01/11/2022
Photo Headline: Nigeria comes to Town.
Prince Adeleke Adedoyin and Chief Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti arriving at Waterloo Train station in London (NCNC Party Members)
Date: July 10 1947
Prince Adeleke Adedoyin was born in March 1912 in Lagos. He is the son of Akarigbo of Ijebu-Remo.
Chief Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti, who was later christened as the ‘Lioness of Lisabi’ by the West African Pilot after the 1947 Crisis in Abeokuta. Born on the 25 October 1900 – 13 April 1978), also known as Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti, was a Nigerian educator, political campaigner, suffragist, and women's rights activist
By late 1947, Abeokuta authorities began forbidding women from organizing parades or demonstrations, denying them the necessary permits. Undeterred, Ransome-Kuti and her fellow organisers declared that they were planning "picnics" and "festivals" instead, drawing up to 10,000 participants to their demonstrations – some of which involved altercations with police. Ransome-Kuti trained women on how to deal with the tear gas canisters sometimes thrown at them, and the AWU(Abeokuta Women’s Union) used its membership dues to fund legal representation for arrested members.
In 1947, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons party (NCNC) sent a delegation to London, England, to protest a proposed Nigerian constitution. Ransome-Kuti was the sole woman in the delegation.
Image Credit: Alamy
