The women of 1929 were not improvising. Felix Ekechi’s chapter in Korieh (2009) documents earlier female collective action. In 1864, around Onitsha (Obosi, Nkwere, Nsugbe, Ogbunike, Ogidi), women acting under a spirit called Odesoruelu, “restorer of the traditional way of life”, swept compounds, protested prices and demanded a return to custom. Chiefs banned imported clothes, a measure Ekechi sees as a forerunner of Mbonu Ojike’s 1940s slogan “Boycott all boycottables”.
Women also defended the customs most criticized by missionaries. They were often the strongest opponents of rescuing twins, whose birth custom treated as an abomination; the British eventually ended the exposure of twins. Ekechi argues that women were guardians of custom, omenala, but also early supporters of mission schooling for their children.
In October–November 1925 the Nwaobiala (“Dancing Women”) movement spread from the Umuahia–Okigwe boundary across Owerri, Onitsha and Ogoja Provinces. Afigbo describes how women swept compounds, danced, called for a return to old ways, boycotted British currency and Native Courts, and carried a message said to come from Chineke. The movement faded by early 1926 but had shown how fast women’s networks could mobilize.
Economic base
Women dominated local markets and food production, and they processed palm oil and kernels, according to Raphael Njoku. Men controlled long-distance trade until about 1900. Women’s associations enforced assembly decisions in many communities.
Political tools
Messengers with palm fronds, mass sit-ins, singing and mocking songs, boycotts and the sweeping of compounds.
Why 1929 was different
A tax census touched all three of the things women guarded: children, fertility and the land. Afigbo notes that fruit-bearing women and trees were said to share a chi.
Sources for this article
- Korieh (ed.) 2009, ch. 10 (Ekechi), pp. 219–243; ch. 11 (Afigbo), ch. 14 (Chambers)