Reading paths
A reading path · 5 women · 11 min

The Aba Women's War, in five lives

In 1929, thousands of Igbo women shut down British rule in Eastern Nigeria over a rumoured tax. The colonial record called it a riot. Meet the market world that made it possible and the women who carried its method forward, from Abeokuta in 1949 to Chibok in 2014.

  1. Colonial · Nigeria · 1872–1943Omu Okwei
    Portrait of Omu Okwei

    The world the war came from: Igbo markets, a Council of Mothers, and a woman who out-traded the Niger Company.

    4 min
  2. Colonial · Nigeria · 1900–1978Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti
    Portrait of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti

    Twenty years after Aba, the same method in Abeokuta: 10,000 women, a tax refused, a king forced out.

    2 min
  3. Independence · Nigeria · 1914–2006Margaret Ekpo
    Portrait of Margaret Ekpo

    While Ransome-Kuti fought the Alake, Ekpo settled in Aba itself and turned its women into a voting bloc.

    2 min
  4. Independence · Nigeria · 1933–2001Gambo Sawaba
    Portrait of Gambo Sawaba

    Ekpo won the vote for southern women; Sawaba was arrested 17 times demanding it for the north.

    2 min
  5. Modern · Nigeria · 1973–presentAisha Yesufu
    Portrait of Aisha Yesufu

    Sawaba's grandchildren: born in Kano, Yesufu took women's refusal onto the street for Chibok and End SARS.

    1 min