First Female To Drive A Car In Nigeria

Meet the First Female To Drive A Car In Nigeria. The number of women operating automobiles on Nigerian roads today is incalculable. Women today not only operate the nicest vehicles, but they also drive them. However, initially, this was not the case. Years ago, the majority of automobile drivers in Nigeria were men.

Many males had vehicles before women started to drive and own them. Everything began with a single woman. She was the first female driver in Nigeria, opening the door for future females to strive for the coveted position of automobile driver.

The history of female drivers in Nigeria began with Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, who became the nation’s first female driver in 1951. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, a well-known feminist and political activist from Nigeria, fought for both women’s rights and her nation’s independence.

In this Article, RNN has provided you with things to know about the First Female to drive a car in Nigeria.

Oluwafunmilayo Frances Ransome-Kuti was born on October 25, 1900, and was known as the “Queen of Lisabi” in popular culture. She was a member of Chief Daniel Olumeyuwa Thomas’s (of Abeokuta, Ogun State) family at birth. Her father was a farmer who had fled Sierra Leone as a slave. Contrarily, Funmilayo’s mother, Lucretia Phyllis Omoyoeni Adeosolu, was a seamstress who had already lost two children to infant mortality.
According to the family tree, she was born Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Olufela Folorunsho Thomas. She was one of the first Christians in the Abeokuta region after they returned from the transatlantic slave trade. Her great-grandfather was a freed slave in the early 19th century.

Funmilayo Ransome Kuti’s Education

Oluwafunmilayo’s parents, who valued education, put her in school at a young age. She attended St. John’s Primary School in Igbe, Abeokuta, from 1906 to 1913 before moving on to Abeokuta Girls Grammar School.

She was noted as being the first woman to be admitted to the Abeokuta Grammar School in 1914. The following registration and admission of five additional girls into the school happened after that.

She later received a scholarship from the Church Missionary Society to study and attend a finishing school for girls in Cheshire, England. Funmilayo studied home sciences, education, French, and music when he was in England. In 1922, she graduated with a teaching degree from Wincham Hall College in England. She primarily used her Nigerian name before returning, Frances-Abigail.

Her Job as a Teacher

Following her return to Nigeria, Funmilayo Kuti worked as a teacher at a Lagos school. She quit her position as a teacher a few years later (in 1931), after she wed her husband, and returned to Abeokuta in 1932 to take the helm of the Abeokuta Grammar School.

That, according to one, marked the start of Oluwafunmilayo Ransome-Kuti’s life’s unusual happenings. When she arrived at the school, she started establishing her own courses, which she referred to as “Mrs. Kuti’s Kindergarten class.”

After a short while, she pleaded with the Nigerian Department of Education to expand her modest goal by turning it into a primary school, and happily, she was successful. To strengthen the system, Funmilayo worked with eminent women around the nation who also ran schools. The situation gave many married women job opportunities.

Later, she chose the path of an activist and politician, rising to prominence as the head of the Abeokuta Women’s Union (AWU). She was opposed to unrepresentative taxes. Young women as young as 15 were required to pay taxes at the time the tax regulations were revised.

She was granted the traditional title “Beere” for her activity, which means “the first among equals” in English.

Death

She was hurt during a military attack on her family’s land, and she passed away at the age of 77. The famous Nigerian singer Fela Anikulapo Kuti (October 15, 1938-August 2, 1997), who promoted Afrobeat music, was raised by his mother, Chief Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.

Conclusion

Today’s living monument to Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti’s legacy is the countless women who have been inspired by her commitment to social justice and gender equality. She defied gender stereotypes and actively participated in Nigerian culture as one of the first women to drive an automobile.

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