With the extension of the system of ‘indirect rule’* across southern Nigeria from 1914, women were affected in two ways: they were subject to separate direct taxation (Benin, 1914; Oyo, 1916; Abeokuta, 1918; parts of the southeast from 1926 onwards), often at flat-rates, as the British sought to raise money from the colonized peoples; and they were steadily excluded from political institutions.
For although British indirect rule claimed to protect and maintain pre-existing political and judicial systems, it often altered them radically, concentrating power in the hands of select individuals, invariably men. These individuals were ultimately answerable to the colonial administration. This concentration of power in a single figure risked leaving women without forms of political representation and decision-making once open to them.
The ‘Women’s War’ of November and December 1929, which swept across Owerri and Calabar in the southeast, was triggered by the imminent threat of direct taxation on women. British colonialists labelled the war the ‘Aba riots’, a term that failed to recognize the strategically executed nature of the revolt, which was aimed at redressing social, economic and political injustices.
In the face of fierce repression, market women successfully organized attacks on colonial buildings and property, eventually forcing a change in the indirect rule system of the eastern region. Approximately fifty-five women lost their lives.
Aba Women of Nigeria in the first half of the 20th century. Unknown photographer. Published in Margery Perham, Native Administration in Nigeria, London, 1937.
The revolt eventually resulted in the abolition of the warrant chief system* of indirect rule in south-eastern Nigeria.
This was the first women’s struggle to resonate with the common concerns of ordinary Nigerian women beyond the local context, and marked a turning point in the political organization of Nigerian women.
Aba Women of Nigeria in the first half of the 20th century. Unknown author. Published in Margery Perham, Native Administration in Nigeria, London, 1937.
* 'In seeking to apply this policy to the I[g]bo and their neighbours, the British selected certain natives who they thought were traditional chiefs and gave them certificates of recognition and authority called warrants. The warrant entitled each of these men to sit in the Native Court from time to time to judge cases. It also empowered him to assume within the community he represented executive and judicial powers which were novel both in degree and territorial scope.’ (Afigbo, 1972, pp. 6–7.)
Yoruba women were predominantly traders, rather than farmers, and possessed a long, recognizable tradition of organization and co-operation, particularly in the price-setting of market goods. Some women in the southwest were able to capitalize on new trading opportunities in the developing colonial economy, as a decline in food production, caused by the growth of the cocoa market and rapid urbanization, led to a greater demand for imported foodstuffs.
Nonetheless, many Yoruba market women would still face considerable challenges.
Yoruba women selling dried fermented cassava chips in a local market. Photograph by ITAA Image Library, 2007.
In 1920s Lagos, colonial policies such as external price controls and direct taxation triggered the creation of the Lagos Market Women’s Association (LMWA), ably led by Madam Alimotu Pelewura. In the 1930s and 1940s, the LMWA had some success in overturning oppressive colonial laws, such as the separate income tax on Lagosian women. Although the LMWA did not enjoy national resonance, it made an important step towards adapting previous forms of organization to the new political systems.
Yoruba women selling dried fermented cassava chips in a local market. Photograph by ITAA Image Library, 2007.
