On February 18, 1977, approximately 1,000 soldiers stormed a compound in Lagos. It belonged to the famed Afrobeat musician and critic of Nigeria’s military government, Fela Kuti.

During the raid, Kuti’s 76-year-old mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was thrown from a second-storey window. She sustained injuries from which she never recovered and died at the General Hospital in Lagos on April 13, 1978.

At least two Nigerian news outlets reported her death with the headline: “Fela’s Mum is Dead.”

But Ransome-Kuti was not just “Fela’s mum”. The anti-colonial activist and feminist was, in many ways, the mother of the nation.

‘No taxation without representation’

Venerable Victor Sotunde, now 88 and a retired priest from the Anglican Communion of Abeokuta in western Nigeria, remembers Ransome-Kuti from his days as a young boarding student at Abeokuta Grammar School. Her husband, Reverand Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, was the school’s principal and the couple lived on the premises with their children.

“During morning devotion at school assembly, we saw her come downstairs with her towel always over her left shoulder, walk past us to go to the bathroom,” he recalled. “We could tell her husband, our principal, didn’t like it because it was also during his inspection of students.

“She was well-known to us youngsters, as the leader of the Abeokuta Women’s Union (AWU),” Sotunde explained. “Due to her activism, she was given the traditional title of “Beere”, which is usually bestowed on female leaders, and translates as ‘first of equals’.”

Under British colonial indirect rule, Nigeria had been divided into 24 provinces. For administrative reasons, each province comprised divisions and districts. Abeokuta province in southern Nigeria had two divisions – Egba and Egbado, which were divided into smaller districts. Each division and district was administered by a Sole Native Authority (SNA). Abeokuta town, where Ransome-Kuti was from, was the administrative headquarters for Egba division.

As the leader of the AWU, in the years before Nigeria declared independence from Britain in 1960, Ransome-Kuti often spoke to British district officials to explain her organisation’s position – best captured by their slogan “no to taxation without representation”. At the meetings, she would speak in the Yoruba language, leaving officials scrambling for an interpreter.

Ransome-Kuti railed against what she said were unfair taxes levied on small traders – many of whom were women, who she led in colourful campaigns. After one victory over water rates in 1959, the Daily Times of Nigeria reported that thousands of supporters of the Federation of Nigerian Women’s Union (NWU) – which had formed out of the AWU – danced around Abeokuta town.

The celebration had been triggered by the deferment of a proposed scheme in which women in Egba division would be asked to pay two shillings for water, while those in the districts paid one. This was too much for most women, who were either petty traders or unemployed.

It was Ransome-Kuti’s latest victory in what was widely regarded as a war to end the unfair taxes imposed by the colonial government and implemented through the SNA. The SNA was headed by the traditional ruler of Abeokuta, Oba (Sir) Ladapo Ademola II.

Resistance

The women’s revolt against taxation had been rumbling for more than a decade before the water rate victory.

In 1918, tax policies had been introduced that required women as young as 15, (the age at which they were considered marriageable) including those who were unemployed, to pay three shillings a year as income tax. Men, on the other hand, did not have to pay it until they were 18.

It was said government agents went about raiding homes and stripping girls of their clothes in order to assess their age for the purpose of taxation and, as the work was based on commission, extortion and abuse were rife. Ransome-Kuti formed the AWU in 1946 to “defend, protect, preserve and promote the social, economic, cultural and political rights and interests of the women in Egbaland”.

Her aims and objectives were outlined in a document in 1947, called The AWU’s Grievances, one of the sub-headings in which was “Stripped Naked”. It contained a list of wrong-doings by the traditional ruler for “misusing his authority” and by the administration for “not providing medical and educational facilities for women”.

A food price control policy had also been introduced by the colonial government during the second world war which, in addition to the tax, further hurt female petty traders. When they could not pay, their goods or produce were often seized by agents working on behalf of the SNA.

After several years of complaints, the women mobilised under the leadership of Ransome-Kuti, and in December 1947, laid siege to the palace of Oba Ademola II, where they chanted war songs day and night, to demand the suspension of the tax.

Ransome-Kuti became known around the country for her activism. She had regular speaking engagements on women’s rights both at home and overseas and toured her region, raising awareness about women’s political and voting rights.

How it all began

Born on October 25, 1900, Ransome-Kuti attended the co-educational Abeokuta Grammar School, where she was the first female student to enrol.

In 1919, she went to Britain to study at Wincham Hall Schools for Girls in Cheshire, where she was taught subjects such as French, elocution, music and dress-making. But before she returned to Nigeria in 1922, she demonstrated the first sign of her rejection of British imperialism: Dropping her Christian names of Frances Abigail and adopting her Yoruba name – Oluwafunmilayo (shortened to Olufunmilayo or Funmilayo), meaning “God has given me joy”.

In 1925, she married Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, an educationist and co-founder of the Nigerian Teachers Union. The couple had four children – Dolupo, Olikoye, Olufela (Fela) and Beko – and worked as teachers.

Iyalode Alaba Lawson, a community elder who became the first female president of the Abeokuta Chambers of Commerce, as well as of the National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mine and Agriculture (NACCIMA), remembers Ransome-Kuti as a “disciplinarian” at school. “The students who were older than us always said ‘Mrs Kuti’s class is strict’,” she recalled. “My father was also a student at the school and we heard them talk about the Ransome-Kutis and their brand of discipline. Though I was very young, I saw her drive a car and, as a woman in Abeokuta in those days, it was an unusual sight for us as young girls. Many of us took her as a role model because she walked with so much authority and was always dressed in our traditional clothes.”

‘Lioness of Lisabi’

It was, however, the 1943 “Great Weep” and 1948 tax revolt, which earned Ransome-Kuti the title “Lioness of Lisabi” (Lisabi being the traditional hero of the Egba people) in the press.

The “Great Weep” episode saw women shed tears over the burden of income tax. According to a March 1959 report in South Africa’s Drum magazine: “Thousands of Abeokuta women went about shedding tears. The Alake (the title of the traditional ruler, Oba Ladapo Ademola II) and the authorities could do nothing to stop it, and gave way to the women’s demands.”

In December 1947, Ransome-Kuti’s husband arranged a meeting of men from Abeokuta town, during which they decided to support the demands of their wives and urged the traditional ruler to explore other ways of generating revenue.

The meeting and the prolonged siege of his palace forced Oba Ademola II to act. He suspended the taxation of women and went into exile in Osogbo, a town more than 200km (124 miles) away.

In March 1959, Ransome-Kuti told Drum: “So we gave a hell of a time to the chiefs, the government, to all those who were responsible for the systematic pauperisation of the mass of the people.”