Funmilayo Kuti: The Pan-African Woman Who Fought for Women’s rights and Won
If it wasn’t for the Fella Kuti “water no get enemy” playing on one of my favorite home-run playlists I could have sworn not to be half as entranced about celebrating March the month in which we recount and applaud some of the world’s most phenomenal women in Africa and the diaspora. Finding out the history of Fela’s family tree was quite exciting in itself but yet It still had never occurred to me how well rounded the family tree of the Anikulapos was. Spanning art, politics, medicine and education. Immediately Fella’s song faded out, Seun Kuti’s song faded in with the signature percussion and jazzy feels from the grandfather of Afro beats [Fela Kuti] so I checked only to find out that I had the playlist on shuffle. And while you can bank on it that these were my signs to celebrate one of Africa’s most iconic leaders, politician, trailblazer and a “Lioness” as many great people prefer to refer to her as, her life, career and legacy strike me and many who encounter her as one of those in the most fulfilling lives ever lived and, in this article, you will find out exactly why.
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti’s (Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Olufela Folorunso Thomas) life painted her as the generous, fearless and altruistic pioneer. Side note; she was also the first Nigerian woman to drive a car. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and Funmilayo’ s life was no different, her story though begins in Abeokuta on the 25th day of October 1900 born to Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas a dad and father, a Chief and dealer in palm produce and her mother Lucretia Phyllis Omoyeni Adeosolu a dress maker.
Born in a then British protectorate south of Nigeria(Present day Ogun state), Kuti was no stranger to the oppression and upheavals caused by the colonial rulers. And from a younger age she was determined to change this story for the women in her community and become a force of change in the face of adversity and uncertainty that prevailed in Nigeria at the time.
Her parents are to be credited for making a rare but worth it move to educate their daughter. In an era where girlchild education was not a thing on the continent, her parents stringed together their resources to put her through school. She attended Abeokuta Grammar school for her secondary education among the first six female students admitted to the formerly only-boys school in 1914. Thereafter, Kuti moved to Cheshire in England to pursue higher education in an all girl’s school where she learned various skills such as elocution, she learnt French, dressmaking and many other skills and this lasted between 1919 and 1922 after which she returned home to work as a teacher, a career that enabled her gain traction as a young leader and enthusiastic persona.
But while in her community in Abeokuta in the times of the wildest political fires and upheavals in 1946, she led the founding of the AWU(Abeokuta’s Women Union) easily one of the biggest organizations of the time with about 20,000 women. With her influence she grew in her political prowess and played key roles as a member of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) and the “Oloye” as had been conferred on her in Yorubaland, was the very first woman appointed to the House of Chiefs.
Ransome Kuti was rewarded and awarded for various contributions in Nigeria but we shall focus on how she empowered women and broke various shackles that chained the women of Nigeria to poverty and illiteracy.
Between 1939 and 1945 (the world war II period), the British colonialists introduce hefty tax requirements and an overly stringent food policy in Nigeria which affected the majority of the country and Abeokuta wherein the women were so badly affected by the taxation they lost income and their goods were often wrongly confiscated by the Sole National Security (SNA)policemen who more often than not wrongfully used their power given to them by the British Colonial rulers.
Here, Kuti led the vast aggrieved women to protests. With her popularity and influence then, large numbers of women showed up to be apart of the demonstrations against the colonialists and their local representative body the “Alakes” and this ended the confiscation of their foodstuff such as rice.
But this was only the start for Funmilayo as she moved on to deal with the next vice that had the country in a chokehold. Together with the AWU, she moved on to fight against the gender-differed tax which saw 15 year old females paying tax regardless of whether or not they were employed meanwhile their male counterparts were exempt from paying this tax till they were above or 18 years of age. With the penalties that came as a result of failure to comply, ranging from arrests and violence to house raids and beatings, Kuti took it upon herself and her army of enthusiastic, relentless and fed-up women to challenge the status quo.
1947, November; Ransome-Kuti flanked by over 9,800 women took to the Alake’s palace to protest the unfair taxes, declining economy under the colonial rule and lack of representation in local government in song, dances and gestures. The Abeokuta women’s Revolt as it later came to be known as served its purpose albeit with a few more nudges to the Alake for their abdication, and still under the AWU Ransome Kuti’s meetings with the British colonialists (which despite her fluency in English were held in Yoruba) yielded some significant results wherein direct taxation of women ended in 1948 April, and in 1949 on January the 3rd, the Alake Samuel Ademola II was forced to abdicate and ran into exile.
Her fearlessness might have ruffled more than a few feathers as many men such as the Alake and other men whose wives were a part of the movement she had started disliked and often loathed her style of expression and boldness as it was claimed to radicalize these women who were now fully aware and woke to the issues pertaining to their livelihoods and ability to thrive in colonial Nigeria.
We can not mention Ransome Kuti and not mention women’s rights in the same statement because these two phrases were synonymous in the late1940s in Abeokuta. But she was only able to pull through with this with her then countrywide AWU cum Nigeria Women’s Union (NWU). Under her leadership, the body championed women’s rights activism and national movements and they setup-shop in cities such as Lagos, Enugu and Kano just to mention but a few.
The organization did not stop at achieving only women’s rights advocacy and implementation, it also united women across different ethnic and cultural circles and became the gold standard for women’s organizations on the continent and in the diasporas. Ghana in Africa and many counties in Asia stood to benefit from the organizational model of the NWU.
Ransome Kuti who always spoke loudly and boldly about her culture and her pan-African ideals always were reflected in her lifestyle such as when she dropped her Christian names Abigail and Frances for her Yoruba name Oluwafunmilayo shortened as Funmilayo. She even dropped the Ransome name due to its connotation with slavery. (Her paternal great grandmother Sarah Taiwo was taken as a slave in the 19th century and she later returned to Abeokuta to her family) Moreover Kuti always donned African attire.
Her story ended tragically when she died in the hospital where she had been admitted following an incident at her Son’s (Fela Kuti) home in Lagos wherein close to 1,000 soldiers raided the artiste’s compound in February 1977 in response to his music that called out the then military government for it’s vices. Amidst the chaos, destruction of valuable property and assault, Ransome Kuti was thrown out a window on the second floor instantly sustaining injuries that later cost her life.
On her funeral and burial days thousands of women attended the momentous occasions. From far, near and wide, the inspirational pan-African visionary caused a pause in the lives of Nigerians not only in Abeokuta but allover the continent and the diaspora. Markets closed and shops closed to mark the death of such a phenomenal woman.
Through and through Funmilayo Kuti fought for what she believed in relentlessly and fearlessly to show the Nigerians and the people of the diaspora that without the fight for women’s rights and Pan-Africanism, the fight to kick out the colonialists would be wasted effort.
