Yemisi Ransome-Kuti

Who is Yemisi Ransome-Kuti?

Yemisi Ransome-Kuti is the only child of Azariah Olusegun Ransome-Kuti MBE. She is also the granddaughter of the Late Rev. Canon Josiah Jessey Ransome-Kuti. Her aunt Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a foremost feminist in Nigeria as well as the first woman in Nigeria to drive a car; sShe was also part of the delegation to negotiate independence for the country from the British.

Yemisi Ransome-Kuti is also cousin to Fela Kuti, Olikoye Kuti, Beko Ransome-Kuti and Africa's first Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka, whose mother was a Ransome-Kuti. She has four children: Segun Bucknor by her first husband, the late Naval Capt Frederick Oluwole Bucknor, and three by her second husband, Dr Kunle Soyemi - Bola Soyemi, Seun Soyemi and Eniola Soyemi.

With Fela Kuti, Beko Kuti and Koye Kuti all dead, Yemisi is now seventh in line to head the Ransome-Kuti family. Mrs Tinuola Aina, sister to Wole Soyinka, is the current head of the family.

Yemisi Ransome-Kuti is the recently retired chairman and founder of the Nigerian Network of Non-Governmental Organizations. The first organization of its kind in Nigeria to bring together civil society organization, it has worked since its formation 1992 to effect a harmonized agenda for third-sector development and its influence in the national framework.