Christianity, Politics, and Yoruba Womanhood: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and Women's Political Activism in Colonial Abeokuta (Nigeria)

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti stands out as one of the foremost nationalist and feminists in Nigerian history. She operated in multiple political arenas particularly during the 1940s and 1950s. She lead a women's anti-tax campaign in Abeokuta in 1947, helped found the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) the leading nationalist organization in the 1940s as well as a national women's organization the Nigerian Women's Union (NWU). While in London in 1947 as part of a delegation demanding constitutional change in Nigeria, she made contact with international women's organizations and in the 1950s she became a vice-president of the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF). While scholars have documented her impressive resume of activism few have explored the ways in which religious ideas informed her politics. This paper takes up the challenge most recently articulated by J. D. Y. Peel to better theorize the ways in which Christian ideals and philosophy informed Yoruba conceptualization of the nation. The Yoruba conceptualization of the nation was not gender neutral, therefore this paper is most concerned with exploring the intersection of Yoruba and Christian ideas of the nation and womanhood in Ransome-Kuti's political practice.