UI Press | Cheryl Johnson-Odim and Nina Emma Mba | For Women and the Nation: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti of Nigeria

For Women and the Nation

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti of Nigeria

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a Nigerian activist who fought for suffrage and equal rights for her countrywomen long before the second wave of the women's movement in the United States. Her involvement in international women's organizations led her to travel the world in the period following World War II. She championed the causes of the poor and downtrodden of both sexes as she joined the anticolonial movement struggling for Nigeria's independence.

For Women and the Nation is the story of this courageous woman. One of a handful of full-length biographies of African women, let alone of African women activists, it will be welcomed by students of women's studies, African history, and biography, as well as by those interested in exploring the historical background of Nigeria.

"As a portrait of a woman who devoted herself to helping [others], the biography is a unique, far-reaching service to African women and history. . . . For Women and the Nation details her contributions to Nigerian education, her rocky proprietorship of the Abeokuta Grammar School, and her conflicts with the brutal Nigerian dictatorship, which led to her death. It also discusses her illustrious children, whose own contributions to society amount to an extension of her life and work. Rich in history and succinctly written, this text is as clear as the legacy it describes. Its enthralling gravitas and elegance makes it a standard among works on African women."--Signs

"I have always insisted that American or European feminism has little to teach most other societies‹here is proof in this portrait of a remarkable woman in remarkable times, brought vividly to life in a work that explores the often neglected crevices of history."--Wole Soyinka, exiled Nigerian playwright, author, and Nobel Laureate for Literature

Cheryl Johnson-Odim, chair and associate professor of history at Loyola University Chicago, is coeditor of Expanding the Boundaries of Women's History. Nina Emma Mba, senior lecturer in history at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, is the author of Nigerian Women Mobilized and Ayo Rosijc.