BLACK #HEROES::: “THE DOYEN OF FEMALE RIGHTS IN NIGERIA”, FUNMILAYO RANSOME KUTI.

BIO

      Funmilayo Ransome Kuti (25 October 1900 Abeokuta, Nigeria - 13 April  1978 Lagos, Nigeria), born Francis Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas to  Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas and Lucretia Phyllis Omoyeni Adeosolu, was  a teacher, political campaigner, Women's rights activist and traditional  aristocrat.

She served with distinction as one of the most prominent  leaders of her generation. Ransome-Kuti's political activism led to her being described as the  doyen of female rights in Nigeria, as well as to her being regarded as  “The Mother of Africa.” Early on, she was a very powerful force  advocating for the Nigerian woman's right to vote. 

She was described  in 1947, by the West African Pilot, as the “Lioness of Lisabi” for her  leadership of the women of the Egba clan that she belonged to on a  campaign against their arbitrary taxation. That struggle led to the  abdication of the Egba high king Oba Ademola II in 1949. 

Kuti was the mother of the activists Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a musician,  Beko Ransome-Kuti, a doctor, and Professor Olikoye Ransome Kuti, a  doctor and former minister of Nigeria. She was the first woman in Nigeria to drive a car and to ride a bike.

Life 

      Francis Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas was born on the 25th of October, 1900, in Abeokuta. Her father was a son of a returned slave from Sierra  Leone, who traced his ancestral history back to Abeokuta in what is today Ogun State, Nigeria. He became a  member of the Anglican Faith, and soon returned to the homeland of his fellow Egbas, Abeokuta. 

She  attended the Abeokuta Grammar school for secondary education, and later went to England for further  studies. She soon returned to Nigeria and became a teacher. On the 20th of 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 Nigerian Union of Teachers and of the Nigerian Union of Students.  Ransome-Kuti received the national honor of membership in the Order of Nigeria 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

Activism 

       Throughout her career, she was known as an educator and activist. She and Elizabeth Adekogbe provided  dynamic leadership for women's rights in the '50s. She founded an organization for women in Abeokuta, with  a membership tally of over 20 000 individuals spanning both literate and illiterate women. 

Women's rights 

       Ransome-Kuti launched the organization into public consciousness when she rallied women against price  controls which were hurting the female merchants of the Abeokuta markets. Trading was one of the major  occupations of women in the Western Nigeria of the time. In 1949, she led a protest against 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 his colonial suzerain, the Government of the  Queen of England. He subsequently relinquished his crown for a time due to the affair. 

She also oversaw the  successful abolishing of separate tax rates for women. In 1953, she founded the Federation of Nigerian  Women Societies which subsequently formed an alliance with the Women's International Democratic  Federation. Funmilayo Ransome Kuti campaigned for women's votes.

She was for many years a member of the ruling  National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons party, but was later expelled when she was not elected to a  federal parliamentary seat. At the NCNC, she was the treasurer and subsequent president of the Western  NCNC women's Association.

After her suspension her political voice was diminished due to the direction of  national politics, as both of the more powerful members of the opposition, Awolowo and Adegbenro, had  support close by. However, she never truly ended her activism. In the 1950s, she was one of the few women  elected to the house of chiefs. 

At the time, this was one of her homeland's most influential bodies. She founded the Egba or Abeokuta Women's Union along with Eniola Soyinka (her sister-in-law and the  mother of the Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka). This organisation is said to have once had a membership of  20,000 women. 

Among other things, Fumilayo Ransom Kuti organised workshops for illiterate market women.  She continued to campaign against taxes and price controls. 

Travel ban 

During the cold war and before the independence of her country, Funmilayo Kuti travelled widely and angered  the Nigerian as well as British and American Governments by her contacts with the Eastern Bloc. This included  her traveling to the former USSR, Hungary and China where she met Mao Tse Tung.

In 1956, her passport was  not renewed by the government because it was said that it can be assumed that it is her intention to influence … women with communist ideas and policies.  She was also refused a US visa because the American Government alleged that she was a communist. 

Also prior to independence she founded the Commoners Peoples Party in an attempt to challenge the ruling  NCNC, ultimately denying them victory in her area. She got 4,665 votes to NCNC's 9,755, thus allowing the  opposition Action Group (which had 10,443 votes) to win. 

She was one of the delegates that negotiated  Nigeria's independence with the British government. 

Death

       In old age her activism was over-shadowed by that of her three sons, who provided effective opposition to  various Nigerian military juntas. In 1978 she suffered injuries after being thrown from a second floor window  when her son Fela's compound, a commune known as the Kalakuta Republic, was stormed by one thousand  armed military personnel. She lapsed into a coma in February of that year, and died on the 13th of April,  1978, as a result of them