32 / 50 · Work & collective action

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti

Nigeria · 1900–1978

Ransome-Kuti organised women in Abeokuta against unfair taxation and exclusion from political decision-making. She connected women’s collective action with anti-colonial politics and wider struggles for social change.

Her work drew strength from market women and local organising. It challenges the assumption that political leadership belongs only to people already recognised by formal institutions.

“You may have been born, but you were not bred!”

Reported retort in biographical accounts collected by Wikiquote; not a recording.