Sociological Analysis
The occurrence in 1929 in the Eastern regions of the present day area called Nigeria, colonial annals have tried everything within their power to undermine and dilute it. They started by labeling it a riot so as to give the impression that it was a spontaneous action by an unorganized women without a purpose and without leadership. But unfortunately very biased analysts, history as is usual with its powers has caught up and overwhelmed them.
The basic tool the British and the French used in their colonial criminal activities in the Sub Saharan region in Africa were basically Religion, Business and Military force. This was called the Three Bs. Bible, Business and Bullets. The whole essence of colonialism was exploitation. This means to extort money from the colonial victims, exploits their land and their mineral and human resources and carte these away for the development of the crown government as in the case of Britain.
However, like every plan, too many issues were taken for granted, especially the ethnocentrism of the people they have come to rob. As in the case of the Eastern Nigeria, with particular reference to the Igbos, they had taken them so much for granted that when the revolution had occurred they were totally taken unawares. With arrogance of the colonialists they had sent charlatans like Mungo Park, who have neither Sociological studies nor Anthropological knowledge to come and sniff at the supposed primitive people and report to home base. That Mungo Park reported to his bosses that the river Niger flows directly into the Nile or some other absurd theory proved this assertion. When his report was questioned he came back and blundered on, and of course the rest of his escapades is history.
Secondly the fact that the northern part of West Africa remain Moslems while the Coastal areas are Christians up to date explains the fact that their religious claims of Christianising Africa was an absolute farce. When they came to the coastal regions, with particular reference to the Igbos, they met a very a highly intelligent people with powerfully established communal system, with the people absolutely self dependent. Mode of production perfected. Farmers who were already using advanced metal tools like hoes, knives, diggers and shovels and the system of irrigation already in operation.
This of course they did not find convenient, as they needed societies to be absolutely backwards so that they can exploit them. They had to impress upon them the concept of their superiority so as to embark on their nefarious adventure. They therefore decided to destroy this existing status quo and impose replace it with the careless one they had crooked up, called the Indirect rule. The concept or misconception of the Indirect Rule will wait for a detailed expose on another edition. However, this colonial knock up system of government was a total disaster. They had to attempt to dismantle the working way of life of these people, and those of them that already have some sort of accepted leadership, with duly installed chieftains, these rulers were kidnapped by the colonial master and never allowed to come back to their land. The story of King Jaja is still wet in history books, no matter what the British paints it to be. And some like Eze Onyeama na Eke they murdered in cold blood.
Now the most ignoble act of the British in their colonial escapade was that they created the institution of the Warrant Chiefs. These warrant chiefs are extracted from the ne’er do wells, the losers and the miscreants of the community, the unscrupulous low echelon members who are ready and willing to betray the community because they really have nothing invested therein. These rascals the British made and imposed upon these very proud communities. Of course this went down most sourly with the Igbos who are free minded people. Of course these unpopular and naturally unaccepted Warrant Chief so as to impress their white masters went after their slave labor duties with mischievous over gallantry. And in their carelessness and over zealousness stepped on toes that are bigger than them, British masters or not. The result is the imposition of taxation on women. An irresponsible act that is considered an outright taboo in these societies.
In these mainly agrarian societies, men farm and the women trade on the proceeds of the farm. It is the duty of the man to provide for his wife, food, shelter, clothing and above all, protection. The colonial imposition of tax was considered an affront to the man, and anything that threatens the man threatens the total existence of the Igbo nation. When such a situation arises, the Unuada arise. A traditional force, the men folk avoid like a plague. The ignorant colonialists had unwittingly rattled the hornet’s nest. The result was what is now in the annals of Eastern Nigeria history as Women at War.
It is note worthy that this women revolution was after the Arochukwu wars of 1901 to 1902. against the British colonialists. That the Aros of Igboland are still there and waxing strong while the British are gone is statement as to who came victorious in that long drawn conflict, no matter what colonial records say. This uninformed colonial action of course triggered off wild reactions from these fearless and indomitable communities.
After the Women’s powerful revolution, there was another uprising against the colonialist in 1949 in Enugu, another Igbo town. This was recorded as the Enugu Coal miner’s revolution.
It is on record that no society gave the British colonialists in West Africa the amount of resistance they witnessed from these highly expressive Igbo society. This of course was one of the reasons why they had to pack their colonial baggage and ran, even while it was obvious that their colonial exploitation was still at its peak. As they were just in the throes of the horrors of the shock of the wars they just came out of, and needed colonial goods as buffers to soften the economic harshness of the after war effect.
Of course, in their vindictive nature, they never forgave the Igbos and therefore schemed and planned to wreak their revenge. The result being the Biafran wars which the British literary sponsored even if it means the annihilation of the Igbos, so that it will not be on record that any peoples undermined and overwhelmed the British, so that they can go on with the illusion of great whatever, and sing self eulogizing songs about they never being slaves to nobody.
Poor British, one looks at their colonial escapade in Eastern Nigeria with so much pity, for, they lost so much of their people there that they called that region the white mans grave.
Margery Perham’s Report
At the end of 1929, just when the government was congratulating itself upon the success with which the difficult task of introducing direct taxation into these provinces had been accomplished, rioting of a serious and unusual kind broke out in Calabar and Owerri. In Owerri province, in the heart of the Ibo country, where a particularly dense population inhabits the palm forest, there is a place called Oloko. Here a warrant chief, Okugo, under instructions from the district officer, was making a reassessment of the taxable wealth of the people. In this he attempted to count the women, children, and domestic animals. A rumor at once spread among the women that the recently introduced taxation of men was to be extended to them. All through this densely inhabited forest country, at intervals of a few miles, are markets where many thousands, mostly women, collect to do petty trading, sell palm-oil to the small middle-men, and gossip with each other. The rumor thus ran all through the locality in a few days, spreading anger and dismay which were all the more intense because at this moment the price of palm-produce was falling, and new customs duties had put up the cost of several imported articles of daily use. They were seriously perturbed. “We depend upon our husbands, we cannot buy food or clothes ourselves and how shall we get money to pay tax?” They decided to combine. “We women,” as one of them stated afterwards in her evidence, “therefore held a large meeting at which we decided to wait until we heard definitely from one person that women were to be taxed, in which case we would make trouble, as we did not mind to be killed for doing so. We went to the houses of all the chiefs and each admitted counting his people.”
Okugo, continuing reluctantly to carry out his orders, sent a messenger to count some of his people. This man entered a compound and told one of the married women, Nwanyeruwa, who was pressing oil, to count her goats and sheep. She replied angrily, “Was your mother counted?” at which they closed, seizing each other by the throat.’ A meeting of women was called and Nwanyeruwa’s excited story was told as confirmation of the rumor. A palm-leaf, which, it appears, is at once a symbol of trouble and a call for help, was sent round to all the women of the neighborhood. From the whole countryside women poured into Oloko and proceeded according to custom to “sit” upon the man who bad tried to assess Nwanyeruwa. All night they danced round his house singing a song quickly invented to meet the situation. Growing hourly more excited, they went on to Okugo’s compound where his own people tried to defend him with sticks and bird arrows. The crowd mobbed him, damaged his house, demanded his cap of office, and charged him with assault before the district officer at Bende. The latter arrested him and brought him into the station. “The women,” said this officer, “numbering over ten thousand, were shouting and yelling round the office in a frenzy. They demanded his cap of office, which I threw to them and it met the same fate as a fox’s carcass thrown to a pack of hounds. The station between the office and the prison . . . resembled Epsom Downs on Derby Day.” The women continued to camp in thousands round the District Office until Okugo was tried and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for assault. But this was not the end. The women, for a reason which we shall consider later, refused, in spite of all the assurances of chiefs and administrative officers, to believe that women, “the trees which bear fruit,” were not to be taxed, and this even after a deputation of fifty had taken train to provincial headquarters at Port Harcourt to question the Resident.5 From Oloko women went out in all directions, beyond the boundaries of the province and even into the neighboring lbibio country, spreading the rumor, and from a wide area subscriptions began to come in to Nwanyeruwa who had become a figure of womanhood rising up against oppress
During the second week of December, the movement spread from the Ibo divisions of Owerri and Aba, to the Ibibio peoples of Calabar. At much the same time as the elaborate form of reassessment, which the women connected with female taxation, was being undertaken in Oloko, the Resident of Calabar had issued instructions for a similar kind of enumeration in his province. This was zealously enacted in one district by a cadet in the administrative service. In some villages, the people cleared into the bush at his approach, taking their small stock and chickens with them; here, however, he counted the houses, there being generally one to each woman, and the tethering pegs for the goats and sheep. These animals, we may notice, were often the personal possessions of the women. In the neighboring district the chiefs protested vigorously against these house-to-house visitations, though they professed themselves ready to parade all the men of each village in the central square. Another cadet, in Opobo district, to the south, met with determined opposition from the chiefs as well as from the people who were already in touch with the women at Owerri. The women followed him about wailing and cursing; palm branches, doubtless reinforced with magic, were tied across paths and doorways, while on one occasion it was grimly pointed out to him that he was actually standing on a grave where a white man like himself was buried. Finally, he was assaulted and his tax register taken. At the neighboring center of Ukam, he and two senior colleagues were powerless to check the women, on this occasion accompanied by men, who opened the lock-up, destroyed the Native Court, and cut the telegraph wires. At Utu-Etim-Ekpo appeared crowds of women scantily dressed in sackcloth, their faces smeared with charcoal, sticks wreathed with young palms in their hands, while their heads were bound with young ferns. It is interesting to note that no Europeans understood the exact significance of these last symbols though nearly all the native witnesses assumed that they meant war. They burned the Native Court and sacked and looted the “factory” (European store) and clerks’ houses. They declared that the district officer was born of a woman, and as they were women they were going to see him. Police and troops were sent, and as, on two occasions, the woman ran toward them with frenzied shouts, fire was opened with a Lewis gun as well as with rifles, and eighteen women were killed and nineteen wounded.
The following day an even more serious collision occurred at Opobo. Mobs of women passed shouting and singing about the town, “What is the smell? Death is the smell.” They beat upon the iron-trading stores with their sticks and threatened the traders. To one, Mr. Butler a merchant, they shouted derisively, “All right, Bottle, no fear morning time five o’clock we go come for you,” and the next day, “We’ll get our Christmas clothes out of you today.” In order to calm their excited fears, the district officer agreed to meet the seven leaders at the district office the following day. Palm-leaves were sent around to all the neighboring clans, and when the time came not seven but several hundred arrived at the office, armed with stout cudgels and dressed only in loin-cloths and palm-leaves. In front of the district office was a light bamboo fence, beyond that the road and, almost immediately beyond that, the river. The district officer, with a military officer and a platoon of troops, parleyed with the women from inside the fence. The leaders asked him to make notes of the discussion and then asked to see his notes.
All this time the meeting was becoming rowdier. More and more women were streaming up, until the numbers were estimated as being about fifteen hundred. When the copies were handed out, various other demands were made, such as that they must be put into envelopes, that they must have two-shilling stamps attached. They made threatening and obscene gestures toward the troops, called them sons of pigs, and said they knew the soldiers would not fire at them. At last they struck at the district officer with their sticks. The lieutenant caught the blows, made signs to the district officer as to whether he should fire (for it was impossible to make himself heard in the uproar) and, just as the fence began to give way before the rush of women, shot the leader through the head with his revolver. Two volleys were then fired on the crowd which broke and fled, leaving thirty-two dead and dying, and thirty-one wounded.
This shooting was on December 17. Trouble continued sporadically in various parts of the disturbed area, but by the twentieth the situation was completely in hand, and the rest of the month was taken up with pacification by means of patrols, and punishments under the Collective Punishments Ordinance. The disturbed area covered about six thousand square miles and contained about two million people. Attacks were made upon Native Courts in sixteen Native Administration centers, and most of them were broken up or burned.
It is an encouraging feature of this unhappy incident that the responsible authorities in Nigeria, as in England, should have been so ready to face the fact that it resulted largely from defects in their government. Here the Aba riots point a moral that is applicable far beyond Nigeria. The difficulties in this region were exceptionally great. But beneath the peculiar local symptoms lies a pathological condition common to the whole of Negro Africa. It is produced by the sudden strain thrown upon primitive communities by the strong, all-embracing pressure of European influence. There are examples in various parts of the world of primitive peoples unexpectedly rebelling after years of apparent acquiescence in European rule, and their conscious purposes often draw strength from what is at bottom an unconscious cultural protest. The reaction may not be expressed in this form; Some tribes endure the stress of change so quietly that their rulers do not observe their difficulties. One relief for the desire for reassertion is found in the formation of secret societies or of quasi-Christian bodies independent of white control, whose proceedings express at once European influence and an anti-European attitude. The Watch Tower movement in Southern Africa, with its apocalyptic hopes of the fall of Christendom, “Satan’s organization,” clearly belongs to this category.
Nwanyeruwa
also known as Madame Nwanyeruwa, was an Igbo woman living in colonial Nigeria who gained prominence for her role in the Aba Women’s Riots, better known as the Women’s War. The revolt stemmed for the reluctance of Nigerian women to be taxed amidst the economic hardships of the Great Depression. After a scuffle with a male Igbo Warrant Officer, Nwanyeruwa organised 10,000 Nigerian woman in a protest against the colonial and native authorities. While the protest did not result in much concrete changes or acceptance of Nwanyeruwa’s demands, it did result in woman being involved in the colonial Nigerian political system. Nwanyeruwa’s actions have been appraised by several historians, who cite her actions as an important milestone in the history of African nationalism.[1][2][3][4]
Although her date of birth and location of birth is unknown, it has been speculated by some historians that Nwanyeruwa was born in Igboland, a region which covers most of Southeast Nigeria.[5] Nwanyeruwa was a woman of the Oloko Community in the present Umuahia of Abia state in Nigeria. As the typical gender roles of the Igbo culture were reversed as opposed to Western culture, Nwanyeruwa essentially acted as the paramount authority within the home. Sometime before 1929, Nwanyeruwa had married an Igbo man named Ojim, who had died some time before that year.[
The Women’s War, also termed the Aba Women’s Riot by the British, was sparked by a dispute between Nwanyeruwa and a man, Mark Emereuwa, who was helping to make a census of the people living in the town controlled by the Warrant, Okugo. Nwanyeruwa was of Ngwa ancestry, and had been married in the town of Oloko. In Oloko, the census was related to taxation, and women in the area were worried about who would tax them, especially during the period of hyperinflation in the late 1920s. The financial crash of 1929 impeded women’s ability to trade and produce so they sought assurance from the colonial government that they would not to be required to pay taxes. Faced with a halt in their political demands, the women settled that they would not pay taxes nor have their property appraised.[8]
On the morning of November 18, Emereuwa arrived at Nwanyereuwa’s house and approached her, since her husband Ojim had already died. He told the widow to “count her goats, sheep and people.” Since Nwanyeruwa understood this to mean, “How many of these things do you have so we can tax you based on them”, she was angry. She replied by saying “Was your widowed mother counted?,” meaning “that women don’t pay tax in traditional Igbo society.” The two exchanged angry words, and Emeruwa grabbed Nwanyeruwa by the throat.[9] Nwanyeruwa went to the town square to discuss the incident with other women who happened to be holding a meeting to discuss the issue of taxing women. Believing they would be taxed, based on Nwanyeruwa’s account, the Oloko women invited other women (by sending leaves of palm-oil trees) from other areas in the Bende District, as well as from Umuahia and Ngwa. They gathered nearly 10,000 women who protested at the office of Warrant Chief Okugo, demanding his resignation and calling for a trial.[10][11]
As a result of the protests, the position of women in society was greatly improved. In some areas, women were able to replace the Warrant Chiefs. Women were also appointed to serve on the Native Courts. After the Women’s war, women’s movements were very strong in Ngwaland, many events in the 1930s, 40s and 50s were inspired by the Women’s War, including the Tax Protests of 1938, the Oil Mill Protests of the 1940s in Owerri and Calabar Provinces and the Tax Revolt in Aba and Onitsha in 1956.[12]
Nwanyeruwa, along with other women of the Oloko village inspired women in other Nigerian villages to start their own political movements as well.[13] Nwanyeruwa’s role in the Women’s War was one in a series of actions which acted as a catalyst for social and political change in Nigerian history, aiding the nascent African nationalist movement in the region and the movement for independence, which culminated in independence being granted in 1960. Her actions marked a milestone in both African nationalism and women’s rights in Africa.[14]
The Aba women’s riot of 1929, often referred to as a war, resulted in the death of 51 women and 1 man.
Power in Igboland had very large disparity between ruling in other parts of Nigeria. Igbos did not have a unified political institution as in the North and South hence it was harder to enforce the indirect system of ruling, instituted by Lord Lugard in 1914, in Igboland.
The Aba women’s riot did not happen spontaneously, but had months of tension leading to it. Here is the real story behind the rebellion and the people that died.
The Aba Women’s Riot featured women rebelling against economic and socio-political oppressions in Bende, Umuahia, and other regions of Igboland. Over 10,000 women came out to protest from majorly six ethnic groups: Ibibio, Andoni, Orgoni, Bonny, Opobo, and Igbo.
The indirect rule system in Igboland involved the appointment of ‘warrant chiefs.’ These warrant chiefs, who weren’t necessarily people that were respected by the communities, became the enforced symbol of power. And as result of the vested power, the warrant chiefs became increasingly oppressive within few years.
ALSO READ: The real story behind Freedom Park
Direct taxation on men was introduced in 1928 without major incidents, thanks to the careful propaganda during the preceding twelve months. In September 1929, Captain J. Cook, an assistant District Officer, was sent to take over the Bende division temporarily from the serving district officer. Upon taking over, Cook found the slated nominal rolls for tax inadequate because they did not include details of the number of wives, children, and livestock in each household. He decided to revise the nominal roll to include these.
The riot bubbled from a town called Oloko, where the warrant chief, Okugo, sent his representative Mark Emereuwa on the morning of 18 November 1929, to conduct the census for the tax. Emereuwa entered the compound of a widow named Nwanyereuwa, while she was processing palm fruit, and instructed her to “count her lives stocks and people living with her.”
Knowing fully well that this means you will be taxed based on the number of the outcome, Nwanyereuwa became embittered; and in replying, she said, “was your widowed mother counted?”
This simply means that women were not supposed to pay tax in Igbo society. Anger was however expressed with exchange of words and ended with Nwanyereuwa pouring her palm oil on Emereuwa. Threats were also exchanged.
The widow proceeded to the town square to find other women who were already deliberating on the tax issue and explained to them her sad experience. Nwanyeruwa’s account prompted the women to invite other women with the aid of palm leaves from other areas of the Bende district.
Approximately ten thousand women were gathered, and a protest insisting on the removal and trial of the warrant chief was staged. It would go down in history that the effect of the Aba women’s riot prompted the British administration to drop their plans to impose a tax on the market women and to curb the power of the warrant chiefs.
In addition, the positions of women in society were greatly improved as women were appointed to serve as chief warrant in some areas.
The Aba Women’s Riot resulted in the death of 51 women and 1 man.
