Aba Women’s Riot

The Women's War' or Aba Women's Riots was an insurrection in British Nigeria which occurred in November 1929. The revolt broke out when thousands of Igbo women from the Bende District, Umuahia and other places in eastern Nigeria traveled to the town of Oloko to protest against the Warrant Chiefs, whom they accused of restricting the role of women in the government. The Aba Women's Riots of 1929, as it was named in British colonial records, is more aptly considered a strategically executed anti-colonial revolt organised by women to redress social, political, and economic grievances. The protest encompassed women from six ethnic groups (Ibibio, Andoni, Orgoni, Bonny, Opobo, and Igbo) It was organised and led by the rural women of Owerri and Calabar provinces. During the events, many Warrant Chiefs were forced to resign and sixteen Native Courts were attacked, most of which were destroyed.

There is a long history of collective action by women in Nigeria. In the 1910s, women in Agbaja stayed away from their homes for a month because they thought that men were killing pregnant women. Their collective absence pushed village elders to take action to address the concerns of the women. In 1924, 3000 women in Calabar protested a market toll that was required by the government. In Southwestern Nigeria, where the Women’s War took place, there were other women organizations such as the Lagos Market Women’s Association, Nigerian Women’s Party, and Abeokuta Women’s Union. There was also an “elaborate system of women’s market networks,” which the Igbo and Ibibio women used to communicate information to organize the Women’s War.

In actuality, the emergence of the Aba Women's War was long in the making. Colonialism altered the position of various Nigerian women in their societies. Women traditionally were allowed to participate in the government and held a major role in the market. Men and women also worked collaboratively in the domestic sphere, and were recognized to both have important individual roles. Women also had the privilege of participating in political movements due to the fact that they were married to elites. The British saw these practices as “a manifestation of chaos and disorder”, and so they attempted to create political institutions which commanded authority and monopolized force. While they considered the political institutions head by Igbo men, the British ignored those of the women, effectively shutting them out from political power. The British believed that this patriarchal and masculine order would establish a moral order. The women were dissatisfied with the British colonizers because of increased school fees, corruption by local officers, and forced labor.