SPEAKER_00: Hey y'all, I'm Erin Haynes. I'm the editor-at-large for The 19th News, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics, and policy. We look at where our democracy remains unfinished, where
women, people of color, and queer people are still not included. And later this month,
I'll be your host for a brand new podcast from The 19th News and Wonder Media Network called The Amendment. More on that soon. But for now, I'm excited to be your guest host for this month of Womanica. This Black History Month, we're talking about revolutionaries,
the Black women who led struggles for liberation from violent governments, colonial rulers, and enslavers. These women had the courage to imagine radically different worlds, and
they used their power to try and pull those worlds into view. Today, we're talking about
an Igbo woman who was instrumental in the fight for independence from British colonial
rule in Nigeria. Let's meet Madame Nwoyeroa. Nwoyeroa was an Igbo woman living in the village
of Oloko in southeastern Nigeria. Historians don't know when she was born or where, but
they do know that she was influential in Oloko and sold palm oil and palm kernels there.
In Igbo culture, men and women worked collaboratively inside and outside the household. Women were
key members of the local and regional economy. Some women from elite families could even
participate in politics. As Britain expanded its colonial power, though, they started making
some big changes. The British government enacted a warrant chief system. Local men were appointed
as warrant chiefs, and their job was to exercise authority over their fellow villagers, according
to British law. These men were elevated and essentially made agents of the British colonial
government. Notably, this system excluded women. Part of the warrant chief system included
a census and a tax on the men of the village. Some families were so burdened by the tax,
they turned to mortgaging and selling their children. Men and women of the village were
poorer than ever and felt like they were being treated like property, not people. And women
had very little say in the matter. What the British didn't realize is that Igbo women
still had the power of their social structures. They maintained market networks and kinship
groups. During regular meetings, the women of Iloco decided to revolt if the British
started taxing them directly. They contributed to their husband's tax, and that was already
burdensome enough. Where would they find the money? They made money, but not enough for
a tax. They often depended on their husbands for money to buy food and clothes.
One morning in November of 1929, Warrant Chief Okugo was tasked with collecting a more detailed
census, one that included all of the wives, children, and livestock in Iloco.
When an agent showed up at Nwaye'roa's door, she had a bad feeling about it. She thought
the British government was preparing to tax women. The agent asked Nwaye'roa to count
her goats, sheep, and members of her household. She refused and sarcastically asked if his
widowed mother was counted. A fight ensued. Then Nwaye'roa ran to a nearby women's assembly
to warn everyone that what they were worried about was about to happen. Women were set
to be taxed. The women had a plan. They sent out palm leaves, which let the women in neighboring
villages know they needed help. Those women sent out palm leaves to their neighboring
villages. Then they launched a revolt. Women gathered at the warrant chief's home in an
act of protest called sitting on a man. Decorated in war paint, they danced, sang, and generally
made a disturbance, calling for Okugo to resign. For weeks, more than 10,000 women targeted
warrant chiefs, native courts, and European factories. They looted and destroyed buildings.
They attacked prisons and released the prisoners. The riot finally ended in Iloco when the British
district officer put the warrant chief in jail to appease the women. The rebellion still
continued elsewhere. In the nearby town of Owerenta, another census taker got in a fight
with a pregnant woman and knocked her down. The altercation led to a miscarriage. The
women were furious and protested at the census taker's home. The protest turned violent.
Two women were killed and many more injured at the hands of the British police. The woman
leading the protest was arrested and taken to the city of Abba. On December 11, 1929,
10,000 women traveled to Abba City to protest her arrest. A British medical officer struck
two protesters with his car, killing them. The violence and mistreatment from the British
kept coming. Fed up, the women raided a nearby bank and broke their leader out of prison.
By January 1930, the protests were quelled. Reports vary, but it's estimated that between
50 and 100 women were killed by British soldiers and policemen.
The last documented moment in N.Y. Aranueva's life comes from a testimony she gave against
Warrant Chief Okugo a few months after the war ended. In it, she said,
We had no money to pay tax. I was once a rich woman, but as Okugo had been taking money
away from me, I had now no money. Not much else is known about N.Y. Aranueva's life,
but we do know the outsized impact she had on her nation. The rebellion became known
as the Abba Women's Riots, or Women's War, and afterwards, the role of women in society
improved. Before, only women from elite backgrounds were able to participate in politics. After
the rebellion, women from less-advantaged backgrounds got their chance to participate,
too. The Abba Women's War also inspired other female movements throughout the 1930s and
40s and sparked a greater anti-colonial movement that led to Nigeria's independence from Britain
in 1960. All month, we're talking about revolutionaries. For more information, you can find us on Facebook
and Instagram, at Wamanaka Podcast. Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan
for having me as a guest host. Talk to you tomorrow.
