If he had not got money from us, he would not have been able to provide for himself…I told him that I was once a rich woman, but that as he had been taking money away from me I had now no money to pay tax.” We sang and danced, saying that Okugo became a rich man because of the money he got from us. Men had to provide for our food and clothes. We told you that men had already been taxed and that the amount paid by them as so large that it was unnecessary for women to pay tax.
Recalling on her words to Emeruwa, Nwanyeruwa told the Aba Commission what she said to him, Women joined her in the fight against inequality. Nwanyeruwa took the initiative to confront Mark Emeruwa in which word of her confidence spread throughout the grassroots of Igbo land. It was important to Nwanyeruwa that the women led a non-violent protest due to the British administrator’s skewed vision of Igbo women. Before the Commission, she answered to the question “Will you tell us what you know about these occurrences at Oloko?". On March 12, 1930, Nwanyeruwa testified against warrant Chief Okugo before the Aba Commission of Inquiry. Nwanyeruwa led local women in non-violent protests against the taxation of women in Igbo land. When Emeruwa insisted on counting the wives and livestock in the compound, Nwanyeruwa resisted the request and word spread through the grassroots of the British potentially wanting to tax not only the men but now the women. On November 18, 1929, Mark Emeruwa, messenger of warrant Chief Okugo, entered the compound in Oloko village where an elderly woman named Nwanyeruwa was extracting palm oil. After reviewing administrative records, British Captain, John Cook, instructed local warrant chiefs to re-do their counts for taxes starting mid-October of 1929. Warrant chiefs were appointed to follow the rules of the British and administer colonial laws to the local people. In 1929, Eastern Nigeria was indirectly ruled by the British through warrant chiefs.
Maybe it was personal for her especially with the question she asked Emereuwa, "Has your mother been counted?"
The struggle was sparked by the need to put an end to the abuses of the heads of office, the tax system and the subjugation of women by this means. The Aba Women's Riot of 1929 was a two-months rebellion waged by local market women from the Igbo tribe of southeastern Nigeria against the excessive powers of the British government and its warrant chiefs at the height of colonialism. Spearheading this necessary and nonviolent riot through the cultural ‘sitting on a man’ tactics, by means of singing and dancing, ‘Yes’ singing and dancing like the Greek sirens to weaken and disarm their oppressors. Nwayereuwa pursued with grace the interest of the women of the community. Madame Nwanyeruwa is an Igbo woman who worked in the market place of the Oloko village of Nigeria.
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