A pioneering women's rights activist, the first female student at Abeokuta Grammar School, and a political organiser who led thousands of women in a campaign against unfair taxation and challenged the authority of a traditional ruler. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti is remembered for several remarkable achievements. Known as the ‘Lioness of Lisabi’, she transformed a local protest by market women into a wider movement for women's rights, political representation and freedom from colonial-era discrimination. Yet, her contributions remain unfamiliar to many outside Nigeria. In this edition of It Was A She, we look at the life and legacy of a woman who challenged the political and social order of her time.
Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, born Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas, was born on October 25, 1900, in Abeokuta, in present-day Ogun State, Nigeria. In 1914, she became the first female student to enrol at Abeokuta Grammar School, which had previously admitted only boys. She studied there until 1917 and later travelled to England to continue her education at Wincham Hall School for Girls in Cheshire.
She returned to Nigeria in 1922 and took up teaching. Her work brought her into contact with women from different social and economic backgrounds, including market traders who faced discrimination, economic hardship and unfair taxation. These interactions helped her understand the challenges confronting ordinary women and laid the foundation for her activism.
Ransome-Kuti helped establish the Abeokuta Ladies Club in 1932. Initially, the organisation focused on education, social activities and the interests of Western-educated women. Over time, however, it developed a more political and inclusive outlook. In the 1940s, it began admitting market women, including those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. In 1946, the organisation was renamed the Abeokuta Women's Union (AWU), opening its membership to women across the town. Ransome-Kuti became its first president.
The Union's central demand was an end to the unfair taxation of women and their exclusion from local decision-making. Under British colonial rule, the system of indirect administration in Abeokuta operated through a Sole Native Authority, headed by the traditional ruler, the Alake, Oba Ladapo Ademola II.
Women, including those who earned their livelihoods through petty trading, faced taxation and arbitrary treatment by officials. The enforcement of taxes was often accompanied by intimidation and abuse. Market women also faced the consequences of wartime price-control policies, while officials confiscated goods from traders who could not meet their tax obligations.
Ransome-Kuti and thousands of women organised petitions, public meetings, demonstrations and campaigns to challenge these practices. Their protests gathered momentum in 1947, culminating in a prolonged demonstration outside the Alake's palace in December. The women staged a sit-in, singing protest songs and demanding an end to the taxation and abuses.
Their campaign forced the authorities to suspend the taxation of women. The Alake left Abeokuta and went into exile in Osogbo, returning to the throne in 1950 after 28 months. The protests also brought attention to the lack of women's representation in local administration and strengthened demands for their participation in governance.
The AWU's objectives extended beyond taxation. It campaigned for better educational opportunities for women and girls, improved healthcare, sanitary facilities and other social services. Ransome-Kuti believed that organising women and strengthening their economic and political position were essential to addressing poverty and inequality.
The women's movement grew beyond Abeokuta. In 1949, the Abeokuta Women's Union became the Nigerian Women's Union (NWU), which subsequently developed into the Federation of Nigerian Women's Societies (FNWS) in 1953. These organisations helped connect women's groups across the country and broadened the campaign for political representation and equal rights.
Ransome-Kuti was a prominent advocate of women's suffrage and universal adult franchise. At a time when electoral rights remained restricted, she campaigned for women to have the same political rights as men. The 1951 Macpherson Constitution extended voting rights in southern Nigeria but did not establish universal suffrage across the country. Women in northern Nigeria continued to face restrictions, and the right to vote was extended to them only in 1976.
Her activism also gained international recognition. She served as a vice-president of the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF), through which she participated in campaigns for women's rights and peace.
However, her political positions and international associations also brought her under government scrutiny. In 1958, the Nigerian government refused to renew her passport, citing alleged communist sympathies. Her association with the British communist newspaper The Daily Worker and her visits to China and the Soviet Union were used to question her political loyalties. Ransome-Kuti was not known to be a member of the Communist Party; the government's action was based on its suspicion of her ideological associations.
Ransome-Kuti was also associated with the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), a nationalist political party that campaigned for independence. She later left the party after disagreements over its treatment of women candidates and formed the Commoners' People's Party in 1959.
Nigeria gained independence from British rule in 1960, but Ransome-Kuti continued to campaign for women's political participation and equal rights. Her activism extended beyond the struggle against colonial rule to the question of how an independent Nigeria should treat its women.
In the later years of her life, Ransome-Kuti supported her son, musician and activist Fela Kuti, in his criticism of Nigeria's military government.
On February 18, 1977, soldiers raided the Kalakuta Republic, the Lagos compound where Fela lived and which also housed members of his family and community. During the raid, Ransome-Kuti, then 76, was thrown from a second-storey window. She sustained serious injuries and died on April 13, 1978, at a hospital in Lagos.
Her death became a symbol of the violence faced by those who challenged the military establishment. The raid also brought international attention to the repression faced by Fela Kuti and those associated with him.
The life of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti demonstrates how a campaign that began with market women demanding fair treatment grew into a wider struggle for political representation, women's rights and social justice. From challenging an entrenched system of local authority to campaigning on the national and international stages, she refused to accept the limitations imposed on women by the society of her time.
Her legacy is not merely a collection of firsts. It is the story of a woman who turned collective grievances into organised political action and helped reshape the place of women in Nigeria's public life.