Summary
Overview
This episode tells the remarkable story of Funmilayo Ransom Kuti, a Nigerian educator who led a revolutionary women's movement in the 1940s that successfully deposed a British-backed king. It explores how her political activism shaped her son Fela Kuti's anti-colonial views and reveals a largely forgotten chapter of African women's resistance to colonialism. The episode also examines contemporary challenges facing U.S. military personnel navigating potentially illegal orders under the Trump administration.
Military Personnel Face Dilemmas Over Potentially Illegal Orders
The episode opens with six Democratic veterans releasing a video reminding service members they can refuse illegal orders, which Trump called seditious and punishable by death. Hotlines supporting military personnel report increased calls from National Guard members concerned about being deployed against American citizens or supporting ICE operations. Service members face difficult choices between following orders, speaking out, filing for conscientious objector status, or going AWOL, with one active duty member already disappearing rather than help establish immigrant detention facilities.
- Six Democratic veterans released video telling service members they can refuse illegal orders, Trump called it seditious behavior punishable by death
- Organizations helping service members report uptick in calls since Trump administration began, particularly from National Guard concerned about policing American citizens
- Active duty service member went AWOL rather than support establishment of immigrant detention facilities
- Pentagon wants to create quick response forces of 500 National Guard in each state to control civil unrest, but volunteers are scarce
" I got orders and I decided not to show up for them...this person was active duty and so he just stopped showing up he was supposed to be supporting the establishment of immigrant detention facilities and he went...absent without leave "
" I've talked to active military members who were really upset about what's happening, but who said, my kids are in school, we're struggling to get by as it is. And unless I'm actively being asked to do something that I believe is wrong, I can't afford to do anything "
Funmilayo Ransom Kuti: From Elite Educator to Revolutionary Leader
Funmilayo Ransom Kuti, Fela Kuti's mother, began as a Christian prep school teacher in colonial Nigeria, representing the British-educated elite. She started the Abeokuta Ladies Club teaching elite women cooking and dancing, but everything changed when a market woman held her hymnal upside down in church. Funmilayo began teaching market women to read, and their literacy lessons evolved into political organizing sessions where women shared stories of brutal taxation and harassment by British colonial officers.
- Funmilayo started as elite educator at British prep school, initially teaching Christian girls how to be good wives through the Abeokuta Ladies Club
- After noticing a market woman couldn't read, she began teaching literacy to cloth dyers, rice sellers, and other working women
- Young Fela Kuti would teach market women to write their letters alongside his mother
- Literacy lessons evolved into political meetings where women discussed taxation abuses, with Fela eavesdropping outside
" she was in church one time, and there was a market woman friend of hers who was singing but holding the hymnal upside down. And she said that was when she realized she couldn't read "
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