Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti led 20,000 women to battle Nigeria

[Richard Akindele]

Some years ago in Nigeria, a single woman led 20,000 women into battle with the authorities to protest corrupt leadership, an unfair tax and unrepresentative government. Angry union members protested for days outside the local leader's palace, singing crude songs that called his manhood into question and making a general ruckus. The rogue union was the stuff of legend and is still remembered in Nigeria today. In three tumultuous years of agitation, Nigerian women in the southwestern part of the country forced a battle with the powerful government, and in many respects, won.

I met Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the leader of these protests, five years ago while sitting in a library at the University of California-Davis. She and the members of her infamous women's union were described in one scant paragraph within a longer history of Nigeria. Reading those few lines about thousands of market women protesting against a powerful leader and winning -- well, I was hooked. It was an example of everything my younger self wanted to find: righteous people rising up, corrupt leaders cowering and bands of angry women taking to the streets. After our initial introduction, I discovered that Funmilayo was not just a union activist, but also a politician, teacher, mother and accomplished muckraker. She thrived on controversy. Supporters referred to her as a "goddess" while enemies labeled her "the worst type of woman agitator." Despite, or perhaps because of, her polarizing nature, my academic interest in Funmilayo grew into genuine affection and admiration.

In pursuit of more information about this woman who has been largely ignored in books about Nigeria, I took my first trip to Africa. The goal was to read Funmilayo's private collection of papers, diaries and union documents while also interviewing people who knew her well. When I arrived in Nigeria I nearly drowned in a tsunami of colors, smells, textures and sounds. Everything was foreign, overwhelming and overdone. It quickly became clear that Funmilayo was a product of her environment. In Nigeria, there couldn't just be a protest -- there had to be a national protest that shut down the country for days. Women couldn't just meet to discuss politics -- a thousand women had to meet to discuss politics, sing crude songs and rough up hapless men. Nigeria was a country of excess, and as a woman who disdains moderation, I found much that I liked.
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