AMAZONS OF CALABAR

Evening Star, Issue 20687, 9 January 1931, Page 1

AMAZONS OF CALABAR

WOMEN ATTACK OFFICIALS A movement for the emancipation of women has been inaugurated among African natives, who are barely affected b.v civilisation. Writing in tlib ‘ National Review,’ Mr A. C. G. Hustings gives an account of an incident which occurred recently in the Calabar province of Southern .Nigeria. Hitherto the women in this part of the world have played a very minor part in social affairs. They have been hewers of wood and drawers of water. Sold into marriage by their men folk they have been generally regarded as commodities rather than ns human beings. They have had no voice in tribal councils or in the ordering of customs, and they have been nonentities in all but domestic matters. Their men were truculent and warlike, but since coming under British domination they have settled down to peaceful occupations, intertribal lighting having been forbidden. .Not oven the most experienced and host informed officials would have predicted trouble from the men, and the thought of having to deal with an organised movement of any kind among the women did not oven enter their mind;}. Some slight unrest had taken place in one of tho provinces because of dissatisfaction with tho taxation system, and the justice meted out by native tribunals, ft was never expected that the trouble would spread. Suddenly, without tile slightest warning, on a Saturday in December last the women of tho town of Opobo, in Calabar, rose in revolt. Tho movement gave evidence of thorough organisation and excellent staff work. Coming from a bine sky the bolt enabled the women to isolate and surround the white ollicials in tho Government offices and separate them fcoin tlvoir homes, leaving their wives without protection. Knowing that the .British ollicials would hesitate to use force toward women they contented themselves at first with parleying and hurling insults at the white men. This was afterwards ascertained to be part of (heir strategy in order to allow time for live arrival of reinforcements.' who came in fleets of canoes from towns unci villages along the river. The situation of the white. officials became extremely critical. 'They wore surrounded by a mob composed solely of women, chanting battle songs, and working themselves into a state of hysterical and dangerous excitement. A small detachment of police and native soldiers under British officers had hurried to the official compound, and tlvjse were among the besieged. As the numbers of women increased their behaviour grew more violent and threatening. _ They were promised a full inquiry into their grievances, but the promise led only to more extravagant demands which it was impossible to grant. The officers were pelted with showers of mud and were subjected to a storm of abuse and insult. Native hoops and police were kept from retaliation indy with great difficulty. The crisis came with dramatic "suddenness. As if by a preconcerted signal, the crowd surged forward and swept away the fences round the compound by weight of numbers. Hesitation would have meant the massacre of every man, white or black, in the compound ; the order was given to fire. It took two volleys at point-blank range to stem the charge, and then tho rioters broke and fled." The casualties were very light. The episode could have ended in no other way in the circumstances. Tliis is the first time in the history ol the race that the women have been known to combine for any purpose. There is no doubt that their primeval passions got the bettor of their discretion in the end, but that docs not minimise the significance of the movement. The menfolk to whom they looked had failed them, and in a matter that affected their own lives and interests they acted for themselves.