IKOT ABASI: Celebrating heroines of Aba Riots

[Mirror]

Not a few Nigerians are aware of the valiant acts of women across the four main geographical areas in the annals of history of their country. One of these is one generally referred to as the Aba women Riots of 1929.

The riots acted as early checks to the excesses of the British colonial government. Many of the women who participated in the struggle for the emancipation of their people paid the supreme price.

No fewer than 52 of them and a man fell to the bullets of the colonial overlords. To these heroines and hero did Akwa Ibom State erect a monument – the Cenotaph of the Women war of 1929 in Ikot Abasi.

Many are wont to wonder why a cenotaph in Akwa Ibom when Aba is in Abia State? The truth of the matter according to 1929 Aba Women Riot: 80 Years Of Distorted History by Chuks Ehirim is that it started and most actions took place at Nchara while Ikot Abasi was .

Nchara shares boundaries with the Ngwa people of Abia State on its North-West and the Anangs of Akwa Ibom State, on its Southern part.

It is from this community which is described by one of its sons, as having a "fair topography but a rich soil" which produces more than a quarter of the food stuff, especially cassava.

Also Ikot Abasi, then a part of Opobo was actively involved in the famous women riot of 1929 over taxation and in protest against colonial rule which culminated into the Aba Women riot of 1929. Ikot Abasi Local Government secretariat was then the administrative headquarters of the British colonial government.

It was there that 23 of the valiant women fell. It was alleged that the protest was as a result of the new tax regime introduced by colonial officials in the then Eastern Nigeria.

Women protesting against their inclusion in the head tax mobilized themselves from all parts of the region, some coming in canoes singing and chanting.

On landing at the colonial administrative office they started chanting war songs. To quell the riot, the British officials asked the colonial police to open fire on the singing unarmed women which led to the death of scores of them.

To commemorate the bravery of these women who stood their ground and died for a just cause, a statue was erected in front of the Ikot Abasi Local Government secretariat which was then the administrative headquarters of the British colonial government. On every December 16, each year all Akwa Ibom women gather at the sight to commemorate the selfless sacrifice of these women.

Hall of fame is another monument built in remembrance of the brave women who were killed in the 1929 women riot at the consular beach, Egwang Opobo now Ikot Abasi and elsewhere in the state.

The commemorative marble plaque inside the building contains names of 23 women that died at Ikot Abasi; three that died at Etim Ekpo and another 33 at Abak. Also listed alongside their names are their towns of origin, which on close examination show they came from all over the former Eastern Region and Niger Delta areas.

The Aba Women's Riot started in November 1929, when thousands of women from the Bende District of Nigeria, the nearby Umuahia and other places in the then Eastern Nigeria travelled to Oloko to protest against the Warrant Chiefs, whom they accused of restricting the role of women in the government. It was organised and led by the rural women of Owerri and Calabar provinces.

During the events, many Warrant Chiefs were forced to resign and 16 Native Courts were attacked, most of which were destroyed

The women's revolt was sparked by a dispute between a woman named Nwanyereuwa and a man, Mark Emereuwa, who was helping to make a census of the people living in the town controlled by the Warrant, Okugo.

Nwanyeruwa was of Ngwa ancestry, and had been married in the town of Oloko. In Oloko, the census was related to taxation, and women in the area were worried about who would tax them, especially during the period of hyperinflation in the late 1920s.

On the morning of November 18, Emereuwa arrived at Nwanyereuwa's house and approached Nwanyereuwa, since her husband Ojim, had already died.

He told the widow to "count her goats, sheep and people." Since Nwanyereuwa understood this to mean, "How many of these things do you have so we can tax you based on them", she was angry. She replied by saying "Was your widowed mother counted?," meaning "that women don't pay tax in traditional Igbo society."

The two exchanged angry words, and Nwanyeruwa went to the town square to discuss the incident with other women who happened to be holding a meeting to discuss the issue of taxing women.

Believing they would be taxed, based on Nwanyeruwa's account, the Oloko women invited other women (by sending leaves of palm-oil trees) from other areas in the Bende District, as well as from Umuahia and Ngwa.

They gathered nearly 10,000 women who protested at the office of Warrant Chief Okugo, demanding his resignation and calling for a trial. The leaders of the protest in Oloko are known as the Oloko Trio: Ikonnia, Mwannedia and Nwugo. The three were known for their skills in speaking, their intelligence and their passion.

When protests became tense, it was often these three who were able to deescalate the situation, preventing violence. However, after two women were killed while blocking colonial roads as a form of protest, the trio was not able to calm the situation there; the police and army were sent to the town.

National Mirror