Eclectic Histories

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was born in 1900 in Abeokuta, in present-day Nigeria. She emerged as one of the most influential political organizers of the colonial period. At a time when women were excluded from formal governance, she built power through collective action.

In 1946, she founded the Abeokuta Women’s Union, transforming it into a mass movement of market women & traders. Their demands focused on unfair taxation & political exclusion—captured in the principle: no taxation without representation.

Colonial authorities had imposed taxes on women whilst denying them a voice in governance. Enforcement was often coercive, tying everyday economic survival to a system women had little control over.

Under her leadership, thousands of women organized protests, petitions, & demonstrations. In 1947, they confronted the authority of the Alake of Abeokuta, whose administration operated within the colonial system. According to Kuti, “We had equality till Britain came.”

Sustained resistance over the following years forced concessions. Women’s taxation was suspended, & in 1949, the Alake, Ladapo Ademola II, abdicated amid mounting pressure—though he was later reinstated.

Her activism extended beyond Abeokuta. She campaigned for women’s suffrage, challenged colonial policy, connected with women activists across Nigeria like Margaret Ekpo & Sawaba Gambo, & engaged with international anti-colonial movements. Her work contributed to shaping women’s voices in the path toward independence.

In her later years, she remained outspoken against military rule. In 1977, during a military raid on her son Fela’s compound, Kalakuta Republic, soldiers attacked residents & destroyed the property. According to Kuti, “A soldier pulled me by the hair & threw me out of the window.” She sustained injuries & died in 1978.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti’s legacy is a reminder that real power often comes from the ability to organize, mobilize, & challenge authority.

What lessons can we learn from her life about how ordinary people—especially women—can reshape politics?




AMANIRENAS ruled the Kingdom of Kush in the late 1st century BCE as a Kandake (often translated as”queen” or “queen mother”), leading one of the most formidable resistances against Roman expansion into northeastern Africa. After Rome annexed Egypt under Augustus Caesar in 30 BCE following the deaths of Cleopatra & Mark Anthony, tensions grew along Kush’s northern frontier—until Amanirenas chose confrontation over submission.

Around 24 BCE, Kush*te forces under her command launched a bold offensive into Roman-controlled Egypt, targeting key frontier towns such as Syene, Elephantine, & Philae. According to the Greek geographer Strabo, her forces carried off statues of Augustus; one bronze head was later discovered buried beneath a temple threshold at Meroë—likely placed there deliberately as a symbol of defiance.

Rome retaliated, sending forces south that sacked the city of Napata. But the campaign did not result in Kush*te defeat. Amanirenas continued to resist, & by 21/20 BCE, negotiations produced a peace agreement widely seen as favorable to Kush: Rome withdrew from parts of the contested border zone & imposed no tribute.

Classical accounts also suggest that Amanirenas lost an eye in battle, yet remained an active military & political leader. Still, much of what we know about her comes from Greco-Roman sources, which means her story reaches us filtered through the perspective of the very empire she resisted.

Her story disrupts a familiar narrative: that Rome was unstoppable, & that African kingdoms stood only at its margins. Instead, she represents a moment where imperial expansion met resistance—& was forced to negotiate.

What would history look like if more stories were told from the perspective of those who refused to submit?



📷 1: Artistic reconstruction of Amanirenas
📷2: Artwork depicting a Kush*te queen regnant in pyramid
📷3: Bronze head from a statue of Augustus Caesar seized by Amanirenas’ forces c. 24 BCE & excavated c. 1910 from under the steps of a Victory temple at the site of ancient Kush*te capital Meroë (in present-day Sudan). It is now in the British Museum.

“Mrs Margaret Ekpo convened a meeting at which she said had any Black woman been injured in Enugu, she would go into the first house in Aba Division where she could find a white woman & would shoot her dead.” ~Mr FR Kay, colonial officer testifying at the Iva Valley Shooting inquiry. (Ekpo was arrested)

Margaret Ekpo (1914–2006) grew up in British colonial Nigeria, where political participation was mostly restricted to men & economic policies often overlooked women. Her political awakening began in the 1940s. What began as attending meetings on behalf of her husband quickly became independent action. In Aba, she organized market women & traders, turning everyday concerns—taxation, wages, market access—into political demands.

In November 1949, colonial police opened fire on striking miners in Enugu, killing 21 & injuring many. The killings intensified resistance across Eastern Nigeria & marked a turning point. Activists like Ekpo became more directly involved in confronting colonial authority.

In the aftermath, she mobilized women on a larger scale, linking labour struggles with nationalist politics. Through organizations such as the Aba Township Women’s Association, she transformed economic networks into political platforms, pushing for representation, education, & suffrage.

By the 1950s, she was a leading figure in nationalist politics. She later served in the Eastern Regional House of Assembly, elected in 1961—one of a few women in such positions at the time. She collaborated with contemporaries, including Flora Azikiwe, Janet Mokelu & Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, to advocate for Nigerian women.

Ekpo’s influence wasn’t defined by office alone. It was built through organization—expanding political inclusion beyond elite spaces to women in markets & communities.

Ekpo opined that without women, men couldn’t have effectively fought for Independence. She was offended by low representation of women in Nigeria’s 2005 Political Reform Conference & noted, “But the women are not united, & without that there is not very much they can do.”

Do you feel women are united & well represented today?

9 months before the bus boycott linked to Rosa Park changed American history, a 15-year-old girl refused to give up her seat.

Her name was CLAUDETTE COLVIN.

On March 2, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, Colvin boarded a segregated city bus after school. When the driver ordered her to stand so a white passenger could sit, she refused. She later recalled thinking of constitutional rights she had been studying in school—claims to citizenship, which segregation denied her in reality.

Police were called. Colvin was arrested, handcuffed, & charged with violating segregation laws, disturbing the peace, & assaulting an officer. She was 15.

Her case did not become a public campaign in the way later protests would. Civil rights leaders in Montgomery were already considering a legal challenge to bus segregation, but Colvin’s age, her appearance, & later pregnancy were allegedly seen as complicating factors in building a test case that could withstand public scrutiny.

Yet she did not disappear from the movement.

Claudette Colvin became one of the plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the federal case that challenged bus segregation in Alabama. In 1956, the court ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional—a decision later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, effectively ending the practice in Montgomery.

While figures like Rosa Parks became widely recognized as the face of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Colvin’s earlier act of resistance & her role in the legal case that followed remained less visible in public memory for decades. (**Note: There were others who similarly resisted in or before 1955)

After leaving the South, she spent much of her life working as a nurse’s aide in New York, largely outside the spotlight. She retired in 2004, & passed away on 13 January 2026.

Claudette Colvin’s story invites a closer look at how history is remembered. It encourages reflection on visibility, respectability, & why some acts of resistance are brought to the forefront while others remain less recognized.

What influences who becomes the face of a movement & who is remembered more quietly?

“There is no opening in my body – mouth, nostrils, eyes or anywhere else – from which blood did not gush out from because of torture. My front teeth are artificial. The originals were broken & pulled out.” ~ Hajiya GAMBO SAWABA (New Nigerian newspaper c. 2000)

Hajiya Gambo Sawaba (1933–2001) was one of Northern Nigeria’s most relentless political voices, shaped by loss, poverty & early resistance. Orphaned young, married at 13 & birthing her only child at 16, she entered politics as a teenager, joined the Northern Elements Progressive Union & dedicated her life to defending the poor, women, & the politically excluded.

In an era when women were expected to remain invisible in public life, she organized, spoke & mobilized—often in hostile spaces dominated by colonial authority & Northern Nigerian conservative elites. Due to her activism, she was imprisoned at least 16 times, stripped, flogged, & had her hair shaved with broken bottles—acts amongst others meant to break her spirit, but which hardened her resolve.

Sawaba was a fierce advocate for women’s rights, including their right to vote at a time when suffrage was restricted & contested in Nigeria’s Northern region. She mobilized women in markets & neighborhoods, insisting that political participation was not a privilege, but a right—challenging both colonial structures & local feudal systems that excluded women from decision-making.

She also fought against forced labor, child marriage, unfair taxes & the systemic denial of education to girls, arguing that independence without social justice—especially for women & the poor—was incomplete. Her politics were lived & embodied, with huge personal costs (eg due to torture in prison in 1957, her womb was surgically removed to save her life).

After Nigeria’s independence, she remained a critic of power, refusing to idealize a country that still marginalized the vulnerable.

Do you feel Sawaba’s fight is still relevant today? Why or why not?

She refused to sit on the ground in front of the Portuguese governor. Instead, NZINGA Mbande ordered a servant to get on all fours & used the servant’s back as her seat - meeting the governor at eye level. It was not a gesture. It was a statement. That moment defined Nzinga as a ruler who understood power, symbolism, & survival.

Born around 1582 into the royal house of Ndongo (in present-day Angola), Nzinga came of age as Portuguese expansion & the Atlantic slave trade destabilized Central Africa. By 1622, she was already negotiating directly with colonial authorities along the Kwanza River.

In 1624, after her brother’s death, she took power. Within years, Portuguese pressure forced her from Ndongo.
She did not disappear. She moved east & seized Matamba, rebuilding her authority from exile. There, she reorganized her state, incorporated Imbangala war bands, & constructed a military system capable of sustained resistance.

Nzinga did not rely on a single strategy. She negotiated when necessary, fought when possible, & shifted alliances when it served her position. In the 1640s, she aligned with the Dutch to challenge Portuguese control. When that alliance collapsed, she adapted again.

In 1656, after decades of war, she secured recognition as ruler of Matamba through treaty. She ruled into her eighties, maintaining her state until her death in 1663.

Nzinga’s life does not fit a simple narrative. She was at once a diplomat, a military leader, & a ruler navigating the realities of a region deeply entangled in the slave trade & imperial expansion. Her decisions, alliances, wars & negotiations were shaped by the need to preserve sovereignty in a rapidly changing world.

What do you think defined her legacy more—her resistance, or her ability to adapt?

📷: Artistic reconstruction

When British colonialists demanded the Asantes’ Golden Stool in 1900, many chiefs hesitated. But a voice reportedly rose in the council: “If you, the men of Asante, will not fight, then we will. We, the women, will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight the white men. We will fight till the last of us falls in the battlefields.” It was the voice of Yaa Asantewaa, Queen Mother of Ejisu.

Born c. 1840 in Besease in the Ashanti Empire (in present-day Ghana), Yaa Asantewaa was a farmer till she was appointed Queen Mother by her brother, the Chief of Ejisu. Queen mothers advised rulers, nominated kings, represented Asante’s matrilineal structure & protected the Golden Stool.

In 1896 the British exiled the Asante King Prempeh I & other leaders. 4 years later, the British governor demanded the Golden Stool, a sacred object embodying the spiritual unity & authority of the Asantes. The demand was seen as an insult & a threat to the Asantes’ independence. At a council of chiefs meeting, Yaa Asantewaa reportedly challenged the hesitance of the chiefs to respond & urged armed resistance. She was chosen to lead the rebellion—becoming the 1st & only woman to command the Asante war effort.

The conflict that followed, “The War of the Golden Stool”, began in March 1900. Yaa Asantewaa’s forces laid siege to the British fort at Kumasi, trapping British officials & their Hausa soldiers inside for months. The uprising mobilized thousands of warriors & was the final major confrontation in a long series of 19th century Anglo-Asante wars. Despite fierce resistance, British reinforcements eventually quelled the rebellion. Yaa Asantewaa & several advisers were captured & exiled to the Seychelles, where she died in 1921. Yet, the British never obtained the authentic Golden Stool.

Yaa Asantewaa is remembered as a war leader & queen mother who defended political autonomy, spiritual tradition, & the authority of the Asante State during the height of colonial expansion.

If you had been in that council of chiefs in 1900, would you have chosen diplomacy or followed Yaa Asantewaa into war?

Long before colonial rule reached West Africa, one woman led armies across the savanna & expanded the power of Zazzau.

Sarauniya (Queen) Amina of Zazzau (present day Zaria in Nigeria) was one of the most prominent military rulers in the early history of the Hausa states. She is thought to have lived in the 16th century & was linked with the Kingdom of Zazzau, one of the major Hausa city-states that controlled trade routes (leather, textiles, slaves, salt, metals, etc) across the savanna region linking the Sahara to forested West Africa.

The Kano Chronicle & later oral traditions state that Amina was the daughter of Queen Bakwa Turunku, who ruled Zazzau in the mid-16th century. Amina grew up in the royal court & received military training at an early age, accompanying campaigns led by Zazzau’s armies. When her brother Karama became king after their mother’s reign, Amina reportedly served as a military commander, gaining a reputation for discipline & battlefield strategy.

After Karama’s death, Amina eventually assumed power herself. Traditions describe her reign as one marked by extensive military campaigns beyond Zazzau’s borders. Hausa chronicles credit her with expanding Zazzau’s influence across large areas of what is now northern Nigeria & parts of the central savanna, bringing neighboring towns into tributary relationships & strengthening control over regional trade routes.
Some accounts also link the construction of defensive walls—often called ganuwar Amina—to her campaigns. These earthen fortifications, built around settlements across the region, were intended to secure newly incorporated territories & protect trading centers. While the precise historical details remain debated among historians, the traditions surrounding these walls reflect the scale of the military expansion associated with Amina.

Queen Amina’s story survives through oral tradition & later chronicles that remember her as one of the most formidable rulers of the Hausa states.

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Had you heard of Queen Amina before?