Introduction

Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 brought about a swift response from residents in Abeokuta and across Nigeria. In meetings in churches, schools, and gathering spaces groups met to decry the invasion, sign petitions to the governor of Nigeria, and collect funds for Ethiopian relief. This activism continued in bursts throughout the remainder of the decade and inspired discussions about Fascism, European intentions, and nationalism. Thus for some Nigerians the beginning of war in Europe on September 3, 1939, was a continuation of military and ideological struggles begun in Ethiopia in 1935.

Officials in Europe anticipated that except for Ethiopia, Africa would be tangentially affected by the war; however, the fall of France in 1940 and the loss of Britain's Far Eastern colonies after 1942 transformed Africa's engagement in this increasingly consuming conflict and brought changes to all levels of society. The colonial state had to transform established practices as it lost European officials to the war front at the same time that it had to reach deeper into the social and economic fabric of African societies to meet demands for food, manpower, and other resources in multiple theaters. The main resources demanded from Abeokuta were manpower and foodstuffs. This chapter examines the consequences of these resource demands specifically on women. It argues that as the colonial state extracted foodstuffs and tried to control prices, the combined actions created particular tensions and economic distress for women in Abeokuta. This distress ultimately exploded in a tax revolt in 1947 during which women demanded an end to the Sole Native Authority system, the bedrock of indirect rule, the abolition of taxes on women and the removal of the traditional king – the Alake – Ademola II. Its goal is to illuminate the ways in which the war shaped political and economic conditions that contributed to the women's tax revolt in the immediate postwar era.

Prologue to War

Abeokuta, a Yoruba town in western Nigeria, lies about sixty miles north of Lagos, the former capital of colonial Nigeria. Founded in 1830 in the wake of the collapse of the Oyo empire, Abeokuta was a city of refugees.