In Nigeria today, women fear to delve into politics because they have been relegated to the background by
their male counterparts who regard their opinions as nothing. It can only take a woman like
Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti with so many guts to stand the punches of such men in politics, who believe that a woman’s voice should not be heard.
 
Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti is a woman whose interest for politics was born out of the desire to fight for the right of the Nigerian woman to vote. She was a feminist who fought for the suffrage and equal rights of women in her country long before the second wave of the women's movement in the United States. She also fought vehemently for Nigerian independence as an activist during the anti-colonial movement.

She earned the name “Doyen of female rights in Nigeria” and “The mother of Africa”in the course of her political activism. She also was described by the West African Pilot in 1947 as the, "Lioness of Lisabi" for leading the women of the Egba clan, her clan, on a campaign against their arbitrary taxation which led to the abdication of the then Egba high king, Oba Ademola II in 1949.

                                              

In the 50s, her dynamic leadership with that of Elizabeth Adekogbe paved way for the rights of the Nigerian woman to vote. She founded the Egba/Abeokuta Women's Union along with Eniola Soyinka (her sister-in-law who happens to be the mother of the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka), with over 20,000 women, both literate and illiterate as members. She also organised several workshops for illiterate market women and continued to campaign against government’s arbitrary taxation and price controls.

                                                            

With Trade being the major occupation of women in Western Nigeria as at that time, Ransome-Kuti led the Egba/Abeokuta Women's Union, which comprised mainly of market women in a protest rally against the price controls affecting them. She led another protest in 1949 against Alake of Egbaland, a Native Authority. She had earlier presented documents alleging Alake, who had been granted the right to collect taxes by colonial suzerain, the Government of the United Kingdom of abuse of authority. Alake subsequently relinquished his crown for a time as a result of this. She continued in her fight for the abolishment of the separate tax rates for women until she succeeded.

Ransome-Kuti’s political activities were not confined to Nigeria alone, she was a world traveller and espoused a global perspective. Her impact was also felt in Ghana where she inspired the creation of the Ghana Women’s Association which Kwame Nkrumah, the then pan-African president of Ghana credited her for. In 1953, she founded the Federation of Nigerian Women Societies which subsequently formed an alliance with the Women's International Democratic Federation and a branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Abeokuta in 1960.

                                                          

England, China, the Soviet Union, switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland are just a few countries she travelled to. It was her travels during the Cold War, prior to Nigeria’s independence, which angered the Nigerian government who refused to; renew her passport in 1956 because according to them, "it can be assumed that it is her intention to influence … women with communist ideas and policies."  The British and American governments also denied her visa alleging her of being a communist and having contacts with the Eastern/Communist Bloc (Communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the warsaw Pact). This included her travel to the former USSR, Hungary and China where she met Mao Zedong.

For many years, Ransome-Kuti was a member of the ruling National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) party, a political party founded by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who later became the first president of Nigeria. She later ran for a Federal Parliamentary seat on the ticket of the NCNC, but was suspended when she lost the election. While in NCNC, she was the treasurer before becoming the president of the Western NCNC Women's Association. After her suspension, her political voice went low but not shut as a result of the direction of national politics with two more powerful members of the opposition, Awolowo and Adegbenro, having support close by.

Although she faced opposition in NCNC and left politics for a while, she never ended her activism. In the 1950s, she was one of the few women elected to the House of Chiefs which was at the time, one of her homeland's most influential political bodies. Prior to independence, she founded the Commoners Peoples Party in an attempt to challenge the ruling NCNC, ultimately denying them victory in her area. She got 4,665 votes to NCNC's 9,755, thus allowing the opposition Action Group, which had 10,443 votes to win.

She served with distinction as one of the most prominent leaders of her generation, as she became one of the few who fought the British government for Nigeria’s independence. She was the first female women’s rights activist, a teacher, political campaigner and a traditional aristocrat. She is first woman in Nigeria to drive a car and ride a bike.

Francis Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas (her maiden name), was born in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the Western part of Nigeria, into the family of Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas and Lucretia Phyllis Omoyeni Adeosolu in October 25, 1900. Her father happened to be a slave who returned from Sierra Leone, tracing his way back to his ancestral home Egba in Abeokuta the capital Ogun State of today. He later became a member of the Anglican Church. She attended St. John’s Primary school, Igbe in Abeokuta (1906 – 1913). She later went on to Abeokuta Girls’ Grammar school (a Christian Missionary school) for her secondary education, sat for her Preceptor’s examination there and taught there. In May 1919, she was sponsored by the Church Missionary Society and her father’s cousin (a UAC agent) to further her studies in England. On her return to the country, she took up a teaching career. She got admitted into Wincham Hall College, England where she studied Domestic Sciences, Education, French and Music. She dropped her two English names; Frances and Abigail, preferring to be called by her native name which she shortened to Funmilayo. Having obtained her teaching qualifications, she returned to Nigeria in 1922 and took up a teaching job at her Alma Mata.

In 1925, January 20 to be precise, Ransome-Kuti got married to Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome Kuti, who on his own part was a philanthropist. He was a human rights activist, he defended the commoners of this country and was a co-founder of both the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and of the Nigerian Union of Students (NUS). Both husband and wife became a formidable force and tirelessly fought to end colonialism in Nigeria. Their marriage was blessed with four children.  Three sons; Late Fela Anikulapo Kuti (the Afrobeat legend),  Late Beko Ransome-Kuti (Doctor) and Late Professor Olikoye Ransome Kuti (a Paediatrician and former Minister of Health in Nigeria) who later became renown activists, taking after their parents in fighting for the right of the commoners and a daughter, Dolu Ransome-Kuti.
Later on in the ‘70s, long after the death of her husband, with the help of her youngest son, Fela changed her last name to ‘Anikulapo-Kuti’.

                                  

Her Achievements
Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti while alive was a woman that was full of life and activities. She was the first Nigerian lady to drive a Volkswagen car and a bike in Nigeria. She was a renowned women's right activist. She was elected to the native Western House of Chiefs of Nigeria, as Oloye of the Yoruba people, a ranking member of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, Treasurer and President of Western Women Association of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. She was the leader of Abeokuta Women's Union, the leader of Commoners Peoples Party and the leader of Nigeria Women's Union. She was the winner of the Lenin Peace Prize. In 1965, she received a national honor of membership in the Order of Nigeria. She was bestowed an honorary doctorate of laws by the University of Ibadan in 1968. She was one of the delegates that negotiated Nigeria's independence with the British government.  She was an educationist, an activist and a campaigner. She founded a secondary school in Abeokuta to educate and train Nigerian men and women to become future leaders.

Having lived a well accomplished and fulfilled life, Ransome-Kuti died in Lagos four months after surviving the incident which led to her leg injury in 1978 while trying to the fight the military against the unjust arrest of her son, Fela. One thousand armed military personnel had stormed her son, Fela's compound, a commune known as the Kalakuta Republic in that year. She was thrown from a second-floor window and had lapsed into a coma in February of that same year. She gave up the ghost on April 13, 1978, on the 77th years of living.
                                         

Proposed N5, 000 note controversy

                             

On Thursday 30 August 2012, one of her grandsons, musician Seun Kuti responded to questions from fans and friends on Channels Television Nigeria’s hangout via Google+. Seun Kuti said his grandmother was murdered by the Federal Government and asked the Federal Government to apologise to his family for the death of his grandmother, Funmilayo Kuti, before considering immortalising her by putting her picture on the proposed N5000 note. As of 3 September 2012, the Nigerian government neither has yet to respond to his request nor apologized. Several protest groups have begun to form on social media adding pressure for a government apology.
                 

Fumilayo Ransome-Kuti is that Nigerian woman that possesses great and admirable strength of courage and character. It is her ardent works and achievements that give the women today the courage to delve into politics to sit and discuss matters of the state with their male counterparts. The voices of women are not only heard today, but highly regarded.