This social and intellectual history of women’s political activism in postwar Nigeria reveals the importance of gender to the study of nationalism and poses new questions about Nigeria’s colonial past and independent future. In the years following World War II, the women of Abeokuta, Nigeria, staged a successful tax revolt that led to the formation first of the Abeokuta Women’s Union and then of Nigeria’s first national women’s organization, the Nigerian Women’s Union, in 1949. These organizations became central to a new political vision, a way for women across Nigeria to define their interests, desires, and needs while fulfilling the obligations and responsibilities of citizenship. In The Great Upheaval, Judith A. Byfield has crafted a finely textured social and intellectual history of gender and nation making that not only tells a story of women’s postwar activism but also grounds it in a nuanced account of the complex tax system that generated the “upheaval.” Byfield captures the dynamism of women’s political engagement in Nigeria’s postwar period and illuminates the centrality of gender to the study of nationalism. She thus offers new lines of inquiry into the late colonial era and its consequences for the future Nigerian state. Ultimately, she challenges readers to problematize the collapse of her female subjects' greatest aspiration, universal franchise, when the country achieved independence in 1960.

This books represents a survey of the historical experience of women in the Niger Delta region, intending to fill the gap in information on Nigerian women. It arises from a conference on historiography and women's history, and focuses on the documentation of women's contribution to historical development, or rather lack thereof, which has resulted in the invisibility of women in historical narratives. It advocates gender as a tool of historical analysis; discusses the corrective role of Gender Studies, and to what extend expansion in this field is providing a solution. The volume includes a contribution by the renowned Nigerian feminist Professor of History at the University of Ibadan, Awe Bolanle.

A cross-sectoral overview of social and political development policies and practices and their gender outcomes in Nigeria, this volume describes the status of women and men under the colonial and post-colonial policy regimes, unearthing the gender relations and gender (in)equality outcomes.

Nigeria has acceded to several regional and international covenants promoting the rights and well-being of women. In July 2000 it made an official statement of intent to promote gender equality by endorsing a National Policy on Women. Yet, the vast majority of women persist on the periphery of economic and political life. In spite of a considerable degree of compatibility between women's aspirations and the NPW, particularly in terms of addressing immediate practical necessity, awareness of its existence and that of the new National Gender Policy remains low. Consequently, there is no concerted agenda to push for policy implementation. The Gender Management System put in place by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to oversee the mainstreaming of gender policy is undermined by institutionalised and routinised gender bias and by systemic distortions in the wider policy environment.This book examines the relevance of the NPW to the aspirations of Nigerian women, through their eyes. It explores the experiences, perspectives and collective agendas of women across class, ethnicity and religion to discover their understandings of the present and visions for the future. It also investigates the extent to which state institutional capability exists to implement gender policy, and to mainstream gender perspectives as the policy stipulates. This book provides valuable resource material for public policy analysts, development practitioners and feminist scholars of politics, sociology, economics, anthropology and African, cultural, religious and development studies.

Woman in twentieth century colonial Africa experienced a loss of power in their social-economic status. The Women Went Radical provides a narrative of radical expressions extracted from the numerous petitions written to advance and advocate the cause of Yoruba women through individual and collective action. This analyses the impact and implication of petition writing on the administration of traditional and modern governments in colonial Yorubaland. The political context accurately projects the roles of women in influencing, resisting, negotiating and counteracting policies within the political system. The research argues that petition writing is a form of politics and radicalism that is not limited to national issues but also to their manifestation from the actions of the citizens—that is ‘politics from the grassroots’.

An introduction to the politics and society of post-colonial Nigeria, highlighting the key themes of ethnicity, democracy, and development.

Gender and politics of decentralization in a federation, with a focus on Nigeria.