The Role of Women in the Aba Women’s Riot of 1929: A Historical Reassessment

This study provides a historical reassessment of the 1929 Aba Women's Riot, also known as the Women's War or Ogu Umunwanyi, focusing on the agency, organisation, and political consciousness of Igbo women who led one of colonial Nigeria's most significant anti-colonial revolts. The uprising, which spread across Owerri and Calabar provinces in present-day South East and South South geopolitical zones, has often been narrated in ways that understate the deliberate strategic action of the women involved. Using a feminist historical methodology, the study draws on colonial inquiry reports, court documents, missionary records, and oral histories collected from elderly women in Umuahia and Aba, supplemented by secondary literature published between 2020 and 2024. The Feminist Theory of History and Anti-Colonial Nationalism Framework provide the theoretical grounding. Findings reveal that the women's revolt was not a spontaneous action but a structured political protest employing traditional mechanisms of collective sanction known as sitting on a man. The protest reflected deeper grievances about colonial warrant chief system abuses and the erosion of women's economic rights in markets. The study argues that this event should be recognised as an early and sophisticated expression of Nigerian nationalist politics. Keywords: Aba Women's Riot, Women's War, anti-colonial resistance, Igbo women, feminist history.