UDIOK:
Late Chief Mrs Margaret Ekpo was the woman at the center just like Gen. Effiong for Biafra, But IGBO lost it when they try to play smart

But Major Nzeogwu led coup, is not a Delta coup or better still a Niger-Delta coup.
Igbo, play smart when they gloat over Aba Women Riot, it becomes a Margaret Ekpo led riot or a Calabar women riot.
Hypocrisy will not kill you guys.

Adelaide2:


Lies. She was not at the center. She joined later and took a leadership position. Besides Margaret is also an Igbo lady married in Calabar/Akwa Ibom.

https://libcom.org/library/aba-womens-war


Margaret Ekpo was born in Creek Town, Cross River State, to the family of Okoroafor Obiasulor [/b]and Inyang Eyo Aniemewue. She reached standard six of the school leaving certificate in 1934. However, tragedy struck at home with the death of her father in 1934, her goals of further education in teachers training was as a result put on hold. She then started working as a pupil teacher in elementary schools. She married a doctor, John Udo Ekpo, in 1938. He was from the Ibibio ethnic group who are predominant in Akwa Ibom State, [b]while she was of Igbo and Efik heritage. She later moved with her husband to Aba.

And she is even an Igbo Woman. Some people go always die put for Igbo matter.

Nwanyeruwa is the name that should come up first whenever Ogu Umunwanyi ( Women's war) comes up in any discussion..

Arguing up and down is not necessary, it's all there on public record.

Deo1986:
Though the riot was tagged Aba women riot, majority of the women who led that protest were from Ibibio, Annang and Efik. Magaret Ekpo of Calabar was one of those who led in the protest.

Magareth Ekpo was an Igbo woman married to an Efik.
Igbo women were majority

Thank you UN for remembering our heroines in the name of ABA WOMEN fighters. Nigerian government past or present never mentioned them for ones. Oh, Nigerian Government abolished history to cover their dirty reins. Shameless leaders in Nigeria. Woooo.

UDIOK:
Late Chief Mrs Margaret Ekpo was the woman at the center just like Gen. Effiong for Biafra, But IGBO lost it when they try to play smart

She was an Igbo woman

You guys Should name the Igbo women that died in the riot and where in Igbo land it occured. and also which family were involved.The said history is well documented in colonial archives with the names and the women and their families and as we speak Ikot abasi women are suing the british govt for damages for the victims family the case has been dragging at the british crown court for years.

This event occured in Ikot Abasi in Akwa ibom State where the women protested colonial taxes on their palm produce, craft etc and a colonial officer shot and killed the some of the women. leading to more protest.

The graves of these great women are in Ikot Abasi as we speak and there is a National museum for women built on the site where the event occured in Ikot abasi. Guardian newspaper march 12, 2015 http://allafrica.com/stories/201503120973.html

The revisionist Historians Should be aware that their propaganda is only on the pages of social media and for those who are intelectually lazy and unable to dig into the real history. Real history is in the Archives of world museums around the world.

Aba as at then was the HQTS of the colonial Adminstration, thats why it was called Aba women riot and had nothing to do with Aba or Igbo women.
The only Igbo women Involvment was at the HQTS level in Aba where the likes of the political exposed Margret Ekpo (again from cross river state) and other Igbo women were negotiating with the colonial authorities to quell the Unfortunate crisis at Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom state which was ground zero for the riot.
All the same May the soul of the brave women those who resisted and died in ikot Abasi and those who led the struggle and negotiated in in Aba rest in peace.
We all Salute the galantry of Our Women Ikot Abasi, Calabar and Aba.
https://www.bellanaija.com/2017/09/time-women-went-war-tour-ikot-abasi/

The story goes that one of the biggest protests against colonial rule and its obnoxious policies actually happened in Ikon Abasi in Akwa Ibom State. According to Akwa Ibom State Government records, it was championed by women from the Opobo Province (as it was then called). The Women’s War or the Aba Women’s riot (as it was later renamed) was a rebellion in British Nigeria which occurred from November 1929 to December 1929.

Women from all walks of life gathered to protest against the colonial policy which imposed more taxes on women for their domestic animals, household utensils etc. The protest brought together women from six ethnic groups namely: Ibo, Ibibio, Ogoni, Andoni, Bonny and Opobo and it was organised and led by women from Owerri and Calabar provinces.

It was originally a nonviolent protest which involved Nigerian women sitting in civil disobedience but the peaceful protests took another turn when colonial troops decided to use violence to dispel the protest and it turned into a riot. Another account goes that a colonial administrator Dr. Hunter who was fleeing from the place in panic knocked down some protesters with his vehicle and this led to a reprisal.

Over 50 women lost their lives in the ensuing melee. These women lost their lives at the Consulate Beach, Egwanga Opobo (Now Ikot Abasi) on the 15th of December, 1929, at Utu Etim Ekpo on 15th of December 1929 and at Abak on 14th of December, 1929. It was a distortion in history for it to be named Aba Women’s riot, since it did not happen in Aba – but that is what the colonial masters named it. Maybe because these locations were in the then Aba province.

It was an unfair battle with soldiers with guns and the women with sticks and stones. These women were shot and some were drowned in the adjoining river when they ran.

A notable fighter in this war was Madam Udo Udoma who hails from Ikot Abasi, (she was the mother of the late legal luminary Sir Ergbert Udo Udoma) who wrestled and seized a gun from one of the policemen and broke it into two. A statue depicting this was made in her honour in Ikot Abasi.
https://www.bellanaija.com/2017/09/time-women-went-war-tour-ikot-abasi/

Opubowatch Newspaper-www.opubowatch.com added 2 new photos.
March 31, 2014 ·
IKOT ABASI, FORMER OPOBO'S TERRITORY SEEKS NATIONAL RECOGNITION

The long neglect by the nation’s political leadership of Ikot Abasi,a former territory of Opobo Kingdom and where the Amalgamation Treaty of 1914 was signed has attracted condemnation.

There are claims that the Northern and Southern protectorates of Nigeria were joined together in 1914 to become one political entity now known as Nigeria was done in Ikot Abasi. It is 100 years since the merger came into being. To celebrate the centenary anniversary of the “union,” the Federal Government, last year, rolled out a number of activities, which will culminate in special national honourary awards to be conferred on no fewer than 100 eminent citizens in Abuja recently.

But somewhere in a part of the country, there is a growing concern over the neglect of some vital historical monuments and facts surrounding the amalgamation and the principal actors, including the architect of the Nigerian federation, Sir Frederick Lugard.

To be precise, the disturbing thing in Akwa Ibom State is that some historical facts on the amalgamation are being glossed over by the authorities.

For instance, a visit by Nigerian Tribune to Ikot Abasi revealed that the relics of what was the living house of Lord Lugard, the first governor-general of Nigeria and the “Amalgamation Building,” both of which are located in the same premises, but remained seemingly forgotten. No serious attention has been paid to what should have been a monument for tourists, students of history and others internationally.

Checks even showed that Ikot Abasi also recorded other histories for Nigeria, as it was in the building that the Amalgamation Treaty was signed that a former Head of State and later civilian president of the country, General Olusegun Obasanjo (then the Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Army) and General Philip Effiong of the defunct Biafran Army, signed the declaration of cease-fire that brought an end to the three-year Nigerian civil war in 1970.

The women’s war of 1929 popularly referred to as the Aba women riot, which claimed the lives of more than 50 women, was also fought in the same vicinity in Ikot Abasi. Most of the women that survived that battle became grandmothers and great grandmothers of prominent citizens of modern Nigeria.

Historical facts obtained to Nigerian Tribune revealed that the women led by Madam Udo Udoma, the mother of Justice Udo Udoma, and grandmother of Senator Udoma Udo Udoma.,were part of the protest against the imposition of taxes on women by the British colonial government. Consequently, , the women were invited for a meeting by the District Officer (DO) with their representatives. While the meeting was in progress, a mere shaking of the gate by the women outside who, perhaps, thought their leaders had been detained, infuriated the British police officers, who instantly opened fire on the unarmed women. Mrs Udoma was murdered along with other women by the British police in a shooting spree that ensued. Some other women, who tried to escape the police gunshots, jumped into the river in front of the DO’s office and got drowned; some of their bodies were never recovered. A mock tomb stone has been erected in front of the District Office, where the people of Ikot Abasi, especially the women mark the tragic event on December 16, every year.

A senior citizen, Gordon Isaac Atai, from Akwa Ibom State, who gave further insights into the historical facts, lamented what he perceived as the abysmal neglect of the monuments, even as the Nigerian federation marks its centenary. “Can we possibly wave aside this part of Nigeria’s history as being inconsequential? These to me, were monumental events that should be treated as such,” Ikot Abasi wondered.

The British government, which had earlier introduction direct rule on the Northern Protectorate then declared the entire North and South as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1900. Although some Nigerians today look back to the 1914 treaty and claim that it was an “unnecessary mistake,” it certainly was necessary for the short and long term British colonial interests.

According to Prince Atai, who is a former state chairman of Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists [NASSI], since the amalgamation treaty was signed in Ikot Abasi, the history of Nigeria cannot be complete without the community. He was not happy that the authorities planned to develop a new city in Abuja to mark Nigeria’s centenary, while the very town where Nigeria was born as a federation, remained neglected.

From all indications, the exceptionally alluring weather of Ikot Abasi, coupled with its serene and beautiful environment, might have influenced the decision of the colonial masters to locate the headquarters of their Oil River Protectorate, known then as Opobo, which included part of the present Rivers State.

Perched on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean with the Imo River emptying itself into Ocean through its tributaries, the historic town with valuable monument for posterity is an ideal tourists haven. Indeed, many political pundits described Ikot Abasi as Nigeria’s heritage yet to be discovered.

Uwemedimo Nwoko is an erudite scholar and lawyer. He bemoaned the neglect of the nation’s birthplace. “A hundred years down the road of time, Nigeria seems not to learn the valuable lesson of change in attitude. The centenary hype seems to lay much emphasis on the event (amalgamation) in relation to time (100 years) and to some measure the actors (Lord Lugard and Britain) to the utter neglect of the location (Ikot Abasi). It is a very great injustice for a country to mark an event and time only to forget where the event occurred. You cannot celebrate Hiroshima in Washington DC.

“This small town is steep in British colonial history as one of the spots on the African continent blighted by atrocities of the British colonial administrations. It is here that our determined and gallant mothers’ resisted colonial imposition of tax on and paid the Supreme price as the British Colonial army opened fire on the unarmed protesting women. Records have it that 50 women were murdered in cold blood, while an unspecified number, who attempted to run for dear lives, drowned in the Imo River facing the Divisional Officer’s office, where they had gone to peacefully register their rejection of the colonial tax regime. That protest was led by the mother of late Justice Udo Udoma.

“Somehow, history was to later place prominence on the Aba women riots, which was a spontaneous reaction to the killings in Ikot Abasi, the reason being that the popular Justice Udo Udoma had his law chambers in Aba then, from where he practised across the entire region. Therefore when the news about the killing of Justice Udoma’s mother alongside other women activists reached Aba, the women there went on rampage in solidarity.

There is a serious legal implication for the British Government today many years on,” Nwoko1 stressed.

Our correspondent, who visited Ikot Abasi, observed that in front of the entrance into the Ikot Abasi local government council and directly opposite what used to be the DO’s office stands a memorial and a cenotaph respectively to those women who lost their lives fighting for their rights. A short walk from the centre of the town, where a memorial stands in honour of the late illustrious son of Nigeria, international jurist, and former Chief Justice of Uganda, late Sir Udoma, is the 1960 Independence Obelisk painted in the national colours of Green White Green.

Beyond it, as one approaches the Ikot Abasi Local Government secretariat is the Consulate Road winding down to the slave post, where most of the indigenes of the area and other Nigerians were shipped in humiliating and sub-human condition to plantations and factories in Europe and the Americas as slaves. The consulate terminates at the “Bridge of no Return.” The bridge, similar to the Bailey Bridge, rests on concrete bunkers capable of each accommodating no fewer than 10 slaves packed together. It has only top entrance which when covered, allows no entrance to air.

The Ramp (Bridge of No Return) stretching into the River, is tattered to shore with steel reinforcement in concrete base, while the off-shore sections has been twisted by age and the continuous effect of tide and ebb of the Atlantic ocean. From the end of the Consulate Road, one can have a clear view of one of the colonial legacies, the Opobo boat yard.

However, the premises of the Boat yard can better be accessed from another street to the right of the Independence Obelisk uptown. According to the tour guide, it was used by the British to maintain, refurbish and construct vessels for slave trade and later oil palm trade at the abolition of slave trade in 1833.

Matters Arising
The people of Ikot Abasi and Akwa Ibom in general are calling on the Federal Government to declare Ikot Abasi a centenary city and develop it.

According to available records, by the eighteenth century Ikot Abasi was the centre of slave trade. It was one of the first cities of the Oil River Protectorate. It later metamorphosed into the center of commerce in palm oil. Men like King Jaja of Opobo came down from where we have Ohafia Arochukwu today and gradually grew into a slave merchant and later in palm oil. He occupied Opobo Island, and it is still part of Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State.

From there, he came down to the mainland before he was exiled by his colonial competitors, and with time Ikot Abasi grew to become a major sea port.

Nwoko recalled “By the early twentieth century, I think 1910 or there about Ikot Abasi was a major Sea port that received goods from Europe and also sent out goods like palm oil and other things. By that year even Port Harcourt was under Ikot Abasi.

“During the time of amalgamation when the Europeans were here and Lord Lugard came, Ikot Abasi was one of his centres of operation. When it was time to amalgamate Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914, it was done here, thus Ikot Abasi became the place where Nigeria was born.

Today, we still have the house where, Nigeria was born and the place where Lord Lugard lived at Consulate Road.

“But curiously, Ikot Abasi has not been remembered. It has become the forgotten city. So, I am calling that Ikot Abasi be declared the centenary city of Nigeria. Let focus be brought back. Let those ancient sites be made national monuments and let people come and see where Nigeria was born.

“Let the Federal Government be involved in the development of Ikot Abasi, so that it will be like one of those ancient cities of Greece here. It shouldn’t be abandoned; so I am using this medium to ask for a renaissance to let people come back to Ikot Abasi to see where Nigeria was born.

He explained that in any historical acts, there were two major factors: time and place, emphasising: “So, if you are reviewing, acknowledging or celebrating history, you acknowledge the time and the place. Those are the two major foundations of history.

“When it comes to Nigeria’s amalgamation, the history can only be complete when we look at the time and the place. The Nigerian government has acknowledged the time, which is 1914; we are yet to acknowledge the place which is Ikot Abasi, and the celebration will be totally incomplete and fatally flawed. In fact, it will look fraudulent if we don’t acknowledge both the time and the place.”

The state Commissioner for Information, Mr Aniekan Umana, who spoke on behalf of the state government lamented what he described as the non-inclusion of the state in the nation’s centenary celebration. He said the activities marking the amalgamation would not be complete without the involvement of the state as it had unique historical sites and monuments on the amalgamation of Nigeria, which are worth preserving.

“It was in Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom State that the former governor-general of Nigeria, Lord Lugard consummated the amalgamation of the Northern and the Southern protectorates of Nigeria. “Unfortunately, there have been conflicting statements on the amalgamation, without properly situating the locations to be recognised in Nigeria’s amalgamation history. History will not forgive us as a country and as a people, if we isolate Akwa Ibom from this discussion. We are saying this because the amalgamation was consummated in Ikot Abasi and the amalgamation house and the colonial administrative office are still there as we speak,” he said.

He added: “Also, artifacts, including Sir Lord Lugard’s radio, torchlight and Flora Shaw’s pots are there for all to see. The National Commission for Museum and Monuments needs to preserve these historical artifacts. In fact, the Women Riot of 1929 actually took place in Ikot Abasi in Akwa Ibom and not Aba in Abia State, as erroneously believed in some quarters.”

One of those seriously disturbed by the neglect of the monuments is the chairman, Ikot Abasi Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Ufot Udoinyang. He has, therefore, called on the Federal Government to establish a museum and cultural academy in the area, where the amalgamation treaty of the Northern and Southern protectorates was signed by Lord Fredrick Lugard in 1914. He lamented that the area had over the years been neglected and abandoned by successive federal administrations because the leaders knew little or nothing about the significance of Ikot Abasi in Nigeria’s historical and political antecedents. He said the government should take over and put Lugard’s building and office in a proper shape, just as the Israelites did on the relics of Jesus Christ. He noted that if such was done, it would encourage people from Scotland, Britain and West Indies to come to Nigeria to see the graves of their forefathers and to know that Nigeria was amalgamated in ex-port town.

CULLED FROM THE TRIBUNE...

Interesting!

Atouke:
http://www.revolutionprotestencyclopedia.com/fragr_image/media/IEO_Womens_War_of_1929

What is this energy you are expending for?
Be they from Oron, Utonkom, Aba or Akwete, or Mrs Ekpo was Ijaw, Ejegham or Igbo matters nothing. It was an achievement of the Eastern peoples...Ejusdem generis.

It's pointless challenging an entrenched, and an established knowledge of this proportion. On some occasions, It pays to rise above pettiness.

Deo1986:
Though the riot was tagged Aba women riot, majority of the women who led that protest were from Ibibio, Annang and Efik. Magaret Ekpo of Calabar was one of those who led in the protest.

Deo1986:
we are on the same page then, a particular region is trying to claim all the honour. And i was only trying to point out a fact.

You are right!

evanso6226:
The UN Women has recognised the Aba women’s riot of 1929 as a noteworthy women-led demonstration, which ignited the revolution in the defence of women’s rights in Nigeria.

“Incensed by their social standing under colonial rule, the Igbo women send palm leaves, similar to today’s Facebook invite , to their fellow sisters across Southeastern Nigeria.

“Together they descend in the thousands to ‘sit on’ or make ‘war on’ undemocratically appointed chiefs by publicly shaming them through singing, dancing, banging on their walls and even tearing down roofs.

“Although the backlash against protests turn deadly, it eventually forces the chiefs to resign and market tax impositions on women to be dropped,” the UN Women said.

Marked annually on March 8, and under 2018 theme, “Time is Now: Rural and Urban Activists Transforming Women’s Lives”, events around the world capture the vibrant work of women activists and their mobilisation for change.

The first International Women’s Day in 1911 amassed more than one million people across Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland for women’s suffrage and labour rights.

According to UN Women, in its early years, the Day became a mechanism to protest World War I.


Most notably, in Russia, a large women-led demonstration breaks out demanding “bread and peace!” and four days later, the Czar abdicated.

Now a Russian national holiday, the Day is what some historians believe ignited the Russian Revolution.

Similarly, in 1920s in Egypt, a first Doctors stand up against female genital mutilation (FGM) started, UN Women recalled.

In the first known campaign of its kind, the Egyptian Society of Physicians went against tradition by declaring the negative health effects of FGM, UN Women said.

A practice that at least 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone, it took until the late 20th Century before the term FGM was globally adopted and the practice explicitly classified as a form of violence, it noted.

“Today, the UN, grassroots women’s movements, civil society and others are working together to put an end to the practice, the UN women’s agency said.


http://www.clintgist.com/un-recognises-aba-women-s-riot-on-world-women-s-day-id8086294-html/


Cc: Lalasticlala

Yes, this recognition is long over due,almost 90years after.The Women braced the odds, fought death and the whitemen to change the course of tyrany and dictatorship agaisnt humanity.The women might had come from a black race and background with no western knowldege but they had their stateless societies which were more preferable to any.There great lesson to be lean from that struggle.The struggle gave the people recognition and reorganistion of their political structure.While it led to the failure and total collapse of the warrant chief and colonial corruption which were not resisted in the North and West,its failure in the East brought disrepute on Lugard's personaloty and made him hate the igbos and ppl from those areas.It was as a result of the roit that new policies were introduced by the colonial secretary directing that intelligence reports be sent to the colonial Secretary from every communities.The struggle brought the first modern struggle and demand for reform and restructing and it was achieved.So Aba town,the whole of Ngwa land, Ibibio land, up to present day Oloko, to Bayelsa, Rivers state, Calabar and the whole of Akwa Ibom should know that hostry has always becon on them to lead the struggle for the emancipation of the ppl.We should see more from them as they speak and fight for the restructuring of Nigeria.Even where others said no they must not give up.

nkwuocha:



It's ABA women's riot and not CALABAR women's riot.

Go back to school this time study history very diligently, thats the problems with the IGBOS https://www.bellanaija.com/2017/09/time-women-went-war-tour-ikot-abasi/

UDIOK:
Go back to school this time study history very diligently, thats the problems with the IGBOS https://www.bellanaija.com/2017/09/time-women-went-war-tour-ikot-abasi/

Im very sure the well educated ones,unlike me have responded to your fallacious posts. Go through your mentions again. This time, feed well before you do.

It's funny how a tribe known all over the country to be house boy is encouraging igbos to go to school. The joke is on you!

emmalexabl:
Our women have been known to have achieved several feats both in the past and present time..


Another people I respect much are the "Dahomey amazons "..., they were so brave and courageous.

History has it that these dahomey amazons terrorized yorubalands for many years., they were fearless warriors that put Yoruba men and their monarchs to flight.

I feel if I did not reply u it is possible u will consider what u wrote fact and pass it onto ur osu brothers. No doubt that the Dahomey Amazon were awesome but There is no history written anywhere that the Dahomey Amazon defeated Yoruba the 2 Dahomey egba war fought resulted in defeat both times for the Amazon and some of the Amazon taken as sex slaves and Dahomey forced to sue for peace.

nkwuocha:

Im very sure the well educated ones,unlike me have responded to your fallacious posts. Go through your mentions again. This time, feed well before you do.
It's funny how a tribe known all over the country to be house boy is encouraging igbos to go to school. The joke is on you!

Funny how a tribe that their most educated group started as slaves to Ibibios are calling others houseboys

By religious and ritual links we mean those provided by the Ibini Ukpabi oracle of the Aro, an institution known in many Cross River communities, especially among the Efik-Ibibio, as Ibritam. The Ibini Ukpabi itself was a typical product of the contact situation existing between the Igbo and the Ibibio. According to its social charter it was, in the beginning, a local god of an Ibibio group. Then it was captured by the Igbo slaves of this Ibibio group, who successfully rebelled against their servile status and sought to turn the table on their masters, who chose instead to flee the region.  Under the control of these erstwhile Igbo slaves, the Ibini Ukpabi grew in influence to become, according to one authority, the most powerful oracle in West Africa by the nineteenth century.

Nigerian history, politics and affairs, Adiele Afigbo.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ez58Dwpa8JcC&pg=PA137/quote]

Even Aba women riot, you will argue. Somebody said it is akwa ibom women riot .

Today let any woman do little protest Buhari will send army to go and shoot them