Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, who's speaking? Oh? Great, it worked? What worked?
Speaker 1: Who is this? Oh? It's me? I mean you, I'm
Speaker 1: Future Eaves. How are you? I mean? Am I doing
Speaker 1: this right now? Oh? Don't worry about that. There are
Speaker 1: more pressing matters to attend to. Like what I imagine
Speaker 1: you're calling to tell me some massive news that's going
Speaker 1: to change the course of my life, hopefully for the better.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you're calling to say that climate change is real.
Speaker 1: Earth is going to die sooner than we all thought,
Speaker 1: and to save the world, I have to do a
Speaker 1: lot better than just recycling. Well, no, that's not what
Speaker 1: I was going to tell you, actually, so tell me
Speaker 1: tell me. Okay, okay, there goes everything you want to happen,
Speaker 1: and all the social progress you're anticipating, all the things
Speaker 1: your faiths are working for, they're not all achieved. Not
Speaker 1: everything works out like you wanted to, not by now
Speaker 1: at least. Wait what that's what you have to tell me?
Speaker 1: That all the world's problems won't be solved during my lifetime.
Speaker 1: Oh my, what a waste of time in the past
Speaker 1: and the future book. I just wanted you to avoid
Speaker 1: the disappointment. Are you serious? I'm hanging up. That's how
Speaker 1: I turned out. This can't be real. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Eve Jeff Cote here in the present. This is Unpopular
Speaker 1: a podcast about the people in history who did not
Speaker 1: let the threat of persecution keep them from speaking truth
Speaker 1: to power. Y'all, I know that not every one and
Speaker 1: is going to be able to turn the world upside
Speaker 1: down in the short span of eighty or fewer years.
Speaker 1: I'm realistic about the way systems work and are challenged.
Speaker 1: Change takes time, and not every movie make is going
Speaker 1: to be the right one. There will be missteps, there
Speaker 1: will be decisions made that don't turn out quite how
Speaker 1: we want them to. At some point, we may adopt
Speaker 1: a philosophy that we later believe to be untrue or ineffective.
Speaker 1: Mr X, I'm wondering if you still believe in a
Speaker 1: segregated black nation. No North America. I don't believe in
Speaker 1: any form of segregation or any form of racism. Is it?
Speaker 1: Am I right in saying that the Black Muslim movement
Speaker 1: which you have left diad believe in them? Well? Elijah
Speaker 1: Mohammed taught his followers that the only solution was a
Speaker 1: separate state for black people. But when I begin to
Speaker 1: doubt that he himself believed that that was feasible. Then
Speaker 1: I turned in a different direction. A perfect person is
Speaker 1: a non existent person. A person who has all the
Speaker 1: correct answers to the world's problems from the beginning is
Speaker 1: not a human. There are plenty of people who thought
Speaker 1: they were making the best choices for their communities but
Speaker 1: ended up doing harm to the very people they were
Speaker 1: trying to protect. There also have been plenty of people
Speaker 1: who incited changes that seem to be for the greater good,
Speaker 1: but later those changes were reversed or overridden. Progress is
Speaker 1: not a straight line. There will be bumps along the way,
Speaker 1: some aunt hills, some mountains. Sometimes we forget that we
Speaker 1: can only do the best we can do with our
Speaker 1: best intentions, turning to factual knowledge and the legacies of
Speaker 1: our forebears as guides. Yes, sometimes we get things wrong,
Speaker 1: but we can't see into the future. Science and worldly
Speaker 1: knowledge are a faithful allies, but a degree of faith
Speaker 1: is required to believe our actions aren't for not and
Speaker 1: will be fruitful, to believe that what we're fighting for
Speaker 1: will pay off. And we have to have that kind
Speaker 1: of conviction if we're going to face the risk of
Speaker 1: persecution for the sake of progress. Every week we'll penetrate
Speaker 1: the consciousness of someone in history who went out on
Speaker 1: a limb to change the things they thought needed changing.
Speaker 1: These are people who envisioned better futures that they believed
Speaker 1: they could help create in the present. They were dead
Speaker 1: set on unsticking people who were stuck in their ways
Speaker 1: and uprooting entrenched systems. They weren't clear buoyant, but they
Speaker 1: did have the foresight to realize the danger and harm
Speaker 1: certain structures could cause. They saw clearly the way systems
Speaker 1: were regressive, corrupt, and ineffective, and they did something about
Speaker 1: it in whatever way they felt they could contribute. A
Speaker 1: lot of people hated them for it, put rope blocks
Speaker 1: in their path, and sought ways to tear them down.
Speaker 1: But others believed in their vision, and today, in hindsight,
Speaker 1: we can recognize them for their keen awareness and the
Speaker 1: guts they had to act on it. One such visionary
Speaker 1: was Fuomalayo Ransom Kuti, a Nigerian social and political leader
Speaker 1: who never let a fear of failure or punishment distract
Speaker 1: her from fighting for women's rights and Nigerian independence. Foomalaya
Speaker 1: was a political leader, a nationalist, a democratic socialist, an
Speaker 1: anti colonialist, and a tireless advocate for education and women's rights. Basically,
Speaker 1: she's one of those people whose bios you really don't
Speaker 1: want to read to a crowded room because it's liable
Speaker 1: to spark an existential crisis and make you ask yourself
Speaker 1: what am I doing with my life? But just listing
Speaker 1: her titles, as many as she may have, still doesn't
Speaker 1: do her work justice. It kind of beautifies her advocacy,
Speaker 1: wraps it in a nice little bow, and that makes sense. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we want to focus on the accomplishments of the leaders
Speaker 1: we admire in history. But part of the reason she
Speaker 1: was so successful was because she trudged through all the
Speaker 1: mud to get to greener pastures. Yes, Fu Malaya had
Speaker 1: a lot of supporters and people who looked up to her.
Speaker 1: After all, she was helping women and girls who often
Speaker 1: didn't get a chance to give voice to the issues
Speaker 1: that affected them or were discounted when they did. But
Speaker 1: to a lot of people, including a lot of people
Speaker 1: in powerful positions, her views were way too radical and
Speaker 1: she had to stand up against a lot of those
Speaker 1: powerful people to fight for the things she cared about,
Speaker 1: which meant that the road to all those titles was
Speaker 1: a bumpy one. He might have already heard that Fumalaya
Speaker 1: was the first woman to drive a car in Nigeria.
Speaker 1: You might even know that Fumalaya was the first female
Speaker 1: student to attend the Abbeokuta Grammar School, where she would
Speaker 1: later teach. But these small, though honorable facts of her
Speaker 1: life are just parts of her entire story. Fumalaya is
Speaker 1: remarkable for what she achieved, but she defied traditional roles
Speaker 1: and thought outside of the perimeters of contemporary practices and standards.
Speaker 1: It took persistence, courage, and conviction for her to address
Speaker 1: the issue she did in the climate that she did,
Speaker 1: but that character was apparent early on in Fumalaya's life.
Speaker 1: Francis Abigail Olafumilao Thomas was born in nineteen hundred in
Speaker 1: Abiokuta in southern Nigeria. She was a member of the
Speaker 1: egg Bo people, a subgroup of the europe Book Sarah Taiwo,
Speaker 1: her great grandmother on her father's side, was sold into
Speaker 1: slavery but soon released of it and eventually she returned
Speaker 1: to her home Nigeria. On her mom's side, Fumilao's oldest
Speaker 1: known relative is a man named Adi Boyer from Elie
Speaker 1: Lucretia and Daniel Thomas. Fumilao's mother and father were devout Anglicans.
Speaker 1: They were Western educated, war Western clothes, and spoke English,
Speaker 1: but they didn't shun tradition. They also spoke and taught
Speaker 1: their children their Euraba language, eight traditional food, and we're
Speaker 1: in a polygamous marriage in the Thomas household after ken
Speaker 1: and European values collided. This mixing of cultures would be
Speaker 1: something that affected Fumi's principles and advocacy to She studied
Speaker 1: in England and believed in the right to an academic education,
Speaker 1: and she believed in women's rights to participate equally with
Speaker 1: men and nationalist political parties, but she also remained true
Speaker 1: to her Yoroba heritage. Fum Malayah was married to Israel
Speaker 1: Olodotune Ransom Kuti, a clergyman, educator and administrator who founded
Speaker 1: the Nigeria Union of Teachers and helped improve conditions for teachers.
Speaker 1: At the time of her birth, Nigeria was under the
Speaker 1: rule of the British Crown. Southern Nigeria was a British Protectorate,
Speaker 1: which means it was a territory that was controlled by
Speaker 1: the British government but still has some local autonomy and independence.
Speaker 1: But in nineteen fourteen, the Northern and Southern Protectorates were
Speaker 1: amalgamated to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. Britain
Speaker 1: proceeded to extend the system of indirect rule throughout Southern Nigeria,
Speaker 1: claiming the system would maintain the indigenous political and judicial
Speaker 1: systems that were already in place. But what it actually
Speaker 1: did in Nigeria was put power in the hands of
Speaker 1: a small group of mostly men, like Adamola the Second
Speaker 1: who was elected Alaka or king in ninety and it
Speaker 1: stripped the power of many women who had previously been
Speaker 1: involved in the political process. Women had a strong history
Speaker 1: of leadership in Abiokuta, Nigeria before the advent of British rule,
Speaker 1: but after female titles essentially became meaningless. In the nineteen
Speaker 1: forty seven article titled we had Equality Till Britain came,
Speaker 1: Fumlao wrote the following Before of the British adment in Nigeria,
Speaker 1: life there was mainly agricultural and there was a division
Speaker 1: of labor between men and women. The men cultivated the
Speaker 1: land and sewed, and it was chiefly the duty of
Speaker 1: women to reap. Women owned property, traded and exercised considerable
Speaker 1: political and social influence on society. But after the British arrived,
Speaker 1: she went on to say women had little healthcare, poor education,
Speaker 1: and they were stripped naked by taxation policies. Fumilia was
Speaker 1: driven by her opposition to colonial rule and support of
Speaker 1: Nigerian independence, as well as her embrace of Euryba culture.
Speaker 1: In fact, Fumilaya found a role model in my Damn Tanubu,
Speaker 1: an egg Ba woman who was a trader and anti colonialist,
Speaker 1: an Eggba nationalist, a defender of Abiokuta, and the first
Speaker 1: person to earn the title of Eld of All of
Speaker 1: the egg Box Elod, which literally means mother of the town,
Speaker 1: is a women's chieftaincy title. Fumlao looked up to Madam
Speaker 1: Tanubu as a feminist and a nationalist, and many people
Speaker 1: saw Fumlayo as another Tanubu. I know of throwing a
Speaker 1: lot at you and trust me, There's much more to
Speaker 1: the story of Abiokuta and Britain's fraught relationship with it.
Speaker 1: But what's important to understand is that Britain's rule in
Speaker 1: Nigeria and the resulting political systems, as well as Fumalayo's
Speaker 1: love for women, Eggba people and culture and Nigeria were
Speaker 1: some of the major catalyst for Fumalayo's activism. When we
Speaker 1: get back from the break, we'll get into Fumalayo's fierce
Speaker 1: opposition to colonial rule and her dedication to fighting for
Speaker 1: women's rights and education, which, as you could imagine, got
Speaker 1: some people to bring out their pitchforks and tiki torches.
Speaker 1: I think life is always dangerous. Some people get afraid
Speaker 1: of it. Some people don't go forward, but some people,
Speaker 1: if they want to achieve their goal, they have to go.
Speaker 1: What is it that makes some people go forward and
Speaker 1: others prohibitively fearful or just plain indifferent. Science has tried
Speaker 1: to offer some explanations as to why some people are
Speaker 1: just so brave. How we respond to fear maybe written
Speaker 1: in our biology, depending on how our amygdala developed. It
Speaker 1: could be dependent on our environment, based on how much
Speaker 1: violence or abuse we've been exposed to. It could have
Speaker 1: something to do with the way the stress hormone cortisol
Speaker 1: acts in different people or our choice to fight rather
Speaker 1: than fleet could really just come down to whether we
Speaker 1: think it's worth it in that specific situation. But in
Speaker 1: the end, our nature, our experiences, and our circumstances combine
Speaker 1: to determine how we choose to face battles. Fumilao had
Speaker 1: to deal with a ton of antagonism and obstruction, and
Speaker 1: when she found herself up against these challenges, she had
Speaker 1: a choice. Does she let her doubts and fears keep
Speaker 1: her from speaking out and taking action, or does she
Speaker 1: keep fighting despite the obstacles. Fumilao always seemed to choose
Speaker 1: the latter. Take Fumilao's advocacy for women traders. Fumalayo was
Speaker 1: well educated, but she began to believe that, in her words,
Speaker 1: we educated women were living outside of the daily life
Speaker 1: of the people. She began to listen to the women
Speaker 1: who worked in markets as traders, who generally weren't Western
Speaker 1: educated and were often poor to learn more a out
Speaker 1: their concerns. The colonial administration had imposed price controls and
Speaker 1: food quotas to offset food shortages caused by World War
Speaker 1: two and to make sure soldiers were taken care of.
Speaker 1: So in nineteen, the government was seizing market women's rights
Speaker 1: without compensation. The market women took this offense to the
Speaker 1: Abeokuta Ladies Club later known as the Abyakuta Women's Union,
Speaker 1: which was an organization Fumilayo founded that was initially focused
Speaker 1: on learning handicrafts and social etiquette, but eventually became more politicized.
Speaker 1: The Ladies Club protested the rice seizures by appealing to
Speaker 1: the press. Not long after, an article was published about
Speaker 1: the Abyacuta Ladies Clubs press conference, and the confiscations stopped.
Speaker 1: As Fumilao continued to learn about the transgressions of the
Speaker 1: government's relations with market women, she became incensed. Conditional sales
Speaker 1: forced market women to buy unrelated goods with the goods
Speaker 1: they bought of their own will. This placed undo economic
Speaker 1: strain on them. Quotas on food to be sold to
Speaker 1: the government also led police, private subcontractors, and representatives of
Speaker 1: the Alaka or king of the Eggba to confiscate or
Speaker 1: pay inadequate amounts for women traders goods. They would then
Speaker 1: resell those goods to the government at higher than market prices.
Speaker 1: So the Abyacuta Ladies Club became embroiled in a bunch
Speaker 1: of other civic and community projects. It called for sanitation improvements,
Speaker 1: financial aid to increase adult literacy, and the establishment of
Speaker 1: health clinics and playgrounds at schools. But the taxation of
Speaker 1: women became one of the key issues. The Abyacuta Ladies
Speaker 1: Club or the a l C went up against The
Speaker 1: women of Abyokuta were some of the first in Nigeria
Speaker 1: who had a tax imposed on them by the British.
Speaker 1: This taxation replaced inclusive systems of tribute payments and conscripted labor,
Speaker 1: and it reflected British sentiments that colonies should bear the
Speaker 1: cost of their development. The taxation was unfair from the beginning.
Speaker 1: Girls were taxed starting at age fifteen, boys at sixteen
Speaker 1: fives were taxed separately from their husbands, even if they
Speaker 1: didn't have sufficient income, and the tax was a flat
Speaker 1: rate on top of all the other fees women paid.
Speaker 1: And to make matters worse, tax collectors sometimes invaded homes,
Speaker 1: assaulted women and stripped them naked to supposedly determine their
Speaker 1: age to see whether they were eligible for taxation. Women
Speaker 1: were even jailed for not paying taxes, and the British
Speaker 1: were paying local traditional authorities like the old bony chiefs
Speaker 1: to collect taxes. Whereas before the alaka had been subject
Speaker 1: to checks and balances, under the new soul native authority system,
Speaker 1: the alaka had a lot more power. The British were
Speaker 1: using the alaka, who had become a symbol of colonialism,
Speaker 1: to enforce flat rate taxation. People in Abiokuta and the
Speaker 1: surrounding townships grew increasingly dissatisfied with alaka autamola the sole
Speaker 1: native authority system and the tax heights. So floom Alayo
Speaker 1: and the newly minted Abyokuta Women's Union raised the bar
Speaker 1: even more on their activism. Here's what Bole Sholanka said
Speaker 1: in his memoir Okay about the women's meetings at the
Speaker 1: Ransom Kuti residence. Women of every occupation, the cloth dyer's weavers,
Speaker 1: basket makers and the usual petty traders of the markets.
Speaker 1: They arrived in ones, twos and groups that came from
Speaker 1: near and distant compounds, town sectors and far villages whose
Speaker 1: names I had never heard. They smelt of the sweat
Speaker 1: of the journey, of dyes, of dried fish, yam, flour
Speaker 1: of latterite, and the coconut oil of their plats. Okay,
Speaker 1: that quote was just too good not to share. I
Speaker 1: mean coconut oil anyway, I digress. Fuma laos activism was
Speaker 1: never just about her. Sure, she was often the only
Speaker 1: woman in places and had an uncanny knack to connect
Speaker 1: with women all over the world, but her organizing shows
Speaker 1: the power of collective action. She put herself on the
Speaker 1: line and in positions of leadership not to increase her
Speaker 1: own political power, but to bring attention to and help
Speaker 1: solve women's issues. The fight against unfair taxation, the s
Speaker 1: n A system and the corrupt alak was protracted. Women
Speaker 1: called for no taxation without representation and leaders, including Fumalayo,
Speaker 1: were imprisoned for refusing to pay taxes. Fumalayo and the
Speaker 1: movement became more radical, organizing sit ins, mass demonstrations, and
Speaker 1: market closures. Fumalayo always led the demonstrations and she even
Speaker 1: trained women on mass resistance in her home. In November
Speaker 1: of nineteen seven, Fumalayo led a march of around ten
Speaker 1: thousand women to the Alakas Palace, protesting the authorities and
Speaker 1: their taxation without representation. They repeated the demonstration a little
Speaker 1: over a week later calling for the alla Ka to
Speaker 1: step down, and in nineteen forty nine, the tax on
Speaker 1: women was abolished, the tax on men was increased, and
Speaker 1: four women, including Ransom Kutie, were named to a new
Speaker 1: interim Council. The alla Ka was charged with corruption and
Speaker 1: usurpation of powers that weren't his and he addicated, though
Speaker 1: he was later reinstated and eventually the Abokuto Women's Union
Speaker 1: expanded to become the Nigerian Women's Union, which would gain
Speaker 1: twenty thousand members and mobilize tens of thousands more. We're
Speaker 1: going to take a short break, so collect your feelings
Speaker 1: about corrupt politicians and imperialism. Take a breath, and prepare
Speaker 1: yourself to dig deeper into fumilaos progressive but often controversial
Speaker 1: philosophies and actions. When we come back, we'll find out
Speaker 1: how Fumalaya's dedication to social justice was a lifelong one.
Speaker 1: Fumilao's campaigns for women's rights weren't limited to Nigeria. She
Speaker 1: was committed to issues like universal adult suffrage and full
Speaker 1: self government it in Nigeria, but she was resolute about
Speaker 1: the ideas that women shouldn't be treated as second class citizens.
Speaker 1: That rights shouldn't be based on ethnicity or race, and
Speaker 1: that people who are impoverished are just as entitled to
Speaker 1: the benefits of citizenship as everyone else. But no matter
Speaker 1: where in the world she was, she was resolute about
Speaker 1: the ideas that women shouldn't be treated as second class citizens,
Speaker 1: that rights shouldn't be based on ethnicity or race, and
Speaker 1: that people who are impoverished are just as entitled to
Speaker 1: the benefits of citizenship as everyone else. In nineteen forty seven,
Speaker 1: Fumlaya was the only female member of a Nigerian delegation
Speaker 1: that the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons sent
Speaker 1: to London to protest the Richards Constitution. The Richards Constitution
Speaker 1: was drafted by the British without Nigerian's input and intensified
Speaker 1: regionalism and disunity based on ethnic divisions. While she was
Speaker 1: in England, she visited factories in daycare centers and addressed
Speaker 1: several women's organizations, including the London Women's Parliamentary Committee. She
Speaker 1: also talked about the issues of women in Nigeria and
Speaker 1: the Cameroons at a reception held by the Lord Mayor
Speaker 1: of Manchester. Fomilia was active elsewhere on the continent of
Speaker 1: Africa to engaging with other human rights activists and organizations
Speaker 1: in pursuit of her ideals. Years later, Fomilaia was elected
Speaker 1: a vice president of the Women's International Democratic Federation, a
Speaker 1: Soviet inspired international organization that espoused communists and socialist philosophies,
Speaker 1: and though she wasn't a member of the Communist Party,
Speaker 1: she visited communist countries and sometimes praised their efforts. In
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixty one article in the Journal of Human Relations,
Speaker 1: she said this about China's literacy campaigns. When we visited
Speaker 1: a Chinese women's adult education class, we were greatly impressed
Speaker 1: by the women's zeal. They were so absorbed in their
Speaker 1: lesson that they hardly took their eyes from their books.
Speaker 1: Every one of them was keen because they wanted to
Speaker 1: equip themselves with the weapon of liberty. There was to
Speaker 1: be a total eradication of a literacy in their country.
Speaker 1: But then five years after their liberation, and no woman
Speaker 1: wanted to be left behind, We Nigerian women should be
Speaker 1: ready to emulate them and set to work vigorously. Fumilao
Speaker 1: didn't subscribe to nor was she against communism. During the
Speaker 1: Cold War, but Fumilao was pragmatic willing to take into
Speaker 1: consideration varying ideologies. That said, she was still punished for
Speaker 1: her identification with international socialist organizations and radical feminism. She
Speaker 1: met contacts in the Eastern Bloc and even met with Malzadan,
Speaker 1: a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the first chairman of
Speaker 1: the People's Republic of China. These links led to the
Speaker 1: Nigeria government refusing to renew her passport until after Nigeria
Speaker 1: gained its independence in nineteen sixty. The United States had
Speaker 1: even denied Fumilayo's visa application because of her connections to
Speaker 1: communism in nineteen fifty eight. In her later years after
Speaker 1: her husband died, Fumi Layo dedicated a lot of her
Speaker 1: time to school she'd established, but they had a lot
Speaker 1: of financial trouble and she later closed her school after
Speaker 1: governmental changes. In nineteen seventy seven, Fumi Layo was thrown
Speaker 1: out of a window when there was a raid on
Speaker 1: her outspoken son Phela's compound, the Calicutta Republic. After the raid,
Speaker 1: the foot she'd injured never healed completely. She soon went
Speaker 1: into a coma and on April thirteenth, nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: Fumilao died. We can't do everything, and we definitely can't
Speaker 1: do it all in one lifetime. But Fumilao Ransom coutis
Speaker 1: work is proof that we can absolutely leave a lasting
Speaker 1: effect on the communities we care about when we take action.
Speaker 1: She used her voice to mobilize women, so her motivation
Speaker 1: and principles could resound throughout the world and build a legacy.
Speaker 1: Fumilia was able to stay a passionate, authentic, and politically
Speaker 1: savvy leader. Iabo mcinday said in an article on Fumilayo
Speaker 1: she was continually fighting one authority or another, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't for her own fake but for someone else's. Fumilao
Speaker 1: was willing to be the number one enemy and even
Speaker 1: take losses as long as it meant sticking to her guns.
Speaker 1: She was for the people and she was willing to
Speaker 1: put in the work to prove it. She wrote a
Speaker 1: song with her husband that went like this, it is
Speaker 1: time to work. It is time to work. Children of Africa.
Speaker 1: Prepare yourselves. There is much to be done. A good
Speaker 1: person does not run away from work. A good person
Speaker 1: is not fearful, get down a lift the load. God
Speaker 1: is with us. There is no more fear. Let's get
Speaker 1: to work. Let's get to work. Our producer is Andrew Howard.
Speaker 1: Holly Fry and Christopher Hasiotis are our executive producers, and
Speaker 1: you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1: We'll be back next week with another episode of Unpopular
Speaker 1: dot dot dot Dot p