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The Aba Women's Riots of October 1929 effectively arose out of:

A fear that the British would tax women separately from men.

Dissatisfaction with the low prices being offered for local produce e.g palm kernels and edible oil, while imported goods were kept at artificially high prices.

Hatred of the Warrant Chiefs and the Native Courts because of the corruption and unfair sentences imposed.

Ten thousand women rioted and the demonstrations swept through the Owerri-Calabar districts.

A warrant chief, Chief Okugo, had been required to count the population and livestock for taxation purposes. The women sang "Ma O ghara ibu nwa beke mma anyiu egbuole Okugo rie" (If it were not for the white man we would have killed Chief Okugo and eaten him up.").

The women attacked three specific targets:

The Native Courts

Any European-owned factories and

Warrant chiefs from Native Courts where sessions were in progress.

One warrant chief was pushed of his bicycle, his gun was taken away and the women chased him into the bush.

The British then decided to use force to restore law and order and many women died. This effectively ended the Warrant Chief system.

In November of 1929, thousands of Igbo women from the Bende District of Nigeria and nearby Umuahia, Ngwa, and other places nearby in southern Nigeria traveled to Oloko to protest against the Warrant Chiefs who were restricting the role of women in the government, in what had become known as the Igbo Women's War of 1929 (or "Ogu Ndem" - Women's War - in Igbo). It was organized and led by rural women of Owerri and Calabar Provinces. During the events, many Warrant Chiefs were forced to resign and sixteen Native Courts were attacked, most of which were destroyed or burned down [1].

Events and causes

The Women's revolt of 1929 was sparked by a dispute between a woman named Nwanyeruwa 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, 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, Emeruwa 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, "Was your widowed mother counted?" basically meaning, "Don't you know that women don't pay tax in traditional Igbo society?"[2] 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 taxation of women. Believing they would be taxed, based on Nwanyeruwa's account, the Oloko women invited women (by sending leaves of palm-oil trees) from other areas in the Bende District, as well as from Umuahia, Ngwa and elsewhere. They soon gathered nearly 10,000 women who protested at the office of Warrant Chief Okugo, demanding his resignation and calling for a trial [3].