The many battles of market women of Lagos (1931-32), By Tayo Agunbiade

This dispute and others between the market women and the colonial officials continued well into the 1940s. By the 1950s, when the LTC was managed by Nigerians, the women continued their resistance. Indeed they went all the way to the Supreme Court – and won – over some of the council’s “so-called public notices.”

Historically, Lagos Municipal Area was served by eleven markets, which included Ereko, Faji, Alakoro, Obada, Ebute-Ero, Araromi, Oko-Awo, Obun-Eko and Ebute-Metta. These markets were dominated by women who formed associations and guilds according to their wares: poultry, wood, fish, vegetables, herbs and roots, native cloth, oysters, beads, etc.

In 1931, market women in the Colony of Lagos faced various battles with the Lagos Town Council (LTC), with the commonest causes for their grievances being forced relocations, demolitions, market tolls, stall fees, and, of course, sanitation. Other complaints from members of the guilds depended on the policies being implemented by the Council. The oyster vendors, for example, petitioned for compensation when their reserves of oyster shells were used by the Council for road repairs without their permission. In retaliation, they were slapped with an abatement notice and court summons.

As the disputes raged, several spokeswomen emerged. We may have heard about Alimotu Aminatu Pelewura, a fish monger at Ereko Market, who became the president of the Lagos Market Women’s Association. Other lesser known spokeswomen for the guilds were Madam Ojigobi, the Iya Egbe (Lady President) of Ereko Market; Rabiatu Alaso, Jariogbe Oniwaka, Ashiya Kosoko, Sabitiyu Opomoja, Simbi Ojigobi, Omorinlewa Eleto, Osenatu Dosunmu (head, oyster sellers), Wusamotu Shelleh (head, bead sellers), and Binta Balogun.

Although the women openly stated that they received support from “our Big Man” i. e. Herbert Macaulay, the nationalist politician, but still, several deputations of women went to Messrs AWS Rumens, Walde and Hunt to discuss their grievances. One of the memorable encounters was between the women of Ereko Market and Mr Rumens, the Secretary to Council.

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The context for this particular dispute was summarised by the Lagos Daily News in August 1931:

It is reported that the Ereko Market Women have been once again disturbed where they are selling their wares for their living and gathering enough pennies to pay their taxes under the Income Tax (Colony) Ordinance 1927 and their Water Rate to the Lagos Town Council whose men have turned them adrift. These old women are being very seriously harassed by the Lagos Town Council without providing any suitable place for them… perhaps there are too many on the staff all round who have nothing more reasonable and less heartless to attend to.

On 23 November 1931, about two thousand women marched to the Lagos Town Council. Six representatives were chosen from their ranks to have a discussion with Rumens. They were Alimotu Aminatu Pelewura Alaga (president); Ajibabi, Iyalode Alata of Ereko; Moriamo, Iyalode Onila of Ereko; Balogun of Ereko; Erelu Oja Ereko and Iyalode of Ita Faji.

…“eight policemen in the King’s Uniform chased them away from the old site at Ereko Market.”… “So where do you wish us to sell out foodstuffs?” she asked Rumens. He replied: “Go to Ijaye Street.” Pelewura countered: “We do not want that place, it is swampy.” The Secretary then told them to return to Kosoko Street. But she disagreed…

Pelewura narrated how “eight policemen in the King’s Uniform chased them away from the old site at Ereko Market.” She also said since the completion of the public footpath, they had moved back to the site and stood in the drain to sell their goods. But they were repeatedly violently evicted: “So where do you wish us to sell out foodstuffs?” she asked Rumens. He replied: “Go to Ijaye Street.” Pelewura countered: “We do not want that place, it is swampy.” The Secretary then told them to return to Kosoko Street. But she disagreed: “The place is a long drain throughout its entire length, how can we sell there? It is not a suitable place.” Rumens had more suggestions: “Go to the back of Doherty’s stores at Alakoro.”

Pelewura was opposed to this decision:

We do not want to go to that swampy site. When you were constructing Ereko Road, you did not tell us you were going to drive us away from there or to deprive us away from there or to deprive us of the old site where we have been for years… Our ancestors have established this Market and have been selling there without any interruption many years before the Whiteman came to Lagos; and we in their place have, since their time, been selling there as well. So, you must try and arrange for us a site at Ereko, where we have been all these years. That is the place we wish to continue to have our market.

Rumens explained the basis for his pronouncement: “Due to the continuous increase in population, all the vehicular traffic to the New Bridge shall pass through Ereko Road and it is not advisable that there should be a market where such a heavy vehicular traffic shall pass on account of accidents to human beings.” He proposed Oke-Arin as a temporary alternative before the new Idumagbo Market was ready. But Pelewura explained that: “We have been at Ereko Market for over 160 years now, since it was established. We do not wish to leave Ereko and go elsewhere.”

The women dug in their position and refused to accept the three hazardous sites offered. To show their disapproval, they closed Ereko, Faji, and Araromi markets. Naturally, this caused a lot of inconvenience.

The following day, based on the closure of the markets, five representatives from Ereko Market Women’s guild, namely Alimotu Alaga, Ashiya Kosoko, Omorinilewa Elefo, Sabitiyu Opomoja and Sinbi Ojigobi, were summoned to a meeting with Chief Obanikoro (Adamo Akeju).

He was acting at the behest of Mr Rumens to appeal to the women to accept one of the swampy sites on offer. He cautioned them: “Do you think you can successfully oppose the white men and get the better of them? How can you? I would advise you not to pull and haul with the white men.” He suggested that they could be given “the recently reclaimed area facing the Lagos Lagoon opposite the House of Agoro; that site being near the Lagoon” and added “You can get as much water as you may require.” He discountenanced the hazards.

“We do not want any of the four sites of swamps and reclaimed foreshore. Our position is this: We do not wish to be shifted from Ereko Market where we have been before the Cession as you know; and even the new market at Idumagbo we do not wish to be shifted to and be deprived of Ereko Market.”

The minutes recorded Pelewura’s response: “We do not want any of the four sites of swamps and reclaimed foreshore. Our position is this: We do not wish to be shifted from Ereko Market where we have been before the Cession as you know; and even the new market at Idumagbo we do not wish to be shifted to and be deprived of Ereko Market.”

Obanikoro did not give up either: “The new market at Idumagbo has not been built for you… I told the white man that I should prefer you be given the Agoro foreshore area where you should be allowed to build your own market sheds and that you shall not pay anything for your stalls or the land upon which you erect your own stalls or market sheds.”

The women were greatly displeased with his stance. They already considered him an interloper in market affairs. In September, they wrote a letter to complain about his interference in the commissioning of market stalls.

Now, notwithstanding his traditional status in the community, they declared: “We will now ask you please not to send and call us again as we have nothing whatever to do with you… if the white man wishes to see us and say anything more to us, the white man should send direct to us to call us to his office and not through you at any future time.”

This dispute and others between the market women and the colonial officials continued well into the 1940s. By the 1950s, when the LTC was managed by Nigerians, the women continued their resistance. Indeed they went all the way to the Supreme Court – and won – over some of the council’s “so-called public notices.”

Tayo Agunbiade is the author of Emerging From the Margins: Women’s Experiences in Colonial and Contemporary Nigerian History.