Aba Women’s Riot Memorial (Ogu Umunwanyi, 1929)

In November and December 1929, thousands of Igbo and Ibibio women of Aba and the surrounding Owerri and Calabar provinces rose in the Ogu Umunwanyi, the Women's War, against colonial taxation and the abuses of warrant chiefs. Organised through their own market and village networks, they sang, "sat on" officials, closed markets and marched on colonial offices in one of the first great anti-colonial protests in West Africa. More than fifty women were killed when troops opened fire. This ground honours their courage and the enduring strength of Aba's market women.