The most well-known rebellion women in West Africa led was The Aba Women’s Riots of 1929 (Ogu Umunwanyi) of Nigeria, which began in 1929 due to the British desire to marginalize Igbo women to control their power in government. Ten Thousand Igbo women (as well as other southeastern Nigerian women) banded together to wage war on the European forces utilizing sit-in tactics.
The women had become discontented with their relegation by a government that believed that men could govern their people and also the tax system imposed on them. As a result of their war (also known as Women’s War), Native courts in Nigeria were destroyed and some British businesses were devastated. Native chiefs were also obliged to resign during this time. The war resulted in reform as the British sought to reconcile with the women. Following the war, women were appointed to Native Chieftaincy positions.
Before the war, there were many other ways in which Nigerian women protested, particularly against misogyny. In the earlier part of the 20th century When narratives had circulated about men taking the lives of their pregnant wives, women protested by withdrawing from their homes, thereby abandoning the duties that their husbands relied upon and as a result, village elders intervened and responded positively to them.
Revisiting African histories in a way that honors truth as well as forgotten narratives is important to way to interrogate what we have come to believe about resistance, gender, colonialism, culture, and most importantly what we have come to accept as our true identities. The Aba Women’s Riots of 1929 serve as a reminder that we must interrogate commonly held beliefs about African agency and our ability to assemble to achieve various objectives.
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