The Women's War was an important watershed in two respects: first, it captured what had been an emerging trend – resistance to the gendered impact of colonialism within the household; and second, the conclusions drawn from the conflict profoundly shaped the subsequent direction of indirect rule in the south-eastern provinces. The 1930s were years in which colonial rule decisively embedded itself into local Annang society. The proliferation of schools, clinics and courts carried with them British normative principles and procedures in education, medicine and justice. Routines were established as taxes were collected, as weights and measures were checked, and as court fees and fines were recorded. It was a period of administrative bureaucratisation and legal codification as the civil service expanded. Colonial rule between the wars has therefore been characterised as a period of social, political and economic stagnation. The 1930s was indeed the decade of greatest stability in colonial rule, though as this chapter illustrates the calm and routine were superficial. The economic depression of the 1930s not only affected the markets, it also fostered profound changes in class and gender relations.

Despite appearances to the contrary, the years between the Women's War and the outbreak of the Second World War were subject to radical political upheaval within Calabar Province. Reforms in the aftermath of the Women's War designed to resolve an emerging intergenerational rift and to restore ‘authentic’ rulers instead turned the courts and councils into spheres of intense political contest.