Funmilayo Ransome Kuti (1900 – 1978) was a Nigerian politician and women's rights activist. She is particularly committed to the independence of Nigeria, the right to vote and the economic emancipation of women.
Engaged teacher
Daughter of Lucretia Phyllis Omoyeni Adeosolu and Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas, Francis Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas was born on October 25, 1900 in Abeokuta (Nigeria) into a Christian family, within the Egba tribe, of the Yoruba ethnic group. Her mother is a seamstress and her father, a planter, is descended from a former slave from Sierra Leone.
Funmilayo studied at Abeokuta Grammar school, where she was the first female student. She then spent four years in England to complete her studies, between 1919 and 1923. She learned about anti-colonialism and socialism there. Upon her return to Nigeria, Funmilayo took up a teaching position at the Abeokuta Girls' School. At this time, she gave up her Christian first names Frances Abigail to keep only her Yoruba first name, and made a point of using the Yoruba language.
In 1925, Funmilayo married the Reverend and teacher Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a human rights defender and founder of the Nigerian Union of Teachers and the Nigerian Union of Students; the couple will have three children.
Abeokuta Women's Union
In 1942, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti created the Ladie's Club of Abeokuta , a charity and feminist association, made up of literate middle-class women. After a few years, the Ladie's Club of Abeokuta becomes Abeokuta Women’s Union (AWU) and gets rid of its elitism to expand to underprivileged women, poor traders, illiterates. Funmilayo organizes evening classes and workshops, in particular to help the thousands of AWU members to defend themselves against colonial authorities.
In addition, the AWU is becoming politicized. The association campaigns against taxes on women traders, against requisitions and corruption, for the right to vote and political representation of women. Thousands of women, members of the AWU or not, demonstrate and join these protest campaigns. The movement multiplies initiatives to make the authorities bend:market closures, sit-ins, demonstrations, refusal to pay women's tax. For joining this action, Funmilayo is imprisoned for a while. On leaving, she travels to England to draw attention to the condition of women in Nigeria. Finally in 1949, after years of struggle, the AWU obtained the abolition of the tax on women traders. The AWU expands into the Nigerian Women's Union.
Independence of Nigeria
Funmilayo Ransome Kuti is also committed to the independence of his country. She traveled a lot, taking part in conferences and intervening in favor of the independence of Nigeria, which would take place in 1960. Her numerous trips, to Moscow and Beijing in particular, attracted the attention of the authorities during the Cold War period and her visas were regularly confiscated or refused in some countries.
Funmilayo tries to get into politics by joining the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) , but she is quickly expelled from the party. She then founded The Commoners’ People’s Party , a political party that will be dissolved the following year.
In the chaos following the Biafra war and successive coups, Funmilayo's son, Fela Kuti, stands up against corruption and dictatorship. Musician, he released in 1976 the antimilitarist album Zombie . In retaliation, a military raid razed her residence in 1978. Funmilayo was defenestrated by soldiers in the presence of her son. Nicknamed "the Mother of Women's Rights", Funmilayo Ransome Kuti died of her injuries a few months later.