Women in Pre Colonial Nigeria

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Wed 19th Jun 2013 12:56am

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Dancewomen in Pre Colonial

Nigeria

Thread started 07/29/08 6:26pm

Women held a basically complementary , rather than subordinate, work-position tomen in much of indigenous pre-colonial Nigerian society, which based power onseniority rather than gender. The absence of gender in the pronouns of many Africanlanguages and the interchangeability of first names among females and males strikes NiaraSudarkasa, author of "'The Status of Women in Indigenous African Societies" in the anthologyWomen in Africa and the African Diaspora, as a further relation of the social de-emphasis ongender as a designation for behavior. She observers that "many other areas of traditionalculture, including personal dress and adornment, religious ceremonials, and intra-genderpatterns of comportment, suggest that Africans often de-emphasize gender in relation toseniority and other insignia of status" (36). However, despite the lack of emphasis p laced ongender by Nigeria's indigenous societies, the colonial state and its bureaucracy tried todictate the lifestyles of women, endorsing the domesticity of women and the unwagedservices they provided for the family. Much of the legislation concerning women, therefore,attempted to control them, their sexuality and fertility, further defining their subordination.The beginningof colonial rule brought to Africa the European notion that women belonged in the hom e,nurturing their family. At the same time the societies expected women to work--workwhichthe society considered complementary to that done by men--the state and the beginningof colonial rule began to change the roles of women by means of legislation restrictingwomen and the focusing of colonial economics on men.

A traditional Ibo marriage was arranged by the parents of the bride and groom. However,if either objected to the marriage, it would not occur. In fact, Ibo women could object tothe marriage publicly as late as the marriage ceremony:

“Before the marriage feast began, the bride was called and given a small gourd containingpalm wine. She drank from it and then gave the rest to the groom. This symbolized thatthe girl had agreed to the marriage, that she was not being forced into a marriage she

resents.”

-Solome C. Nnoromele, Life Among the Ibo Women of Nigeria

Once married, an Ibo woman was expected to bear children, maintain the household,grow crops, buy and sell at the village market, and do some type of craftwork. Althoughan Ibo woman worked very hard to support her husband, he provided for her in return:

“The husband’s main duty to his wife is to provide the conditions for her to maintain athriving and expanding household. He must provide the domestic setting in which his wifeworks, and furnish her with a reliable supply of major staple foods from his farms. He mustallot a household garden to each wife and provide palm fruits from his trees for the domesticuse and for trade. The husband is also expected to allocate his cotton crop for his wife’s trade,and to give periodic trade advances in money to finance her market activities.”

-Victor Uchendu, The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria

However, if the Ibo husband was not living up to his responsibilities, or was abusing orneglecting her, an Ibo wife could easily obtain a divorce. After the divorce, a woman wasable to remarry if she chose.

In traditional Ibo society, polygamy was the ideal. Several scholars have argued thatpolygamy degraded Ibo women. However, it served many practical purposes as well. In theagricultural Ibo society, wives meant more children in a family leading to more hands toplant and gather crops. Also, there were no means of contraception in Ibo culture. Due to the

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of children, most women did not consider abortion an option. Multiple wives allowed womenthe option to space their pregnancies in two to three year periods, ensuring their health. Infact, many women preferred that their husband take more than one wife:

“To be the one and only wife is humiliating. It is a sure indication that her husband is a poorman. She would rather be the mistress controlling a number of other women than be a person of no importance. Also, instead of being alone, she prefers to have companions abouther; in any case, there will be others with whom to share the household chores. The wife of apolygamous husband stands to gain considerably. She has more honor and respect from thecommunity, freedom from loneliness and domestic helpers at her beck and call.

-G.T. Badsen, Niger Ibos

A widow in Ibo society was well protected. As long as she did not remarry, her husband’sfamily was expected to help take care of her and her children. She also had the option toreturn to her motherland. If she did, her sons were able to go back to their father’s hometo claim their property once they were grown.

In traditional Ibo society, motherhood was greatly respected. Women were respectfully called “the trees that bear fruit,” because the tribe knew that without women to bear children, therewould be no future for the clan. New mothers were greatly pampered, receiving a monthtotally devoid of work after the birth of their child. The ideal number of children was seven,because seven meant completeness or perfection in the tribal culture. If a woman had morechildren she was considered exceptional. If a woman had ten children a celebratory ri tualwas held in her honor. After his ceremony, called igbu ewu ukwu, the woman was considered

one of the blessed “queen of mothers” and gained great respect and status in the tribe.

In the Ibo system of government there were separate councils for men and women. Eachcouncil was in charge of decisions considering its respective member’s genders. Nkiru Nzegwudescribes the system in her essay, “Recovering Igbo Traditions”:

“The political culture of the Igbos could be theoretically described as dual-sex. Und er thisstructure, women had their own governing councils…to address their specific concerns andneeds as women. The councils protected women’s social and economic interests, andguided the community’s development. The dual symmetrical structure accorded immensepolitical profile to women…The socio-political structure required and depended on the activeparticipation of women in the community life. Their views were deemed critical, not because they were women, but because of the special insight they brought to issue by virtueof their spiritual, market and trading duties and their maternal roles.

The women’s council, also known as the Otu or Ogbo, was led by a woman usually called theOmu, who achieved her status on account of merit. Her roles included leading clanceremonies, disciplining the women of the community, representing the female populationat village meetings, and advising the women of the tribe. Women known as Ilogo advisedthe Omu. Together this group ruled the women of the tribe. However, when largercommunity meetings were held for important decisions, all the women of the tribe wereexpected to be present. Once there, every woman had one vote on the issue in question andthe majority won. If a woman broke one of the laws of the council, the other womenostracized her until she repented. If a man broke one of the rules of the council, a ritualknown as “sitting on a man” was performed:

“When a man violated the rules of the Women’s Council , the women sometimes used the ritualknown as “sitting on a man” to force the individual to comply. Sitting on a man meant

“making his life miserable” This often included destroying his property, calling him names, and

singing songs that questioned his manhood.”

Solome C. Nnoromele, Life Among the Ibo Women of Nigeria

Although the man being “sat on” could defend himself, he was not allowed to retaliatephysically. The women relented when the man in question apologized and righted his wrong.

Women had a large role in the agricultural aspect of Ibo life. They grew such crops as maize,beans, coco yams, peanuts, tomatoes, peppers, okra and other green leafed vegetables. Theyraised livestock as well. Women were not allowed to grow yams, but still helped the m enweed and harvest their yam farms. At first, the fact that only men grew yams may seem odd.However it is easily understood when one realizes that the farms cultivated to grow yams hadto be larger and farther away from the house due to the size of the yams (which could reach

as much as a hundred pounds). Although women could not plant yams, Leith Ross states that, “…in reality [this] meant that the women were responsible for growing the larger part of thefood stuff and for feeding the family for the greater part of the year when yams grown by themen were no longer available.”



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Women in Pre Colonial Nigeria