Madame Nwanyeruwa rose as a prominent revolutionary in the Aba Women's Riots (or the Women's War), an insurrection in Nigeria against the British Colonial rule.
She was an Igbo woman, of Ngwa ancestry and was a leader among the women of Oloko who refused to pay taxes or have their property appraised by British-appointed census takers.
When a man came to Nwanyeruwa's home and asked her to count her goats, sheep and people, she responded angrily. In town, she gathered other Oloko women and together they invited other women from surrounding towns and districts until they had 10,000 women who marched in protest to the office of Warrant Chief Okugo, demanding his resignation and calling for a trial.
The protests were initially peaceful, led in non-violent expression by Madame Nwanyeruwa and others, but some women did riot, and some Chiefs were attacked, and homes destroyed. The effects of these protests were to allow for Nigerian women to be appointed to serve on native courts, and the general status of women in the society was greatly improved. The Women's War inspired further moveemnts in the following decades and left a lasting legacy on Nigerian society.