Igbo Women and Economic Transformation in Southeastern Nigeria, 1900-1960

Gloria Chuku

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9780415972109
• eBook ISBN: 9781135469474
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia africana

This study analyzes the complexity and flexibility of gender relations in Igbo society, with emphasis on such major cultural zones as the Anioma, the Ngwa, the Onitsha, the Nsukka, and the Aro.

Chapter One
The Igbo Region before 1900: A Survey

The Igbo area was and still is broadly culturally homogeneous. Igbo language has been the key unifying factor of the Igbo. It is the most important single trait marking out the people as a distinct group and to which they could claim of being the symbol of pan-Igbo. However, wide variations in the ecology of the Igbo region as well as the impact of neighboring non-Igbo peoples have resulted in local differences within the broad Igbo culture area. Such local variations are manifested in social, cultural and political institutions and organizations, architectural traditions, and multiple dialects. Arising from these local variations, some ethnographers and scholars have divided the Igbo into five main sub-cultural groups. One of them, Adiele Afigbo, has the following as Igbo sub-cultural zones: the Northern, the Western, the Southern, the Eastern and the Northeastern Igbo.¹

Similarly, Daryll Forde and Gwilym Jones have classified the Igbo area as follows: Northern or Onitsha Igbo, Southern or Owerri Igbo, Western Igbo, Eastern or Cross River Igbo, and Northeastern Igbo.² Another classification of the region by Michael Onwuejeogwu delineates six sub-cultural groups, namely: the Southern half of the scarplands of South-eastern Nigeria nurturing Anambra and Nri Civilizations; the Southern half of the lower Niger basin producing Ndoshimili, Ukwuani and Enuani Civilizations; the Mid-west low lands nurturing Ika and Enuani Civilizations; the Niger Delta for Ndoshimili and Ukwuani Civilizations; the Palm belt of southeastern of Owerri and Ngwa civilizations; and the Cross River Basin producing Afikpo, Abam-Edda and Aro Civilizations.³ These sub-cultural areas share in common Igbo cultural heritage and enable us to understand the complex nature of Igbo cultural practices and sociopolitical structures. However, they offer little or no information on the economic activities of the people. Thus, a new classification model is formulated. This model is primarily based on the varying geography and ecology of Igbo region and how they affected the three main economic activities of the people, namely, agriculture, manufacture and trade. The proffered groupings, which are discussed later in details, are Ndị-Ọlugbo—Agriculturists/Farmers; Ndị-Ọluaka—Manufacturers; and Ndị-Ahịa—Traders. At this juncture, the sociopolitical structure of the Igbo people is examined to enable us understand the nature of the society Igbo women operated in.

Sociopolitical Structure

The Igbo basically organized themselves in lineages based on the concepts of ama/uno (natural family of a man, his wife/wives, children and dependants); umunna (joint family or children of a common forefather); Ogbe/onumara (maximal lineage/village); and mba/obodo (village-group/compact village/town). Each of these had its own power structures, which were hierarchically organized, but while the umunna was the basic social unit, obodo/mba was the single basic political unit of the Igbo. The various autonomous village-groups that made up the Igbo region had either corporate⁴ or dual-sex political⁵ patterns. In both systems, men and women played important functions, though the difference lay in the degree of their participation in politics especially in the public decision-making processes of their individual polities.

Corporate Political System

The corporate political system was predominantly a male’s domain. Here, men controlled the political structure of their society. Authority was in the hands of the king (or Obi/Eze, where such position existed) and council of elders and titled men (or Ndichie). However, the flexibility of gender roles and Igbo political structure has made it possible for some women to occupy positions of importance in the system. As noted in an earlier work, Igbo women had played a significant role in their societies’ political systems.⁶ Women had held a variety of political offices including exercising political authority as rulers, acted as agents, sat on the king’s council, served as gobetweens in diplomatic relations, and safeguarded their towns and villages in many ways.

An example of women who had exercised political authority as rulers is the case of Ezenwanyị (Female king) Nnenne Mgbçkwç Udo Omini Oke Nnachi, referred in Arochukwu traditions as the fourth Aro ruler, who probably reigned between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Ezenwanyị Nnenne Mgbokwo was the only known female monarch in Arochukwu history. By virtue of her leadership qualities and other factors, she assumed a male political position as female king and presided over the Aro political leadership just as the male monarchs. In Oguta, the Ogene Nwanye/Nwanyi (oldest woman) in some villages sat at the helm of village affairs, presiding over men and women and making decisions that affected the entire village population. Obi (King) of Aboh conferred titles, the Idibo, equivalent to those held by some Ndichie (all-male state council of elders) on his wives. These women usually exercised political power more than the men who had such titles. Like men, Aboh women owned war canoes, which they supplied the king in the event of foreign aggressions. Traditions remember one Ojobo as a powerful woman in the nineteenth-century Aboh who owned war canoes and slaves.⁷

Dual-Sex Political System

In dual-sex system, political power was shared between men and women. While each group managed and controlled its own affairs, each was also complementary instead of subordinate to the other. This system allowed for a harmonious, efficient and effective gender division of labor in Igbo political structure. Under the dual-sex structure, Igbo women exercised direct power within arenas viewed as the female province through all-female organizations. Women’s organizations existed and acted as parallel authority structures to those of men. Examples of these are women’s courts, market authorities, secret societies, and age-grade institutions. Women exercised political power and influence as leaders of women or as heads of women’s organizations. Among the western Igbo, a woman of outstanding conduct, character and ability (measured in terms of wealth) was selected to lead the women as the Ọmụ (Queen). While in Ubulu-Ukwu, the Ọmụ always came from the royal family, in Asaba, Igbuzo and Ọgwashi-Ukwu, for instance, the position of Ọmụ was elective.⁸ In Qnicha-Ugbo, a female was required to take the Ọcọ title before her installation as the Ọmụ. As female monarch, the Ọmụ dressed like a male monarch with her insignia of office and her own palace (married ones must return to their natal family where a palace would be built for them). She received homage from both the titled men and women as in the case of Ọnicha-Ugbo where Cfco titled men and women who took the Onwene title paid the Ọmụ allegiance.⁹

The Ọmụ not only looked after the market but also consulted the dibia (native doctor) on important occasions and presided over women matters such as immoral acts. With her assistants, the Ọmụ policed and settled all market disputes. She also played an active role in seeing to the general wellbeing of the town. She carried out necessary ritual sacrifices and propitiations and participated in ceremonies that ensured peace and stability in her community. She headed the council of titled women called Otu Ọmụ (the Ọmị society) whose members controlled local trading, the marketplace and the cult of the marketplace. In some Igbo towns such as Qnicha-Ugbo, the Ọmụ society was the custodian of the charms that protect the town against all forms of evil and enemy aggression because membership was mostly drawn from women who were adept in medicine and charm preparation. They were symbols of high morality. These women were therefore highly respected for the various roles they played in their society.

Onitsha Ọmụ¹⁰ and the Ada (senior daughters of the lineage) wielded great influence and power over other women, and at times, over men. They were the only women who held the Ọfọ (the staff of ritual authority) in Onitsha. They formed the Otu Ogene (Women’s council of elders)-whose members held titles similar to those of the Obfs council of chiefs (Ndichie). The Ọmụ must be a foremost daughter of Onitsha, a senior woman in her lineage, which must also be senior within Onitsha village-group. As the Isi Ada (head eldest daughter), she must be beyond the age of childbearing and usually possessed extraordinary wealth accumulated through trade. She represented Onitsha women in the imobi (state council/king’s court) and, has been referred to as a female monarch whose power and authority ran parallel to those of the Obi, the male monarch. In Ọgwasi-Ukwu and Asaba, the Ọmụ was the counterpart of the Obi and Asagba (King), respectively. Ọmụ Nwagboka of Onitsha, for example, was a signatory to the October 9,1884 Treaty between the Onitsha and the British.

The Ọmụ and her female councils generally acted as a pressure group in political matters and reserved the right to impose fines on both men and women who disturbed the peace of the marketplace as well as those who broke certain traditional taboos like incest and adultery. The Ọmụ and leaders of the Otu Ọmụ were required to attend village/town meetings of the king, council of chiefs and elders where important decisions affecting the welfare of the citizens were discussed. In some towns, they had the power to decide when it was necessary for the men to wage war against another town.

The most powerful women’s organization in Oguta was Otu Ogene, headed by the most senior woman, the Ogene Nwanye, who with other senior women, formed the council of female elders equivalent in power and status to that of the male council of Ndichie. In Nnobi, the Ekwe title women’s society was associated with the Idemili goddess. High-status Nnobi women usually took the title. The head of the Ekwe title society was the Agba Ekwe who was the most powerful of these women and was reputedly the most powerful political figure among the Nnobi people. Among the Aro, lyamba women’s association was corresponded to the Ekpe society (the highest men’s association). The head of the lyamba in every ward exercised quasi-judicial functions. Her power to enforce decisions rested on her ritual power to invoke the supernatural force of the lyamba cult, which could bring ill luck on whoever it was invoked. She could also call on the women to punish collectively any wrongdoer—both men and women. lyamba basically regulated relationships between Aro women and men.

Otu Umuada or Otu UmuỌkpụ (society of daughters of the lineage who might be married, unmarried, divorced or widowed) was a force to reckon with, especially in their natal lineage. Exercising their political power over the lineage wives in the interest of the patrilineage, Umuokpu could act as a police force against patrilineage wives by monitoring their activities and undermining them in times of difficulty. In such situations, instead of acting collectively to maintain a unified front against men, lineage daughters acted in collaboration with patrilineage men against lineage wives. Many of them acted as ritual and purification specialists extracting confessions from line-age wives guilty of infidelity or adultery, and cleansing them too.¹¹ Umuada also acted as female husbands to lineage wives. As husbands, lineage daughters were socially not biologically or sexually obligated to see to the welfare of their wives (that is, their fathers’ or brothers’ or even uncles’ physical wives). They also enjoyed certain privileges over the wives such as attending their lineage family meetings, settling disputes and even having access to means of production and some inheritance rights, privileges, which the wives did not have. In this circumstance, gender flexibility was highly demonstrated because though a female was a wife in her husband’s household or lineage, she was a husband as a lineage daughter in her natal compound. This flexibility of gender construct was evident among the Igbo, Ibibio, Owan, Ishan and the Yoruba of Nigeria. Under this circumstance, gender marginalized and undermined the power and position of a female as a wife in her husband’s lineage, but empowered her as a daughter and husband in her natal lineage.

Otu Umuọkpụ exercised unifying political influence between their natal and marital lineages, settling intra- and inter-lineage disputes, especially those between their natal and marital lineages. Just as most powerful Igbo oracles, Otu Umuada acted as the supreme court of appeal, the watchdog of males’ political arm of government as well as regulated and ensured not only the sanctity of womanhood but also the entire society in their natal lineage. They settled disputes among their lineage men and between them and their wives. By performing various rites, rituals and sacrifices, Umuada acted as the custodians of religious morality for their communities. UmuỌkpụ were responsible for ritual cleansing (ikpu arụ) of the patrilineage. They performed purification rituals for lineage houses and other desecrated areas in the lineage. They played important roles during funerals. They acted as support network for lineage widows, conducting vigils and providing material support for the funerals of lineage men. Umuada were the most dreaded during such lineage burial rites. They were so powerful that they could make the men or even the council of elders to take actions contrary to the latter’s wish. They were, however, usually peacemakers in their lineage.

Otu Alutaradi or Otu Inyemedi (association of lineage wives) was another avenue through which Igbo women exercised political power and influence. Lineage wives voiced their concerns and protected their sociopolitical spaces and economic interests through Otu Alutaradi. This body acted as a lower court trying cases involving and concerning lineage wives and their young unmarried daughters. Difficult cases were referred to Otu Umuada. The leadership of this women’s organization was drawn from the senior wives (those married first into the lineage) irrespective of their age. In some Igbo communities, Otu Inyemedi was concerned with decisions regarding planting and harvesting of crops as well as punishment for owners of strayed animals that destroyed women’s crops. They also provided certain basic services such as sweeping the village squares and marketplaces as well as cleaning village springs and streams. Basically, Otu Umuọkpụ and Otu Alutaradi, that is, Ọha Ndinyom/Ndiome (Women’s Assembly or Solidarity) acted as part of checks and balances in the sociopolitical organization of the Igbo.

Just as men, women also wielded political power and influence through me...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Original Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One The Igbo Region before 1900: A Survey
• Chapter Two Women in the Economy before 1900
• Chapter Three “We Hold Our Families’ Bowls”: Colonialism, Women, Agriculture and Food Processing
• Chapter Four Double Endowments or Double-Edged Sword? Women, Crafts and Local Industries
• Chapter Five Trade and New Economic Order
• Chapter Six “If Not for Trade Who Would Have Given Us Wealth?”: The Women Traders
• Chapter Seven The Untouchable Vultures: Women in Resistance Movements
• Chapter Eight Conclusion: Igbo Women’s Economic Role in Historical and Comparative Perspective
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index