In 1929, one of the first major acts of protest against British colonialism in West Africa broke out in Nigeria. In colonialist terms, the conflict became known as the Aba Riots, an attempt to reduce the action to the hysterical efforts of a few, removing women from it altogether. In the Igbo language, it is Ogu Umunwanyi – the Women’s War.

Women have a long history of protest in Nigeria. Prior to the 1929 war, they came together to protest disappearances of pregnant women, suspecting men were secretly killing them. There were various women’s organisations in the south-west of the country, including the Abeokuta Women’s Union, and the women’s markets had a network used by the women to communicate and pass information.

This last one would become especially pertinent during the Women’s War. 

Before the British colonised the region in 1884, Igbo women had fairly extensive political powers and the Igbo’s governing system was described as being ‘dual-sex’. Women were able to hold land and titles and they had economic independence, thus giving them influential decision-making powers. Unlike the men, women tended to have strong links with women from other villages, and they would use their collective power to support individuals against injustices. A particularly potent weapon they used on multiple occasions was strikes – that is, of cooking, childcare, and sex. In the above-mentioned incident with pregnant women being killed, the women stayed away from home entirely, causing such disruption, especially of markets and food distribution, that authorities were forced to address their concerns.

The British, however, had no respect for women and thought their predominance in society was “a manifestation of chaos and disorder”. In 1914, the colonial governor of Nigeria instituted a system of indirect control, effectively shutting women out of power. Administrators would rule through ‘warrant chiefs’, appointed by the governor, breaking with the Igbo tradition of electing their chiefs. This system became increasingly oppressive, seizing the property and even imprisoning those who spoke against them, but the final straw did not come until 1929, when the colonists attempted to impose high taxes on the Igbo market women.

In 1929, a financial crash impeded women’s abilities to trade, so they settled that they would not be taxed or have their property appraised. Only, not long later, a census taker showed up at the house of a woman named Nwanyeruwa in Oloko. She was told to count her assets and, understanding this to mean they would be taxed, Nwanyeruwa angrily confronted the man. In response, he grabbed her by the throat; thankfully, Nwanyeruwa fought back and was able to escape, at which point she went to report the man’s behaviour to the warrant chief, Okugo.

Naturally, Okugo did nothing.

Still furious, Nwanyeruwa this time turned to women. She managed to rally 10,000 women to protest Okugo’s lack of action and the taxation they were all facing. So began the Ogu Umunwanyi.

The War spread across Nigeria, eventually involving women from six different ethnic groups – Ibibio, Andoni, Orgoni, Bonny, Opobo, and Igbo. Tens of thousands of women participated and, in total, the mobilisation covered an area of 6,000 square miles, home to around 2 million people. Of the conflict, historian Margery Perham wrote: ‘the overwhelming impression is of the vigour and solidarity of the women’.

Colonial authorities had never seen a protest like it in any part of Africa. Various tactics were implemented, among them breaking into prisons and releasing inmates, and attacking Native Courts run by colonial officials – though these militant actions were few and far between.

The most popular tactic by far was ‘sitting on the men’. This is a traditionally Igbo method of shaming men, which involved gathering at the accused’s home and singing and dancing while detailing their grievances. The women would sometimes take their clothes off when threatened by police – a woman’s nakedness was taboo in certain cultures. In addition, Warrants were followed everywhere they went, their space invaded, and the force of the women was so great that often the Warrants’ wives got involved. Other men rarely came to the rescue of those harassed by the women, saying that they had brought it on themselves. 

The War, which had begun in December 1929, was suppressed by January 1930. The only violent aggressors were the British colonialists – no-one was ever injured in the women’s militancy, but the British killed around 55 of the women, predominantly of the Ibibio tribe. Roughly another 50 were injured.

The Women’s War only lasted four weeks, but it was transformative when it came to women’s rights in colonial Nigeria. In some areas, women were able to replace the corrupt Warrant chiefs and they were also elected onto the Native Courts.

This rebellion would spark a wider resistance against the colonisation of Africa and inspired future women’s movements, which only continued gathering strength.

Sources:

• Power, Camilla, (1992). The Igbo Women’s War
• Van Allen, Judith, “‘Aba Riots’ or Igbo ‘Women’s War’? Ideology, Stratification and the Invisibility of Women.” In Women in Africa, edited by Hafkin, Nancy J. and Bay, Edna G., 59–85. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1976)
• https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/aba-womens-riots-november-december-1929/
• http://www.africanfeministforum.com/the-igbo-womens-war-of-1929/
• https://www.themarysue.com/the-igbo-women-british-black-history-month/