Between 1900 and 1914 (when Northern and Southern Nigeria were amalgamated) there had been twenty-one British military expeditions into Igboland.
In 1928 for the first time in their history, Igbo men were made to pay tax – they were a subject people.
This attempt to take over political control of Igboland met with resistance and cultural protest in the early decades of the twentieth century.A nativistic religious movement sprang up (the ekumeku) which inspired short-lived but feverish messianic enthusiasm.
The rumours that the Igbo women were being assessed for taxation, sparked off the 1929 Aba Riots, a massive revolt of women never encountered before in Igbo history.
The Igbo never gave the colonial masters breathing space.
