EP 3 Funmilayo Ransome - Kuti : The Lioness of Lisabi I Women And Resistance

In this conversation, Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla delves into the life and legacy of Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti, a prominent Nigerian activist known for her fight for women's rights and social justice. 
The discussion covers her early life, education, activism, and the establishment of the Abeokuta Women's Union, highlighting her significant role in protests against taxation and her influence on Nigeria's independence. 
The conversation also touches on her connections with global movements and her family legacy, particularly her son, Fela Kuti, a renowned musician and activist. 
The speakers emphasize the importance of education, organization, and resilience in the face of oppression, drawing lessons from Ransome Kuti's life that remain relevant today.

Takeaways

*Olufumilayo Ransom Kuti was a pioneer for women's rights in Nigeria.
*She believed that citizenship is based on contribution to society.
*Her activism was rooted in her early experiences and education.
*Ransome Kuti played a crucial role in the Abeokuta Women's Union.
*She organized protests against unfair taxation policies.
*Her legacy continues through her son, Fela Kuti, and his music.
*Education was a central theme in her activism.
*Ransome Kuti's life exemplified resilience and determination.
*She faced significant challenges but never gave up on her cause.
*Her story highlights the importance of collective action and organization.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Olufumilayo Ransome Kuti
01:11 The Legacy of Olufumilayo Ransome Kuti
05:06 Early Life and Education
11:40 Marriage and Activism
17:47 The Abeokuta Women's Union
26:44 Protests and Achievements
32:13 Global Impact and Legacy
34:28 The Legacy of Kwame Nkrumah and Fumilayo Ransome Kuti
37:47 Women in Leadership and the Fight for Independence
42:25 Funmilayo Ransome Kuti's Global Influence and Activism
47:08 Fela Kuti: The Musical Legacy and Political Voice
53:00 The Impact of Violence on Activism and Legacy
57:23 Lessons from Funmilayo Ransome Kuti's Life and Activism

Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla...

You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation.

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Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:01.154)
Yes, greetings, greetings and welcome to another episode of Women and Resistance. And this evening, we're happy to share with you our findings on the lioness of Lycia B as the people of Abelkuta will call the place and the woman in particular we're talking about today is Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti.

Yes, but before we go into it, again, I would like to introduce my sister in Texas, my sister from another mother, sister Aya Fubera Esq. Welcome, welcome.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (00:52.554)
Thank you.

Adesoji Iginla (00:54.892)
Yes, today we are bringing.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (00:56.909)
But for today, you have to call me Barry.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04.319)
Well, okay. Yeah, Berre. Yeah, Berre being the nickname that was given to Oluf Umlai Oransopkuti by her close friends. So first things first, why Oluf Umlai Oransopkuti? You Claire, you want to tell us a bit about who she is and why we've decided we're going to talk about her today?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:29.92)
Well, I'll start off with a quote from her. This was given on April 5th, 1948, a speech that she gave at the Convention of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons. And if you're wondering why Nigeria and the Cameroons, because basically during the Berlin conference when they drew all those lines, these were like, are, I'm a Yijaw, there are Yijaw people.

Adesoji Iginla (01:33.038)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:57.926)
on the Nigerian side and they're job people on the Cameroonian side and so on and so forth. And so they pretty much just drew a line through and divided people, but we still have a lot of, you know, close ties and relationships. Yes. So anyway, this is what she had to say. When you contribute your own quota to the welfare and progress of a place, you are a true citizen.

Adesoji Iginla (02:11.118)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:25.967)
And that really stuck out for me, or stands out for me, stuck out for me, stands out for me because in this day and age where we're still very much beholden to colonial lines, where here in the United States of America where I am, there is all this question about who's a citizen and who isn't. I would say that Fumilai Aransumkuti would argue that

Adesoji Iginla (02:40.654)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:53.371)
If you are contributing to the welfare and progress of a place, you are a citizen of that place, regardless of where you were born and so on and so forth. And so she was truly a woman, some would say ahead of her time. I would argue a woman who was very much in tune with her ancestors and with her own humanity because what she fought for.

what she stood for, and you'll hear more about all the things that she did, are in line with who we have always been, who women were always seen as and the respect they were given in a culture prior to colonialism, prior to the patriarchy that was imposed on various groups of people through religion.

Adesoji Iginla (03:23.63)
Thank

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (03:43.012)
and she was simply returning to what should have been, what already had been before it had been disrupted. so, Olufumilayo Ransomkuti, who at birth was given the name Frances Abigail, and then her middle name was Olufumilayo, and when she went to study in England,

Adesoji Iginla (03:59.754)
Abigail?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (04:08.465)
she must have encountered some kind of racism that made her say, a second, why am I even bearing the name of my colonizers, of my oppressors? And at that point, she, on her own as a young woman, made the unilateral decision to drop Frances Abigail and to just go back her native name. was in, this was, actually this was in the 30s.

Adesoji Iginla (04:19.256)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (04:30.232)
This was in the 40s.

Adesoji Iginla (04:35.63)
30s, yeah, 30s, 40s,

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (04:37.065)
who made that decision, yes. Actually, no, I would say she was still, she wasn't 20, was, because she was born in 1900, she was born on October 25th, 1900, and was the first girl to go to the grandma school in Abiyokota, which had previously to her been all boys. And so she quote unquote integrated that space.

Adesoji Iginla (04:56.76)
the programs.

Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:05.427)
And then her parents and her family was really a family affair, extended family members who made it possible for her to go to England to study. And so she was still a very, very young woman when she made this decision. I am dropping Frances Abigail, even though she comes from a long line of quote unquote Christians. And we can go more into her family background, which I think is very interesting as well.

Adesoji Iginla (05:27.182)
with logic.

Adesoji Iginla (05:35.0)
So speaking of family background, let's start from there. And who is she, first and foremost?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:42.496)
Well, she's the mother of Africa. I know that we also will be covering another lady later that is considered Mama Africa. would be, you'll have to come back and find out who that one is. But she's a woman who, at great risk to her personal safety, led a movement to fight for.

Adesoji Iginla (05:51.32)
Africa, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:09.691)
equality for women in Nigeria and as she continued to grow globally. She is a woman who fought against taxation. Specifically, she talked about taxation without representation.

Adesoji Iginla (06:23.25)
representation which is now a common thread amongst people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:26.737)
which is now a common thread.

And she accomplished many firsts. So we've talked about her integrating the boys school, being one of the first few women to be able to go outside of the country to get educated. The first woman to drive a car in Nigeria in 1935, Volkswagen, which just brought back such memories because my grandmother was the first woman to drive a car in Ikorabasi.

Adesoji Iginla (06:47.054)
Yeah, Nigeria.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:59.637)
used to be known as Iguenga, and it was also a Volkswagen. A little bug, if you ever look it up. But she was a woman who left a lasting impact in terms of fighting for women's rights and fighting for the humanity of all people, but specifically centering women within Nigeria and abroad.

Adesoji Iginla (07:01.486)
Mm-hmm.

B2

Adesoji Iginla (07:17.55)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (07:24.872)
Would you say the fact that when her parents obviously lost two siblings before her and the fact that she came and she stayed, which in Yorubata they would call usually we would say abiku, which is you've been born but we don't know what to make of you. You probably would stay and so having stayed with the name Fumilayo, give me joy.

which is what it means in Yoruba. Would you say her position in the family based on the fact that she did stay is an idea of what she was to then become? Or we're just clutching our straws here.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (08:11.327)
I would say so. Haven't experienced miscarriages myself and lost children when the child that stayed after all those multiple miscarriages stayed, that she was definitely something special. She continues to be. I think we raised her to understand that she is actually a ball of my children, that there are so many things that could go wrong in...

during the gestation period and definitely during childbirth, that if you are born, absolutely you have a role to play. I think it also factors into why her father did not put limits on her in terms of her gender. And he basically pushed her as far as she was willing to go. Actually even further because...

After, as she was concluding her grade school education, she thought she was just going to go and learn to be a dressmaker like her mother. And it was her father who said, no, you're going on to the grammar school, which is for American citizens that will be middle school and high school.

And she said to her father, but it's only for boys. And he said, well, time for change, and advocated for that. We should note that she does come from a line of clergy, people who had a certain social status within the community, even if they didn't have the money necessarily to back it up. And I think something very interesting about her lineage.

Adesoji Iginla (09:39.713)
money.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (09:45.232)
is that she is a descendant of someone who had been formerly enslaved. So her ancestor who was known as Sarah Tywell, believe that was just, was actually one of the, was one of many who had been captured.

Adesoji Iginla (10:03.074)
yeah yeah yeah yeah you're right you're right we're formally

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (10:11.177)
there were a lot of wars going on in Yoruba land and that made it very easy to capture people and then to take them, know, enslave them. But she had been captured at a time when slavery had quote unquote been abolished by Britain. And so Britain had ships and boats that were patrolling the Atlantic Ocean trying to...

subvert any slavers. And so her ancestor, Sarah Tywell, was actually on one of those ships that was intercepted, if you will. And what they would do at that time was they would take the people who were on the ships to Sierra Leone because America had a colony. Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (10:45.4)
destined for Brazil.

Adesoji Iginla (11:00.257)
in Liberia.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (11:01.215)
in Liberia, but the British also had a place in Sierra Leone and this is where they would take those quote unquote freed slaves and they basically formed their own community there. But there were many of them who still remembered obviously where they came from, what their ethnic groups were. And so Sarah Tywell was one of them.

It is said, Taiwo is usually, and you can speak more to this from a Yoruba perspective, Taiwo is a name that is given to twins, usually Kandane and Taiwo. And so we can assume from her name that she was a twin. And she did get married in Sierra Leone. She started having children and all of that, but she remembered where she came from. And eventually she was able to make her way back to Badagory in Nigeria. And at that time,

Adesoji Iginla (11:33.964)
Yeah, the first of the twins.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (11:56.062)
People would actually send messages to Badagri looking for members of their family who had been captured to see if they had returned. And eventually she did link back up with her people and moved from Badagri to Abiyokuta, which is where we see the whole lineage kind of blossom.

Adesoji Iginla (12:00.152)
Well, families, yeah. Returned.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (12:20.543)
Fumilai or Aasomkuti came from that lineage. So there's so many ways that we are connected and there's so many ways that what happens in one place affects people in every other place. And if anything, her story teaches me that we are just one people and we should be concerned about what is happening to people wherever they are in the world, even if we may feel we're safe where we are.

Adesoji Iginla (12:31.277)
Mmm.

Adesoji Iginla (12:47.054)
Okay, so we know her background, we know, quote unquote, she is somewhat privileged. Would you call her a class traitor?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (13:02.813)
Well, it's.

Adesoji Iginla (13:03.118)
For actually the stance she took with regards to imperialism when her body of work with regards to organizing started.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (13:15.327)
So what's interesting about Fumilayo is after, so first and foremost, she met her husband, the Reverend Daniel Oladotun Ransomkuti. So she was born Thomas. Again, reflecting colonialism, reflecting the fact that just like in America, you had enslaved Africans who,

Adesoji Iginla (13:28.301)
Allah Dottin.

Adesoji Iginla (13:36.874)
Now the same.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (13:44.734)
took on the names of their masters, their owners, so to speak? Yes. In Nigeria and in other parts of the world as well, people would often take on the names of maybe a missionary or just a white name supposedly gave you more prestige. So we don't know exactly how they came to be named Thomas, but we know that it's not an African name, but she was born a Thomas. And so.

Adesoji Iginla (13:47.99)
Yeah, jacksons, your Smiths. Yeah, stuff like that.

Adesoji Iginla (14:04.33)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:12.189)
When she goes to the grammar school is when she meets Israel. Apparently he was what we would call a head boy. Head boy status. And for those of you who have no clue what we're talking about, a lot of these schools were boarding schools. The idea was to take children out of their natural environment.

Adesoji Iginla (14:18.806)
head boy using the head voice taxes.

Thanks

Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:34.289)
and to put them in these spaces that had been carved out by a lot of times missionaries where they had full access and really for the most part, except for during holidays total and only they had complete access to these young people to shape how they spoke, what they wore, their religion, all of those pieces. So at any rate, in these schools, they typically set up a leadership system even amongst the students.

So you may be the captain of a particular house where this is a building where certain students live. Or you could be what they call a head boy and eventually a head girl. And you are basically the top student based on leadership of the entire student body. So when I went to FGCA Newgo I was actually a head girl.

and that comes with some privileges. But her husband was the head boy at the time. And when she was being harassed and bullied by other boys, he actually came to her aid and provided some protection for her. And so when he graduated and traveled off as well to England to study, they kept corresponding with each other. And so...

Adesoji Iginla (15:33.208)
Yeah, fast dips.

Adesoji Iginla (15:57.08)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (15:59.104)
after he got back, she was hoping to stay with him. They were planning to get married, but her family was insistent that she goes and gets her education as well. And so she did. And then they kept corresponding. And then when she came back, they did get married. So when you talk about what shaped her, I think being in all of these spaces where she had to fight to...

to be accepted, had to fight to make space for herself and subsequently other people because after her they were now other girls, the school was opened up and it became full edge. I think that that builds a certain kind of resilience and maybe even a sense of responsibility for the position that you have. But when she came back from England,

Adesoji Iginla (16:36.96)
Open to, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (16:51.995)
and she was married to a man who was a reverend, who was now the principal of the school that he graduated from. She was in a very elite class because there were very few Nigerians educated outside of the country and there were even fewer women educated outside of the country. So she definitely was, you know, royalty, if you will, in that sense. And initially when she formed the Abiyokuta Ladies Club,

Adesoji Iginla (17:10.164)
the asset nudge. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:21.083)
It was an elitist club. I mean, these people were drinking tea and eating crumpets and wearing hats and European clothes and, you know, setting themselves apart from the commoners. However, because of her focus on education, so her husband was a principal at a school and she opened what we would consider preschool, kindergarten for young kids.

Adesoji Iginla (17:25.144)
See?

Adesoji Iginla (17:34.51)
Mmm.

Adesoji Iginla (17:48.492)
nursery school.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:50.144)
She was interacting with a lot of parents who did not have the status that she had. And I think you can go into a little bit more detail about a particular story that led her through the Biocotel Ladies Club to start a literacy program for adults. So do you want to share a little bit about that?

Adesoji Iginla (18:01.73)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (18:11.374)
Yes, there was this occasion when one of the parents of the kindergarten kids came up to her and said, know, this is how you lean in if you want to be, if you want to say something and you don't want people to hear. Which is I would like to read, but I don't know how to. And

being the community person she is, said, yeah, it's easy. said, it's not only me. There are lots of okay, then ishati shehne, which is there is a job to be done here. And so that was the basis of the first adult classes for women to start teaching them how to read. And in the course of this program, you will see how that comes into play in terms of

women organizations with Dean Abelkuta and the Nigerian Women Union. being that as it may, now we've touched on the fact that education was important. Could you highlight how that meant she then acted as a bridge between the women who were

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:28.351)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (19:38.702)
that time considered illiterates and the quote-unquote the powers that be in the case of the al-Aqqai who happened to be the interface between the colonial authorities and the people. Over to you.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:55.456)
Absolutely. So first and foremost, I should say that there is a reason I'm dressed like this. So Pumeliah came back from the UK from England and she was dressed in all the finery. She would wear pantyhose as we would call it, hosiery, whatever term they use where you are. But as she started to interact more,

Adesoji Iginla (20:00.66)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (20:14.19)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:20.401)
with quote unquote the market woman, with the everyday woman and not just stay in her little bubble of I'm this elitist so to speak.

Adesoji Iginla (20:29.058)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:31.945)
And as she started to understand the kind of oppression that women were under, that she was not experiencing personally in that way. So specifically the market women, the marketplace was the purview of women. They did majority of the buying and the selling. And so what the alakai did under the instruction of the British,

because the British used what they called indirect rule. So they would basically have a puppet that is African, and then they would direct all of their policies through that person. So when you're looking at the policies, you might be seeing just the black person in front of you, but there's really something else or someone else behind them, you know, dictating what happens. Well, there was this taxation going on and what they were doing were taxing the women.

on all of their goods that they bought or sold But then they also imposed a water tax You know something that was free and available to everybody they imposed the water tax on the women And then they even went so far as to impose a tax that was not on men So as as soon as you were 15 years old as a girl as a female you were supposed to start paying tax

And sometimes what they would do is actually disrobe a girl to confirm how mature she is. Now, any of you who have been around women, you're a woman yourself, you've had daughters, sisters, whatever, we all mature at different levels, but also that just the, the yes of people's privacy. of course the women were very upset at this. And it was the Alakke who was the traditional leader.

Adesoji Iginla (22:00.33)
Yes, yes, yes.

Adesoji Iginla (22:15.65)
the invasion.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (22:25.555)
who was imposing these rules on them. In addition, they had moved from a space where women had their own councils and had some say in terms of the governance of the area to where it was just male dominated. And so women really had no redress. And so Fumilai Aransomkuti eventually was able to morph the Biokuta Ladies Club.

into the Abiyokuta Women's Union to reflect that this was a club not just for the elite educated, but for all of the masses. And we should mention that one of the co-founders of the Abiyokuta Ladies Club has a name that some of you may know, Eniola Shoinka. And she was a sister-in-law to Fumilai Oransomkuti.

Adesoji Iginla (22:55.256)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (23:02.296)
The T is simply.

Adesoji Iginla (23:16.088)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:22.237)
and she is the mother of the Nobel laureate, Wole Schoenke. So yeah, there a lot of ties and these people had access to some status, if nothing else. But at any rate, when they changed the name to a Biokuta Women's Union, they at one point had over 20,000 women as members of this club.

Adesoji Iginla (23:25.806)
Professor Professor Wale Shoinka. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:51.802)
And it was through this organization that they were able to put pressure on the Alak'e that showed up in the form of protests. And these weren't just nilly-willy protests. They planned ahead. There was a lot of organization. They had meetings. They talked about, they actually learned from the, what's called the Aba woman's, sorry, that's called the,

Adesoji Iginla (24:05.614)
You describe some of the process please.

Adesoji Iginla (24:18.904)
protest.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:21.361)
Women's War, which occurred in 1929. So now we're talking about 1947, 48, right? So they learned from what happened to the women in 1929 because quite a few women were killed, including in O'Pobo, where my people are from. But at that time, those women went out with weapons to fight against taxation.

Adesoji Iginla (24:30.274)
Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:48.829)
And so one of the lessons that Fumilai Aransom Kuti learned from this was when we go to protest, let us not have any visible weapons so that we do not unnecessarily draw the kind of ire or give them the excuse to just kill us, right? So.

Adesoji Iginla (25:01.742)
give them an excuse to.

but increase the numbers as well.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (25:09.471)
but increased the numbers. So they showed up in huge numbers, 10,000 at one point, and then they arrested some of them, including Fumilai Aransomkuti. And while they were arrested, another 10,000 women showed up. And to make it even worse, and this was a tactic that was also used in 1929, is the older women came out and exposed their nakedness.

Adesoji Iginla (25:13.226)
You

Adesoji Iginla (25:24.622)
I was then turned up.

Adesoji Iginla (25:32.462)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (25:38.123)
themselves deroped.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (25:41.177)
And in the culture, one of the worst things you can have happen is for a mature elderly woman to like take off her clothes. Yes, please go ahead. Do you wanna expand on that?

Adesoji Iginla (25:54.062)
It's considered a cultural insult on the traditional ruler to the point where even the Alaki had to leave the palace. Eventually it was actually deposed but we continue.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:09.599)
Yes, he was he was so they those major, um protests happened towards the end of 1948 And what they were asking for was for this taxation with that representation to stop They were asking for the water taxes to stop they were asking for women to be respected and their dignity respected and finally in January of 1949, um the british so I should say this before I go any further

Adesoji Iginla (26:30.41)
idea.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:39.965)
This wasn't just them protesting at the Alak'e's palace. They had letters to different, they wrote letters to the editor for different newspapers. They put out press releases. They tried to draw the attention of outsiders, of the global community, because their point was, although we are right now facing the Alak'e in front of us,

Adesoji Iginla (26:51.221)
Aha!

Which is w-

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (27:07.699)
we understand that he's a mere puppet and the real issue is also British rule. And so they also wanted to embarrass Britain to make these changes. And so eventually the al-Aqe was deposed, but that only lasted a couple of years and his cohorts and aunt backed by the British, they eventually brought him back because again, he was a very useful tool for them.

Adesoji Iginla (27:14.286)
Mmm.

Adesoji Iginla (27:32.32)
Brought him back, yep.

Useful too.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (27:37.808)
in the oppression of his people. But there's a lot of corruption under him. Women who were in abusive relationships would actually run to the palace for protection. It is rumored that he would sexually have his way with them. I would say abuse them. He was confiscating some of the goods of the women and then selling it himself and keeping the profit. So there are a lot of, and of course,

Adesoji Iginla (28:01.73)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (28:07.963)
He had these group of men, counselors, you will, chiefs, and they were all getting paid from the proceeds of the taxes that were being imposed on these women. And of course, no woman was involved at all. And so the women asked for representation, but they also asked for an end to the taxation. And they did achieve that. And that was by all accounts, primarily due to the leadership of...

me lie around some cootie.

Adesoji Iginla (28:39.096)
So you made mention there that they started writing to newspapers and flooding their representatives with letters, which shows that the organization of those literacy classes eventually yielded fruit. I mean, I don't want us to lose sight of the fact that we're living in very interesting times.

Is there something we can learn from that act alone? Here are women who society will consider them illiterate. They got basic training. They got to read. They got to write. And they then used said skill to free themselves. But here we have tools about social media, letters, podcasts, and what have you. But

Speak to that please before I go off on a tangent.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:40.16)
Well, I think you are doing a good job in addressing it. Bottom line is you fight with whatever you have and you do the work to acquire more skills and tools to fight and we should be fighting with everything that we have and that's what the woman did. Those who weren't literate showed up with their bodies. The grandmothers, like I said, were like, okay, we understand this is the taboo and we're gonna do this to shame you because you have put us in this place.

Adesoji Iginla (29:48.526)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (30:03.166)
Yeah, Derobe. Yeah, let's do this.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:09.949)
where we feel so hopeless that we have to take this drastic step. And then of course, the letter writing. I would say one of the big lessons though is that, and one of our, I would say top intellectual scholars at this point, a great leader here in the United States of America, Dr. Gregg Carr would often say,

Individuals don't beat institutions Stokely Carmichael will say organize organize organize and so if you are in whatever state you're in right now where there is oppression going on and you are just working as an individual You need to learn from this It's important to find other people that you can join forces with so that there is that unified force and that energy

Adesoji Iginla (30:39.373)
Mm.

Organize organize.

Adesoji Iginla (31:01.73)
and

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:05.639)
to make things happen because if she had gone in as just herself, she could very easily have been silenced. But that unified group of 20,000 plus women, and of course they did a lot of things to try and infiltrate the group, to try and create issues. There were some women who were originally part of the ladies club who opted not to be part of the Abyokutah Women's Union because they felt it was beneath them.

Adesoji Iginla (31:20.844)
Yep.

Adesoji Iginla (31:26.345)
Ladies Club.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:33.236)
So there's a lot that they had to do to bridge the gap. And one of the things she did was to stop wearing European clothes and to start wearing the traditional clothes that the regular woman wore. And so that is why I am dressed the way I am. And she had these glasses, horn-rimmed glasses, sometimes the butterfly ones. I have no butterfly ones in my house. And so this is it. But.

Adesoji Iginla (31:44.126)
the traditional yep

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:00.624)
Making sure that she tried to bridge the gap in as many ways as possible and another way she did it was also through language and so in their meetings speaking Yoruba because that was the language that most of the people spoke as Opposed to just coming as I'm so learned and so I'm going to speak, you know the Queen's English to you and what we see today is a lot of

Adesoji Iginla (32:08.558)
Mmm.

Adesoji Iginla (32:17.934)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:25.887)
Africans who have been educated, who've gotten high education in whatever shape or form, whether it's on the continent or God forbid if they went outside of the continent, they come back with all of these heirs. And it's this idea of I'm better than and I'm going to save you.

But that was not necessarily where Fumilai Aransomkuti was coming from. She was very much grounded in who she was as an African woman and was definitely one of the Pan-Africanists of that time. And we see that also even with the work that she did with Kwame Nkrumah because she ended up visiting with Kwame Nkrumah and helping him to start.

Adesoji Iginla (32:50.35)
Mmm.

Mmm.

Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:13.951)
an organization for women in Ghana as well.

Adesoji Iginla (33:18.114)
Yep. I mean, before we go international, there's a quote from her, attributed to her, and she said, the true position of Nigerian women had to be judged from the women who carry babies on their backs and farm from sunrise to sunset, not women who used tea, sugar, and flour.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:45.47)
Yes, again, just centering the African woman. And I want to say this. She was married. She had four children. But she was definitely not a traditional wife in the African sense of the word. Because some historians, some with knowledge, because she left her diaries. She has.

Adesoji Iginla (33:46.126)
Trun sheet.

Adesoji Iginla (33:56.078)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (34:03.149)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (34:13.737)
quite a few of her papers are at the University of Ibadan, including her diaries. And we know that there was some tension. Her husband was supportive, but there was some tension in the marriage as well. Because as you can imagine, she was out and about quite a bit. And eventually, yes, when she expanded her focus and made it more global, she was traveling extensively. And that was not necessarily a role that women used to play in that time.

Adesoji Iginla (34:15.016)
Copy as notes, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (34:44.049)
And so there's some question about the tension within the marriage. In fact, when her husband got sick with prostate cancer, she was not in the country when he really started to deteriorate. And so of course, there were criticisms and things like that about her. But she was definitely a woman who had a sense of her purpose. And

Adesoji Iginla (34:53.59)
the 50s.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:11.997)
by all accounts, incredibly smart and very stubborn. And if she decided she was gonna do something, she figured out a way to make it happen. So one of the roles she played, for instance, was in the, first with the the Abiyokutai Women's Union, and then expanding beyond the Abiyokutai Women's Union to,

Adesoji Iginla (35:15.938)
Not very witty.

Adesoji Iginla (35:34.616)
that woman, Nigeria.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:36.838)
Nigerian women as a whole. And so in terms of the independence movement and galvanizing women, she and her husband also sponsored the Nigerian youth movement that was very crucial in getting us geared up for independence, if you will.

Adesoji Iginla (35:57.196)
Independence.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:58.45)
And so there were branches of the Nigerian, larger Nigerian women's union or movement in different parts of Nigeria. She worked with people like Margaret Aikbo and so on and so forth, but advocating also for when we do get this independence, let's make sure women have the right to vote. And she was one of seven and the only woman who was part of the delegation that went from Nigeria to Britain.

to express their dissent with the constitution that had been drafted in the late 40s.

Adesoji Iginla (36:34.626)
Yeah, that's the Richard Constitution, 1946.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:38.143)
the Richard Constitution. And guess who was the head of that convoy, that group to UK, to England, to protest there?

Adesoji Iginla (36:50.126)
that time it would have been 46. I'm going to take a guess and say it would have been Namdi Azikiwe.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:58.897)
You're absolutely correct. But guess what? Namde Ezekiwe was not necessarily a friend of women. It was not, well, I shouldn't just say of women. And those of you who come for me, go ahead, come for me. Namde Ezekiwe actually wanted to be the sole voice. And so he marginalized everybody else that went with them.

Adesoji Iginla (37:00.827)
yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (37:07.214)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (37:22.935)
Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (37:23.525)
And the major pushback came from Fumilai around Samkuti. So they ended up having a little bit of a strange relationship. But I wasn't surprised when I read that because I think that is the same mindset that caused the Namde Ezekiwe to oppose the organization, sorry, to oppose the Kwame Nkrumah and the idea of a United States of Africa. Because again, it's like, hey, I'd rather be

Adesoji Iginla (37:43.886)
Are they? Yes. Here we go. Here we go.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (37:52.756)
you know, head honcho of a country as opposed to, wait a second, now it's an entire continent and I may not be first in line. But he was quite dismissive of the other people who were part of that delegation. And they actually did not accomplish much because of the infighting, if you will.

Adesoji Iginla (37:52.994)
headhunter in the corner.

Adesoji Iginla (38:01.432)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (38:15.426)
which is what, which led itself to one of the reasons why Kwame Nkrumah was very close with Olefumlai Ransomkuti. And anytime he was in Nigeria, although as a head of state, it's normally incumbent that you go and say hello to your host. He would visit, but he will visit with a Ransomkuti family. And when asked, are you going to pay a visit to

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:24.703)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (38:45.908)
the government officials, he would say, and I quote, because that quote lives in me. I don't talk to British slaves. Exactly. Like, whoo. I'm like, whoo. It's like, okay. But I mean, he's not entirely wrong. We can see what the country is for what it is. Exactly.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:56.441)
Did you just call OO? OO? OO? Rocks fire.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:07.217)
It's not entirely wrong. Just like the al-Aqe. And we still see that today all across Africa. Leaders who are there because they are puppets of foreign governments. And when we have leaders who are really African-centered, they get killed or somehow marginalized so that they cannot be effective. I'm going to read a little bit from a book. It's called For Women and the Nation, Fumilai Arantum Kuti of Nigeria, written by Cheryl Johnson-Ojim.

Adesoji Iginla (39:15.363)
Mm-hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (39:19.139)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (39:25.675)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:36.608)
Nina has done a lot of work on Fumilai Ransomputi. But she says, or they say, in Great Britain, press releases were not prepared properly or distributed in a timely manner to the press and members of parliament. This is regarding the delegation that left for England. They left for England on June 26, 1947. They were not well briefed. And they go on to say,

Adesoji Iginla (39:42.03)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:05.339)
Azikiwe never liked to receive suggestions from any other member of the delegation. And whenever an opinion was expressed by any other member, which might be contrary to his, he would charge that member with an attempt to usurp his position as the leader. The members of the home front will be sorry to know that the draft memorandum and constitution that was sent to the secretary of state was drafted and signed by Dr. Azikiwe alone.

Adesoji Iginla (40:10.677)
especially

you

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:35.647)
and was therefore termed and commonly referred to as a one man's constitution. So when we look at what is still happening in Nigeria and across the continent, one of the reasons it's important to have these conversations and why we are doing this whole woman and resistance is for us to learn and to understand what we did right and what we need to do better in the future. And so again, what could have happened if there was more of

Adesoji Iginla (40:59.63)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:04.937)
cohesive union, what would have happened if we actually had a meeting of the minds and diverse voices who were part of this? And what would that have looked like going to fight for Nigeria's independence? And I'm sure if we look at France, we're gonna see similar things. It was really an afterthought to add a woman to that delegation.

Adesoji Iginla (41:29.144)
Yep, yep.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:29.547)
And the first woman they were going to have was actually elderly and so she was not able to go in. So the next was Fumilai Aransomkuti. But I would have to say that...

Adesoji Iginla (41:36.664)
Ryan Ransom.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:43.231)
as a woman, as an African woman.

It pains me that in addition to all of the battles that we have to fight, that we have to fight our men for our humanity. so African men listening to me right now, it's time to change. Like this whole idea that you have got to oppress the very women that you came out of their bodies makes no sense. I mean, how

How insecure are you as a human being that you feel that the only way to assert your manhood is to rob someone else of their humanity? And it's been going on for too long. And it's time for us to have a new cadre of leaders who respect all people, male, female, and anything in between.

Adesoji Iginla (42:35.662)
I mean, OK, excuse me.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (42:39.185)
you

Adesoji Iginla (42:43.192)
Since you've taken it international, we've gone to Britain now. It will be important to see what role does she play in terms of governising the ideas for women internationally. I know in reading that she was part of the Women International Democratic Federation. Itself, problematic because of, quote-unquote, the ideological leaning of the organisation.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (43:02.333)
Federation. Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (43:13.516)
And at that time, the country wanting to seek independence, why would that have robbed, quote-unquote, the powers the wrong way?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (43:25.949)
Well, because she was actually she was labeled a communist and a socialist. She had quite a few interactions with the then Soviet Union. With the Women's International Democratic Federation, she attended quite a few of their conferences.

Adesoji Iginla (43:38.371)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (43:47.346)
And I just want to share a little bit about the people that she was rubbing shoulders with, just in terms of her impact influence and then who influenced her as well. So some of the notable attendees and members of the Women International Democratic Federation included Albertina Sissulu from South Africa, Ayewa Keita from Mali, Jean-Martin Sissay from Guinea,

Adesoji Iginla (43:52.014)
You

Adesoji Iginla (44:06.53)
South Africa.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:15.433)
Claudia Jones who we're gonna cover in a different episode Claudia Jones who was a communist activist quote-unquote feminist I think now we're putting all this label feminist on them I don't see anywhere in her writing or speeches where she called herself a feminist She was just fighting for women's rights Louise Thompson Patterson who was a Harlem Renaissance intellectual and civil rights activist? Eslanda Good Roverson

Adesoji Iginla (44:19.906)
Yeah. Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (44:26.297)
Labels, exactly.

Adesoji Iginla (44:43.742)
Yes or no?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:44.733)
The wife of Paul Robeson was also active in this global pan-Africanism and in this woman, the Women's International Democratic Federation. There were also leaders from Asia and Latin America, Deng Yingchao from China, Vilma Espin from Cuba, Eugene E. Cotton from France, who was the co-founder and first president of the WIDF, Dolores Ibaruri,

who was from Spain, she was a Spanish communist and anti-fascist leader. So you can imagine if she's hanging around with all of these people, why she would very easily be labeled in that way. And that label actually caused the United States of America to do what?

Adesoji Iginla (45:29.614)
to ban her from the United States and subsequently she would lose her international passport because at that time the British and the Nigerian government were, quote-unquote, very unfavored with regards to her travels, as they put it.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (45:49.088)
And I mean, she was writing and contributing articles to magazines all across the world. She would be invited to write about what was happening with women in Nigeria, and she would share these stories and write these articles. And again, was something that Britain did not look favorably on, but it was her way of.

Adesoji Iginla (46:10.389)
Mm hmm. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:13.563)
getting the story told and getting more support. Again, this idea of organizing and understanding that what was happening to women in Nigeria was not peculiar to them, just like what was happening to women in Eba or in Yoruba land was not peculiar to them and really joining forces with women across the world. And that is the very thing that power hates, is to see people come together and unify.

Adesoji Iginla (46:28.586)
And back, yep.

Adesoji Iginla (46:37.678)
Yes, yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:40.511)
And so they did everything to destroy her and that lasted through to the end of her life actually

Adesoji Iginla (46:46.71)
Yeah, speaking of speaking of.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:49.821)
But by the way, let me say this as we're talking about some of the things that she did. So she and her husband helped to co-found the Nigerian Union of Teachers. They also became founding members. She was a founding member of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroon's, which was one of Nigeria's leading political parties at the time. Which is actually elected twice, but on her third time.

Adesoji Iginla (47:09.321)
parties in CNC.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (47:15.167)
She did not, she lost that election and it had a lot to do with her activism. Yes, yes. And of course fighting against British colonial policies, criticizing the exploitative economic and social structures. And definitely she was one of the linchpins, one of the key players in laying the groundwork for Nigeria's independence in 1960.

Adesoji Iginla (47:19.256)
Wait, did I say that? Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (47:40.974)
Okay, so fast forward 1960 into 1970s. Now she had three kids, four kids, one girl, three boys, and one of the, I mean, the other, our daughter was a nurse. Three of them were supposed to be a doctor, were supposed to be doctors.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (47:57.888)
So her daughter was a nurse. One son was a doctor. Well, yeah, they were all supposed to go into the medical field, Yeah, so two were doctors. And then of course, fella. And that's your area of expertise. What do you wanna share about that?

Adesoji Iginla (48:10.114)
But one decided, you know what, get to London and then, yeah, two doctors, yeah.

Yes.

So yes, Fela would go to Fela being the apple of mama's eye, as he refers to her. In fact, he would say if mama was sick, nobody dare talk to him. He was so, you know, so into the woman, he believed everything.

And here is where the roles of women is also very important. Fela would acknowledge the influence from her teachings, her interactions with Kwame Nkrumah as his own grounding in what was Pan-Africanism, African-Celtic being. In fact, when he changed his name from Ransom Kuti in 1976,

to Anikula Kukuti. The mother also joined them in

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (49:22.515)
You want to tell us what that NICOLACO stands for?

Adesoji Iginla (49:25.4)
So, aniquilaku okuti essentially means I have captured death, I have death in my pouch. So, I cannot die, you know, that can't fail. So, it's a way of claiming, you know, claiming African spirituality. And he lived that spirituality to the end. Now, part of that spirituality meant you being fought right with whatever it is you saw. And

as a jolly of sorts. In fact, yeah, he also was channeled because initially he was playing high life music. High life music to him was a way of expressing the African music. But he got to Los Angeles and he met his sister, Isadora, Sandra Isadora. So Sandra Isadora, who happened to be a Black Panther,

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (49:59.878)
Definitely a jolly, yes.

Adesoji Iginla (50:25.72)
Told him, you have a voice, you know your history.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (50:29.979)
You hear the connections again. Go ahead. So the black panthers are now affecting. Yes, go ahead.

Adesoji Iginla (50:31.912)
Exactly. So you know your history, you know your history, why don't you bring this to the fore? Your mother is this, your mother has a background in this. So Fela was like, wow, you know, you're tying, you're tying threads. And then Fela forms the Egypt 80 band. The Egypt 80 band would then give us hits like Yellow Fever, which is anti-blushing,

colonial mentality, losing all your heirs with regards to your European westernized education, army arrangement, which spoke particularly to the Nigerian situation at the time. But there was one song that he did that brought everything to the fore, and it was Zombie.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (51:24.004)
Zombie.

Adesoji Iginla (51:25.556)
zombie zombie zombie. So zombie at that time, Nigeria was in the death row of what's it called, military governments. And one of the things about military governments is you are supposed to obey commands and not question authority. And fell out through his music, question authority. His mother was living with him at the time. And it was in 1978, 1970

8 when that incident happened. this incident happened after Festac 77. For those people who are not aware, Festac 77 was the Black Cultural Arts Festival, which brought people from, all Black people from all over the world, all the diaspora, everybody was in attendance, which

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (52:23.295)
and it's spelled F-E-S-T-A-C. You can Google it and find a whole lot of yes. Aha!

Adesoji Iginla (52:26.976)
which is this. Yes? So, because when I was preparing for this, in the British Museum, that mask, the Queen Edia's mask, still sits in the British Museum. And, here was the thing. That event pulled in so many people. Can you see this picture here? Tell me who you see in the picture.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (52:36.223)
with the mask that is still sitting in Britain.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:03.087)
I can't make out faces but...

Adesoji Iginla (53:07.18)
Who's that standing with her back to the wall?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:11.295)
Uhhhh

Adesoji Iginla (53:12.738)
That's Toni Morrison.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:14.943)
my goodness, you're right. was looking at the person next to her. That is Toni Morrison.

Adesoji Iginla (53:16.27)
And who is that crouch in front?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:24.255)
can't make it out.

Adesoji Iginla (53:25.494)
That looks like Nikki Giovanni.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:29.393)
In front or standing to her side? The person standing to her side looks like Nikki.

Adesoji Iginla (53:32.119)
It.

No, the person crouch. But I say that to say this. I say that to say this. This festival was just grounding, was just coming to an end. And Fela was still entertaining most of these guests.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:38.854)
Wow. Wow.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:56.512)
And it definitely catapulted Fela. mean, he was already known globally, but Festac definitely put him in a whole different stratosphere.

Adesoji Iginla (54:00.019)
Yes, yes, yes.

Adesoji Iginla (54:05.006)
And then he was hosting everyone at, you know, back and forth, people will come in, leave, come in, leave at his commune in Kalakuta Republic, as his commune was then known.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:17.918)
Yeah.

which was named after the prison that he had been held in when he had previously been targeted by the government.

Adesoji Iginla (54:25.35)
Yes. Yeah. So, yes. So he's then said, the morning, in fact, there's a music that actually captures what I'm about to say now. The morning they came to attack his place, Stevie Wonder was there. And a host of other artists. Stevie Wonder was mahadu'd, beaten, and basically, you know, tossed out.

And then they threw his mother from a first floor, 78 year old mother, second floor, 78 year old mother from the window. She survived the fall, but she would later succumb to her injuries. Again, you cited Dr. Carr. Dr. Carr will often say, cultural mini-making. What was happening at that time?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:59.402)
Second floor, second floor window.

Adesoji Iginla (55:24.45)
FESTAG77 was happening. part of it happening was the fact that the news was captured like never before. And the story of her escapade with regards to her assault was captured in all international newspapers, including local newspapers. As I show you here.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (55:24.637)
Mmm. Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (55:52.605)
Yeah, that's a picture of her in her hospital bed.

Adesoji Iginla (55:56.076)
hospital bed and she would later succumb to the injury and will pass on. But Fela would eulogize her with the song titled Unknown Soldier. So I enjoy people to actually go and listen to that song. It's titled Unknown Soldier.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (56:15.795)
And the reason he chose that title is because the family and others, because actually after beating up people, it said even some of the young ladies who were there were raped. They actually, the whole compound was burnt down. They claim it was an explosion, but everybody who had been part of that said there were over a thousand soldiers that descended on this place. If you can imagine, a thousand soldiers.

Adesoji Iginla (56:28.65)
Well, I said, yeah, sexually assaulted.

Yep, yep.

Adesoji Iginla (56:42.092)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (56:46.033)
This is what happens when you have dictators in place, right? So Americans watch out. But that fire spread to other properties nearby that had nothing to do with fella. And so they, with the international focus and the outcry from people locally as well, there was supposedly an inquiry that took place to figure out what happened.

Adesoji Iginla (56:59.896)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (57:14.411)
and who could be held responsible for what happened. And of course, this was all, as we would say, a kangaroo court, because what they came up with was what occurred, happened due to, could be attributed to unknown soldier, to unknown soldiers. That was it. So nobody ever had to take responsibility for what happened and the millions of,

Adesoji Iginla (57:22.062)
code.

Adesoji Iginla (57:29.14)
could be attributed to the unknown soldier.

So that was the title of the song.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (57:44.028)
really naira dollars now that was lost in terms of that whole compound because it didn't just house fella and all his concubines and wives and dancers and everybody else there was also a medical clinic there as well but nobody had to pay a penny to replace what was what was damaged either and so that is where the title of that

Adesoji Iginla (57:59.928)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (58:13.201)
song comes from Unknown Soldier.

Adesoji Iginla (58:15.382)
Unknown Soldier. So if you listen to it, you will find that he basically gives you a walkthrough of what transpired and how he eventually lost his mom. He also gives you a brief history of who the woman is. So you begin to understand why this woman is not just an icon, not just the lion of Leesha B as she is known.

but also the mother of Nigeria. And I think she will share the mother of Africa with another of our subject personalities when the time comes. But before we close, what? Now, I'm minded to give people back their time. I don't want to take more than because there is you can come

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (59:03.207)
No, no, we can't close yet. No, go ahead.

Adesoji Iginla (59:14.246)
at Olufum Lae'er and Sobhkuti from multiple angles. You know, not just the women, the politics, the education, the protests, the... what's it called? The international activities and what have you. But what would you say, looking back at our life, would be lesson for

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (59:17.949)
Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (59:43.086)
odd times

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (59:46.88)
Definitely the importance of education and she lived this her entire life even after her husband

passed away, she continued in her political activism, but also what she did was she founded additional schools. These were private schools. She went through a lot of turmoil in getting some of the registrations and things that she had to get through the government. She actually worked with the Soviet Union and from time to time had teachers from the Soviet Union who came to her school to teach.

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:16.757)
What's he doing?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:00:22.663)
So I would say lessons for me, one is the importance of education, doing everything you can with what you have. I would say also understanding that your life is not for you to just live in your own comfort, but it's about the service that you provide to others. And so if you are, whatever your status may be right now, if all you're doing is taking care of yourself, you might be missing the whole purpose of life.

She was definitely a strategist. She paid attention to history. She paid attention to culture. She paid attention to things happening locally and globally. And that's what allowed her to be as effective as she was. And so again, if you're someone who, you know, you're just like in your little echo chamber and you don't pay attention to world politics, economics, understanding how different things are connected.

That might be something that you want to look at. She was also someone who Regardless of how she was raised Was committed to critical thinking and I say this not just because of all of the things that she did outwardly But even in terms of her spirituality she came to a point where she said, you know What going to church every day does not make me a godly person. I can be quote-unquote a pagan I can be from any background though any spiritual background

Adesoji Iginla (01:01:21.027)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:01:48.372)
but if I'm doing good things for people, if I am godly in my actions, that's what makes me godly, not just that I'm a Christian. so to have been married to a reverend, to have come from a long line of clergymen, and I would say to a lesser degree women, because women weren't really allowed to play those roles back then.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:01.998)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:02:09.747)
Although she did have an ancestor who insisted on raising her child as a Christian and the way was paid for her when her husband died prematurely. And so now no one could prevent her from doing that. In terms of even choosing to change her name at that late age in life, she recognized that ransom was a name that her ancestor had picked up from a missionary that he admired.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:28.502)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:02:37.951)
Because the initial name was just Kuti. And this particular ancestor went and added ransom to it. And so for her at that age in life to say, yeah, I have gone by this name my whole life, but I'm done with all this imperialism and colonialism and your control over my life. And she took back, as you would say, along with Fela and took on a Nikolakbo, Kuti, and gave up the ransom.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:40.046)
Good see.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:55.746)
Can't your name.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:03:06.969)
So I think the other thing that I take from her is just that she never gave up. She was fighting in terms of the schools and the education and what she wanted to accomplish. She was fighting for women's rights to not just vote, but to have a say in how they were governed, how the community was governed. She also used both the traditional and the now

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:14.254)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:03:35.27)
British derived courts to fight for her land So she inherited land through her father. She also inherited land through her husband She also bought some other land. They actually hurt she and her family They invested quite a bit in land another lesson for the rest of us who all you're doing is renting here and there God isn't making any more land if you can buy land buy land

And she would go to court and she would fight. Quite a few times she lost, but what you knew was, Pumila Iransomkuti was going to fight. And she just did not allow conventional ideas of what a woman could be. To prevent her from being all that she could be. The tragedy from what I have read is that towards the end of her life, she felt very harassed.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:06.19)
who will to fight you.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:14.446)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:04:27.359)
In fact, the alakke's son, so the alakke that she had helped depose, his son came back. Well, that's what some would contend and she certainly would, but he became a san in Nigeria. So these are the senior advocates of Nigeria. So think about the Supreme Court in the United States of America. So the son of a man that she had

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:46.368)
Advocates of Niger.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:04:56.217)
disgraced became the senior advocate of Nigeria. And so that is the court that is the final arbiter of any issues. And so she had quite a few cases that went up to that, that highest court of the land and they never ruled in her favor. So whether it's like, she just deserved to lose or whether there was an ongoing issue.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:15.416)
Mm-mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:05:21.095)
So even there were women who felt like she was overstepping in terms of what a role of a woman should be. And there were definitely a lot of men who felt that way. And then losing her husband at the time that she did. Her children were often harassed and arrested by the government. And so her last days were not what they should have been.

And it is claimed that, you know, after the injuries that she received, she was just in so much shock. If you can just imagine, regardless of what her name is, a 78-year-old woman being thrown, well, I think she was 77 when she was thrown, but being thrown from a, you wouldn't want to throw anybody from the second floor of a building, period, not to talk of.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:59.554)
Old woman, yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:08.226)
No dog of an old.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:06:11.609)
of a woman of her age and then of her status. And so it is said that she was very depressed, very dejected that last year of her life and eventually fell into a coma and did not wake up from it. But yes, the message definitely is the fight continues and all of us need to play our role, men.

Men, please stand up for women. Stand up for our common humanity. And women, don't sit around waiting for someone to give you permission to be who God created you to be.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:45.87)
Well, my take would be the power of organizing. The majority of our victories came with the power of numbers. She knew if she can galvanize the market women, she has a victory card on her hands anytime. Imagine 10,000 people showing up to a protest.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:07:12.927)
10,000 without social media. Because we have the original social media. We talk to each other. Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:14.766)
and another 10,000 tons. Exactly. Thank you very much. Exactly. You know, so that was it. That was it. And I would, my final thoughts will be her words actually. When asked, why are you not a politician? She said,

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:07:34.783)
Someone is saying my mic volume was low. I am so sorry. Because I'm at the end here. Okay, sorry.

Adesoji Iginla (01:07:37.782)
No, I can hear you. I can hear you.

I can hear you. So she said, when asked why are you not a politician? She said, well, if bribe taking is what politics is, then I'd rather be a community organizer, which I have no doubt I have been and will continue to be until the end of my lives. And in fact, when she was she was going to be buried.

there were more than 50,000 people who came in middle May into Abelcuta in hot summer. And then as she was about to be laid to rest, what happened? The heavens opened and it started raining. So what else can you say about a woman who lived a life of purpose?

So the Lion of Lichubi is gone and may the ancestors bless us all.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:08:51.463)
I would like to read something that she is a poem that she had framed and people who would come to visit her would often see that poem. And she said, the poem says, the best thing to give your enemy, forgiveness.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08:56.27)
Mm-hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:09:06.993)
I don't know. I'm kind of side eyeing that one, but let me read it all the way through. The best thing to give your enemy, forgiveness. To your opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you. To your child, a good example. To yourself, respect. And to all men, charity.

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:28.749)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:09:34.387)
That's you what I've been called. Yes.

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:34.606)
Yes. with that said, we've come to the end of another episode of

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:09:45.405)
There are people asking for books. So you're going to put that in the comments. There are quite a few books on her. Okay. Awesome.

Adesoji Iginla (01:09:48.858)
yeah. I'll put it in the comments. I'll put it in the comments. I'll put it in the comments. I'll put it in the comments. I'll put it in the comments. Yeah. And yeah, we've come to the end of another episode of Women and Resistance. And today we start with Fumlai Ransomkuti, the lioness of Leesha B. Leesha B happens to be a fearless defender of the people of Abelkuta. Abelkuta

also my god i mean listen let me stop that stop let's stop let's let's stop yeah to yeah you know to pursue i mean think of martin delaney yes yes what britain did to nigeria and there is this there is fella

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:10:21.695)
It's so much. It's so much. But the idea is for people to be curious enough now to go ahead. Yes. Yeah. You can find some information in here.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:10:44.617)
We can't read it. American? No? What does that say?

Adesoji Iginla (01:10:46.936)
So it's a fella, the African music icon by Michael Veale. So it has an entire chapter on Fumula Ransom Kute. I mean, there are whole rafts of books out there. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:10:57.961)
There are a lot of books. This one is West Africa Under Colonial Rule. It's a much older book by Michael Crowder. Ajayi Crowder also referenced her quite a bit.

Adesoji Iginla (01:11:09.098)
yeah and this i doubt you'll be able to get i'm sorry i doubt you'll be able to get yeah it seems as if i'm showing off i doubt you'll be able to get this this is my god but

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:11:22.759)
Now some of the story of the Abiyokuta women's union and their protest is captured in Wolesho Inka's Ake, except he takes some liberties and it's not quite historical. And I would say that there was definitely a chauvinist hint to it.

Adesoji Iginla (01:11:31.758)
Hmm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:11:35.735)
Yucky, yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (01:11:49.9)
I am again.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:11:50.912)
Because he made it sound like it just happened and that there was no organization. And I don't know why he would do that. Because even his mother would have told him differently. Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (01:11:54.702)
Organize. Yeah, there was no organizing. Yeah, was no. hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. So yeah, I tend to follow the Dr. Carr's lead, which is sometimes read what the people see about themselves and people closest to them because the further people are away from the event, there's an element of embellishment of it. So yeah. So yeah, that's.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:12:21.565)
And interesting that you would mention that because one of the things they say is that Fumilaya ransom, well Fumilaya Nukulakbo Kuti actually had very few close friends. They mentioned like two or three of them, but she protected herself. And supposedly after her husband,

Adesoji Iginla (01:12:41.644)
And we can now see why.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:12:45.823)
Passed away. So he passed away in 1955 So she was just 55 years old at the time and she lived till 1978 That she never had any romantic dialysis with anybody after that There at one point they said, know, is your dad is your mom asking her daughter? Is your mom like dating anybody, you know the equivalent of dating anybody who's like

Adesoji Iginla (01:12:49.805)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (01:13:03.438)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:13:13.565)
The only men she really talks to are her lawyers. I'm not saying that's the way to go at all. I think that's also some of the things that are imposed on women. Or it could also have been that.

Giving the free spirit that she was she could not imagine Finding a man who would not try to prevent her from being who she was and so she figured you know Better. I'm on my own then to be controlled so Brothers y'all are missing out on some great women because y'all don't know how to act

Adesoji Iginla (01:13:47.438)
You

Anyway, on that very...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:13:56.191)
I had to say it. I'm looking out for my sisters here. We're We don't want to fight you all. Just like, come on. Let's unify.

Adesoji Iginla (01:14:04.622)
What the?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:14:08.262)
Let's Unify!

Adesoji Iginla (01:14:09.556)
Yeah, unify, unify. like Brother Kameture would say, which is actually very, very poignant with Fumulario and Subkuti is organize, organize and organize. Yes. So until next week, see you

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:14:23.731)
Yes. Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:14:30.431)
I'm just excited you guys stay tuned for next week. I will tell are we telling them who next week? No, okay another surprise But someone you definitely want to hear about Yes

Adesoji Iginla (01:14:33.262)
Stating from last week. No, no, no, no, no, come on. Why would you tell them? Yeah, yeah, that's another surprise. Yeah. You would believe you me. Okay. So yeah, good night and God bless.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:14:49.693)
Bye, everyone.