Fela's Mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti's 116th Posthumous Birthday Is Today

Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Ransome-Kuti (nee Thomas) was born on 25 October 1900, in Abeokuta . Her father was a son of a returnee slave from Sierra Leone, who had traced his ancestral history back to Abeokuta in what is today Ogun State, Nigeria.

Throughout hercareer, she was known as an educator and activist. Shefounded an organization for women in Abeokuta, with a membership tally of over 20,000 individuals spanning both literate and illiterate women.

In 1949, she led a protest against Native Authorities, especially against the Alake of Egbaland . She presented documents alleging abuse of authority by the Alake, who had been granted the right to collect the taxes by his colonial suzerain, the Government of the United Kingdom.

Funmilayo Ransome Kuti campaigned for women’s votes’ She was for many years a member of the ruling National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons party, but was later expelled when she was not elected to a federal parliamentary seat. At the NCNC, she was the treasurer and subsequent president of the Western NCNC women’s Association. However, she never truly ended her activism. In the 1950s, she was one of the few women elected to the house of chiefs.

In old age her activism was over-shadowed by that of her three sons, who provided effective opposition to various Nigerian military juntas. In 1978, Funmilayo was thrown from a second-floor window when her son Fela’s compound, a commune known as the Kalakuta Republic, was stormed by one thousand armed military personnel. She lapsed into a coma in February of that year, and died on 13 April 1978, as a result of her injuries.