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CHAPTER – III

WOMEN IN PRE-COLONIAL NIGERIA

Generally people of non-African origin, being alien to the gender relations of

African community, presented a distorted image of African male-female relations. They

projected the African as ‘oppressive’ and women as ‘deprived’ .It is generally believed

that:

African traditional society had certain steadfast beliefs, especially when it

came to gender differentiation. The woman was seen as subordinate to the

male and the male provider was not to be contradicted in either the public

or the private sphere….The female was brought up to believe that she had

a limited part to play in day to day affairs outside her domestic terrain .

(qtd. in Mibamba and Ekechi , 41)

This stereotyping of men and women’s position has been refuted by many

researchers Noted anthropologist Sylvia-Leith-Ross, in her work African women: A study

of Igbo in Nigeria notes that: “Nigerian women, because of their economic importance as

mothers, farm cultivators and traders have been more powerful than is generally

thought.”(21) This contradiction of view implies that in a poly – ethnic nation like

Nigeria defining the role of woman should be based on ethnic and regional difference

that has witnessed changes over space and time. As with other aspects of Nigerian

society, the identities of women were rooted in ethnicity and religion. For example the

Hausa- Fulani women, after the introduction of purdah system were confined to their

households. They were not permitted to work in the fields or fetch water. In the colonial

period, they were denied Western education and in the post- independent era, they were

not entitled to vote till 1970. Their visibilities in social and political gatherings were

limited. But on the other hand, the Kanuri women laboured in the farms and they set up

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stalls to sell cooked food. In the Southern parts of Nigeria, Yoruba women held important

socio- economic position in pre-colonial times and received formal education during

colonial times. The Igbo women also had considerable social and economic liberty and

actively participated in the politics of Igboland .These vastly different gender related

constraints and liberties implies that a generalized way of defining the participation and

power of women over domestic and non- domestic terrain would be inaccurate. It is true

that the gender inequality is a reality of Nigeria as with everywhere else but the Nigerian

women through the women’s council, economic power, family support have exerted their

influence over main stream socio-economic and political institutions and decisions. Buchi

Emecheta, being an Igbo is well versed with the Igbo concept of womanhood and focused

her attention pre-dominantly on the position of Igbo women in pre-colonial, colonial and

post-colonial eras. Since the thesis is based on the novels of Buchi Emecheta, therefore it

is imperative that the implicit and explicit dominance as well as subjugation of Igbo

women along with the rituals that touched their lives should be discussed in detail.

In the pre-colonial Igbo society, women were dynamic and uninhibitedly

participated in social, political and religious systems to improve their lives .She was

aware of her worth in society, fearlessly maintained her identity and asserted power over

her rightful sectors. Slyvia Leith Ross recounts that the “Igbo women had intense vigour

and vitality for the life” and dauntlessly faced the complexities that came in her way.

Lord Fredrick Lugard, the first Governor of colonial Nigeria describes Igbo women as

“ambitious, courageous, self- reliant hardworking and independent. [They] claim full

equality with the opposite sex and would seem indeed to be the dominant partner.” (Book

Rags,1) There is no doubt that in the patrilineal Igbo society, family name and inheritance

of property was traced through male descendants and it assured men a privileged position

in the society. In a traditional Igbo society, that had no centralized governmental

Ghosh 89

institutions, political power was not concentrated in the hands of few and leadership was

informal and flexible. The Igbo people lived in the villages composed of loosely joined

compounds of the same partilineal kins. These villages were further joined to form

villages groups or clans that accommodated population ranging from hundred to several

thousands. According to Fallers for such societies “ It is necessary to view the polity or

political system…not as a concretely distinct part of social system: that aspect concerned

with making and carrying out decisions regarding public policy by what institutional

means.” (qtd. in Hafkin and Bay,63)

Hence in societies like the Igbos, there was no differentiation between

executive, political and judicial activities. They were often interwoven with religious

activities. Specialized institutions were conceived to efficiently manage the societal

machinery. Though there were high commands to issue orders, yet decisions were made

and disagreements were settled through mutual agreements reached upon in a variety of

gatherings like village-wide assemblies, women’s meetings, age grades, secret societies,

titles groups, contribution clubs, lineage groups and congregations at funerals and

markets. These gatherings promoted law and order, resolved conflicts, appropriated land

and commodities, found solutions to problems concerned to all, for instance, how to

expand the villages than those of neighbouring villages. It also helped to settle the

disputes that posed a threat to the unity of the village, for example, animosity between the

members of the family or strained relations between men and women. It is to be noted

that in each case, decisions were made by the village elders after intense consultations

amongst themselves as well as by the members of the congregations. In these gatherings

women also had a series of political roles. The heavily patrilineal Igbo society approved

of women’s age grade, secret societies and title holders. Through these exclusive

women’s societies, women tried to established peace, resolve women-centric problems,

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and endorsed rules that were pro- women. However, women were unlikely to be

consulted in the matters that were not related to women. Thus, it can be said that,

“Women may have been among the arbitrators that disputants invited to settle particular

cases; however if one party to the dispute appealed to the village as a whole, male elders

would have been more likely to offer the final settlement.” ( Hafkin and Bay,65) But

nonetheless, the contributions made by women were highly valued by Igbos. The Igbo’s

recognized that though men and women complemented each other yet their characteristics

and needs were different and as such two autonomous political systems were constituted

to manage the activities of men and women. This ‘dual sex political system’(Nzegwu,23)

enabled men and women to safeguard their rights and each sex could contribute to the

development of the community and take pride in the progress of their village , not one

gender was privileged or the deprivileged.

The dual nature of the system aimed at harmonious and effective division

of labour by which both sexes would receive adequate attention to their

needs. For the male and female cabinets, despite their similarities in

structure, were meant to insure complimentary in their parallel functions.

There was no duplication of roles, since duties were clearly described and

delineated. ( Hafkin and Bay ,48)

This ‘dual sex political system’ allowed women to operate political institutions

that were powerful enough to solve the issues concerning women and helped to enhance

the position of women without interference or opposition from men. The women age

grades, secret societies, women’s councils were considered parallel to that of men’s

councils and male age grades. As such since times immemorial Igbo women established a

number of political societies, women’s councils or the general assembly to handle the

interest of women. The women’s council –the core governing body held meetings at

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regular intervals. Emergency meeting were also conducted to discuss the issues that

required urgent attention. Memberships were granted on the basis of lineage, marriage

and age. All the women of the community could attend the meetings (if they desired).

Pregnant women and lactating mothers were discouraged from attending the meetings as

they might become a source of disruption of the council proceedings. The Igbo women’s

council had a unique way of convening the meeting. Before the crowing of the cock (to

signal the beginning of new day) the members of the women’s council moved through the

village beating an ekwe. The rhythm of the beating gong indicated the time and venue of

the meeting. Generally, the village square, an open space in the market or the compound

of the member’s house was chosen as meeting place.Men were not allowed to attend

women‘s meetings. But the decisions of the meetings were conveyed to the male

members.

The women council’s meeting was presided by Omu. The world Omu means ‘the

great mother’ and is derived from the word ‘nne Omunnu’(she who bears children).In

some places she was called as Ogene Nyanya or Onye-isi-umun wanyi (the women’s

leader ).She was practically in-charge of the female interests and attained the office by

orders of merit, wealth, kinships and seniority. In principle, the most respected and oldest

member of the community was chosen as Omu. The Omu was assumed as the

acknowledged mother of the whole community and thus in fact was in command of the

concerns of the female section. The duties of Omu and her cabinet were clearly

demarcated so as not to collide with the affairs of men. “The Omu had own cabinet

(called the ilogo) made up with councillors with titular ranks and duties corresponding on

a one-to-one basis of those of Obi’s councilors.” ( Hafkin and Bay,48) Thus the Omu was

assisted in her responsibilities by women councillors of her cabinet. These women were

entrusted with the duties corresponding to various socio – politico – economic affairs of

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women. They organized sacrificial rituals to appease the community deities, regulated

women market, settled marital and familial discords. Even mundane issues like clearing

the market; the forest path that led to the market; cleaning the village roads and tidying

the market place were also decided by the women’s council. But as every institution of

Igbos’ were democratic, therefore meetings of the women councils were scheduled and

deliberated upon to arrive at a consensus that was considered vital to resolve matters. In

these discourses Omu was required to speak out her views fluently that involved the

creative and artful use of proverbs and metaphors derived from Igbo ancestry. The

extensive usage of proverbs reflected the wisdom, intelligence and knowledge that were

possessed by Omu out of her heritage. Omu also prepared special charms and

concoctions to drive away evil spirits and also to ensure the prosperity of village on social

and economic fronts. Therefore, even though Omu represented the women of her

community and performed her duties in her constituency diligently yet she always issued

the final word after consulting her cabinet and Ikporoani. Ikporoani was a representative

body of women selected from each quarter of village. Generally one representative was

chosen from each Umunna, but the chosen representative should be one of the senior-

most women of her lineage. She was expected to be in command of the confidence and

respect of the other women of Umunna. In fact, Omu and her woman councillors were

also chosen on the basis of their social titles, achievement and wealth. Besides, they were

required to possess leadership skills, oratory skills and logical abilities. They were

endorsed with qualities like level headedness, good sense of humor and strong character.

Other women were also welcomed to join the meetings. Igbo proverb ‘a case that

forbids no one’, implies that all the women who attended the meeting were free to express

their views on all the issues that were discussed. They were encouraged to offer

innovative solutions to the problems. They had the right to disagree with others and

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present fresh perspective on the affairs of the community. However, Omu had the right

to reject the views that were not considered worthwhile, but in keeping with the

traditional institutions of common consent, decisions or judgments were issued with

majority consensus. Because of the conventional power of women’s council, the

resolutions passed were binding on the community. The outcome of the meetings was

notified to the non-attending women of the village and also to male elders of the

community. Those who failed to comply with decisions were reprimanded for their

irresponsibleness. Punitive measures like strikes, boycotts, ostracization from the

community were undertaken to discipline the errant individual. “Igbo oral tradition tells

of an Omu who led a boycott by all the women of her community in which the women

refused to cook for their husbands. Under the pressure of having to prepare their own

meals, the men capitulated to the women’s demands.” (Hafkin and Bay, 48). Incidents in

which the ilogo ordered the male members of the community to clear the path leading to

their farms but if not carried out, forced rituals like sittings on a man. They also used to

penalize a man who violated the rules of the council. Measures included destruction of his

assets, calling him names and framing defamatory songs about him. The man being sat on

was entitled to vindicate himself with the help of his kin. They could be verbally abuse

the women but physical abuse was forbidden. The authority and indemnification given to

women while undertaking these punishments, shows the feeling of respect that the Igbo’s

had for their women. Men used to dismiss some of the offence committed by women with

the phrase ‘obu umunwangi nwe anyi’ ( It is the women who own us ) which implies that

it is the woman who give birth to men, feeds and looks after them. Therefore injustice to

a woman was not permissible.

Assisting the women’s council were various women’s interest groups that

handled the issues related specific sections of women populace. Some of the major groups

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were Ndi Lolo (titled women), Otu Umuada (daughters of the lineage) , Ndi’nyom

(wives of the lineage) and Umuagbogho or Umuegbede (young unmarried daughters of

the lineage). Title taking was known as Ichi Ozo. It was not conferred on the basis of

heredity and thus was non-transferable. It could be earned in many ways, for example, the

village women bestowed a title to a particular woman in recognition of her services to the

community. At times children conferred a title on to the mother in order to show gratitude

and affection. The wife or a daughter of an Obi could also legitimize their social position

by title taking. Agbaserie is of the view title holding gives the Igbo women some

measure of political command. She writes:

Traditional channels through which women build political influence

include the association of women, who have attained over the age of

seventy or over and who are usually titled women .The association is

refused to with various local names, the most common of which are lolo,

otuodo or ekwe; it is the female equivalent of titled men associations,

generally described as nze la ozo or ozo. (40)

Titled women adorned themselves with jewellry and attire that are different from

the rest of the women community. They wore threaded cowries, red glass waist beads and

stone anklets indicating their ranks. Titled women wielded economic advantages. Titles

taking rites were labourious and costly affair. They had to pay huge fees to the member of

the associations and organize festivities to entertain the people of the villages. These

women were considered elites in social and political circles. However, the power

increased if they exhibited leadership skills. Since the traditional Igbo society was

exogamous all the daughters were expected to marry and after their marriage had to leave

their natal village and settle in her husband’s village. To help the women overcome the

distress of dislocation and also to build cordial ties between the village of her birth and

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village in which she’s married, Otu Umuada was established.In the book Women in Igbo

Life and Thought , Agbaserie says:

By far the most significant channel for the exercise of female influence

within any Igbo community still remains that of the meeting of the

Umuada or Umuokpu, daughter of the lineage…

The powers of the Umuada are as extensive as they as ambivalent.

They include the right of arbitration within their natal village, settling of

quarrels concerning political, economic and ritual matters which are

beyond the male relatives’ powers to settle. The track of disciplining

obstreperous or disobedient relatives and wives also falls within their

domain. Most importantly, the Umuada have the power to ostracize any

proven incorrigible (male) relative. In consequence, the funeral of such a

person would be boycotted, which would imitate a ritual crisis since the

services of the Umuada in the funeral of relative are regarded as

indispensable within the prescribed norms. The Umuada determines how

any particular widow will mourn the death of her husband. (40-41)

Umuada included all the married and unmarried, widowed and divorced daughters

of the lineage. They enjoyed a higher position than wives of the lineage. They also acted

as diplomats and goodwill Ambassadors to strengthen the bonds between the villages and

had the privilege to call upon the wives. They were granted the permission to perform

certain rites related with the purification of the bride and other conventional ceremonies.

The senior Ada – of the lineage, Ada Igbo carried out the final absolution rite for a new

bride. The bride had to confess about her pre–marital affairs (if any). If the Ada was

assured of the bride’s honest confessions she absolved the bride from sins she had

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committed in her previous life. Moreover, the Ada-Igbo heard confession from the

adulterous wives of the lineage and performed purification rites for them as well.

Sacrificial and purification rituals were also executed by them to cleanse the impure

lineage house and places. Umuada had the prerogative to conduct ceremonial acts to

secure the blessings of ancestral spirits for good health, bountiful crop and bevy of

children (to expand the lineage).They visited the village of their birth regularly and were

more committed to their father’s home. They were never disloyal to the interest of the

natal village and this loyalty made them ‘resident outsider’ in their husband’s home. But

they were a force to reckon with in the places of their birth.

The wives of the lineage, irrespective of their classes or social status are

expected to be a part Ndi’nyom or Umuokupu (the association of the wives of the lineage).

Anasi, the senior most wife of the village or lineage headed the Otu inyemedi. She

enjoyed a number of right and privilege she assembled the wives, conducted meetings at

regular intervals, solved their problems and advised or admonished the wives as the case

may be.

At the meeting of the Otu Inyemedi, decisions were made on how to help

fellow wives at the times of illness or stress and how to keep the lineage

and village stream and markets clean. The women decided how to

discipline recalcitrant, lazy or adulterous husbands; they also handled

cases of adultery and other breaches of marriage law, delivering swift and

drastic punishments as deterrents to further delinquency… they also made

decision about the planting and harvesting and took joint actions to destroy

animals that damaged their crops even when such animals belonged to the

men of the community. (Hafkin and Bay , 53-54)

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They approached Omu whenever the more privileged group Umuada encroached

upon their privileges. Omu had the power to maintain amicable relations between the two

most dominant groups -Umuada and Ndi’nyom. Umuaghabo refers to the groups of

eligible girls. It is mainly an age grade institutions aimed to socialize the girls of the same

age groups. They learned dances, cookery and other skills. Dances were an integral part

of every Igbo ceremony and participation in such dances was an occasion every girl

pined for. These dances helped the boys and girls to get introduced to each other. Girls

also developed intimate relationships amongst themselves. They were exposed to the

social norms and learnt to abide by them. They also had the right to protest to Omu if

their interests were not looked after.

These democratic political institutions ensured the continuance of woman’s voice

in social and political circles dominated by the Igbo males. Members of these

organizations were endowed with specific power and areas of jurisdiction that confirmed

their influence in matters concerning women’s interests. These women’s groups gave

them the independence and opportunity to contribute to the prosperity of women in

society. Pearce writes, “ Thus amongst the Igbos, women are said to have well defined

political rights and conducted much of their business without male interference.”(4) It is

important to note that women not only enjoyed political clout but were economically self

sufficient too as about “90% Nigerian women are working mothers who trade and farm to

provide for their families, ensuring that they have a source of income and economic clout

where necessary. The system has existed since pre-colonial times.” ( Agbese ,19)

In traditional Igbo society, women’s activities went beyond the domestic domain.

Apart from cooking, household work and child bearing-rearing, rural women armed with

courage and self-confidence challenged gender limitations and were involved at par with

men in local economy. The wives of both the rich and common man were expected to

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work outside, support their children and contribute for the prosperity of the family.Hard

working women were respected by their husbands and village community and were

rewarded with gifts by the husbands, as a token of appreciation. Conversely, a lazy

woman was called mmise oyi and was subjected to ridicule.

Igbo economy is primarily agrarian so all the people including women were

engaged in subsistence farming. They produced the food they needed and the surplus was

sold in the local market. There are two types of farmlands in Igboland –compound Farm

(obubo) and distant farm (ubi). Except yam majority of the crops are referred as women’s

crops and are planted in the obubo. The agricultural surplus is traded in exchange for the

money or items in the local market by the women to fulfill their economic

responsibilities.In some areas enterprising women travelled to neighbouring village

markets to purchase the items that were not available in the local market or in markets

situated inland. To achieve economic independence, women were entitled to certain

property rights distinctly different from men’s inheritance rights. The husband and his

lineage allocated some trees, land and money to the wives or wife so that the woman

could start her economic ventures. Igbo women also owned trees appropriated to her by

the natal home. Moreover women were also allowed to purchase land. “A woman may

appropriate these for direct use and raising income, She may use the proceed from these

and farm crops and trading activities for catering for the family.” (Agbasiere, 38) Apart

from marketing the field produce, Igbo women inhabiting the riverain areas participated

in fishing activities. In the absence of big rivers in Igbo inland, fishing was not the

traditional occupation of Igbos, but the Igbos who lived near the rivers, took to fishing

and were known as ndi mba mmiri . Various types of fish like crab, prawns, crayfish,

catfish, sardines and oysters were netted. They either consumed it fresh or preserved for

future needs. Surplus cache was processed and sold off in the market.

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It is important to note that economic division of labour was based on gender

differences.The plantation of yam was the prerogative of Igbo males .They cut the stakes,

nurtured the yam vines and built barns for the storing the yam harvest, the staple crop

that was to be consumed throughout the year. Men also climbed the palm trees to pluck

palm nuts and gave them to the women to process nuts in order to extract oil and wine

that were sold in the markets by men. However the women assisted their men in the

farms. They de-weeded and managed the farms during the growing seasons and

shouldered the responsibility of bringing home the harvest. The farms that were allocated

to the women were near the compound of the house. In these farms they could cultivate

anything except yam. Women grew cassava, maize, beans, coco yams, peanuts, tomatoes,

pepper and various vegetables. Thus they produced the largest part of Igbo diet. The

agricultural outputs of the farms were used for feeding the family all through the

year.However they were allowed to sell spare crops in the local market. It is difficult to

ascertain the reason for the distribution of labour on the gender lines. Some scholars

believed it reflected the ambiguous ideology of Igbo society that makes provisions to

empower women and encourage gender equality yet at the same time marginalizes them

so that the ultimate authority rests in the hands of men folk. But some other scholars are

of the view that this splitting up of work was grounded in the practicability. Cocoyam and

other crops could be grown in small spaces near the compound of the house. It offered

flexibility to the women as they could manage farms and other household work at ease,

without travelling long distances where as the men travelled to faraway farms to plant

yams that needed fertile open spaces. Nevertheless women assisted their men in

harvesting yams.

The period from November to February was non- planting and non-harvesting

season and during these months women made handicrafts like baskets, calabashes,

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potteries and wood carvings. Women also spun and weaved bark fibre that was later dyed

and stitched to make traditional garments. Igbo women loved to beautify themselves and

made ornaments like waist beads, anklets, ivory necklaces and bangles. Fashionable

earrings and hair accessories were very popular among young women. These ornaments

had certain spiritual and cultural affections. Charms were also worn by women to protect

them from evil spirits. Facial marks were also etched on their faces to indicate their clans.

Women had the right to sell agricultural surpluses, crafts and ornaments in the village

market place dominated by women. To quote Henderson:

Symbolically, the market place was defended as outside the sphere of

assertion by males ,whether human or animal; or any cock that crowed

during trading hours must become the property of women .The connection

of men with market trade comes mainly through their individual

sponsorship of their wives or daughters or traders. (qtd. in Book Rags. 33)

Attending the markets was not forbidden to men, and they sat with their age

groups entertaining themselves with drinks and chatting whereas the exchange of goods

and trading were the chore of women. Since these markets were the hub of commercial

activities and money, women attached a lot of importance to these market days as more

money meant more autonomy in the household economy. So women failed rarely to

attend the market place on market days unless restricted by social norms or community-

imposed sanctions . It was the duty of the Omu to declare the market open for transactions

by conducting some rituals with her medical chalks. They also performed rituals for the

prosperity of the market square. Occasionally, sacrificial ceremonies were also observed

to seek the blessings of the community God and ancestral spirits. These deep rooted

beliefs in traditional medicine, taboos and magic were diligently observed by the women

as they believed that violating any of these rituals could lead to poor market attendance,

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loss of profits, hostility with the neighbouring markets, epidemics, ill health and death.

The rules and regulations of the market place were decided by the Omu, her cabinet and

the women’s council :

This included fixing prices for goods sold in the market and setting market

prohibitions. The Omu and her councillors presided over each market and

acted as a court in judging cases to disciplining (largely through fines) any

woman who broke the laws of the market. The Omu’s cabinet included a

police woman (awo) who was responsible for seeing that the fixed prices

taboos in the market were observed; she arrested offenders and brought

them before Omu’s court of justice. ( Hafkin and Bay, 49)

The women were also obliged to observe some market taboos. For example,

widows in mourning were not supposed to enter the market or engage in trading, women

were forbidden to quarrel or fight in the market. The market days were usually long and

tiring day for women. As they desired to earn maximum profits from their products, they

had to spend the whole day in the market. But this tiresome task of trading did not deter

them from enjoying the pleasure of market environment. Apart from exchanging goods, it

was the avenue for socializing; they met old friends and acquaintances, discussed the

matters of womanly concern, gossiped and disseminated important news. Most of the

women made profits through their business skills and spent the money either to fulfill

personal desires or for maintaining the household. In a traditional polygynous Igbo

compound, mothers were expected to provide for her children with some support from her

husband.

There is no doubt that participation of women in Igbo economy ensured them

economic independence but here again gender related economic disparities diminished

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the economic power of Igbo women. Men, inherited wealth, land, property ascribed to

them by patrilineage. They monopolized over the more profitable and prestigious crops –

yam and palm wine. Elderly males received presents from the members of the lineage.

Only men were entitled to appropriate land to the women of the compound. They were

also allowed to lease surplus land and earn profits. They also received a share of wealth

(profited by women’s trade). Men also ‘owned’ the more lucrative long distance trade.

These factors gave them a head start and constant advantage over women. In the Igbo

society, women were allowed to be in command of local and regional trading so that they

could sell off additional agricultural produce, calabashes, pots and other crafts. But the

proceeds from these petty trading was relatively low. More over the land allocated to

them for farming was comparatively smaller than the farms of their husbands. Igbo

women were also not entitled to property rights in her natal home apart from bride price.

All these factors contributed to Igbo women’s economic lag. This comparatively lower

financial power acted as a barrier to their political ambitions. Title holding was

mandatory for village wide leadership. But the rigmarole of title taking consisted of

payment of higher fees and organizing of feasts that were to be borne by the title seeker.

Thus the financial restrictions of women debarred them from seeking the highest titles

and as such most of the prestigious titles were held by men and they became the prime

consultants, for village wide discussions and decisions. But women tended to participated

in economy as Igbo culture bestowed respect to hard working women achievers. Her

political and economic participation brings to the fore the multifaceted personality of Igbo

women well accomplished in various tasks – farming, making crafts, cooking,

performance of household chores, sewing and trading. The overwhelming amount of

work that every Igbo woman had to perform caused enormous physical and mental strain.

But they non- complainingly performed all the tasks as “ Earning their own money and

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being valued for playing intrinsic roles in the lives of their families and the village gave

Igbo women greater freedom and control over their lives. This economic autonomy

accounted for a sense of self independence and confidence that one often finds among

Igbo women.” (Bookrags,36)

Most of the Igbo women are able to exercise social influences after marriage.

Thus Igbo women view marriage as an institution that confers them social privileges as

well as strengthens the social structure. Most of the Igbo women are married of early as

possible after reaching menarche.Joseph Shanahan states:

The Igbo women are wonderful … the women are extremely good. They

have their own standards of morality, and their own laws about marriage…

about espousals … about relations with men. Their laws and observances

are different to our Church laws, and ninety –nine percent of the women

observe these meticulously …. They have a deep innate sense of modesty,

especially when men are present. (qtd.in Agbasiere,95)

The Igbo women are not regarded as distinct individuals unless married,

irrespective of their political or economic achievements. These women maintain that

marriage is a part of their religious duties and one of the chief purposes of their lives is to

beget children to expand and extend their husband’s lineages. There is no specific term

for marriage in Igbo language. Igbo women call it ikalpu be di which means ‘women

entering cautiously into her husband’s house’. Igbo marriages are characterized by two

functions – community alliances and procreation. In Igbo community, compatibility and

love between two individuals is de-prioritized and alliances between two lineages is over

emphasized. Igbo women are expected to fulfill the societal obligation of expanding and

maintaining the lineage by procreation. As Igbo marriage system is based on the

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‘principle of lineage exogamy’, thus Igbo women are forbidden to marry any man from

her mother’s village and natal village. A free born Igbo woman is also discouraged from

choosing as ohu or oshu as her husband. The women entering in such unacceptable

marriages were prophesied to be either unable to conceive or die at childbirth.

A traditional Igbo marriage has two broad sets of marriage rites and ceremonies –

1. Erumogo iludi –ilu nwanyi ‘maturity for marriage’ and 2. Omenala ilu nwanyi,

‘prescribed, procedural rules for marriage and wife’.The first set erumogo iludi-ilu

involves two stages – one long term and the other one immediate. In the long term

preparations, the Igbo girls by the age of seven are gradually initiated into womanly

activities such as cooking, housekeeping, sewing, farm work and so on by the female

elders of the family. Immediate preparation is set off when the girl reaches puberty,

generally at the age of eleven . The onset of menstruation is regarded as the final stage of

a girl’s growth into womanhood. This event is publicly celebrated by the girl’s family.

After the coming of first menses a girl was considered eligible for marriage. Women

relatives tried to enhance the girl’s physical appearance. The girl’s body was daubed with

free hand designs in deep black or red colour made of camwood dye (uhie). Waist beads

called jigida, anklets and ivory necklaces were also worn by Igbo girls. Potential brides

also styled their hair elaborately. For most of the Igbo girls, menarche is synonymous

with the rite of seclusion generally known as nkpu.

The Period of seclusion serves mainly as a means for an intensive

education of the girls. It involves serious initiation in to the ‘female

secrets’ of married of life in general and formal lessons in the wifehood

and motherhood in particular, and it offers an opportunity to give maidens

a traditional form of marriage guidance and counselling.(Agbasiere,99)

Ghosh 105

Thus the rite of seclusion provided an intensive and holistic training about the

norms and sanctions, to adolescent girls about to be initiated into the vocation of

wifehood and motherhood . After the termination of the rite of seclusion, participants of

the rite of seclusion, had to parade around the market place of the village. Such girls were

usually betrothed within a year of undergoing this rite. During this period of showing

their daughter the girl’s family tried to increase her social visibility. They would send her

on various pretexts to neighbouring villages or compounds of eligible grooms. She also

accompanied her mother to the village market and was encouraged to participate in

coming of age dances and social ceremonies .A valid marriage procedure among Igbo’s

consists of four distinct but interlinked stages :–“ (i) formal enquiry (ibu mmanyi ajuju);

(ii) legitimized testing of a girls character (itu mmanyi nwanyi); (iii) formal betrothal (ima

ogu nwanyi) and (iv) reaching an advance stage of marriage negotiation (ilumi

nwanyi).”(Agbasiere,102) Each of the last three stages is composed of a series of ritual

prestation. Most of the Igbo’s settle for arranged marriages. Marriage intermediaries

provide vital information about eligible boys and girls. They are assigned the task of

investigating the girl’s or boy’s family background and character. Enquiries are

conducted to eliminate the possibility of unknowingly marrying a blood relative or ohus /

oshus, to ascertain family history and reputation, to determine the fertility of the wife-to-

be by tracing the girl’s mother line as Igbos place a lot of value to fertility ; to identify

grave illness that befell on the family; socio-economic and political position of the family

was also considered but most importantly the premarital virginity of the girl was probed

into as chastity of the intended bride was non- negotiable prerequisite for marriage.

Industriousness, humble demeanour, sensitivity to handle unfavourable situations and

warmth were some of the other qualities that were expected to be possessed by the brides

to be. If the findings of all above listed investigations are found satisfactory then the

Ghosh 106

elders of the chosen husband’s family would visit the girl’s family to initiate discussion

about the possibility of a matrimonial alliance. When both the families were convinced

that they had chosen the most suitable bride and groom, the girl was asked about the

marriage proposal. Though a girl’s consent was seeked yet “Igbo girls rarely manifested

antagonism to a marriage proposal. They relied on their parents would make the right

decision for them.” (BookRags, 41)

The second stage was known as Itu mmanyi nwanyi. During this stage the would-

be- bride was expected to visit the land of the prospective husband. This visit was referred

to ‘ileta ala’ surveying the land ,“on the one hand, the ileta ala affords the girl an

opportunity to survey her possible future home and also her future companion within and

without the home. On the other hand, it enables the young man’s mother and other

relatives to ‘test’ the girl’s character and her abilities at housekeeping and so on.”

(Agbasiere,106) During the first and subsequent visits the girl was warned about her

obligation of physical non- intimacy with her husband as such acts were considered

abominable (aru).The pre-colonial Igbo community, granted sufficient liberties to the girl

and her family regarding consent in marriage. For instance if the girl’s family discovered

the husband to be infavourable, they were allowed to halt the marriage process. In the

third stage, ima ogu nwanyi, the predominant rite was to determine the wealth of a

woman i.e. settlement of bride price. This custom of bride-wealth was widely practiced

all over Igboland. It was mandatory for the groom to pay a certain amount of wealth to

the girl’s father. The groom’s family was also expected to give gifts to the girl’s mother,

relatives and friends.

The paying of a brideprice, explains Nigerian writer Derry Yakubbu, was

an act that demonstrated the bridegroom’s respect of his wife-to-be and in-

laws. It was a token of gratitude and appreciation for the trouble the

Ghosh 107

parents have taken to bring up their daughter. In a sense the bride price is a

pledge of value; the husband undertakes by that gesture to care for

her.(qtd.in BookRags,39)

The basic elements for bride price are palmwine, kolanuts and money (in cowries

and manillas). The amount of bride price is settled upon by the elders of both the families.

The actual payment of bride wealth is a prolonged process and may even continue

throughout the lifespan of the prospective groom. Generally a substantial portion of the

intended payment is made before the actual marriage. The date of actual marriage is fixed

after consulting divinitiesor elders of the village. In some communities, four to six weeks

prior to marriage, girls are relieved of their daily activities and are groomed about their

upcoming wifely duties.

The final stage comprised of two rites : ibu sku nwanyic (substantial payment of

bride price) and idu ulo (endowment for marriage).In the stage of Idu Ulo, after

performing the traditional ceremony of prayers and other rites, elaborate feasting

ceremony was organized. Singing, dancing and drinking that lasted throughout the night

were characteristic of Igbo marriage celebrations. Throughout the marriage ceremony, the

bride was expected to wear a grieved look on her face – a tell tale sign of her sorrow at

leaving her natal home. The girl’s mother meticulously secures all the essential objects

that were to be given to her daughter for settling down in her husband’s household.

Cooking utensils, clothes, vegetables, livestock (for sacrificial purposes), yam, tools for

farming and other domestic wares were some of the objects that were brought by the

bride to her new home. Finally, on a particular date, the girl was to embark on a journey

to her husband’s home. Usually, some young men were sent by the husband to ‘fetch’ his

wife. She was escorted to her in-laws home by her female friends who serve the dual

purpose of escorting as well as carrying the possessions of the bride.

Ghosh 108

All these rites of marriage enhances , legitimizes and transforms the status of a

girl to a wife. The training and counselling through the rite of seclusion, the process of

scrutinizing and testing the qualities and personality of Igbo girl’s conduct by the rite of

ileta ala and other marriage rituals conducted in other stages helps to reawaken, reorient

and reconstruct the social identity of Igbo females. Thus, Igbo marriage rituals endorse

the individuality of the wife yet it also encourages the commitment of the wives towards

their chain of responsibilities in all spheres – domestic, social, economic, political and

ritual. “The marriage status and life is viewed as a total, that is holistic, social

phenomenon, whose raison d’être is identification of family and lineage honour or

prestige (afa), and the female partner is central to this process.” (Agbasiere,115)

From the moment, the bride stepped in her husband‘s family compound, she is

expected to perform a network of duties. In the initial phase that lasts up to a year or the

birth of a first child she assists her mother-in-law in farming and learns culinary skills

under the tutelage of other female in-laws. During this so called period of apprenticeship,

the new wife fetches water, gathers fire wood and fodder cleans the compound. During

the period, she is solely dependent on her husband for food and is supposed to get shelter

in the hut of her mother-in-law. Thus, in Igbo marriages, women are obliged to have

physical relationship with their husbands for fulfilling procreational obligations yet are

not permitted to share his hut. An Igbo wife is expected to fulfill certain responsibilities

related to her husband known as nso di.

Included under nso di are the following : (a) proper feeding of a husband

(inyeju di afo); (b) deference to a husband (ihubere di isi); (c) safe-

guarding a husband’s reputation (ikwachi di); (d) dignifying a husband

(inye di ugwu); (e) mourning over a decreased husband (ikwa

di).(Agbasiere,122)

Ghosh 109

Apart from rendering these personal services to the individuals and the household,

the new wife was obliged to shower affection and warmth on the immediate and distant

relatives of her husband. She is also supposed to participate in various ceremonies of her

husband’s lineage thus acquiring knowledge of the history and tradition of her new home.

All these responsibilities evolves the new wife into a more mature and efficient person

enough to conduct the wifely office appropriately. A young wife is provided with a

separate hut and hearth after she has delivered her first child. She is also appropriated a

certain area of land in which she cultivates and produces food. Now the woman is

supposed to assume the responsibility of the main provider of food for her children,

husband and household relatives. Igbo males are responsible for providing yams and meat

to mark specific ceremonies where as the woman is to contribute all other food crops that

are consumed throughout the year.

There is a saying identified mainly with conflict situations: nwoke new

nwanyi la udummiri, ma nwanyi new nwoke la unwu, ‘it is a man’s job to

feed the woman during the ‘fat’ period (udummiri) and the woman’s task

is to feed the man during “lean” period (unwu)’. On the whole, women are

very conscious of this obligation and seem to take pride in it. Hence their

habit of referring to it as oru aka (i.e. a specialist job). ( Agbasiere, 123)

Thus, being the dominant bread winner of her ‘hut’, increased her autonomy

within the compound and gave them an edge to be at par with men. But, the traditional

patriarchal notions of Igbo society coerced women to show deference to her husband and

his relatives. This was known as Jhubere di isi – a wife’s deference to her husband. She

was to address him by an appropriate name or title to show her mark of respect for him,

she was never to answer him in a loud aggressive tone or utter insulting remarks about

him otherwise she was penalized or even sent back to her father’s home. She was also to

Ghosh 110

show gratitude for economic favours provided to her by the husband. She was to leave the

compound only after obtaining permission from him and was to report back after

returning. The wife was to shield her husband’s disabilities – physical and financial. She

was required to serve him proper meals even if he was unable to provide certain items of

food. She was to maintain secrecy about her husband’s infidelities. Most importantly, she

was obliged to bear children as according to Igbo ideology; the main task of a young wife

is to produce children, especially sons, to extend her husband’s lineage. A wife who is

unsuccessful in fulfilling these responsibilities and demands may be penalized and sent

back to her father’s home or incur punishment from the Umuada. On the other hand, a

wife who is able to comply with enlisted conventions is eagerly incorporated into her

husband’s compound. These marital commitments (that are synonymous with wifely

subjugation) demanded from a married Igbo woman brings to the forefront the contrasting

ideology of Igboland that validates the honour prestige of a woman both in the pre-

marriage and marital period but curtails the independence of women by compelling her

to discharge the duties of a woman’s office.

Another aspect of Igbo social life that touches upon the lives of women positively

and otherwise is polygamy. In pre-colonial Igbo society, polygamy was legal and normal

condition, a mark of high social financial status. This practice of polygamy has been

condemned by some scholars who argue that it was suggestive of dishonorable status of

women. But some scholars like Slyvia – Leith Ross and writers of the calibre of Buchi

Emecheta are of the view that polygamy was a means devised by the farming community

to gather more number of hands in farms, combat infant mortality and extend the lineage

by bearing sons. Even writers like Buchi Emecheta and other famous writers maintain

that it open the doors of social and economic upliftment, specifically to the women. In a

polygamous household, co-wives divided the amount of work amongst themselves

Ghosh 111

(housework and field work). This division of labour ensured them some time to engage in

economic endeavours, educate their children and participate in social welfare activities.In

pre- colonial times, there were no means of contraception and as such women in a

monogamous setup had to undergo endless pregnancies whereas a polygamous set up

could be used as a means of family planning and they were able to delay child births by

two to three years. That was vital for the health of the mother and child. Because of all

these factors, Igbo women did not resent polygamy rather welcomed it as an integral part

of Igbo marriages. Divorce was rare in pre-colonial Igbo society. Women were allowed to

divorce on grounds of abuse and negligence. But custodian rights of the children

belonged to the father. However, visitation rights were granted to the women. Divorced

daughters were never a burden on her natal home and had the right to remarry. Even

widowed women were also welcomed home. Besides widowed women had the freedom

to decide about her fate from the several options granted to her by Igbo society. She could

choose to remain a widow, or marry her husband’s brother or return to her parents’ home

and remarry in some other lineage. Thus, for the most part, the life of Igbo women in pre-

conquest Nigeria was independent and honourable, untouched by gender inequalities,

sexism and racism. However some of the societal norms contraindicate the power of

women and supported women’s subordination. For instance, during the village gathering

head count, women were passed over, that symbolizes that women may be were regarded

as non-persons in the Igbo society. One of the most important ritual in any Igbo ceremony

is passing the kolanut regarded as the symbol of life but unfortunately since pre-colonial

times women were not included in the kolanut ritual. This gender based exclusion points

to the secondary status of women. The quest of male child and inheritance rights granted

to male members also exhibited the patrilineal slant of the society.

Ghosh 112

The imperial forces stripped the Igbo women of their joy of living and feminine

power but most of the Westerners think otherwise :

Conventionally, Western influence has been as emancipating African

women through (1) the weakening of kindship bonds; (2) The provision of

“free choice” in the Christian monogamous marriages ;(3) The suppression

of “barbarous” practices( female circumcision,ostracism of mothers of

twins,slavery; (4) the opening of schools; and (5) the introduction of

modern medicine ,hygiene and (sometimes) female suffrage. (Hafkin and

Bay,62)

But some anthropologists like Slyvia Leith Ross, have a different opinion. They

maintain that some ethnicities of Nigeria, like the Igbo women did not achieve

emancipation through Western agencies rather their egalitarian society granted them

social, economic and political autonomy since times not recorded in history. Even writers

like Buchi Emecheta, in her novels, stressed the fact that the dawn of colonial era marked

the end of gender equality. She is of the view that the women of South Eastern Nigeria

were impaired of their power by the demise of women’s traditional political collectives

and siege of economic self sufficiency. The new colonial political structure believed in

Victorian value that assumed that men and women should be treated and situated

differently. “The Victorian mind set situated man and women differently in social,

political and economic relations. Men were expected to be in the public sphere, and

women in the private.”( Okome,6) According to Victorianism women should be

sensitive, the guardian of hearth and adhere to Christian values. Her participation in

masculine affairs – like science, economics politics was considered inappropriate. The

diaries, letters, journals, memoirs of imperial administrators reveal the colonialists’

disapproval of women’s political and economic interference. Hence, they desired to

Ghosh 113

initiate socio-politico-economic obscurity of Igbo women. They failed to perceive the role

of women’s political collectives in maintaining solidarity among women; in regulating

market networks; in consolidating kinship bonds and in enforcing equality of the sexes.

They effectively nurtured the seeds of gender differentiation that lied beneath the

projected gender neutral Igbo culture. The Colonial government through their overt and

covert policies effectively sidelined women through the establishment of asymmetrical

political structure that arrogated to Nigerian males the power to make decisions on behalf

of women. The colonial officers began to consult the male agencies to settle local issues,

constituted native courts and appointed ‘warrant chiefs’ who were practically native

agents of British. This establishment of ‘warrant chiefs’ further erased the authority of

women’s politico-institutions. Thus the colonial rule was partially responsible for the

weakening of women’s political institutions that were essential for safeguarding women’s

privileges. The colonizers thoughtlessly dismantled women’s political autonomy without

establishing alternative approaches to safeguard women’s interests and ensure women’s

empowerment in modern institutions.

Moreover, the Christian missionaries also advocated the colonial policy of

debasing women from political, social and economic areas. Though the Christian

missionaries imparted Western education to girls and initiated the practice of sending

girls to school yet followed different curriculum for boys and girls. In missionary schools,

and special training centres that dispensed academic courses the girls were taught

domestic science, European’s women skills and etiquette and the Bible in vernacular

language. Thus, Christianity in a way acted as a vehicle of marginalizing and inferiorizing

women.

It was the Christian missionaries who through control of education, system

(that) transmitted, perhaps (unwittingly and unconsiously, female

Ghosh 114

inferiority and served discrimination in Nigerian economic and political

affairs as a part of Western civilization which lowered the social status of

women at that time.(Uchem,47)

In the early decades of colonial rule, the missionary centres also trained girls for

Christian wifehood and motherhood but not for modern day employment whereas the

boys were given technical instructions so as to equip them for transport and mining

industry, clerical jobs in native courts, colonial offices and trading companies. Hafkin and

Bay are of the view that:

Missionaries were not necessary against with women’s participation in

politics; clergy in England, as in America, could be found supporting

women’s suffrage but in Africa their concern was the Church and for the

they needed Christian families. Therefore, Christian wives and mothers

not female’s political leaders, were the missions’ aim. As Mary Slessor,

the influential calabar missionary, said: “God- like motherhood is the

finest sphere for the women, and the way to the redemption of the world.”

As the English language and other knowledge of “book” became necessary

to political life, women were increasingly cut out and policy making

became less public. (76-77)

The Igbo men’s opinion about the position of women metamorphosed during the

colonial times and their dormant desire to subjugate women was nurtured by colonial

administrators. In the name of Western principles for women propagated by colonialists

and missionaries, they made efforts to diminish the Igbo women’s political clout. They

too believed that the rightful place of a woman is her home; she should submit herself to

the will of her husband and renounce socio-economic privileges. They endorsed the

Ghosh 115

colonial prejudices and held the view that the task of a woman in a society should be

childbearing and housework. They flouted the customary laws of consulting women

leaders regarding economic and political affairs and even considered themselves

unaccountable for their decisions. This behaviour of disrespecting women’s dignity

disappointed the colonial Igbo women and they mobilized themselves,”to boycott family

and community duties to remind the community that no society can function without the

duties and tasks performed by women namely their spiritual, agarian, economic, familial

obligations.”(Nzegwu,2001,4)But unfortunately they could not regain their old glory.

Hence, colonial ideology, missionaries and Igbo menfolk initiated the political, economic,

social and religious disenfranchisement of women. But this status of a non-entity was

unacceptable to Igbo women and they decided to challenge the colonizers. They

participated in a series of distinctly female political mechanisms-general strikes, protest

marches, economic boycotts, sitting-ins, sleep-ins, demonstrations and even armed revolt

against the colonial agents and officers. They also showed their disenchantment with the

missionaries, Igbo agents and foreign trading companies that rallied imperial intrusion.

The women lamented the destruction of old political order that appropriated them

authority to manage their day to day affairs without interference from men, African or

European.

The awareness of Igbo women regarding their social economic rights can be

realized through their rebellions. In 1916, Igbo women protested over the colonial control

of traditional Igbo village markets. In1925, they organized Nwuabiola movement to re-

establish traditional social order and preserve Igbo heritage. However the Aba women’s

riots of 1929- 1930 was one of the most formidable and intensive uprising staged by Igbo

women. The conflict had its roots in 1925 when the British decided to levy direct taxes in

order to set up national treasury. The idea was to generate funds to improve the native

Ghosh 116

infrastructure as the British imperial philosophy was of the view that the cost of

colonization is to be remitted by the colonized. Initially, taxes were collected without any

interruptions but in 1929, when the revenue collections were tightened by maintaining a

census of household property, livestock, farms and monetary wealth of women, the

women revolted against the British. The counting of women and their wealth spread fears

about the taxation of women- a move that was widely resented. The assurance of the

British government’s plan of non-taxing women was not believed by Igbo women. The

rumour of women’s taxation was disseminated to the Igbo womenfolk through women

communication channels like women collectives, informal gatherings at household

compounds and at village markets.

On November 23, an agent of Oloko Warrant Chief, Okugo, entered a

compound and told one of married woman, Nwanyeruwa, to count her

goats and sheep. She replied him angrily, “Was your mother counted?” at

which “they closed, seizing each other by the throat” (Perham 1937; 207),

Nwanyeruwa’s report to the Oloko women convinced them that they were

to be taxed. (Hafkin and Bay,72)

The news of this incident spread like wildfire and infuriated the women living in

neighbouring villages like Aba, Owerri, and Calabar and they encircled the warrant chief

of Oloko - Okugo. Their protests were effective as they managed to receive written

statements regarding non taxation of women. The success of Oloko rebellion inspired the

women of Igboland and they attempted to rid Igboland of its foreign oppressors and their

manipulative policies like the establishment of native courts and warrant chiefs; abetting

the invisibility of women; encroachment of the farms agricultural pattern and crops and

so on. Women leaders from various Igbo villages donated money to fund women’s

resistance meetings. Heroine of Aba revolt- Nwanyeruwa and other famous women

Ghosh 117

leaders coordinated the women’s war and Igbo women streamed at various colonial

offices. All of them were unusually dressed and adorned, wore short loin cloths, smeared

their faces with charcoal or ashes, heads bound with young ferns and carried sticks

wreathed with palm fronds. Relationally, the women’s emblazonment signified war to

drive away misery and desperate circumstances, the sticks personified the power of

female ancestors, a symbolic call to the god for help. These women expressed their

frustrations and registered their complaints through traditional methods — chants, dances

and songs of ridicule. The demonstrations continued for six weeks and with each passing

day the number of women protestors increased. “The women demands that the Native

courts no longer hear cases and that “all white men should go to their own country”-- or

at least that women serve on the native courts and women be appointed a district officer --

were in line in the power of women in traditional Igbo Society.”(Hafkin and Bay,74)

Some of the women destroyed the property of the British, vandalized their courts and

burned the office buildings. Some of them broke the penal institutions like lockups, jails

and freed the prisoners. The British resorted to the use of force to suppress the rebellion.

They deployed armed forces, police and boy scouts in disturbed areas and ordered them

to fire at trouble causing Igbo women that reportedly resulted in about fifty casualties.

Many women were injured and the women’s resistance activities in affected areas were

forcefully halted by the British soldiers and policemen. They pushed the women back into

their villages, burned their farms, razed their houses, demolished their compound,

confiscated their property, axed down trees of commercial value and imposed fines in

retribution to the damages caused to official property. The British, through their access to

superior arms, ammunition and man power, were able to clamp down the Aba riots by the

initial months of 1930.

Ghosh 118

The British colonial officers neither tried to understand the root cause of women’s

anguish nor they did try to pacify them and nor did they comply with the women’s

demands for restoring the old political structure. Instead they related the Igbo women’s

behaviour with irrationality, primitivism and mob frenzy. They were largely ignorant of

fact that the Igbo women’s protest strategies were some of their traditional political

conflict resolution methods carried out on a larger scale than in pre-conquest days. They

de-recognized the women’s riots as women’s collective response against the

deinstitutionalization of women’s political base, non-incorporation of women into the so-

called modern political institutions of colonial government and exclusion from the Igbo

economy. They introduced some social and political reforms in 1933, but regrettably

excluded women from politics of colonial Nigeria. The British society discouraged

females from participating in public sphere and hence made no provisions to assure

women’s involvement in modern organization of colonial era. It can be said that :

In attempting to create specialized political institutions on the Western

model, with the participation on the basis of individual achievement ,the

British created a system in which there was no place of solidarity, no

possibility of dispersed and shared political authority or power of

enforcement, and thus very little place for women. (Hafkin and Bay,75)

Thus, in the reformed political structure most of women were not able to quality

for village leadership for the lack of prerequisite resources and female vis-à-vis male

membership in local administrative offices became minimal. Taking into consideration

the women adverse political climate, the political achievement of some women was

creditable. In order to pacify women’s demands for political inclusion, few women were

appointed as warrant chiefs. During the Aba riots, women complained about the

oppressive and corrupt rule of warrant chiefs and pressurized the government to abolish

Ghosh 119

the warrant chief system. Though the government did not accede to the demand for

abolishing warrant chief system, yet it instructed the native courts to appoint warrant

chiefs in compliance with the approval of women leaders. These minor achievements

were in fact the stepping stones of women in the all male dominated colonial political

system.

Every altercation modifies the existing patterns of society. The new political

arrangement proved to be prejudicial to women even in the economic domain. The

European intrusion caused the erosion of women’s economic contribution. The expansion

and nature of trade during the colonial era resulted in diminishing the importance of

women in Igbo economy. Colonialism fostered sex based stratification of economy by

initiating young men to take over trading bastions previously held by women. In the

initial years of colonial rule new means of conveyance were introduced. In 1920

construction of Eastern railway and the introduction of bicycles and motorcycles provided

opportunities to Igbo men to ferry large volume of commodities from the coast to the

hinterland trading markets of Aba, Oguta, Onistha and Umuahia. Men made efficient use

of modern transportation services like railways and roads; brought European goods; sold

them in native markets and earned profits. They were also versed in dealing with

European currency. Moreover new colonial policies favoured men’s access to farming

lands, high yielding seeds, fertilizers, agricultural instruments, kernel cracker, loans, oil

mills, and cassava graters. They were also imparted training about new and innovative

cultivation technologies. Industrial and clerical instruction also aided the penetration of

men’s domination over the economic zone of women. With increased colonial support,

Igbo men ventured into palm oil industry and cassava trade that were considered

women’s economic arenas that resulted in the erosion of women’s rights and access to the

earnings of palm produce. On the other hand, the Igbo women believed that the usage of

Ghosh 120

modern transportation mechanisms would debase women’s morals and hence were

disinterested to avail colonial transportation services.Moreover, Igbo women were

apprehensive in handling European currency.

Women’s social roles and in particular their responsibility for spending on

household needs had held them back from buying bicycles and joining the

ranks of the enterprising and ambitious [male] retail traders .Furthermore

(where as the male traders ,notably the Kalabari merchants, freely accepted

the European currencies, which had become the official tender or medium

of exchange, market women resisted the new currency and thus seemed

unable to accumulate sufficient funds necessary to purchase bicycles.

(Midamba and Ekechi,45)

Thus the Igbo women’s handicapped by cultural and colonial prejudices were

unable to compete with Igbo men. Women remained enchained to their loyalties for

home, children to extended family where as men consolidated their economic prosperity

at the expense of women economic deterioration. By 1938, men invaded women

controlled cassava industry and women blamed the colonial regime for their economic

predicament. Though the vortex of colonial domination and men intrusion in the

economic lives posed various challenges to women’s economic activities but the resilient

Igbo women rose up to resist as well as adjust to the new economic order unleashed by

colonialism.“More than any other social group in the region Igbo women had not only

demonstrated their receptivity new opportunities but had also contributed most to the

sustenance of colonial export and domestic economy of south Eastern Nigeria.”

( Chuku,52) Certain factors related to colonial rule gave women fresh opportunities to

regain the economic visibility. During the first few decades of colonial rule a new urban

order was introduced to alter the face of rural Igboland. Men were forcefully conscripted

Ghosh 121

to make and maintain roads; clear rivers and creeks to facilitate navigation; construct and

lay railway lines. Some of them were entrusted the task of serving carriers and hammock

bearers for colonial staff as they went on transfer or undertook periodical inspective tours.

Some of them worked as construction labourers needed to build and maintain official

quarter. Able bodied men were coerced to render their services to mining industry. This

removal of large number of men from rural areas forced women to take up the task of

food production. Women had to bear the brunt of managing the family farms to generate a

steady flow of food. The burden of feeding the family descended on women and it

repositioned women’s economic energies and they once again started playing an

indispensible role in local economy. However, long distance trade was still the stronghold

of men. Women carried small quantities of saleable stuff and sold them in native markets

and were limited to petty and informal sectors. The construction of footpaths and

highways allowed women to engage in inter-village trade and to some extent boosted

petty trading of women. In spite of the masculine domination of Igbo market ( a

development precipitated by colonial economic policies) and threats posed by patriarchy,

enterprising Igbo women managed to achieve economic success.

Nevertheless, the position of urban Igbo women was dependent on the

male members of her family. Education helped some urban women to gain

employment as nurses and school teachers but for majority of Igbo

women, economic advancement was limited by their low level of literacy

and by the general tendency to give priority to men in employment

recruitment to modern sector . ( Hafkin and Bay,79)

The colonialists intended to make women play second fiddle in the country’s

economy and devised economic policies to encourage gender based economic

stratification and undermine irrefutable economic status enjoyed by women. Their

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economic re-visibility shows that they managed to challenge, negotiate and engage with

new economic systems imposed by colonizers. The economic awareness of Igbo women

is reflected through their participation in a series of revolts whenever their economic

rights were trespassed. When the Aba women’s riots were suppressed Igbo women were

compelled to retreat to their village enclaves and lead a life of passivity. But Igbo women

were never intimidated by the high handed colonial soldiers and revolted whenever their

collective interests were threatened. In continuation of the legacy of Aba riots, Igbo

women of Okwei and Bende divisions of Owerri province in 1938 protested against

taxation in times when the price of palm produce plummeted and their annual income was

barely enough to sustain the families. The grim economic situation forced them to launch

anti tax demonstrations. In some places, the demonstration turned violent, and the

administration had to use force to suppress disturbances.Rural Igbo women continued to

raise their voice whenever the socio-economic interests were overlooked. In 1949, the

colonial government decided to install oil mills to increase the production of oil from

palm nuts. Most of the women were unable to afford oil mills and were concerned that

they would be deprived of the income derived from palm kernels. This apprehension of

economic depravity incited then to initiate oil mills protest especially in Owerri and

Calabar provinces. They drove away the workers sent to install oil mills, burned native

courts and freed prisoners.

The fiery strong response against political and economic organization by

these women to the erosion of their right conclusively showed that not

only the women had political rights and roles in pre-colonial times, but

also the political institutions through which they claimed these rights were

integral parts of the political tradition of Igboland and Ibibioland. It

showed their political acumen, foresight and vision and revealed the

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existence of a powerful, highly efficient political structure with networks

that transcended ethnic boundaries . (Uchem, 50)

These protests convinced the colonial government that it was necessary to consult

the economically aware Igbo women before embarking on economic endeavours that

might put the commercial interests of Igbo women in jeopardy. The British colonial

administration even erased the social prominence enjoyed by women by contriving the

ideology of domesticity as espoused by the practice of’ housewification’ of fairer sex.

They reconstructed the social structure by imposing discriminatory sex roles to

undermine feminine relevance in social affairs. They divested women of their social

powers that Igbo women wielded through women’s collectives and were responsible for

ending the women’s right to be consulted on matters concerning the welfare of women at

rural and domestic spheres. They de-recognized the women’s bastions of social prestige -

the traditional institutions like Umuada and only the male chiefs of the village ‘Obi’ was

approved of where as his female counter part ‘Omu’ was treated as an honoraria authority

and her only role was to act as an agent between the Obi and the women of the village.

She was no longer the policy maker but only the communicator of orders and judgments

pronounced by Obi. Colonialists introduced reforms in the local governance levels but the

institution of Omu was kept in abeyance and gradually eliminated. Her clientele were also

diminished by the arrival of Christianity. Christian religious ceremonies replaced the

sacrificial ceremonies that Omu performed to seek the blessings of local deities and

ancestral spirits. Christian missionary hospitals and medicines replaced market medicines

prepared by Omu to guard the health and wealth of the community. Women related cases

were now decided by the British appointed colonial magistrate. Her power of fixing the

prices of indigenous goods sold at the native market was supplanted by the already

labelled prices of imported goods that flooded the native markets in colonial era. Newly

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constructed roads and highways ended the women’s fear of travelling through dense

foliage to reach neighbouring villages and they no longer required the charms prepared by

Omu to protect them from evil spirits that they might encounter in their journeys. The

prestige associated with traditions titles such as Omu was displaced by allure of new

European title. Churches bestowed the title of Mrs. to married women which they

considered to be more prestigious.Other traditional women’s organization like Otu

Inyemedi, Otu Umaada, age groups lost their socio-political vitality as they were not

required to arbitrate inter-village and inter-women disputes. The advent of schools

modelled on Western curricula replaced the role played by age groups and dance societies

in the socialization of girls.

In 1940’s and 1950’s, the pre- independence era of Nigeria, members of women’s

organization partook in the politics of decolonization. Migration to urban centres, vital

roles in diverse sectors of economy and association with emerging modem careers options

like teaching, nursing provided opportunity for political mobilization. Nigerian women’s

union (NWU) formed in 1949, National Council of Women’s Societies (NCWS) were

some of the non-partisan women’s organization that promoted consciousness among

Nigerian women regarding issues like women’s education, maternal health, welfare

schemes and made efforts to enhance the socio-economic position of women in pre

independent Nigeria. Branches of these associations were also established in major cities

of Southern Nigeria - Enugu Women’s Association and Aba Women’s Association

fostered political awareness among Igbo women. The major political parties to appear

more appealing as well as to attract women voters formed women’s wings which were not

autonomous rather were mere political auxiliaries of national parties. These branches

were major source of women’s votes, monetary aid, and women members of these

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organizations enthusiastically campaigned for the political parties but the authorities to

formulate policies were firmly in the hands of male politicians.

Market women’s associations were a vital base of support for the early

National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) the party that

eventually was to become dominant in Igbo regions and though a few

market women were ultimately rewarded for their loyalty to the NCNC, by

appointment to party or legislative positions, market women’s association

never attained a share of policy making that approached their contribution

to NCNC electoral success. (Hafkin and Bay,82)

At the behest of women’s branches NCNC initially advocated for implementation

of female suffrage throughout the country in spite of stiff opposition from NPC (the

dominant party of Muslim dominated Northern Nigeria) but later on backed out in order

to make peace with NPC and to gain ample share in politics of post-independent Nigeria.

In the pre-independence year of 1959, the NCNC leader Nnamdi Azikiwe, through the

newspapers owned by him exhorted for greater female contribution to modernize new

Nigeria. He initiated leadership training course for women. The courses imparted to

women were same as that of men but with slight alterations. These leadership courses

were less on content and more on rhetoric and did nothing to emancipate women, yet they

provided women a platform to increase their presence in the political bandwagon during

the struggle for independence. Female leaders joined hands with their male counterparts

and managed to oust the colonizers. But unfortunately after independence, powerful male

political actors deliberately relegated women to inferior and insignificant political

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positions so as to ensure non-visibility of women in modern politico-socio-economic

structures.

Post colonial Nigeria was built on a male privileging colonial ideology that

empowered local men and their male dominated male oriented native

authorities, agencies and customary courts and dismissed women….But

women fought to be included. The difference between this period and

colonial era is that women tried to assert themselves mostly through legal

structures and when that did not work, they reverted to traditional

strategies. ( Agbese, 6)

When Nigeria gained independence in 1960, women’s collectives pressurized

Nnamdi Azikiwe to implement political suffrage for women of Southern Nigeria. This

political enfranchisement offered women a chance to participate in the political processes.

It also granted them the right to run for electoral offices. Some Igbo women assisted the

election of Igbo men to political offices, both at regional and national levels of

government. In 1960 federal elections , three women were elected in the Eastern house of

assembly and many more were elected to local government councils. But non

appointment of any women at the federal cabinet exhibits the masculine nature of post-

independent Nigerian government. Similarly, in 1964 federal elections, not a single

woman got elected at the federal level neither they occupied prominent portfolios in

regional executives or legislatures and those handful of women who were appointed

gained favour for supporting the cause of party and not women. But unfortunately

Northern women were denied suffrage both in 1960 and 1964 elections and they neither

had the right to vote nor the right to contest elections . Since 1966, Nigeria oscillated

between military and civilians governments. Some military regimen expressed greater

sensitivity to women’s rights where as others excluded them. Ironsi the first military head

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of the state sustained the culture of post-colonial sexism in national politics. However

during the regime of Yakub Gowon, Ukpabia Asika was appointed as the civilian

administrator of East Central State. The late Flora Nwapa a renowned novelist of Igbo

origin was appointed as the first female Commissioner of Eastern region. Later on she

held important portfolios like health and social welfare and lands for establishments.

Taking a cue from her esteemed political positions, women like Folake Solonke and

Kofowarala Pratt were appointed in Oyo and Lagos states respectively. But there were no

women representative in armed forces ruling council. General Buhari seemed to have no

interest in gender equal opportunities and as such no women were appointed in any

political positions. General Murtala Mohammed also excluded women the politics of

federal level. His successor General Olusegun Obasanjo continued the tradition of female

non-inclusion in governing body of military council. Only one female Commissioner was

appointed from each state inspite of significant increase in the number of women

professionals, academicians and civil servants. In 1976, two core Igbo states, Anambra

and Imo were created in which a large number of Igbo women contested for local council

positions and about eight women were elected form Anambra state.

In October 1975, General Murtala Mohammad constituted a 250 member

constituent assembly in which only five women were appointed and no women was

included in the core forty nine member consecution drafting committee. “No one woman

sat on the fifty member constitutional drafting committee thereby intermitting the

potential influence and participation of women in bringing issues that favoured them to

the forefront.”( Agbese, 7) One of the female appointees Abigail Ukpabi, representing the

Igbo ethic group moved a petition to protest against sex based discrimination. Her

remonstrance received the support of other woman members and their petition to outlaw

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gender discrimination was accepted on constitutional grounds. But

That amendment was never enforced when the constitution was adopted in

1979 because the mechanisms for enforcing constitutional provisions

regarding women were never discussed, and nothing was done to formally

include women in the national political structure or to enforce laws to

make their lives better. (Agbese,23)

During this period many Nigerian women formed all women political institutions.

Among such associations were Nigerian Women’s National League headed by Regina

Agbakoba in Onistha; National Democratic Action Party founded by Feliz-Alheri (also

based in Onistha). NCWS, a non partisan organization headed by Mr Oyibo Odinamadu

in late 1978 tried to promote awareness among women regarding their civil rights and

duties and endeavoured to engage them in politico-economic policy making. In the

government of Second Republic the appointment of Igbo women in high political

positions, both in the state and federal level was negligible. Prominent women members

of federal assembly were Mrs. Justine Eze of Anambra state and Mrs. V.O. Nnaji of Imo

state. During the period 1979-1983 Mrs. Keziah Asinobi of NPN was appointed as the

minister of state in the federal ministry of internal affairs. Though most of the female

politicians reflected their loyalties to their respective ethnicities yet some of them

transcended parochial ethnic boundaries and joined political parties founded by non-

Igbos. Mrs. Oyibo Odinamadu, a prominent female political activist of Igbo origin, rose

to the rank of national vice president in Yoruba dominated UPN party. Apart from these

urban Igbo women who spearheaded women’s participation in modern day politics of

Nigeria, rural Igbo Women were also trying to revive women’s lost power by

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re-institutionalizing women’s political collectives.

The Institutions of the Omu has enjoyed resurgence and has been largely

reconditioned. After the long period of non recognition of the Omu during

the colonial era, a renewed spirit of loyalty to her and her support of her

role is readily apparent in Igbo communities….Her cabinet retain its one to

one correspondence with that of the Obi, and her duties have taken on new

dimensions and directions. (Hafkin and Bay.86)

A new Omu was appointed in Ogwashi Uku in 1972 amidst fanfare. She and her

cabinet were committed to pro-women empowerment activities by improving the market

places, constituting weaving cooperatives, evoking methods to create harmonious

environment between women and governmental machinery, fixing the prices of

indigenous agricultural and craft produce , settling minor problems of the market place

and enforcing market taboos. They also had a right to penalize women if they failed to

adhere to the market taboos and also prepared market medicines. The social position of

the post colonial Omu is re-oriented. She is supported in her task by a uniformed police

woman and mouth piece (Onu Omu) who disseminated news and orders on the behalf of

Omu. Thus along with the traditional and spiritual position, the quasi political aspect was

also introduced in the new set up. The Otu Inyemedi and Otu Umuada have regained their

lost political authority to some extent. Though they are no more authorized to settle inter

village disputes and women discords yet they are granted the power to discharge many of

the other traditional functions as specific modifications have made them more

accountable to modern constitution and law.

The institution of title taking is gradually remerging. During the last phase of

colonial rule, women were not much interested in acquiring titles as the rigmarole of title

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taking requires large expenses and most modern women wanted to conserve monetary

resources for education of children ,housing and other needs. More over the custom of

non - inheritance of the title to their children inhibits them from acquiring them. The new

clientele for titles are slowly arriving in contemporary times from salaried women and

wives of traders and political actors. These women are wealthy enough to donate large

sum of money to cover all the expenditure of title taking.

Igbo women during the Biafra rebellion organized rallies to demonstrate their

deep disgust of war and its related atrocities; massacres of civilians; to press the demand

for secession and withdrawal of soviet troops from the war zone .During the Biafran war,

the women branches of Igbo political parties were banned. Igbo s women’s market

network systems and traditional women institutions organized women distribution

system and maintained channels for the flow of food and war information to the

army.“Women joined local civilian defence militia units and in May 1969 formed women

front and called on the Biafran leadership to allow them to enlist in the infantry.”( Hafkin

and Bay,85) After the war, the newly established government reformed the native

administration system that guided the continuance of local civilian government. The

percentage of male members in local council’s was low owing to the death of many

capable men during the Biafra war. But ironically this tragic loss of human lives (mostly

male) paved the reappearance of female political actors at the grassroots level.

During the years (1975 - 1985), both the heads of military regime and civilian

governments launched organizations to raise socio-economic awareness in women under

the influence of increased feminist activities at the state level inspired by women oriented

development activities initiated at the international level as United Nations declared

(1975-85) The Decade of Women. During this decade there was a perceptible increase in

the number of educated Nigerian Women and most of them were the products of

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secondary and tertiary education systems. These educated Nigerian Women held

seminars, workshops, conferences and meetings to raise the participation of women into

the political arena and also to highlight problems faced by Nigerian women. Nigerian

women’s imperceptible roles in the national agenda were marginally transformed during

the Babandiga regime. His wife, the first lady Maryam Babandiga, forcefully highlighted

the Nigerian women’s unacknowledged and unimportant position in the country. During

the military regime women were not allowed to defend themselves and their children

from abandonment by the husbands. She could not raise her voice against exploitation

and callousness by relatives after the death of their husbands. They were not allowed to

receive Western education. Women who tried to defy conventions were generally labelled

as un-African and gradually muted. Babandiga expressed concern about the ‘long

suffering Nigerian women’ and proposed to create organizations that will bring obscure

rural Nigerian women out of her closet’ Babandiga started the Better Life for Rural

Womem (BLRW) programme to purposefully to empower rural women socially,

economically and politically through adult education and training in the fields of

education, agriculture, public health, arts and crafts and food processing.” ( Nnonwu,1)A

National Commission for Women was established to monitor the programme and other

matters related to advancement of women. It enhanced the self esteem of Nigerian women

and successfully channelized the creative energies of women to achieve women

empowerment goal. It also assisted the formation of functional women’s cooperatives;

multipurpose women centres, shops and markets exclusively allocated to women and

appropriation of new farmlands to women .It tried to end women oppressive customs like

female genital multination. In appreciation of her efforts, Maryam Babandiga was

awarded with the 1991 Africa prize for leadership. She also encourages the mass media to

cover women’s issued and hosted discussion to find solutions to women’s problems. But

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despite the overbearing influence of Maryam Babandiga women were accorded marginal

status in the political council of the military regime. The transtitional senate had just one

women representative out of 91 members. The House of Representatives had only 12

women members out of 618 representatives and no women were appointed as state

Governors.

In 1999 first lady Mariam Abacha, continued to walk on the footsteps of her

predecessor and embarked on feminist propaganda through the creation of programmes

like FSP (Family Support Programme) to address the local needs of women in accordance

with the objectives of International Year of the Family as declared by United Nations.

The programme endeavoured to develop the nations by enhancing the socio- economic

prosperity of the family. The programme also attempted to sensitize Nigerians on gender

related matters, equalization of women socio economic and political realms, modify

cultures, traditions and institutions that hinder women’s economic advancement and

improve the overall status of women. The FSP aimed at the improvement of the whole

family, irrespective of gender, tactfully avoided the label of ‘reverse discrimination’

imposed on women’s institution by Nigerian men. Besides, it gave women a stage to

express their views on national, economic, socio-cultural, political and international

issues and heralded a change in national gender politics. It also initiated legislative

amendments to improve education of girls and women.“Abacha even created a Ministry

of Women Affairs and Social Development to confer institutional recognition on the

contribution of women to national development” ( Mama,12) But, this ministry was in

fact the elevation of Women’s Affairs Commission to ministerial level and loyal

candidates were offered token ministerial posts. Moreover these women empowerment

programmes being headed by the first ladies of the state spread a wrong notion of

women’s empowerment that only wives of powerful men could gain prominence in

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social-political circles. Even at the state and local levels, wives of Governors and chiefs

were appointed as heads of programmes. Thus the power of decision making was

concentrated in the hands of elite Nigerian women where as rural women had no means to

voice their opinions about fund distributions and implementation of programmes. The

funds instead of being diverted for the upliftment of rural women were distributed to

enhance the economic position of specific group of affluent women.

Nigerian women and feminists were expecting pro-women policies with the return

of fourth republic headed by Obasanjo. They expected that the democratic regime would

appreciate equal rights to all genders. However, they were disappointed when only five

women were appointed in the House of Representatives and no women were given the

opportunity to lead the houses. At the regional level, all the Governors of state were men.

The only female deputy governor was impeached before the end of the term. The women

were subjected to both executive and legislative subjugation throughout the entire term of

the fourth republic. Women were also discriminated in nation’s judiciary, armed forces

and banking sector. No woman has been appointed as Chief Justice of Supreme Court or

Attorney General of the federation. However in 2008, the first female Chief Justice of

Supreme Court Aloma Mukhat was appointed by Obasanjo. Still today, women are not

given prominent positions in armed forces or central bank of Nigeria.

2003 general elections presented women a good opportunity to navigate their way

to power. Women commanded a greater electoral strength as they constituted 60% of the

registered voters, but women candidates failed to convert the electoral advantage into

political gains. In the party primaries women were systematically discriminated against

and subjected to sexual discrimination by men. The unjust elimination of women from the

primaries ensured the domination of men at the apex level. They were also marginalized

at the core level. All state and national chairpersons were men. They dominated the

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executive council. To highlight the gender injustice women leaders petitioned their

grievance to Obasanjo but he merely affirmed that the social-cultural context of Nigeria

were not supportive of women’s participation in governance. Thus in the present day

Nigeria, Igbo women are subjugated economically and politically by Igbo men. Women

related to powerful men had merely become their political and economic auxiliaries;

Women Empowerment Programmes are created to provide Elite Nigerian ladies a

platform to showcase their presence. Women’s groups are merely vote gathering

machineries meant to collect the votes of women electorates. But even if the political

activism of women has not been rewarded by commensurate degree of political power

viz-a-vis men, women today are trying to increase their presence in political and financial

landscape. They now sit on the board of banks and even own industries. The pioneering

efforts of these women accelerated the participation of women on every front in Nigeria.

Organizations such as Women in Nigeria (WIN) and National Council of Women’s

Societies educate women and girls. Besides they are very influential in instigating social

and political pressures in post colonial Nigeria. MWAC, (Market Women’s Association)

and FIDAC (Federation of Women’s Lawyers) tried to create consciousness about the

plight of women in society and their deplorable social-politico- economic status, domestic

violence and carried research to enhance women’s political and economic empowerment.

Now, in the present day Nigeria, women are carving a niche for themselves by cutting

political, cultural, religious and economic constraints.

Buchi Emecheta in her novels illustrates the lives of Nigerian women as the

female characters passes through various eras spread across the timeline of Nigeria.In her

novel The Slave Girl Igbo women’s greatest desire to procreate and extend the lineage is

highlighted. Most of Igbo women had multiple pregnancies and often new born children

died within few hours of delivery. As such, pregnancy was a normal routine for them and

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till the time of child birth, an Ibuza woman was supposed to perform her household and

outdoor activities. We read that:

In common with the most Ibuza women, she treated the event in a very

straight forward manner, requiring none of modern paraphernalia that now

attend the birth of a child. A pregnant Ibuza woman would simply carry a

cooking knife with her, just in case she gave birth to her baby on her way

to or from the market or farm. If she were lucky, she might have someone

with her who would cut the cord, if not she would cut the cord herself, rest

a while put her new baby on her back and tread her way home. (SG,19)

Every Igbo woman was expected to bear many children and miscarriages or still

birth were considered to be caused by sins. When Ojebeta began losing babies Jacob

became restless and consulted the Dibia to find a remedy. The statement , “Girl children

were not normally particularly prized creatures ” is an conscious reference to the inferior

status of women. In Ibuza widows observed certain mourning rituals to express their grief

over their dead husbands. They were expected to wear smoked rags, live in isolation, not

allowed to bathe in the stream or fetch water. When Ojebeta’s father died her brother had

to:

fetch water, for his widowed mother, for while in mourning she was

forbidden to visit the stream, to bathe, to enter her any hut where the man

of the family had a title. In fact a woman in mourning was not really

expected to survive long after the death of her husband, though

miraculously widows did ,perhaps because most wives were very much

younger than their husbands and had that built un resistance which only

youth and a determination to live can provide…. there was nowhere for

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her go, no kernels for her to press to make oil, no cassava for her to fetch.

She was confined to her hut like a prisoner until her months of mourning

were over . (SG, 28-29)

But ironically women who died during the mourning period, were thrown into the

bad bush. The narrative states, “Since his mother had died while still in mourning,

custom had demanded that her body be thrown into the bad bush.” (SG, 82) Ibuza women

were forbidden to marry outside their tribe .Most of the Ibuza marriages were arranged

by the elders and the women marrying a man of their choice were considered to be

outcaste. Underscoring this rigidity of Igbo marriages, it is stated that, “It was bad

enough for the Ibuza woman to marry someone form Ogwashi or from Asaba , but when

you went beyond that and married someone who did not even speak the Igbo language

then you are regarded as lost or even sold in to slavery.” (SG, 34) The tradition of

capturing the women and selling them into slavery was customarial among the natives.

Their slave trade was also encouraged by the European invaders but later on upon their

requirement of manual labour being over, initiated measures to check slave trade and

even discouraged the practice of keeping women slaves by natives. Okolie reminisces

that,

In his childhood many young women had been kidnapped in the middle

of the night when they went out to their toilet. He could still remember his

grandfather coming home with string of captives after raiding

neighbouring villages; some of the captives- the lucky ones- were kept as

house slaves but most of the them were either taken down to the Bonny or

sold the people going to Idu.(SG,38)

In Igboland women slaves learned to sew, learned to read Igbo alphabets and

read stories and Bible. Thus during colonial period, these women slaves acquired the

Ghosh 137

status of elite slaves. Ma Palagada , the rich slave owner of the novel by “ allowing the

girls to go to Mrs. Simpson class.…allowed them to become elite slaves .They soon

learned to read in Igbo from a green book called “Azu-Ndu” and what they found out

from the printed word gave them endless amusement.” (SG,105) During the era when

colonial people traded slaves, many women along the coast of Nigeria were kept by the

white men but when the trading of slavery was dying out, these white men left a vast

amount of wealth for their mistress and went back.

Ma Palagada in her younger days had been kept by a Portuguese man who

had been very kind to her though she never officially married him the

white man would always stay with her whenever his stream brought him to

the banks of Niger. Much later he had to go because his people’s trade

mainly slavery was squeezed out. But he left ma a great deal of wealth.

(SG, 112)

The novel captures the incapability’s of slave girls to feel grieved at the death

their master as years of abuse have rendered them heartless:

Ojebeta slipped away from Clifford hold and covered her face and cried. It

was an indulgence which a normally arduous life of servitude left her little

time for and which the caning, humiliation and dehumanization she has

tasted in this household had taught her never to allow herself. Even Ma

Palagada’s characteristic benevolence had never been able to counteract

the effects of the severe treatment meted out by her husband and her

daughter. (SG, 137)

But slave girls desired to free themselves by the money their husband‘s would pay

as bride price. Ojebeta confides to Amanna her intentions of leaving the house but

Ghosh 138

promises to return the money her brother got in return of her selling as a slave.“I am not

secretly running away and promise to pay them back. My bride price will enough to do

that, because my brother told Ma to free me as soon as my future husband repaid her with

my bride price” (SG,142) Emecheta also highlights the life of rural Ibuza girl of pre-

colonial times:

An Ibuza girl of her age would have to help her mother plant cassava, help

her father peel corn from the cobs when they were ripe, and on her way

back from farm she would carry heads of ripe palm kernels ready to be

pressed into oil which could be sold here in the Otu market, apart from that

oil kept for the family’s cooking and oil lamps. (SG,47)

The African women’s quest for male child stems from the traditional belief that

the lineage of the husband will expand and remembered. Many childless women pray to

Oboshi river to grant a child that she longed for years. One of Ojebeta’s relative,

Ukabegwu says,“There are some of us left to carry on the work of producing more and

more children And that is why I am now begging our mother of the Oboshi river ,the

great guardian of the Ete market and your chi to give you a male child, so that the name

of your husband can be remembered.” (SG,77) They even want the gods to spare the

death of male children. When Ibuza was in the grip of felenza related deaths, prayers were

offered to god to spare the boys“---the boys may be spared. Let us pray to god to spare

him for us so that he may live and be great man, a great hunter and a great Obi.” (SG, 77)

In Igbo community, women are considered to be the puppets whose strings are

controlled by the man folk. When her brother Okolie seals her fate by selling her into

slavery and his conscience even defends his decision,“So was not her brother the right

full person to decide the fate of little Ojebeta.” (SG, 78)A girl was to be guided all her life

Ghosh 139

by her father, brother, husband and the other male relatives and in old age had to adhere

to the decisions of her son. After years of being owned by men, women consider the

condition of being owned as a matter of pride. Ojebeta’s aunt Uteh consoles her by

saying that “To be owned by a man is a great honour.”(SG,157) She further says that

Okolie’s act of selling his sister to slavery should be forgiven as Okolie “has the right to

sell you or borrow money on your head or spend your bride price. So you must forgive

Okolie.” (SG,158 ) Besides, a woman must have brothers to support her in times of

trouble.

In the novel, Pa (Husband of Ma Palagada) crying out for his mother at the

slightest touch of trouble juxtaposes the two extreme statuses of women. On one hand she

is housekeeper, provider and counsellor but on the other hand she is the thought to be an

object of gratification for men:

He was one of those big manly males who would not hesitate to tell you

that women were created as plaything for men, that they were brainless,

mindless and easily pliable and yet it was to a woman that he would go to

pour out his troubles, wanting her to listen, to sympathize and make

appropriate noises, to give him a cuddle ,tell him how handsome and kind

he was, and how everything was going to be all right and that he should

not worry .Yet never respected any women . (SG,99)

Ma Palagada advises Ojebeta to escort her son after her demise refer to the Igbo

women’s view that men always need women to take care of them.“You must stay by my

son, Men are not as clever as they look they always need someone, a women to cook for

them .look after him for me.” (SG, 136)

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Wealthy Igbo women modified their traditional attire by introducing Western

elements in their dresses:

It was difficult for Ma Palagada and her society women contemporaries to

go completely European. There was no problem about wearing the

straight shaped English dress, even with their overfed stomachs; but then

they would add the type of heavy head tie that went with native lappas and

they would also place an extra piece of material on their shoulders… This

is because the Igbo belief was that a complete woman must have two

lappas round her waist not just one…. to be seen as befitted a properly

married woman.(SG,103)

The fiery protest launched by Igbo women against the taxation of women also

finds mention in the novel. One of the market stall owner, Ma Mee encourages other

women owners of the market stalls to resist the payment of tax by women.“Why do you

not wish to fight the so called white men?...Don’t you know that if we woman have to pay

tax it will be effect you also? You too will have to pay tax. Did you ever hear of a country

where woman are asked to pay for their existence? No we must nip it in the bud.(SG,132)

The warmth and inherent kindness radiated by Ibuza women also find mentions

through the observation of Ojebeta as she returns back to her native village after years of

living as a slave. The narrative says,

The people of Ibuza, living off the land , were poor ,but when it came to

claiming lost relative few nations of earth could be more generous with

their welcome than Ibuza people . Women from her very own homestead

in Umuisagba came and hugged her. Another great difference was in the

way of they talked which seemed brusque and loud to Ojebeta now. Also

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their skin even that of young girls seemed burnt dark and rough and dry

and lacking in moisture. However their open heart compensated for their

small defects. (SG,148)

Ibuza women were very possessive of the daughters of the village and included

them in the community even if they had spent much of their childhood as a slave .When

Ojebeta returned from the Palagada household, her aunt welcomed her not only in her

home but also in the heart.“ Uteh, the senior daughter of Obi Okwuekwu, let go her

tongue. She sang the praise of all the ancestors right down to Ogbanje Ojebeta, the

daughter of Okwuekwu Oda.” (SG,149) She had a piece of nzu sacrificial chalk in her

hand and she said to her god,“Afo have this chalk and eat this piece of Kolanut, for my

daughter who I thought had died is back.( SG,149) In the rural areas of Igboland, most of

the news was dispersed in gatherings held in markets, churches or house hold compounds.

This informal network of communication helped to spread news like fire.“In Ibuza,

though there were at the time nothing like newspapers as bush radio, people had ways of

spreading rumours fast.” (SG,149) In Ibuza, unmarried girls were considered to be a

blessing. She assisted her family by performing the daily errands and after her marriage;

the bride price enabled her family to utilize the money according to their requirements.

For there was a saying in Ibuza that those who have people are wealthier

than those with money : a young girl of sixteen in her prime, attractive and

strong would have been a boon to the family such as the Ukabegwus. She

could help to fetch water from the stream which was about three miles

from the village, she could clay the house, fetch family akpu and she could

even do some trading before she was married away to her husband.

(SG,151)

Ghosh 142

The introduction of Christianity during colonial period developed in the, Igbo

woman interest and positive feelings about Christian faith, values and ways of living and

thus considered it being superior as compared to native religion “So afraid was Ojebeta

that all she had learned at Ma palagada would be wasted that she prayed to god to send

her an Ibuza man who had the experience of white man’s work and would know the value

of what she had learned.” (SG,154) Colonialism also introduced the trend of going to

Church and taking Europeans names.Ojebeta, “ and some her friends still look down on

the other age groups who carried akpu and who did not go to church; and even before

they baptized they all found it fashionable to take European names so Ogbanje Ojebeta

added the English name of Alice.” (SG,154)

In Igboland, women were always to be dependent on the families. She was not to

do take decisions on her own and was rather owned by her guardian. Ojebeta knew that:

She was wanted by her people .…But in a sense she was still not free now

for no women or girl in Ibuza was free except those who committed the

abominable sin of prostitution or those who had been completely cast off

or rejected by their people for offending customs. A girl was owned, in

particular, by her father or her older brother and then in general by her

group or homestead. (SG, 157)

Even the man with who she was to be married was chosen by the male members

of the family. But if the girl was economically independent or belonged to a wealthy

family, which was a rare happening then her willingness was sought. “In Ibuza, despite

the fact that the final choice of the husband for a girl was made by her people she was

free to protest, and if she came from a good family where money was not be all and end-

all, they would listen to her and make some adjustment to the man in question.” (SG, 158)

Ghosh 143

So economically independent women, like Ojebeta intended to marry the man of her

choice. “If this time she must marry and belong to a man according to the customs of her

people she intended doing so with her eyes wide open.” (SG,168)

Pre-marital sexual intimacy was considered sinful by the traditional Christian

religion.The new Christian faith forbade girls to “ allow young boys or prospective

husband to fondle you and indulge in the exhaustive type of romance Ibuza boys played

with you.” (SG,157) Women were so enraged by the customs that curtailed the women’s

right of choosing her husband that they desperately resorted to measures like shaving one

head to ensure that nobody would cut a lock of their hair and force them in to a marriage.

Ojebeta shaved off the last vestiges of her hair on the head and burned all the pieces.The

shaving of her hair symbolized her yearning for freedom. She asked herself, “Would she

ever be free? Must she be slave all her life, never being allowed to do what she liked?

Was it the fate of all Ibuza women or just her own? Still it would have been better to be

slave to a master of your choice, than to one who did not care or even know who you

were.”(SG,168) Emecheta in their novel also protests against the non adherence of

monogamy as preached by the Bible. According to the Bible, a man must have only a

wife but the Nigerian men defied the preachings and continued to maintain more than

one wife, Ojebeta resents the Africanization of Christianity where, “A woman could be

taken to Church and a ring slipped on her finger- as easily as piece of sting can be put

around a man’s cattle…. But that did not mean the man could have only her...So men

would simply take wives when they felt like it; while women ,on the other hand ,must

have one husband.”(SG, 173)

In the very beginning of the novel The Bride Price Emecheta yet again stresses

upon the desire of Igbo women to mother as many children as possible and failure to do

so caused despair to both the husband and wife, “Ma Blackie... had a family problem.

Ghosh 144

She was very slow in getting herself pregnant again.”( BP,8)He would remind Ma

Blackie that having paid this heavy bride price and what he had only one son. This

problem of childlessness caused agony to infertile woman as the women in the village

sang songs of ridicule about the infertility of that woman. “Many a time she had heard

other women living in the same compound make songs of her childlessness.”( BP,9) Men

and women living in cities to get respite from their problems came to their native land and

cleansed themselves in the rivers which they believed will bless them for the future

endeavours.

Ma Blackie, he affirmed was to stay in Ibuza and have her system purified

by the clear and unpolluted water from the Oboshi river; the river and the

goddess of the river were gift to all the Ibuza people from the greater

Gods. It was the right of all Ibuza sons and daughter to come and have

them cleansed by the river whenever they found themselves in difficulties

in distant places of work. (BP, 47)

In Igboland women got married at a very early age to men who were elder to

them. Ma Blackie was taller than her husband . The imbalances are explained by the

narrative , “The answer may be was that like most Igbo men of his generation he had

taken his wife when she was still young girl.”( BP,8) In Igbo society women were

expected to be compassionate and caring.“Akunna’s father suspected that she was

growing into the type of young woman who not would only give everything to a person

she loved but who would also care for her loved ones.”( BP,16) All Igbo fathers were

fond of their daughters but customs forbade them from openly expressing their affections

as a daughter belonged to their husband’s families. Aku-nna’s father was aware that ,“A

girl belonged to you today as your daughter and tomorrow before your very eyes, would

Ghosh 145

go to another man in marriage. To such creatures, one should be wary of showing too

much love and care.” (BP,17)

In the patriarchal Igbo society at the death of male members women were

supposed to moan aloud in praise of departed soul. When Aku-nna’s father died , she

had to cry aloud in order to appreciate the responsibilities shouldered by her father before

death.

Aku nna were the chief mourners. Their own cries must be made in the

most artistic way. My father was a good provider. My father was a good

Christian. He was a good husband to my mother Ma Blackie ....Come

back, for you have lost the father of children....On and on went Aku-nna

repeating her father attributes . (BP, 30)

The mourning period of widows in Igboland finds mention in this novel too. The

widows in mourning could not go the market, visit people, fetch water or take bath in

stream, wear smoked rags and should not comb her hair.“Ma Blackie was to remain alone

in this special hut; not until the months of mourning were over could she visit people in

their homes. She must never have bath. No pair of scissors nor comb must touch her hair.

She must wear continually the same old smoked rags”. (BP,71)

The mourning period was usually seven moons but if the husband had cut a lock

of hair then the mourning period was to observed for nine moons. A separate hut was

erected for the widow where she was to grieve over her dead husband.

Young men got together and in less than two hours erected the hut in

which Ma Blackie was to stay and mourn for her husband for nine full

moons....Ezekiel Odia to ensure that his wife would always be his, had

Ghosh 146

taken the precautions of cutting a lock of hair from Ma Blackie head... and

such a woman if the husband died, must mourn for nine moons. (BP,71)

In Igbo society, the bride price paid to the girl’s family had so much significance

that poor men had to exercise traditional customs to get a get a bride.

Some youth who had no money to pay for the bride might sneak out of

the bush to cut a curl from the girls head so that she would belong to him

for the life and never to able to return to her parents; because he had given

her the everlasting haircut he would be able to treat her as he liked and no

other man would ever touch her. (BP, 3)

In Igbo society, widows were inherited by their husband’s brother and women

seemed to like the tradition of widow inheritance. Ogugua tells to Aku-nna about a

woman who inherited by her deceased husband’s brother. “That woman was inherited by

her husband’s brother. He has title. He is an Obi. She is not the chief wife, but she is very

happy. She has everything she wants now, even a son.”(BP, 65) This tradition of widow

inheritance was befitted to the inheritor. The land, money and bride price of the step-

daughter now belonged to new husband. Okonkwo, Ezikiel Odia’s elder brother

married Ma Blackie. So now he inherited Aku-nna’s bride price and Ma Blackie’s

property .“Rights were already set on his brother’s wife, his brother property and the

bride price his brother’s daughter would fetch...” (BP,72) But the tradition of inheriting

brother’s wife was not always welcomed by the senior wife. In the novel Okonkwo’s

senior wife was jealous of Ma Blackie, “For stealing the show in the family she had

helped her husband Okonkwo to build.…And that the woman was second hand stuff like

the one they called Blackie was an added insult.”(BP, 78)

Ghosh 147

In Igboland a child is raised by the community that develops in him feelings of

sharing and tolerance. The child’s mother, grandmother and other women shower their

affection and attention over him.

To the Igbos a natural mother is not a child’s only mother. A grandmother

may be known as the ‘big mother, or the ‘old mother’ and one actual

mother may be called as ‘little mother’ ,if her mother or mother in law is

still alive. The title is extended to all young aunts and elder sisters, in fact

to any young female who helps in mothering the child. Ibuza is a town

where everybody know about everybody else, so the child ends having so

many mothers, so many fathers, that in some cases the child may not see

much of his true parents. This is much encouraged... because a child is

the child of the community. (BP,37)

The Igbo women at times regret the life of rural areas which they underwent. It

was full of hardships but they reconciled to their fate. Matilda , a neighbour of Odias

laments, “This is the fate of us women. There is nothing we can do about it. We just have

to learn to accept it.”(BP,39)

In colonial times, a well educated girl fetched higher bride price and this was

primarily the reason behind the approval of Aku-nna continuance of school so that the

higher bride price would help Okonkwo to become an Obi.“He wanted to be an Obi so he

needed more money. Aku-nna had to be allowed staying in school so that she could be

married to a rich man from one of the newly prosperous families springing up like

mushrooms all over Ibuza.”(BP,75). The intention is to raise the family from poverty to

wealth. When Aku- nna’s Father died, she pities the life she was destined to accept in her

native village where she was nothing but an object that was to given away to the man who

Ghosh 148

would offer a handsome bride price —the money that would take care of the financial

woes.

Aku-nna remembered only scraps of stories about what life in the Ibuza

would be like. She knew she would have to marry and that the bride price

she would fetch would help to pay the school fees for her brother Nna-

nndo. She did not mind that....What she feared was the type of man who

would be chosen for her.... So Aku- nna listened ,worried and prayed to

god to help them all. (BP,52-53)

Emecheta also provides some glimpses into certain myths of Igboland – such as

the Ogbanje myth.Girls like Aku-nna who were fragile and soft, were referred as Ogbanje

-‘a Living dead. Aku-nna’s step-mother pronounces emphatically to her children,“They

all seem to behave too well, but they are only in the world on contract and when their

time is up they have to go. They all die young, usually at the birth of their first baby.”

( BP,79) In Ibuza people at times observed moral codes that were dual in nature. Girls

were expected to preserve their chastity where as men were allowed to indulge in carnal

pleasures.The narrative expresses dissatisfaction about the hypocritical standards of the

society.

A girl who had adventures before marriage was never respected in her new

home; everyone in the village would know about her past, especially if she

was unfortunate enough to be married to an egocentric man. There were

men would go about raping young virgins of thirteen and fourteen and still

expect the women they married to be as chaste as flower buds. (BP,84)

Igbo society encouraged the socialization of boys and girls. Boys were allowed to

fondle girls to a certain extent but only in the presence of adults.“Boys would come into

Ghosh 149

your mothers hut and play at squeezing a girls breasts until they hurt; the girl was

supposed to try as much as possible to ward them off and not be bad tempered about

it.”(BP,97) Age group dances were also performed by their boys and girls of Igbo society

that gave them a platform to interact .Mostly the girls were excited about their outing

dance and the clothes they would wear along with matching accessories.

The girl talked and dreamed about their outing dance. They worked and

saved hard to buy their Jigida , the red and the black beads which they

would wear above their bikini-like pants. Apart from these their tops

would be bare, displaying the blue coloured tattoos that went round their

backs. (BP,103)

Igbo woman were not allowed to marry outside their caste. Women defying the

marriage traditions were treated as outcaste as, “ a girl from a good family to marry the

descendant of slave would be an abomination ife alu.” (BP,111) Thus the trappings of

Igbo culture are expressed in this statement. “An Ibuza woman was trapped in the

intricate web of Ibuza tradition. She must either obey or bring shame and destruction on

her people.” (BP,116) Igbo women were also taught by her mothers’ not to boast about

their father’s house otherwise the husbands might feel humiliated :

Ma Blackie had warned Aku-nna about this, instilling in her that no

woman should carry her father’s glories to her husband’s house. As soon

as a good woman was married, she must learn to exult in her husband’s

accomplishments, however small they might seem in comparison with her

father’s. (BP,125)

Igbo women idolized their husband and wanted to serve them in this and another

world. Aku-nna gratefully tells her husband Chike ,“I shall serve you till you die. I shall

Ghosh 150

be a good wife to you. I shall always love you in this world and the next and next after

that until the end of Time.”(BP,149)

In the novel The Joys of Motherhood set in pre-colonial period, fiery

independence in women was encouraged by their fathers. Ona, Agbadi’s mistress is

encouraged by her father to never subjugate herself to any man,He proudly said, “His

daughter was never going to stoop to any man.”(JOM,12) Though Emecheta in one of her

lecture Feminist with a small f supported polygamy, yet the sexual and emotional

frustration that senior wives undergo in a polygamist household is poignantly portrayed

through Agunwa’s (Agbadi senior wife ) psychological illness that ultimately led to her

death. We read that,“Agbadi’s senior wife, Agunwa, became ill that very night. Some said

later that she sacrificed herself for her husband, but a few had noticed that it was bad for

her morale to hear her husband giving pleasure to another women in the same courtyard

where she slept.”(JOM,21) But the largely polygamist society failed to notice the

depression of a woman longing for a husband’s love and rather, in Agbadi’s words, hailed

her an “unobtrusive woman …smoothly running the household.”( JOM,22) Emecheta

also reflected on the custom of polygamy that was well suited to rural life but its practice

in new industrial towns and cities caused problems like accommodation, poverty and

bickering among women. When Nnaife’s brother died he was supposed to inherit his

brother’s widows. Though Nnaife was delighted at the prospect of having five more

wives, Nnu Ego was apprehensive at the thought of having to share their small room and

meagre housekeeping money. Moreover, colonial women of Nigeria living in urban

settings were unaccustomed to the adjustments they had to make when their husbands

brought new wives:

Nnu Ego, had so lost contact with her people that the voice of this person

addressing her as a ‘senior wife’ made her feel not only old but completely

Ghosh 151

out of touch…. She resented it. It was one thing to be thus addressed in

Ibuza, where people gained a great deal by seniority, here in Lagos, though

the same belief still held, it was to a different degree. She used to be the

sole woman of the house, used to having Nnaife all to herself…. but now,

this new menace.(JOM,118)

The probability of men entering into multiple matrimonial unions caused

disappointment to women living in cities initiated into Christianity that endorsed

monogamy:

Nnu Ego desperately tried to control her feelings,…to be the

sophisticated Ibuza wife and welcome another woman in her home; but

she could not. She hated this thing called the European way; these people

called Christians taught that a man must marry only one wife. Now here

was Nnaife with not just two but planning to have maybe three or four in

not so distant future. (JOM,119)

But, these women received no support in their protest against sharing a husband’

as their father themselves were married to more than one woman. Nnu Ego knew that her

father could not help her. He would say to her, “Listen daughter, I have seven wives of

my own. I married three of them, four I inherited on the death of relatives--- you are his

first and senior wife.”(JOM,119) Emecheta brings to the fore the agony of an Igbo

woman devastated at the death of her new born child, contemplating to take her own life

as barren women are discarded as scum by Igboland. Nnu Ego wishes to meet her chi that

she believes condemned her to childlessness .While trying to jump to death from the

Carter Bridge, she thinks that now “… she would be able to seek out and meet her chi, her

personal God, and then she would ask her why she had punished her so. She knew her chi

Ghosh 152

was a woman, not just because to her way of thinking only a woman would be so

thorough in punishing another.” (JOM.9) Barrenness was considered taboo in Igboland

and to dispel the supposed curse of chi, that rendered her barren, Nnu Ego desperately

went from one dibia to another in hope at breaking her chi’s spell so that her husband

would refrain from entering into another marriage. Nnu Ego would take an egg, symbol

of fertility, and kneel and pray to this woman to give her a son .She would say, “ Please

pity on me. I feel that my husband’s people are already looking for a new wife for him.

They cannot wait for me forever. He is the first son of the family and his people want an

heir from him as soon as possible please help me.”(JOM.32)But Nnu Ego didn’t get

pregnant and when the new wife was expecting, Nnu Ego, “in the privacy of hut …

cried tears of frustration and hopelessness”.(JOM,32) The pathos of an infertile woman is

accentuated by the constant unpleasant remarks that are heaved upon her by her in laws

and other women. They would taunt her,The daughter of Agbadi… she is a fond of babies

and yet they have been denied to her.”(JOM,33) She is not even spared by her husband.

Amatokwu humiliates Nnu Ego and says ,“I have no time to waste my precious male seed

on a woman who is infertile. I have to raise children for my tine. If you really want to

know, you don’t appeal to me anymore.If you cannot produce sons, at least you can help

harvest yams.”(JOM,32) To overcome the trauma of being an infertile woman, Agbadi

encourages Nnu Ego to opt for a second marriage.“Our daughter must be provided with a

man of her own, if she wants it so, a man to father her children.”(JOM,36) Nnu Ego

after being turned away from her husband’s house with a crude remark , “She is as barren

as a desert” longed to seek her fortune with someone else who she believed might give

her children desired by her. She settles down with a man whom her fathers chose so that

she could get pregnant and bring untold joy to her people. She tells her father, “When one

grows old, one needs children to look after one. If you have no children and your parents

Ghosh 153

are gone, who can you call your own?”(JOM, 38)Her desperation to conceive shows that

Igbo women identified motherhood with their notions of a complete woman. “My dead

mother, please make this dream come true, then I will respect this man, I will be his

faithful wife…. If I should ever be pregnant.”(JOM,45)

In the pre- colonial Igboland confident, independent women who refused to

compromise with their men were appreciated but with Victorian conquest values like

timidity creeped into their cultural fabric. Nnu Ego reminiscences that in pre-conquest

Igbo society, “A woman who gave in to a man without first fighting for her honour was

never respected. To regard a woman who is quiet and timid as desirable was something

that came after her time, with Christianity and other changes.” (JOM,10)The traditional

Igboland always admired women of virtue. Male members of a girl’s family take pride in

girl’s ability to maintain her chastity. Agbadi proudly praises about his daughter’s

chastity to her in-laws,“There is nothing that makes a man prouder to hear that his

daughter is virtuous. I don’t like visiting families… telling everybody that the bride has

allowed herself to be tampered with.” (JOM, 31)

The novel also portrays the dilemma of rural Igbo women oscillating between

their traditional faith and the religions faith that was slowly exposing them to religious

concepts that never existed in their society. Nnu Ego was not keen on attending church on

Sundays as “After all, not only did church mean little to her, it was becoming

monotonous attending week after week.”(JOM,48)The urban landscape and the ways of

living associated with it are an alien concept to rural women of colonial Igboland. The

prospect of their husbands working as servants for white masters is repelling to them. But

because of their lack of prominence in the matters of social terrain forces them to accept

the Westernized way of life.

Ghosh 154

Nnu Ego’s second husband, Nnaife, admonishes her that ,“If you are going to be

my wife, you must accept my work, my way of life. I will not have it any other way. You

must understand that.”(JOM,49) Nnu Ego’s position of being chained to a husband

(whose looks and job are both repulsive to her) symbolizes the pathetic position of

African women who have no other option but to remain in forced matrimonial alliances as

married women returning back to their father’s house were ridiculed upon. Nnaife

laughed cynically and remarked: “I wonder what good father would take his pregnant

daughter back into his home, just because his son-in-law’s job doesn’t suit her.”(JOM,50)

The Western mode of living also wiped out the intimacy enjoyed by wives in

villages.The narrative says:

Few men in Lagos would have time to sit and admire their wives tattoos,

let alone tell them tales of animals nesting in the forest, like the village

husband who might lure a favourite wife into the farm to make lore to her

with only sky as the shelter or bathe in the same stream with her,

scrubbing one another’s backs. (JOM,52)

But in Lagos and other cities of Nigeria, the women had no time to indulge in

such intimacies.“In Lagos wife would not have time. She had to work. She provided the

food from her husband’s meagre housekeeping money, but finding the money for

clothes,for any kind of comforts, in some cases for the children’s school fees,was on her

shoulders.”(JOM,53) The dialogue between Nnaife and his friend Ubani summaries the

status of accorded to Igbo women considered as an instrument for rearing children and

household:

How can a woman hate a husband chosen for her by her people? You are

to give her children and food, she is to cook and bear the children and look

Ghosh 155

after you and them. So what is there to hate? A woman may be ugly and

grow old, but a man is never ugly and never old. He matures with age and

is dignified. (JOM,71)

Igbo women long to have a male child who would take care of his old parents and

relatives, live in the same compound and render their contribution to extend the

lineage.Nnu Ego dreamt of having a grown up son “who would live next door to her,

whatever profession he chose, as a good son should live near his parents and look after

them and she would see to the growth and welfare of his children and wives.”(JOM,79)

This practice of living together in one compound helped women especially widows and

mothers who lost their new born babies to rely upon one another during their ill fated

days. In Igbo villages, a mother mourning the loss her baby was “handed, to the female

members of his (the husband) father’s compound and those old women would have

comforted her with stories of the babies they themselves lost.”(JOM,72) The traditional

socio- economic structure made provisions for women to have a significant commercial

position yet allowed her freedom to care for her baby as nursing mothers were not

expected to trade at the market places. There was a saying among Igbos that had

originated among her people,“perhaps it was because a nursing mother in Ibuza could not

go to the market to sell for long, before she had to rush home to feed her baby.”(JOM,80).

The mothers proudly used to say, “…because I am nursing him, so you see I can’t go

anywhere to sell anything.”(JOM,80)

The economic change of colonial Nigeria extinguished the pride and confidence

that women had in them partly owing to their economic independence. It is stated that,

“In Ibuza, women made a contribution, but in urban Lagos men had to be the sole

providers; this new setting robbed the women of her useful role.” (JOM,81) This status of

male being the ‘sole provider’ undermined the status of women and at times they had to

Ghosh 156

bear domestic violence. They had no choice but to stay in an abusive marriage as single

women were frowned upon. When Nnaife was conscripted to Burma, Nnu Ego had a

difficult experience of finding a rented house because of her single status. “The Yoruba

landlord asked where her husband was because he did not cherish the idea of having in

his house a single Igbo woman who might turn out to keep the company of bad Igbo

men.”(JOM,97) They were treated as second class citizens and exploited by their

husbands. Nnaife’s comfortable monetary position increased his arrogance and he thought

of commanding a status where Nnu Ego would fear and worship him:

He gained the respect and even the fear of his wife Nnu Ego. He could

even now afford to beat her up; if she went beyond the limits he could

stand. He gave her a little house keeping money which bought a bag of

garri for the month and some yams; she would have to make up the rest

from her trading profits. On the top of that, he paid the school fees for

Oshia, who was growing fast and was his mother’s pride and joy.

(JOM,117)

In villages economic independence allowed women to punish their erring

husbands but in cities they had to manage with whatever money given by the men folk

that was never enough to make both ends meet. When Adaku and Nnu Ego, refused to

cook for Nnaife, he retaliated by not giving them a penny for household expenses. Finally

Nnu Ego negotiated with her pride and begged him for money to store off starvation. She

begs,“just give us whatever you can; we will manage.”(JOM,137)The Igbo society

appreciated those women who could manage their household at minimum expenses.

Women who squandered their husband’s money were expected to learn to economize

their expenditure.“She was not even expected to demand more money for her family; that

was considered below the standard expected of a woman in her position.”(JOM, 137)

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In almost all the novels Emecheta highlights the bias of Nigerian parents

emphasizing on education imparted to the boys at the cost of girl children. Girl-children

are married off early and their bride prices are used to fund the boys education.When Nnu

Ego gives birth to set of girls, Adaku consoles her by saying that “These girls when they

grow up will be great helpers to you in looking after the boys. Their bride prices will be

used in paying their school fees as well.”(JOM,127).

Thus, it is evident that colonial culture seeped into the live of Nigerian women.In

the novel, The Slave Girl, Ojebeta and some other characters’ interest in Christian faith;

reading of Bible; English names; Western dresses and westernized husbands pinpoints to

the gradual change of attitude in these women . In The Bride Price , Aku-nna , the heroine

of the novel, is educated enough to be a teacher and overrides caste based discrimination

to marry an Oshu – Chike. In The Joys Of Motherhood , Nnu Ego, inspired by Christian

preaching’s about monogamy resents the coming of co-wives into her household. These

are some of the visible changes that are highlighted in these works. In her later novels,

Emecheta carves her concept of ‘new African woman’ through the characters like Debbie,

Nko and Kehinde . They would be discussed in the later chapters.

FINDINGS

1. Igbo village assemblies have resemblances with our village political system

known as Panchayati Raj. Traditionally, it is a south Asian political system,

practiced mainly in India , Pakistan and Nepal. It is perhaps the oldest form of

administration of India. A group of five wise and respected elders , accepted by

the local community, are chosen to settle various problems intra and inter village

disputes.

Ghosh 158

2. In Hindu mythology, river Ganga is personified as a Goddess. River Ganga is

considered to be sacred and Hindus believe that bathing in this river will wash

way their sins. People immerse the ashes of their kin in this sacred river to liberate

them from the cycle of life and death. Similar worship of rivers like Oboshi is

found among the Igbos.

3. In the novel, The Joys of Motherhood, Nnu Ego desperately pleads to god for a

male child. In India too most families have craved for boys to continue the

lineage, bring home the fodder and sustain livelihood for the family. Caste

systems never allowed women to bend gender roles. The trouble lies with the

interpretation of the ancient texts. In 200 BC, Manu wrote, ‘In childhood a female

must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her

sons; a woman must never be independent’. Such notions are also prevalent in

Igbo society.