Feeding Revolt: Soldiers, Rice, and Women in War time Abeokuta (Nigeria)

In November 1947 the Abeokuta Women’s Union (AWU) began a tax revolt.  They argued that they could not afford a planned tax increase because their economic position had declined.  This tax revolt was one of the most important instances of women’s collective action in the immediate post-war period in Nigeria. It brought out thousands of women in protests who together with their male supporters made the town ungovernable.  In the end, the AWU forced the colonial government to temporarily abolish taxes on women and to send the traditional king, Alake Ademola, into exile.   This paper explores the ways in which World War II contributed to this climatic event.  
During World War II, colonial officials imposed freezes on the price of food as well as wages.  In addition, several regions within Nigeria were assigned food production quotas, and the movement of food was monitored and highly regulated. Abeokuta, a Yoruba town sixty miles north of Lagos, was one of the towns tasked by colonial officials to provide sufficient rice to feed troops resident in Lagos.  This paper highlights the impact of food demands on women traders.  It argues that these demands weakened traders economically and contributed to post-war unrest in Abeokuta.  Equally important, this paper allows us to contrast the economic and political response of women in Abeokuta to the much better known examples of the Lagos market women who also faced extra economic burdens as a result of war-time policies.  
This paper uses information gathered from interviews with Nigerians in Abeokuta, and former colonial officials.  It also draws on documents from the Chief Secretary’s Office, the Commission on Food Supply as well as memoirs from officers of the Royal West African Frontier Force to assess the demand for food during this important period.