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The Story Of Halimatu Pelewura The Yoruba Woman Trader Who Fought Against The British And Won

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3 years ago

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 ....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶

During the Second World War, the British and their Allies were losing ground to the Nazis and they were desperate, they needed more money to support their war effort, so they thought to tax the market women.

It was then a Fierce woman known as Halimatu Pelewura rose up and enlisted the help of Rabiatu Alaso Oke, the Iyalode of Lagos to lead market women to protest.

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After the incident that happened in the East in 1929,(Aba women protest) the British feared the Nigerian women and they didn’t want to witness that kind of incident again, especially during war times.

Halimatu Pelewura and the women went to the Colonial Office and met the Commissioners, the Commissioner said only wealthy women would be taxed, so she was worried because how will the British be able to differentiate the wealthy, so carried out a petition, This petition was penned by 200 women and she went to meet the Colonial Governor, Bernard Bourdillon, the Governor replied rudely and said, the tax was there to stay because there is a World War going on. This offended her.

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The British colonial Government made it illegal for anyone to sell Garri privately, Garri became “Government treasure” during the era of the second World War. As we know the British were suffering at he hand of Germans and they were desperate to win the War, they needed money and resources so they pulled as many as they could get from their colonies, including Nigeria.
The British colonial Government made it illegal for anyone to sell Garri privately, Garri became “Government treasure” during the era of the second World War. As we know the British were suffering at he hand of Germans and they were desperate to win the War, they needed money and resources so they pulled as many as they could get from their colonies, including Nigeria.
They built harbours, roads, Airfields, hospitals, anything to make their exploitation easier. Thousand of Nigerian Men were recruited into the Army to fight in the second World. Even at that, they still needed more.
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They imposed some monetary policies and they rationed food so they could have enough to export for their wars. The government was in charge of food distribution and people would have to queue for days to buy Garri.
They wanted to tax market women. Then Halimatu Pelewura, led a protest to curb this action. Pelewura then led the Women to the house of Herbert Macaulay and told him to inform the government that there will be a town hall meeting.
In the meeting, British Government were like “British women pay tax, why should Nigerian women be any different” and Pelewura replied she said “All of Nigeria’s wealth was being taken to Britain hence the British women could pay tax because they were Rich”. She organized the market and told them to boycott sales of Garri to the Govt. This made the Govt and the security agents “declared war”.
The colonial govt after seeing her bravery and influence, they didn’t tax the women and they wanted to buy Pelewura to come to their side.
They offer her £100 which is now worth £7,162(over 6 million naira) this was a really huge money back in 1940. But Pelewura stood her ground and did not sell her conscience. She stood for what was Good and this is why we are telling this story today to celebrate her

 

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