During the 1920’s, trouble began to stir in southeastern
Nigeria. British colonialists had begun to encroach on what they
thought of as the “dark heart of Africa”. The region was
primarily populated by tribal Igbo people, though members of several
other tribes also called that land home. They lived according to
their own laws, customs, politics and economic structures. This way
of life was so different from what the English people knew that they
could not make any sense out of it. Their attempt to dominate the
Nigerian people for their own economic gains led to chaos and soon
the Women’s War had begun.
Upon arrival, the British colonialists began building houses,
factories, courthouses, and colonial administrative offices. The Igbo
people also had their own traditional versions of houses, courts, and
tribal meeting places. At first they were not bothered by the
presence of the new people. But by 1925, the British had chosen a
team of men to act as the puppet government for the colonialists and
begun employing the local people as factory and farm workers.
In 1927, the British thought that their industries and
businesses were not running efficiently enough; they blamed the Igbo
for this shortcoming even though a worldwide economic depression had
reduced the need for palm oil, the biggest export industry in
Nigeria. They decided that Nigerian society was too disorganized to
serve the needs of the modernized colonialists. Frustrations among
the Igbo people had been growing because the wages paid by the
colonialists kept shrinking while the prices of food kept rising.
Hyperinflation set in and the currency began dropping rapidly in
value. No matter what the Nigerians did, the British had an
insatiable appetite for cash and kept increasing the amount of money
they sucked out of the local population. Some of the African people
were even being forced to work without pay. In 1928, the British
declared that they would be raising taxes but in exchange more
schools would be built and the roads would be repaired. The Igbo
women who frequented the market at Aba, along with women from six
other nearby tribal villages, began to show signs of anger.
The colonial administrators made a plan to collect taxes by
taking a census of the local population. English officials and
sometimes members of the Igbo puppet government went to each house to
count the number of possessions owned by each family unit. They
counted each piece of clothing, every door and window, each farm
animal, every tool, every dish, and whatever else they could find in
order to declare them taxable items. The worst part of it was that
each woman was counted as a piece of property, especially since the
locals practiced polygamy and the husband of more than one wife
should be able to afford to pay higher taxes. This made the Nigerian
women furious. Traditionally the tribal people of that region allowed
women to be part of the economic decision making in each village and
then the colonialists objectified them by reducing their value and
status to that of windows, spoons, and goats. In addition to that
insult, the British never came through on their promise to use the
tax money to improve the schools and roads.
By November of that year, the women of the region began
gathering on the road leading from Abasi Township to the market at
Aba to protest. The demonstrations were peaceful but passionate with
chanting, singing, dancing, and beating on drums. Some women dressed
in ritual clothing and some wore dresses made from palm leaves; some
women stripped off their clothing and danced nude, an Igbo tradition
that represented defiance, aggression, and sometimes the potential
for violence. Some of the women went off in groups to “sit on”
the men running the colonial administration. “Sitting on” a man
was a traditional term that meant surrounding a man in his property,
getting very close to him, shouting at him, insulting him, and
verbally humiliating him. This practice was a customary way of
publicly shaming men who had violated social norms of decency. The
Igbo men would never go to the defense of a man being sat on because
they knew he had done something to deserve it. Besides, they also
knew that no physical violence would take place and, as annoying as
it could be, at the end of the day when the sitting on was over,
everyone would return to their ordinary way of life.
The British colonialists, however, had little knowledge of
southeastern Nigerian social customs. They thought the women had
become crazy, hysterical, and completely out of control. Meanwhile,
news of the protests spread rapidly through the surrounding
provinces. Women began cutting telegraph wires while others went on a
rampage destroying factories, looting stores and banks, burning
administration buildings and destroying whatever British property
they could find. Extra police and peacekeeping troops were called in
but they did not have enough manpower to put down the riots. A
British doctor became so scared and agitated that he got in his car
and ran over two women. The crowd of frenzied, rioting women began to
swell through December and after the murders they decided to start
attacking the soldiers. The officers started shooting them and soon
more than 1,500 women had been slaughtered. The rioters calmed down
and the British retaliated by burning down several villages nearby.
By the end of the year, the British government was embarrassed.
They recalled all the Nigerian colonial administrators from the
region and replaced them with new men. Meetings were held with the
leaders of the Women’s War and a new political system was
established, one that allowed women to both voice their grievances
and have a say in governmental matters.
Some would later say that the outcome of the Aba Women’s War
of 1929 was beneficial because it brought attention to the chauvinism
and sexism inherent in the colonial mentality. Some would also
question the concept of “civilization” itself. After all, the
British colonialists were never invited to southeastern Nigeria,
their taxation was humiliating, and still they saw themselves as
being the ones who were responsible for teaching the “primitive”
African people how to be modern. But the so-called “primitive”
people had planned to bother and harass the British and destroy their
property but never to hurt or kill them. In the end, it was the
“civilized” British who committed mass murder in response.
Reference
Vollmann, William T., Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on
Violence, Freedom, and Urgent Means. Ecco Press, 2003.
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