IANA Blog- August 2025

 Blog

Happy August and Happy Black August,

For those that remember in 2023, I talked about Black August on my August blog. As mentioned, Black August is when we commemorate the Black political prisoners, freedom fighters and revolutionaries who were assassinated, martyred and had their lives sacrificed in order to fight for liberation, along with the many Black freedom struggles in the U.S., initiated by the Black Guerilla Family after the assassination of revolutionary George Jackson and his brother, Jonathan.

In honor of Black August and similar to the February 2022 blog on Black History Month, the March 2023 blog on Women’s History Month and the June 2024 blog on Pride month, I wanted to focus this month’s blog on some of the political prisoners and freedom fighters to come out of Nigeria and who just like the many Black political prisoners and freedom fighters who fought for liberation in the US, the Caribbean, Africa and everywhere, these political prisoners and freedom fighters fought for the liberation of Nigeria.

Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe

Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe was a Nigerian politician, statesman, journalist, Pan Africanist and revolutionary. He was born on November 16, 1904 in Zungeru, Niger State to Igbo parents from Ontisha, Anambra. Azikiwe learned how to speak Hausa while living in the Northern Region of Nigeria in 1912, then went to learn Igbo after living with his grandmother and aunty in Ontisha, then learned Yoruba after living in Lagos. Azikiwe was exposed to multiple languages by the time he went to Hope Waddell Training Institution in Calabar and Methodist Boys High School in Lagos. He would then travel to the United States to attend college instead of the United Kingdom after being influenced by Marcus Garvey and Pan Africanism. He attended Storer College, a historically Black college in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, transferred Howard University in 1927, then transferred to Lincoln University and would obtain a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1930, then received a master’s degree in religion and philosophy in 1932 at Lincoln and a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1933.

Azikiwe became a graduate student instructor at Lincoln University and created his own African history course. Azikiwe became a candidate for a doctoral degree at Columbia University, before he returned to Nigeria in 1934. His research focused on Liberia in world politics and his research paper was published by A.H. Stockwell in 1934. During his time in America, he was a columnist for the Baltimore Afro-American, Philadelphia Tribune and the Associated Negro Press, being heavily influenced by the ideals of the African-American press, Garveyism and Pan Africanism.

Azikiwe was also an athlete, playing multiple sports including boxing, swimming, football and soccer, which was brought to Nigeria by the British as they colonized Africa. Azikiwe helped give birth to Nigeria’s national soccer team, after defeating Sierra Leone in a soccer game in 1949 and was able to unite Nigeria through sport and brought a sense of nationalism, eventually getting involved in fighting for Nigerian nationalism.

During Azikiwe’s journalism career, some of his highlights were writing about and condemning the 1929 massacre that happened in Nigeria where British soldiers murdered Opobo women, in which he also wrote a letter to Civil Rights activist and Pan Africanist, W.E.B. Du Bois, becoming editor for the African Morning Post in Accra, Ghana, writing a column called “The Inside Stuff of Zik,” in which he wrote about Black nationalism and Black pride, which caused controversy, continued to promote Pro-African nationalism agendas, spoke on political issues in Ghana along with being a mentor to Kwame Nkrumah, and returned to Lagos in 1937, to produce the West African Pilot, a newspaper used to promote Nigerian nationalism. As he returned to Lagos, he was heavily popular with other Lagosians and members of the Igbo community, especially after his writings from America reached Nigeria.

Azikiwe became active in the Nigerian Youth Movement, Nigeria’s first nationalist organization, but would leave after accusing the majority Yoruba leadership of discriminating against Ijebu-Yoruba members and Igbos. He co-founded the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons in 1944 with Herbert Macaulay and became the council’s secretary-general in 1946, which was made up of nationalist parties, cultural associations and labor movements. After accusing the colonial government of exploiting the working class in Nigeria and dealing with conspiracy allegations and hiding in Onitsha after a failed assassination plot, Azikiwe formed the Zikist Movement and involved multiple youths to fight back against the autocracy of Great Britain. Haji Abdallah was the second president of the Zikist movement and even got fired from his job with the Kano Rediffusion Service, a radio broadcasting service, which allowed him to work more with Azikiwe and the Zikist Movement. He was later attained in 1948, giving a speech on how important it was for people of Nigeria to fight back against Britain and colonialism. 

Azikiwe continued to fight for Nigeria’s independence from the British until in 1960, as on July 29th, the UK passed the Nigerian Independence Act, which provided for an independent Nigeria, and would eventually get Nigeria independence on October 1st, with Azikiwe as Senate President and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as the first and only prime minister of Nigeria. Azikiwe would then succeed Sir James Robertson as Governor General and the first indigenous Governor General of an independent Nigeria. His inauguration in 1960 was attended by Langston Hughes, Nina Simone, Dr. Ralph Bunche, W.E.B. and Shirley Graham Du Bois, Amy Jacques Garvey and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who remarked that the liberation struggles in Nigeria and Africa had a profound impact on the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. In Azikiwe’s speech, he commented on “the need to revive the stature of man in Africa and restore the dignity of man in the world.” In 1962, Azikiwe urged African leaders in a Lagos conference  to create an organization of African states, which eventually would lead to the Organisation of African Unity in May of 1963, now known as the African Union. On October 1, 1963, Minister Balewa proposed an amendment to the 1960 constitution which would transform Azikiwe from Governor General to President and would become Nigeria’s first President during the First Nigerian Republic. After his presidency from being overthrown in a coup, Azikiwe would speak on the Nigerian Civil War and would show his support for Biafra due to the genocide of Igbos, but would change his mind later and stayed away from politics after the war and would also become chancellor for the University of Lagos. 

Azikiwe would continue to be a leader for Nigeria, up until his death on May 11, 1996 from a prolonged illness at age 91 and was buried in November after his body was sent to different places for mourning and tributes. Even after his passing, he will be recognized for being one of the founding fathers of Nigerian nationalism, introducing Zikism, a political ideology that was aimed at decolonizing the minds of young Africans and one of the major driving forces behind Nigeria’s independence, commonly referred to as the “Zik of Africa.”

Herbert Macaulay

Olayinka Herbert Samuel Heelas Badmus Macaulay was a Nigerian nationalist, politician, journalist and engineer. He was born on November 14, 1864, in Lagos. His parents were Abigail and Thomas Babington Macaulay who founded CMS Grammar School and they came from families that were stolen from Nigeria and brought to Sierra Leone by the British West African Squadron, but were able to return to Nigeria. Macaulay attended CMS around the time his father died. After attending a Christian missionary school, he left Lagos on July 1, 1890, to further his training in England. From 1891 to 1894, Macaulay studied civil engineering in Plymouth, England and graduated from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Macaulay would return to Lagos in 1893 and resumed to work with colonial service as a surveyor of Crown Lands, but left service as land inspector in September 1898 due to a growing distaste for the British. By the end of the 1890s, Macaulay would stay away from social activities and become a political activist. He joined the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines’ Protection Society (now known as Anti-Slavery International), became a champion to the masses, especially considering that he was born in Lagos around a time when the city was politically divided into groups, and became one of the first people to fight for Nigerian nationalism. In 1908, he exposed European corruption in handling railway finances and in 1909, he fought back against the colonial government on multiple issues in Lagos.

Macaulay continued his political activities by co-founding the Nigerian Daily News, where he wrote opinion pieces on what was going on in Nigeria and became a prominent figure in many political issues in Nigeria, although his political opinions were divided among the elites in Lagos including educator and longtime rival Henry Carr (who Macaulay believed was behind the division happening in Lagos) and formed Nigeria’s first political party known as the Nigerian National Democratic Party on June 24, 1923 which won all seats in elections in 1923, 1928 and 1933. He would continue to run his party until 1938, when the more radical Nigerian Youth Movement fought and won elections for the Lagos Town Council.

During his final years, he co-founded the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons with Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, and became the president of the organization. Macaulay and Azikiwe would work together to bring Nigerians together as they fought for independence from the British. The leadership of the NCNC would be transferred to Azikiwe after Macaulay died on May 7, 1946 from an illness at the age of 81. Even after his death, Macaulay will forever be remembered for his pivotal role as a Nigerian nationalist and political activist who advocated for his country’s independence from the British. Inspiring future nationalists, including Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Herbert Macaulay will forever be recognized as the father of Nigerian nationalism.

Ken Saro-Wiwa

Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa was a Nigerian writer, teacher, television producer and social rights activist. He was born on October 10, 1941, in Bora City. His father Jim Wiwa was a forest ranger and chief of the Ogoni people. Saro-Wiwa received his primary and secondary school education at a Native authority school in Bori and Government College Umuahia. He would then study at the University of Ibadan, and was a part of a drama troupe, which would perform in Kano, Benin, Ilorin and Lagos. He would then become a teaching assistant at the University of Lagos and at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Saro-Wiwa was teaching African literature at UNN at the time the Nigerian Civil War broke out. 

During the Civil War, Saro-Wiwa became Civilian administrator for the Niger Delta and positioned himself as Ogoni leader. In the 1970s, he would serve as Regional Commissioner for Education, but was dismissed in 1973, due to his support for the Ogoni autonomy. He also worked in TV dramas, plays, writing and a majority of his work were satirical displays of Nigerian society. One of his best known plays was Transistor Radio, which was written during his college years. One of his most famous novels is Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English, which tells the story of a village boy who is recruited to the army during the Nigerian Civil War. The protagonist’s language was written in a hybrid of standard, broken and Pidgin English, known as “rotten English.” The novel was published in 1985. His many writings would soon focus on social justice instead of satire.

In 1990, Saro-Wiwa became involved in human rights and environmental causes, especially in the land of the Ogoni people. He founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, an organization that fought for indigenous rights of the Ogoni people of Rivers State. One of the long time battles MOSOP had was against Shell Gas, which has been responsible for contamination of the Niger Delta and crude oil extraction. He led a non-violent resistance against Shell Gas and other oil companies responsible for the contamination of land and also criticized the Nigerian government for not enforcing environmental restrictions against these oil companies. In 1992, Saro-Wiwa was imprisoned for several months, without trial by the Nigerian government. In 1993, he became Vice Chairman of the Unrepresented Nations and People’s Organization, an organization made up of indigenous people, minorities, and the underrepresented, who have joined together to protect their human rights, preserve their environments and find nonviolent solutions for conflicts. In January of 1993, Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP organized peace marches around 300,000 Ogoni people through four Ogoni centers.

Six months later, Saro-Wiwa was arrested and detained by Nigerian authorities in June, but was released a month later. In 1994, Saro-Wiwa was arrested again but accused of inciting murders of four Ogoni chiefs, although he was denied entry to Ogboniland. Under the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha, Saro-Wiwa was sentenced to death, along with other MOSOP leaders who would be known as the Ogoni Nine. On November 10, 1995, Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine were hanged. 

His execution sparked outrage and led to Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for three years, urged by Zimbabwe, Kenya, South Africa and Nelson Mandela. The execution also led to Saro-Wiwa’s family suing Shell for violation of human rights against the Ogoni people, torture and wrongful death. Shell would eventually settle out of court with the Saro-Wiwa family for $15.5 million. His execution did lead to the beginning of the international business and human rights (HBR) movement. Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine received a posthumous pardon on June 12, 2025.

30 years later after his tragic execution, Ken Saro-Wiwa will still be remembered for his nonviolent resistance, his fight for human rights and environmentalism and his voice against injustice, especially for the Ogoni people and is being hailed as a hero.

Isaac Boro

Issac Jasper Adaka Boro was a Nigerian military officer and nationalist. He was born on September 10, 1938, in Oloibiri, is of Ijaw heritage and his father was a school headmaster. Boro excelled in academics as he earned his First School Leaving Certificate and passed the West African School Certificate Examination at Hussey College in Warri in 1957.

Boro began working as a teacher and a police officer in 1961, while earning a scholarship from the Eastern Regional Government to study chemistry at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. At UNN, Boro became the President of the Students Union Government, which marked the first time he was involved in leadership. As a student, he challenged the Federal Government in court, seeking to nullify the 1964 elections, and introduced campus transportation services, which at the time was unavailable at UNN.

Boro also focused on Nigeria’s political crises, was heavily inspired by revolutionaries such as Fidel Castro, and after college moved to Lagos in 1965, where he co-founded a political movement known as WXYZ, which advocated for greater control of the Niger Delta’s oil wealth by the Ijaw people. Being an admirer of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and criticizing the 1966 coup d’etat which led to the assassination of Balewa and the emergence of Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, Boro declared the secession of the Niger Delta from Nigeria after the coup.

Boro established the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, made of young Ijaw men trained in a militia camp and seceded from Nigeria. His declaration was a significant moment in the history of Nigeria, marking it the first serious challenge to the country’s unity. Boro led 150 volunteer fighters in a guerrilla war against the federal government. His fight against the government inspired military officer Chukwuemeka Ojukwu who would later lead a secessionist movement, which led to the Civil War. Boro was eventually subdued and captured by the Nigerian Army, put on trial and convicted for treason.

In May of 1967, Boro was given amnesty under President Yakubu Gowon and commissioned as a major in the Nigerian Army. He joined Col. Benjamin Adekunle’s Third Marine Commando Division, commanding a unit of 1000 men from Rivers State. In 1968, Boro died under mysterious circumstances during the Civil War, but according to Olusegun Obasanjo, he may have been killed by a rebel soldier.

Even after his death, Boro is recognized as an impassioned freedom fighter seeking quick results with intent to leave the army once the war was over, as described by his brother David Boro. His 12-day Revolution marked the first armed rebellion against the Federal Republic of Nigeria. His actions brought awareness to the challenging conditions faced by the Ijaw people who faced poverty, despite living in an oil-rich region. The revolution also played a crucial role in highlighting the need for resource control and drawing issues with the Niger Delta. He also influenced other activists such as Ken Saro-Wiwa and is still widely regarded as an early advocate for the rights of minority groups in Nigeria.

Chief Margaret Ekpo

Margaret Ekpo was a woman’s rights activist and a social mobilizer. She was born on June 27, 1914 in Creek Town, across River State. Solo is of Igbo and Ejik ancestry and her mother was part of the royal family of King Eyo Honesty II of Creek Town.

In 1934, she was involved in training to work in education, but put it on hold after the death of her father. She would later start working as a pupil-teacher in elementary schools and in 1938, she married Dr. John Udo Ekpo. In 1946, Ekpo studied abroad at the Dublin Institute of Technology in Dublin, Ireland and earned her diploma in political science. On her way back to Nigeria, after establishing a Domestic Science and Sewing Institute in Aba, Ekpo became a woman’s rights activist and was mentored by fellow freedom fighter Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.

Ekpo’s first participation in activism and politics was in 1945. She attended political meetings, in place of her husband who couldn’t attend. The meetings were organized to discuss discriminatory practices of the colonial administration, and to fight cultural and racial imbalance in administrative positions. She later attended a political rally as the only woman there and saw speeches from Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Mbonu Ojike. By the end of the 1940s, Ekpo organized a Market Woman Association in Aba to unionize market women in the city and use the association to promote women’s solidarity and to fight for economic rights of women, economic protections and political rights of the underclass.

Ekpo continued to be involved in activism, especially after noticing how women in the UK and abroad were fighting for their civil rights compared to women in Nigeria. In the 1950s, she also joined the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons and would team up with Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti to protest killings at a coal mine in Enugu. She also established the Aba Township Women’s Association in 1954, was able to gain trust from multiple women and turn the association into a political pressure group. By 1955, women in Aba outnumbered male voters.

In 1959, she was nominated by the NCNC to the regional House of Chiefs, where she served until her election to the House of Assembly years later. As chief, she took part in several debates relating to the status of women in her region along with fellow House of Chiefs member, activist and Chief Janet Mokelu. In 1961, Ekpo won a seat in the Eastern Regional House of Assembly, a position that allowed her to further her fight for women’s issues. Ekpo’s political career ended as the Nigerian Civil War was dying down and she was arrested by Biafran authorities and was forced to serve time in prison for three years without adequate feeding. The reason for her arrest may be unclear, but it is believed to be related to her advocacy for the creation of Calabar and Ogoja States from Eastern Nigeria.

After a military coup ended the First Republic, Ekpo took a less prominent approach to politics, but had the Calabar Airport renamed after her, the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in 2001. She would die five years later at the age of 92 in Calabar. Ekpo is best remembered as a pioneering female politician in the country’s First Republic, and one of the most well-known women’s rights activists to come out of Nigeria. She is also recognized for playing major roles as a grassroots and nationalist politician in Aba and championing for women’s rights in an era of hierarchical and male-dominated movement towards independence.

Haija Gambo Sawaba

Haija Gambo Sawaba was a Nigerian women’s rights activist, politician and philanthropist. Gambo Sawaba was born Harajutu Gambo on February 15, 1933 in Lavun, Niger State to Isa Amartey Amarteifio, an immigrant from Ghana, and Fatima Amaryefeifio, a Nile woman. She was the fifth of six children and was given the name Harajutu Gambo, because in Hausa tradition, any child born after the birth of twins was called Gambo.

Sawaba was known for being stubborn and got into street fights as a kid. She went to school at the Native Authority Primary School in Tudun Wada, but had to stop going to school after the death of her father in 1943 and the death of her mother three years later. Sawaba was married off to a World War II veteran, Abubakar Garba Bello, at the age of 13, but left her after she was pregnant. Her other marriages also did not last as one of her other ex-husbands would always end up fighting her. Sawaba did end up becoming a teenage activist.

Already getting involved in activism and politics, Sawaba became the deputy chairman of the Great Nigeria People’s Party, one of the six political parties that fielded candidates for elections in the Nigerian Second Republic, then joined the Northern Elements Progressive Union, which was the first political party in Northern Nigeria. She became the leader of the women’s wing and campaigned against underaged marriages, forced labor and advocated for western education in the north. Sawaba became well known in the North for speaking out, especially in a room full of men. For speaking out against child marriage, advocating for women’s rights, voting rights for women and jobs for women, she was attacked multiple times and imprisoned 16 times, and was known as “Nigeria’s most jailed woman.”

While being mentored by freedom fighter and fellow women’s rights activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Sawaba is also known for being a pioneer for fighting for the liberation of northern Nigerian women. She was given the name “Sawaba”, by her political mentor Mallam Aminu Kano. The name means “freedom or redemption.” Northern women were given the right to vote in 1976, thanks to Sawaba. Sawaba continued her activism and political career, until her retirement in 1998. She has a hotel in Kaduna and a hostel at Bayern University, Kano named after her. She died on October 14, 2001 at the age of 68. Gambo Sawaba will be remembered for being blunt, nonconformist, outspoken, and for fighting for a society in which Nigerians, especially women, would be free from tyranny and dictatorial leadership in governance.

Aisha Yesufu

Aisha Somtochukwu Yesufu is a Nigerian political activist and businesswoman. She was born on December 12, 1973 in Kano State. She experienced the difficulties of growing up as a girl in a patriarchal environment, seeing most of her female friends being married off. Her love of books helped her during her childhood. After being rejected from the Nigerian Defence Academy in 1991 due to her gender, Yesufu was admitted to Usmanu Dancodiyo University in 1992, then enrolled at Ahmadu Bello University to study medicine. She later left the university in 1994 after the murder of a professor. She continued her education at a wheel University, Kano, where she received a degree in microbiology.

Although Yesufu has been outspoken since she was young, an incident in 2000 where she was given an extra stipend with the National Youth Service Corps and would fight to return it prepared her for her career in activism. In 2014, she along with activist Obiageli Ezekwesili founded the #BringBackOurGirls movement, after terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls. Yesufu was one of the many female protestors who marched on the Nigerian National Assembly in Abuja on April 30, 2014. The #BringBackOurGirls movement attracted international support, including support from celebrities such as actor Forest Whitaker, hip hop artist/singer Wyclef Jean, activist Malala Yousafzai and former First Lady Michelle Obama. 

Yesufu also has been a prominent member of the EndSARS movement, which began in 2017, but gained more attention in 2020, in which Yesufu and others were protesting against police brutality by the controversial Nigerian police squad known as the Special Anti Robbery Squad. A photograph of her in her hijab at one of the protests became an iconic symbol for the movement. Just like the #BringBackOurGirls movement, EndSARS gained international support from everywhere, and from celebrities like singer Alicia Keys, actor Mark Ruffalo, actress Kerry Washington Black Lives Matter co-founder Ayo Tometi and activist Greta Thunberg.

Both of these movements had a huge impact on young Nigerians. Although the EndSARS protests ended up being tragic and led to the deaths of multiple protesters, both EndSARS and #BringBackOurGirls have influenced more young Nigerians to speak up against the government, go on protests and be vocal about injustice.

Yesufu has won many awards for her activism. She was included on the BBC’s 100 Women and on the list of the Top 100 Most Influential Africans by New African Magazine in 2020 and was included on the list of the 50 Most Impactful Voices List to mark 2023 International Women’s Day. She lives with her husband Aliu Osigwe Yesufu, who she’s been married to since 1998, and her children Amir and Aliyyah.

Omoyele Sowore

Omoyele Yele Sowore is a Nigerian human rights activist, reporter, politician, writer, lecturer and campaigner. Sowore was born on February 16, 1971 in Ondo State. Being raised in a family of sixteen children, Sowore’s passion and interest in media came during the military rule in Nigeria. He has participated in student activism, one of his first acts of activism was in 1989, when he and other students protested against the International Monetary Fund, who plotted to use a $120 loan on a Nigerian oil pipeline. In 1992, Sowore led 5,000 students in protest against the Nigerian government. The police attacked and arrested multiple protesters, including killing seven of them, arrested Sowore and tortured him on June 12, 1993.

Sowore studied Geography at the University of Lagos and served as President of the University of Lagos Student Union Government and was involved in student activism, especially against corruption and cultism. Because of his political beliefs and student activism, Sowore was expelled, but did attend a master’s degree in Public Administration at Columbia University.

In 2006, Sowore started Sahara Reporters, a news agency in New York City, that promotes citizen journalism, by encouraging people to report about corruption, police misconduct and  human rights issues in Africa, with special focus on Nigeria. Sahara doesn’t accept adverts and financial support from the Nigerian government.

On February 25, 2018, Sowore ran for Presidency in the 2019 Nigerian election. In August, he founded a new left-wing political party, the African Action Congress. Sowore would come in fifth place with Muhammadu Buhari being the winner. In 2019, Sowore was arrested for starting the #RevolutionNow protests. On December 24th, Sowore was released on bail.

Even with multiple arrests, Sowore still continues his activism. He lives with his wife Opeyemi in Haworth, New Jersey.

 

Wole Soyinka

Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, author, playwright, poet and activist. He was born on June 13, 1934 in Abeokuta. The son of Samuel Ayodele Soyinka, an Anglican minister and Grace Soyinka, a shopkeeper, activist and member of the Ransome-Kuti family. The second of seven children, he attended St. Peters Primary School in the 1940s, where his father was also headmaster, then attended Abeokuta Grammar School, then transferred to Government College, Ibadan. He was then admitted to the University of Ibadan, where he studied English literature, Greek and western history. During his final years in college, Soyinka wrote a short radio play called Kerri’s Birthday Treat, which was broadcast by the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria in July of 1954. Soyinka also founded the National Association of Seadogs, a confraternity organization in Nigeria that was committed to support human rights and social justice in Nigeria.

Soyinka relocated to England and continued his studies in English literature at the University of Leeds and graduated in 1957. A year later, he became editor of his university’s satirical magazine, The Eagle, in which he wrote a column on academic life and criticized university peers. He also wrote many short stories, while remaining in Leeds for his master’s degree. In 1958, he wrote his first play, The Swamp Dwellers and a year later, after writing his second play, The Lion and the Jewel, the play received interest from the Royal Court Theater and he moved to London. In 1960, his play A Dance of the Forest became the official play for Nigerian Independence Day as it premiered on October 1st in Lagos. Soyinka also became a lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University, and spoke on current affairs including criticizing government censorship, then would become senior lecturer for the Department of English language at the University of Lagos.

Soyinka would get involved in more politics after becoming the Chair for the University of Ibadan. He would meet with Military Officer Chukwuemeka Ojukwu in an effort to prevent the Nigerian Civil War. Soyinka was arrested by federal authorities and imprisoned for 22 months, while the War continued. While in prison, he would write poems and notes criticizing the Nigerian government, which was also during the time his play, The Lion and the Jewel was produced in Accra, Ghana in September 1967. 

As the War was dying down, Soyinka and other political prisoners were freed in October 1969. Soyinka would continue to produce plays and publish poetry and other literary work in the 1970s and 80s. He also continued to be active in politics, including criticizing the corruption of the government under President Shehu Shagari and criticizing the military under Muhammadu Buhari, which led to his 1972 book, The Man Died: Prison Notes to being banned in Nigeria.

In 1986, Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was described as one, “who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence.” Soyinka was also the first African recipient of the prize. Soyinka didn’t just consider that the prize was for him, but as a part of the whole literary tradition of Africa. His Nobel lecture, The Past Must Address its Present, was devoted to Nelson Mandela, especially considering that Soyinka was an outspoken critic of Apartheid. 

In later years, Soyinka continued his literary work, his work as a playwright, lecturing, and speaking on political issues, especially speaking on the whole nation of Nigeria in 2020 and how the country was suffering and not just because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. In 2021, he would release his first novel in 50 years, titled Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth, which was described as a “brutally satirical look at power and corruption in Nigeria.” Poet Ben Okri considered it to be Soyinka’s greatest novel.

Fela Kuti/ Fela Anikulapo Kuti

Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti was a Nigerian musician, songwriter, saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and political activist. He was born into the legendary Ransome-Kuti family, on October 15, 1938 in Abeokuta. His father was Israel Ransome-Kuti, an Anglican minister, school principal and the first president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, and his mother was anti-colonial and women’s rights activist and revolutionary freedom fighter, Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. Fela’s parents played a huge part in the Nigerian Anti-Colonial Movement, especially the Abeokuta Women’s Revolt in 1946, which was led by his mother. His older and younger brother, Dr. Olikoye and Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti would go on to be medical doctors and activists.  Dr. Olikoye would go on to be an HIV/AIDS activist while Dr. Beko would be a political activist. His cousin is writer, author, poet, playwright and activist Wole Soyinka. 

After attending Abeokuta Grammar School, Fela was invited by his brother Beko, who was in medical school, to study music at the Trinity College of Music, with the trumpet being his preferred instrument. While in London, Fela formed a band known as Koola Lobitos, which would play a fusion of jazz and highlife music. The band also featured legendary artist Tony Allen. In 1963, Fela reformed his band and would return to Nigeria, after the country gained its independence, while training as radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation.

In 1969, as Fela and his band were performing in the United States, they would spend ten months in Los Angeles, where he would meet singer and activist Sandra Izsadore of the Black Panther Party. Izsadore would introduce him to the writings of Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Kwame Ture/Stokely Carmichael, Jamil Al-Amin/H. Rap Brown, Dr. Huey P. Newton, Frantz Fanon and other revolutionary thinkers, and educated him on the Black Power movement. Learning from Izsadore and being inspired by the Black Power movement changed his political views and his lyricism. Around this time, Fela would form a new genre of music, known as Afrobeat. Afrobeat was a mixture of jazz, funk, salsa, calypso, highlife and traditional Yoruba music. He would also rename his band Koola Lobitos to Africa 70.

As Fela and Africa 70 moved back to Nigeria, they would switch from playing and singing love songs to playing songs with social issues. Fela would also form the Kalakuta Republic, a compound/recording studio in Lagos that was declared independent from the Nigerian state. Fela would also form a nightclub called Afrika Shrine, where he performed, held Yoruba traditional ceremonies (which he got more involved with in the 1970s) and spoke on social and political issues that plagued Nigeria and Africa, called Yabis night. Fela would also change his name from Fela Ransome-Kuti to Fela Anikulapo Kuti, as “Ransome” was considered a slave name. Anikulapo in Yoruba means, “he who carries death in his pouch,” as Fela wanted to be the master of his own destiny and decide when death would come for him.

In the 1970s, Fela’s music was very popular all over Nigeria and Africa. He would sing in Pidgin English, so that all Africans would enjoy his music. As Fela’s music is as popular in Nigeria and Africa, it was very unpopular with the Nigerian government and would cause Fela to get arrested multiple times, along with the Kalakuta Republic being raided multiple times and his nightclub. In 1977, Fela would release his most well known and most controversial album, Zombie. The album was a complete attack on Nigerian soldiers who Fela described as zombies when it came to the orders and methods of the Nigerian military. Unfortunately the success of Zombie would lead to one of the most shocking and tragic moments of Fela Kuti.

As the release of Zombie was popular and a huge success, it led to anger from Olusegun Obasanjo, who was then-Head of State General, the government and the military, as they were tired of Fela’s criticisms. This led to 1,000 soldiers breaking into Kalakuta Republic and attacking everyone inside the compound, including Fela himself who was severely beaten almost to death. Two of the other people attacked inside the house were Fela’s brother Beko and his mother, Funmilayo, who was thrown out of a second floor window. The soldiers also burned down the compound after the raid and Funmilayo would eventually die in the hospital from injuries after falling into a coma in 1978. 

After the attack, Fela would lead a protest which featured him delivering his mother’s coffin to the Dodan Barracks in Lagos. He would also write two songs, “Coffin for Head of State,” which talked about the whole incident and “Unknown Soldier,” which references an unknown soldier who attacked the compound. In 1978, Fela, who believed in polygamy married 27 women, who were dancers, composers and singers he worked with, to serve not only as a mark of the anniversary of the attack, but to protect Fela and his wives from a false claim from authorities that Fela was kidnapping women. 1978 would also be another turning point in Fela’s musical career.

Fela would hold a concert in Accra, Ghana in which a riot broke out after performing his signature song, “Zombie,” and caused Fela to be banned in Ghana. He would also take part in the Berlin Jazz Festival, when a majority of band members deserted him due to rumors of him using proceeds to fund his presidential campaign. Disappointed by their fees, fellow Afrobeat artist/drummer Tony Allen and other musicians and band members quit. This would lead to Fela forming a new band, Egypt 80. Fela named it Egypt 80 because he wanted Africans to be aware that Egyptian civilization, mathematics, philosophy and religious systems belong to Africa.

In 1979, Fela would also create his own left-wing political party, Movement of the People (MOP) in which he wanted to clean society up “like a mop.” The party preached Nkrumaism and Pan-Africanism and Fela would nominate himself for president in Nigeria’s upcoming election, but was refused any candidacy, and the party quickly became inactive due to Fela’s continued confrontations with the government.

After Fela’s attempt to run for president, Fela would continue to perform with the Egypt 80 band, releasing more political songs such as “Colonial Mentality,” and “ITT (International Thief Thief)” which was an attack on Moshood Abiola, who owned Decca Records, the label that Fela was signed to, for being a stooge to the White man. In 1984, his vocal opposition to Muhammadu Buhari’s government led him to being jailed on charges of currency smuggling. Amnesty International and other Human Rights groups denounced the charges as politically motivated and Amnesty designated him as a prisoner of conscience. 20 months later, General Ibrahim Babangida released Fela from prison and Fela would divorce from his 12 remaining wives.

In 1986, Fela took part in Amnesty International’s A Conspiracy of Hope benefit concert that featured musicians U2, Sting, Carlos Santana and more. In 1989, Fela released the anti-apartheid album with Egypt 80, Beasts of No Nation, which depicted US President Ronald Reagan, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and South African President P.W. Botha on his album cover. Fela would continue to perform, make music and be a prominent figure in Nigeria and Africa, until his tragic death on August 2, 1997 at the age of 58.

His brother, Olikoye announced that his death was from heart disease due to complications of AIDS. Unfortunately, Fela’s promiscuity, refusal of treatment and denial of AIDS led to him contracting the disease. After his death, Fela left a huge mark on music and social justice in Africa. He was seen as one of Africa’s most challenging and charismatic performers, and was described as a musical and sociopolitical voice of international significance, helping challenge the views of people through using parody, satire and searching for social justice through exploration of his music, being part of the Afrocentric Consciousness Movement, a supporter of Pan-Africanism, a supporter of African revolutionaries such as Kwame Nkrumah and Thomas Sankara, an advocate for human rights and an influence to multiple musicians and artists in Africa and around the world. Even through multiple arrests and controversies, the legacy of Fela Kuti will live on.

Fela Kuti is survived by his multiple wives, his multiple children and grandchildren. His daughter Yeni is a dancer, singer, businesswoman and the creator of the Felabration music festival in memory of her father. His son Femi is also a legendary Afrobeat artist, who started off playing in his father’s band and also spoke on political issues that plagued Nigeria and Africa. His youngest son, Seun is also a legendary Afrobeat artist who has taken over as leader of his father’s band Egypt 80, like his brother and father is very outspoken on political and social issues in Nigeria and Africa and has revived his father’s political party, Movement of the People.

Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti/Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti

Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, also known as Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti, was a Nigerian educator, political campaigner, suffragist, anti-colonial and women’s rights activist, revolutionary and freedom fighter. Funmilayo was born Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Olufela Folorunso Thomas on October 25, 1900 in Abeokuta. Her father was Chief Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas, who was a farmer and palm oil producer and was a member of the aristocratic Jibolu-Taiwa family and her mother was Lucretia Phyllis Omoyeni Adeosolu. Her grandfather was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, her grandmother was born in Ilesa and her great-grandmother was a Yoruba woman who was captured by slave traders and taken to 19th-century Sierra Leone before returning home to her family in Abeokuta.

In 1914, Funmilayo attended Abeokuta Grammar School for her secondary education. At the time, she was the school’s first female student. She would then attend Wincham Hall School for Girls in Cheshire, England, where she learned elocution, music, dressmaking, French and domestic skills. Around the time, she would go by her Yoruba name Funmilayo, instead of her Christian name Frances, which was because of the racial discrimination she faced while in England. Afterwards, Funmilayo returned to Abeokuta to work as a teacher.

On January 20, 1925, Funmilayo married Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, who she met while attending Abeokuta Grammar School, and became a member of the Ransome-Kuti family. Israel was working as a school principal and believed in bringing people together and overcoming ethnic and regional divisions and would co-found the Nigeria Union of Teachers. In 1928, Funmilayo quit teaching to open one of the first preschool classes in Nigeria and start a club for young women from elite families that encouraged their self-improvement, while also organizing classes for illiterate women. Around the same time, she would become one of the first women to drive a car in Nigeria.

In 1932, Funmilayo helped establish the Abeokuta Ladies Club, which focused on charity work, seeing, catering and adult education classes. At the time, the majority of members were Christian, middle-class, western-educated women, but in the 1940s, the club became more political, as Funmilayo organized literacy workshops for market women in the club, campaigned to stop local authorities from seizing rice from market women in 1944 and gained more understanding of social and political inequalities that Nigerian women faced.

In 1946, the club was renamed the Abeokuta Women’s Union and was open to all women in Abeokuta. The organization focused on fighting unfair price controls and taxes imposed on market women, with Funmilayo as President of AWU and with fellow activist and her husband’s niece, Grace Soyinka. The club increased from having 20,000 members to 100,000 supporters and Funmilayo and other members spoke Yoruba and wore Yoruba attire to events and meetings to avoid conflict.

Funmilayo started to lead protests against the tax on women in Abeokuta, due to market women being forced to pay special taxes that went to market supervisors and the local traditional king of Abeokuta, known as the Alake, had been imposing taxes on women. The AWU were very successful as they were made up of effective female organizers and used different types of tactics to fight back against the colonial government and many women refused to pay the tax and were jailed. After constant illegal protests/demonstrations, confrontations with authorities, altercations with and arrests from the police and being jailed, Funmilayo had her most successful protest in 1949, in which she organized thousands of Egba women and would temporarily chase the Alake off of his throne, known as the Abeokuta Women’s Revolt.

The AWU continued to advocate for women’s rights in Nigeria after the revolt, emerging as one of the nation’s first protonationalist feminist groups. Funmilayo would continue her activism/political work. Her political highlights include being part of the National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons, traveling to London to speak on women’s issues in Nigeria at the London Women’s Parliamentary Committee, the National Federation of Women’s Institutes and other organizations in 1947, argued about how colonial rule marginalized Nigerian women in an article for the Daily Worker, became a part of the West African Students Union in London, helped found the Nigerian Women’s Union and form different chapters around the nation and help support women’s rights in 1949, and organized a conference in 1953 to discuss women’s suffrage and political representation.

Funmilayo also traveled around Africa, developing strong ties with women’s organizations in Ghana, Egypt and Algeria. She also traveled to different countries around the world including England, Poland and China, where she gave public lectures on Nigerian women and met Chairman Mao Zedong, although she had to deal with not being denied an American visa after she was accused of being a communist, when she was actually an African Socialist. In the 1950s, Funmilayo was appointed to the Western House of Chiefs, being granted chieftaincy title of Oloye of the Yoruba people and being the first woman appointed to the Western house. In 1965, Funmilayo received the national honor of membership in the Order of Niger, then received an honorary doctorate from the University of Ibadan in 1968 and received the Lenin Peace Prize in 1970.

Funmilayo continued her advocacy in the 1970s, including supporting her son, legendary Afrobeat artist, musician and activist Fela Kuti. She supported his criticisms of the Nigerian government and just like Fela, she changed her last name from “Ransome” to “Anikulapo”. Unfortunately her support for Fela would lead to tragedy. In 1977, after the release of Fela’s album, Zombie, which criticized the Nigerian government and compared the military to zombies, Olusegun Obasanjo sent soldiers to his Kalakuta republic compound, as they attacked everyone inside, including Fela, his brother Beko Kuti and Funmilayo, as soldiers threw her from a two story window, and burned the compound down. Months later, Funmilayo was hospitalized, but eventually fell into a coma and died from her injuries on April 13, 1978 in Lagos.

Funmilayo’s funeral was attended by thousands, including market women who shut down their markets to honor her. A year later after Funmilayo’s death, Fela Kuti led a protest and left her coffin at Dedan Barracks as a way to shame the government. All of this, including her assassination was detailed in Fela’s song, “Coffin for Head of State.” Years later after her assassination, Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti is still remembered as a progressive revolutionary, a Pan-African visionary, and a hero to women in Nigeria. A huge influence to activists Margaret Ekpo, Hajiya Gambo and to revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah. Also nicknamed as the “Lioness of Lisabi,” Funmilayo’s name still remains well known throughout Nigeria. Historian Cheryl Johnson-Odim notes how no other Nigerian woman of her time ranked as such a national figure or had such international exposure like she did. Because of her contribution to fighting colonialism and bringing independence to Nigeria and bringing change to the nation, she will be remembered as one of the greatest freedom fighters to come from Nigeria.

There it is, some of the most well-known political prisoners and freedom fighters to come out of Nigeria. These people have put their lives on the line for Nigeria. They aren’t the only ones, there are still plenty more, who should also be recognized. The ones alive are still fighting for change in Nigeria, as the struggle must continue. Hopefully, these names inspire you to do something and hopefully you also continue to use Black August to study, fast, train and resist.