Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti

Nigerian feminist and anti-colonial activist who led women's rights campaigns and challenged British colonial policies.

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900–1978) was a trailblazer in Nigeria's fight for independence and gender equality. She founded the Abeokuta Women's Union, mobilizing 20,000 women to protest unjust taxes imposed by British colonial authorities in 1949. Her tactics—including roadblocks and boycotts—forced the Alake of Egbaland to temporarily abdicate.

A staunch educator, she established the first girls' secondary school in Abeokuta. Her activism inspired her sons Fela Kuti (Afrobeat legend) and Beko Ransome-Kuti (human rights advocate). Ransome-Kuti's intersectional approach to anti-colonialism and feminism reshaped West African political discourse.

Despite being thrown from a window during a 1977 military raid, her legacy persists in global feminist movements.