Nigerian political campaigner, women’s rights activist and traditional aristocrat, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti is born

Date: 25 Oct 1900
Updated: 23 Oct 2020

Funmilayo Ransome Kuti was born Francis Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas on 25 October 1900 in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Kuti founded a women’s organisation with 20 000 members that comprised of literate and illiterate women. The organisation was thrust into the public eye when it organised a rally of women against price controls which were hurting the female merchants of the Abeokuta markets. This was just the first of many campaigns for the benefit of women, including their right to vote. Kuti had three sons Fela Anikulapo Kuti, a musician, Beko Ransome-Kuti, a doctor, and Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti. All her sons were activists in their own right. In 1978 Kuti was thrown out of a second floor window by military men that had invaded her son, Fela’s compound. She went into a coma and died two months later.

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01Cafe Africana Funmilayo Ransome Kuti (1900-1978) [online] Available at: www.cafeafricana.com [Accessed on 24 October 2013]
02Nairaland Funmilayo Ransome Kuti [online] Available at: www.nairaland.com [Accessed on 24 September 2013]

Last updated · 23 Oct 2020

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2013, October 17). Nigerian political campaigner, women’s rights activist and traditional aristocrat, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti is born. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0096534

South African History Online (2013) 'Nigerian political campaigner, women’s rights activist and traditional aristocrat, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti is born', South African History Online, 17 October. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0096534 (Accessed: 2 October 2026).

South African History Online, Nigerian political campaigner, women’s rights activist and traditional aristocrat, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti is born [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0096534, (accessed 2 October 2026).

"Nigerian political campaigner, women’s rights activist and traditional aristocrat, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti is born." South African History Online, 17 Oct. 2013, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0096534. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.

South African History Online. "Nigerian political campaigner, women’s rights activist and traditional aristocrat, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti is born." South African History Online. October 17, 2013. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0096534.