During the tax protest against the British, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti is reported to have retorted, “You may have been born, but you were not bred! “, in response to a British district officer’s yell “Would you use such language with your mother?” She was referred to as the “Lioness of Lisabi” by the West African Pilot. Fumilayo Ransome Kuti was the first female student to attend the Abeokuta Grammar School. She was born in Abeokuta, which is now part of OGUN state.
In her early adult years, she was a teacher in the United States, setting up some of the first preschool programs as well as literacy programs for low-income women.
Ransome-Kuti founded the Abeokuta Women’s Union in the 1940s and fought for women’s rights, calling for more representation of women in local government and an end to unjust taxation on market women. Known by the media as the “Lioness of Lisabi,” she organized rallies and marches with up to 10,000 women, compelling the Alake family, who had been in power, to temporarily abdicate in 1949. Ransome-Kuti participated in the Nigerian independence movement as her political stature increased. She went to conventions and accompanied delegations from abroad to talk about draft national constitutions. She led the charge in founding the Federation of Nigerian Women’s Societies and the Nigerian Women’s Union, promoted women’s voting rights in Nigeria, and rose to prominence in the global peace and women’s rights movements.
For her efforts, Ransome-Kuti was granted membership in the Order of the Niger and the Lenin Peace Prize. She later backed her sons’ criticism of the military regimes in Nigeria. After suffering injuries in a military raid on her family’s land, she passed away at the age of 77.
The musician Fela Kuti (born Olufela Ransome-Kuti), the activist and physician Beko Ransome-Kuti, and the health minister Olikoye Ransome-Kuti were among Ransome-Kuti’s offspring. Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo is her full name. On October 25, 1900, Olufela Folorunso Thomas was born in what was then a part of the British Empire’s Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. She was born to Lucretia Phyllis Omoyeni Adeosolu (1874–1956) and Chief Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas (1869–1954), who belonged to the elite Jibolu-Taiwo dynasty.
Her mother was a dressmaker, and her father cultivated and sold palm products. Ebenezer Sobowale Thomas, the father of Frances, was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone; Abigail Fakemi was born in the Yoruba town of Ilesa. Sarah Taiwo, the paternal great-grandmother of Ebenezer Sobowale Thomas, was a Yoruba lady who was abducted by slave merchants in the early 1800s and later returned to her family in Abeokuta. She is the earliest known paternal ancestor of Frances. Sobowale Thomas was the first husband of Sarah. The Jibolu-Taiwos, Sarah’s descendants from Thomas and her other two husbands, were among the first Christians in the region and had a significant impact on the spread of Christianity in Abeokuta.
Isaac Adeosolu, a native of Abeokuta, and Harriet, the daughter of Adeboye, a native of the historic Yoruba town of Ile-Ife, gave birth to Frances’ mother.
Before Frances was born, her parents, who were married in 1897, lost two of their children while still in infancy. Frances’ parents valued education for both boys and girls, even though it was unusual for Nigerian families at the time to devote considerable funds to girls’ education. She completed her secondary schooling at Abeokuta Grammar School. The institution had previously only accepted male students, but in 1914 it opened to female students as well, with Frances being the first of six girls to be enrolled.