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 a former health minister of Nigeria.
Francis Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas was born on 25 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 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.
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
United Kingdom.
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.
[8] 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 travel to the former
USSR,
Hungary and
China where she met
Mao Zedong.
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 U.S. visa because the American government alleged that she was a communist.
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 Funmilayo was 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 13 April 1978, as a result
of her injuries.
Achievements
Agbani Darego, OON (born Ibiagbanidokibubo Asenite Darego, 22 December 1982) is a Nigerian model, best known as the first Black African Miss World.
