37 Facts About Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti

Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, MON, known as Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti, was a Nigerian educator, political campaigner, suffragist, and women's rights activist.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti received the Lenin Peace Prize and was awarded membership in the Order of the Niger for her work.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti died at the age of 77 after being wounded in a military raid on family property.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was born to Chief Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas, a member of the aristocratic Jibolu-Taiwo family, and Lucretia Phyllis Omoyeni Adeosolu.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti's father farmed and traded palm produce, and her mother worked as a dressmaker.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti's parents married in 1897, and they had two children who died in infancy before Frances was born.

On 20 January 1925, Funmilayo married Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, a member of the Ransome-Kuti family.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti later became a co-founder of both the Nigeria Union of Teachers and of the Nigerian Union of Students.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was the first woman in Abeokuta to drive a car.

In 1932, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti had helped establish the Abeokuta Ladies Club.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti had founded the union along with Grace Eniola Soyinka, and the AWU gradually grew to represent 20,000 official members, with up to 100,000 additional supporters.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti trained women in how to deal with the tear gas canisters sometimes thrown at them, and the AWU used its membership dues to fund legal representation for arrested members.

Tensions between AWU protesters and authorities came to a head in February 1948 when the Alake compared AWU women to "vipers that could not be tamed" and banned Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti from entering the palace for political meetings.

The incident concluded with a scuffle when Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti grabbed hold of the steering wheel of the district officer's car and refused to let go "until he pried her hand loose".

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti caused a stir after writing an article for the Daily Worker that argued colonial rule had "severely marginalized" Nigerian women both politically and economically.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti made strong arguments for the inclusion of women's enfranchisement and against the creation of an indirect electoral system.

In May 1949, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti proposed the creation of the Nigerian Women's Union in order to better support women's rights and enfranchisement across the country.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti served as president of both the NWU and her hometown union in Abeokuta.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti acted as treasurer for the NCNC Western Working Committee and later President of the NCNC Women's Organization in the Western Region.

In 1953, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti organized a conference in Abeokuta to discuss women's suffrage and political representation, and 400 women delegates attended the two-day event.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was the first woman appointed to the Western House and one of the few women to have a position in any Nigerian House of Chiefs at the time.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti served as a board member for the Nigerian Union of Teachers.

On 6 April 1955, Israel Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti died from prostate cancer after an extended period of illness.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was hit hard by the loss of her husband, having struggled over the past several years with the question of whether to abandon her political work in order to spend more time with him.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti believed in a number of socialist ideals, defining herself as an "African Socialist"; although she did not consider herself a communist, she was "not frightened or repelled by communism either".

In 1958, when Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was invited to attend a women's rights conference in the United States, she was denied an American visa because authorities felt "she had too many Communist connections".

In 1959, when Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was denied a second chance to run as an NCNC candidate, she ran as an independent candidate instead, but her campaign split the vote and helped an opponent of the NCNC win the seat.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti went on to found a political party, the Commoners' People's Party, but the party failed to gain momentum, dissolving after only a year.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was actively involved with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, being president for the organization's Nigerian branch since 1963.

In 1965, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti received the national honour of membership in the Order of the Niger.

In 1969, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was appointed chairman of the Advisory Board of Education by the western Nigeria state government, and she served as a consultant to the Federal Ministry of Education on recruitment of teachers from other countries.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti died on 13 April 1978 as a result of her injuries.

Biographer Cheryl Johnson-Odim, notes that Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti's name remains well known throughout Nigeria and that "no other Nigerian woman of her time ranked as such a national figure or had [such] international exposure and connections".

Kuti said that his family had never received an apology for the assault on their compound, with official government statements declaring that Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti had been attacked by "1000 unknown soldiers".

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was portrayed in the 2014 film October 1 by actress Deola Sagoe.

On 25 October 2019, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was posthumously honored with a Google Doodle created by Nigerian-Italian illustrator Diana Ejaita.

In 2022, Bolanle Austen-Peters directed a biopic, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, which tells the story of Funmilayo; from her pioneering days as the first female student at Abeokuta Grammar School to her marriage to Israel Ransome-Kuti.