all women who owned
property must pay income tax. Following the oppressive decree, she termed the
Alake a dictator. She lashed out at the royal court, calling her women to
prepare for war. In October 1946, about 1000 women protested to the palace of the Alake
but the British police applied teargas on the women, beat them mercilessly and
dispersed them from the palace. The anti-tax protest was a long one with
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti at the head leading the women in the struggle. In 1947, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti refused to pay her
taxes and was arrested. At her arraignment where she pleaded “not guilty,”
thousands of women congregated at the courthouse to demonstrate their support
for her. The next year, she again refused to pay her taxes while the protests
went on.
According to Dunamis, another Nigerian blogger,
the women saw the action of the Alake as their strength; it gave them more
morale and will power to continue the protest in a more aggressive way this
time. During this time, they released a document they called the AWU’s
grievances and therein, they penned down all their accusations against the
Alake of Egbaland and the sole native authority. The next form of protest took a new format, it overwhelmed the Alake and
community at large. It lasted for over 48 hours at the palace of the Alake. It
started on 29th of November 1947 to the morning of 30th November with over
10,000 women fuming outside the palace of the Alake under the leadership of
Funmilayo Ransome Kuti.
Several
tall talks were chanted coupled with numerous incantations to rebuke and demean
the Alake. At this time, the British authority tried to seek solace from both
parties. They implored the king to hold an olive branch, to ensure the
community is at ease, they were feeling uncomfortable already due to the
die-hard attitude of the women. They further made false promises to the women that the
bone of contention, the tax, would be suspended and the final outcome about
would be communicated in three days. When the women noticed it was just a
fallacy, they geared up and marched to the palace with over 10,000 infuriated
women for the protest. They demanded the
release of their detained members. This took over two days in a spot and uproar
outcry of justice and respect for the women. This started on the 8th of
December and as at 10th the detained women were released. In January, 1948, Kuti was banned from the palace for
insulting the Alake and the British administration supported it. Administrative
attempts to woo away the Abeokuta Women’s Union executive from its support of
Kuti failed. They also refused to attend any meeting without Kuti.
By April, the women were determined to get rid
of the Alake and obtain their demands, one of which included that the Alake be
removed from office. They continued their demonstration and vowed to go on the
streets unclad, an action which was a taboo in Egbaland. Imbibed with great powers and the women were instructed
to go home, before evil spirits overcame them. When the women shrank back in
fear, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, grabbed the stick, waved it around, noting that those
women now had the power before taking it with her, displaying it prominently in
her home.
This action gave her, a reputation of
fearlessness and courage, which led 20,000 women to follow her to the home of
Alake of Egbaland. As the women protested outside the king’s palace, they sang
in Yoruba; “Alake, for a long time you have used your penis as mark of
authority that you are our husband, today we shall reverse the order and use
our vag*na to play the role of husband. With
her continuous protests coupled with series of letters calling for the removal
and dethronement of the Alake of Egbaland, the king voluntarily decided to step
down on the throne of his forefathers and went into self-exile. He remained
that exile for one year until he returned to his throne in 1950 but by the time
he was back as king, he did not make the mistake of challenging the women of
Egbaland or their fearsome leader, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti.
In her old age, Funmilayo’s activism was
overshadowed by that of her three sons, who provided effective opposition to
various Nigerian military juntas. In 1978, Funmilayo was thrown from a
third-floor window of her son Fela's compound, a commune known as the Kalakuta
Republic, when it was stormed by one thousand armed military personnel. She
lapsed into a coma in February of that year, and died on 13 April 1978, as a
result of her injuries she sustained from the fall.
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