Funmilayo Ransome Kuti was the mother of popular Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti. She was born on the 25th of October 1900. According to reports, It all started when the British government in 1918 had introduced a system of direct taxation and created the Sole Native Authority which was a form of indirect rule whereby the traditional rulers acted as agents for the colonial government to collect tax from women who traded.
One of the major issues that Funmliayo had with the Alake of Egba land was on taxation in which they provided as much as one-half of district revenues. Yet, they had no direct representation on the Sole Native Authority council, a situation they abhorred so much.
At times they got abused, beaten and even stripped naked when they try collecting taxes from them. At that time, Funmilayo was the head and founder of a women group known as the Abeokuta Women Union (AWU) and she took it upon herself to stand for the women and start a protest against their mistreatment. They considered the tax as foreign, unfair and excessive.
They also objected to the method of collection. This was the one issue which catapulted Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti into the political limelight, first in Abeokuta and then in Nigeria. Through the union, they opposed price controls and imposition of direct taxation, engaged in press campaigns and mobilized so much pressure against the Alake.
The Union group as well as Funmilayo organized mass protest against the issue of taxation and also demanded for the representation of women in local politics and governance. In 1946, the group sent a delegation to the Alake to present their demands but rather than assuage the pains of the women, the Alake went further to increase the taxation on the women.
According to reports in October 1946, about 1000 women protested to the palace of the Alake but the British police applied teargas on the women, beat them mercilessly and dispersed them from the palace.
The anti-tax protest was a long one with Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti at the head leading the women in the struggle. One of her protest which overwhelmed the Alake was one that lasted for up to 48h hours at the palace of the Alake and had over 10,000 women protesting the taxation and also demanded the release of their detained members.
By April in 1948, the women demanded for the removal of the Alake from his office. With her continuous protests coupled with series of letters calling for the removal and dethronement of the Alake of Egbaland, the king voluntarily decided to abdicate the throne of his forefathers and went into self-exile.
He remained that exile for one year until he returned to his throne in 1950 but by the time he was back as king, he did not make the mistake of challenging the women of Egbaland or their fearsome leader, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti.
In 1978, Funmilayo was thrown from a third-floor window of her son Fela’s compound, a commune known as the Kalakuta Republic, when it 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 she sustained from the fall.
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