New Dawn for African Women: Igbo Perspective

By Michael Muonwe

The need for renegotiation of the place and role of women in the family, the Church, and the society cannot be any more urgent than now, especially as people are more aware of the devastating effects of the evils of inequality, discrimination, and oppression. It is a pity that the excellent qualities of bravery, industry, resilience, and perseverance historically attributed to African women, with which they negotiated for better place in the family, the Church, and the society, have been manipulated to serve as instruments for their denigration. The problem is that the patriarchal articulations of gender relations from the western world that entered Africa through colonialism, Christianity, western education and globalization allied themselves with the macho elements in African culture, and institutionalized the oppression of women; a move that women have always resisted both overtly and covertly. But how long could they hang on? This book provides exceptional and critical assessment of these issues, especially from the perspective of the Igbo society of Nigeria. Apart from assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the efforts made by women themselves to surmount these challenges, it also explores how the autochthonous values of the traditional culture could integrate with Christian values to enthrone gender equality in the society.
Fr Muonwe demonstrated in this present publication his pastoral zeal for justice especially on the predicaments of women in African nay Igbo society. He regrets as it were that the African (Igbo) traditional society is still far from realizing the Christian gospel ideal of dignity and equality of human person because of the obvious environment that is strictly androcentric and carefully crafted in patriarchal hegemony I thank Fr Muonwe for this timely publication especially for many Igbo Christian communities today experiencing crisis in several aspects of our culture I hope the Bishops, the Priests, the Religious and Laity will find in this present work a rare and indispensable treasure for solutions to our pastoral predicaments. Rev. Fr. Prof. Anthony B. C. Chiegboka.
New Dawn for African Women is encyclopaedic in content and daunting in its wealth of documentation [It] is a well-written book. The contents covered much more than Igbo women, or gender issues. It addressed such other issues as Igbo cosmology, Igbo concept of life and death, the history of Christianity in Igboland and Igbo social anthropology, among others. It is a book, which every Nigerian, especially the Igbo, should read. The book is inspirational and provocative in the extreme; it is original and displays learning lightly carried. One cannot but return to it over and over again after the first reading. I very strongly recommend it to the Nigerian and African reading public. C. Ego Uzoezie (Ph.D.)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524562892

Michael Muonwe

Michael Muonwe is a priest of the Catholic diocese of Awka, Nigeria. He holds Licentiate in Theology and Doctorate in Theology and Religious Studies from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He obtained Bachelors in Philosophy from Bigard Memorial Seminary Enugu, Nigeria. Michael also holds Diplomas in Mass Communications and Education. He has authored two books, viz. Dialectics of Faith-Culture Integration: Inculturation or Syncretism (2013); Challenging the Myths of Gender Equality: Theology and Feminism (2014); and a good number of articles. Michael is the editor of the book Priesthood in the Contemporary Era: A Reader (2013). His major research interest is the relationship between the Christian faith and contemporary society and culture, especially how synergy between them can help make life more humane for people without discrimination of any sort.

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Copyright © 2016 by Michael Muonwe.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1. Place or Status of Women in Igbo Life and Thought

Marriage and Family

Husband/Wife Relationship in Marriage

Ideal Igbo Wife and Her Duties to Her Husband

Proper Cooking

Adequate Deference

Safeguarding Husband’s Reputation

Dignifying Husband (ịkwanyere di ugwu)

Sexual Responsibility

Women and Polygyny

Relative Positions of Male and Female Child

Women and Childlessness/Sonlessness

Women in Igbo Traditional Religion

Worship of Supreme Being and Deities

Ancestral Cult

Kola nut Ritual

Women and Igbo Political Institutions

Dual-Sex Character of Igbo Politics

Dual-Sex in a Monarchical Structure

Association of Lineage Daughters and Wives

Women’s Political Pressures and Protective Devices

Colonialism: Effects and Reactions

Organized Women Revolts

Examining the Aftermath

2. Igbo Women and Widowhood

Igbo Understanding of Death and After-Life

Kinds of Death

Ọnwụ Ekwensu

Ọnwụ Ọjọọ

Ọnwụ Chi

Concept and Practice of Widowhood

Mourning a Deceased Husband (Ịkpa Mkpe): Pre and Post Funeral Practices

Wailing

De-Beautification (Imechi Ịchọ Mma)

Ritual Confinement (Ịnọ Na Nsọ)

Faultfinding

Termination of Mourning Period

Inheritance Rights of Widows: Legal Position and Social Practice

Statutory Law

Igbo Customary Law

Customary Law and Its Development: Igbo Case

The Customary Succession Rights of Widows

Critical Reading of the Rationale behind Igbo Widowhood Practices

3. Christianity in Igboland and the Woman Question

Missionary Inroads into Igbo Society

Initial Missionary Setback

Turn of Events

Early Days of Christian Education: Strategies and Policies

The Marginalised in the Missionary Education Policy

Interdenominational Rivalry: Impact on Igbo Women

Sowing the Seeds of Discord

Igbo Women and the Rivalry

Christianity and Igbo Traditional Religion and Culture: Impact on Women

Attitudes and Prejudices

Women and the Altered Religio-Cultural Environment

Today’s Igbo Catholicism and Women

Women in the Church’s Life

Examining Ecclesiastical Pastoral Initiatives

Confrontational Stance

Widowhood Associations and Catholic Women Organisations (C.W.O.) as Change Agents

Official Diocesan Documents/Responses

4. Encountering the Word of God in Igbo (African) Culture

Igbo Concept of Human Person

Igbo Concept of Chi

Chi as Spark of God, Emanated Spirit of God in Humans

Chi, Equality, and Mutual Respect

Unity and Relationality in Igbo Notion of the Human Person

Imago dei and equality of human beings

Human Nature, Relationality, and Communion

Points of Mutual Encounter

Anthropological Reflections

Jesus for Igbo Women: Effort at Inculturation

Hermeneutical Considerations

Women’s Experience and the Drama of the Christian Message

GENERAL CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

FOREWORD I

Since the dawn of the human race on earth, it has been a chronicle of experiences and stories of marginalization, degradation and inequality. These phenomena had manifested itself in slave trade, colonialism, subjugation of women, drug trafficking and the current commerce and trafficking in human beings (especially women and children) and the child labour.¹ These negative trends have had far-reaching unpalatable effects on the dignity of the human person ontologically created in the image of God as male and female.

In the entire played out scenarios, the obvious fundamental truth was offered by Adebajo when she said, It is an established fact that the more severe the effect of any harmful traditional practices is, the more likely it is that the victim will be either women or children.² This is complemented in the words of Mercy A. Oduyoye, when she added thus: Nevertheless, the fact remains that we have crucified women all over the world. Women carry in their minds and souls and indeed in their bodies, the wounds and pains of the violence of male-directed institutions, structures and cultures³ and Theresa Souga when she added thus: A glance at our society leads us to conclude that the lived experience of African women is not always taken into account. Everything is in the hands of men: they have the power, it is they who have the right to speak, who enjoy respect, who have the right to take initiatives and they are often favored by the law. Being a woman means silence, being brushed aside, suffering, and weakness.⁴

It is within this background that we locate this work by Rev Fr Michael Muonwe on the NEW DAWN FOR AFRICAN WOMEN: IGBO PERSPECTIVE. Having authored two works earlier in 2014 on the DIALECTICS OF FAITH-CULTURE INTEGRATION: INCULTURATION OR SYNCRETISM and CHALLENGING THE MYTHS OF GENDER EQUALITY: THEOLOGY AND FEMINISM, Fr Muonwe demonstrated in this present publication his pastoral zeal for justice especially on the predicaments of women in African nay Igbo society. He regrets as it were that the African (Igbo) traditional society is still far from realizing the Christian gospel ideal of dignity and equality of human person because of the obvious environment that is strictly androcentric and carefully crafted in patriarchal hegemony.

For the author, in many places the dignity of women are unrecognized, their prerogative misrepresented, relegated to the margins of society, reduced to servitude, valued for their physical appearance than the very dignity of their being. Strikingly, this was the earlier position of St John Paul II when he observed very truly that: We are compelled to notice with regret that even at this level women have suffered the effects of systematic marginalization,⁵ and also even today there are situations in which women are de facto if not legally in a condition of inferiority.⁶ The faces of inequality include as I personally itemized elsewhere:

a. Biological inequality whereby women or female gender are considered inferior

b. Socio-Cultural inequality concerns issue of interest in progeny and need for male child as if to say the woman is responsible for only female children or sometimes no child at all. Also the idea of bride price/dowry a phenomenon that makes women to be part of property owned by the men; added to this is idea of men as breadwinners, which do not work again nowadays; also included is that children’s behaviour, guilt of adultery, etc. are always placed on the head of women; finally we recall the debasing widowhood rituals that is conflicting with gospel even in this time in many Christian communities, etc.

c. Legal inequality that has to do with right to inheritance, land acquisition and ownership, citizenship rights, power to bail and idea of no women in Bench, etc.

d. Religious inequality which is employing some misogynistic texts in bible as a ground to affirm inequality. Examples include Gen 2:18-25, woman from rib; Gen 3:16, Husband rule your wife; Eph 5:21-33, Wives to be subjects to husbands; 1 Tim 2: 11-15, Women no authority over men; 1 Cor 14: 34-35, Women to be silent in the assembly; etc.⁷

With keen interest in meeting point between gospel and culture, laudable educational foundations coupled with consistent academic records in first Class Honours (in his philosophical and theological studies at all levels) and indeed his post graduate studies at the prestigious University of Leuven, Belgium with multi disciplinary orientations (since he had certificates in Philosophy, Theology, Religion, Mass Communication, Education), Fr Muonwe exposed his research interest which is the often-convoluted relationship and interplay between religion and contemporary culture⁸ or as it were a synergy between faith and culture. He believes that the Church should move away from its triumphalist approach or erroneous conception that anything traditional is evil but should rather adopt a posture of partner in progress through dialogue rather than see the traditional structures and institutions as enemy to be mastered and subdued. This means that there are a lot of works to be done within the ambient of official Church invitation for inculturation clearly embedded in the two Post African Synodal Exhortations⁹ and many Missionary Documents of the Church.

Fr Muonwe calls on all hands to be on deck. As I indicated elsewhere, this project of restoring the dignity of women calls for responsible solidarity¹⁰ since the women concerned are not only our wives and mothers of our families but also our sisters and in-laws. This approach, continues Fr Muonwe, should abhor socialization of women and non challancy on the part of men when the awful predicaments are defended not only from ancient practices and from citations of bible (1 Cor 11: 2-16; 14: 33-35; 1 Tim 2: 8-15; Col 3: 18; Eph 5:22; etc), as coming from or ordained by God. On another note, radical feminism, that is the erroneous positions that What a man can do, a woman can do even better is not the answer, since we can never have absolute equality between men and women or both gender accomplishing all specific to each. Hence, the counsel of Pope Pius XII is appropriate when he exhorted: The present structure of society based on the almost absolute equality of man and woman rests on a false assumption. It is true that as far as the personality is concerned men and women equal in dignity, honor, and value. But they are not equal in every respect, certain natural gifts, inclinations and dispositions are proper only to the man or only to the woman, or else are found in both but in different degrees some more in the man others rather in the woman according to the distinct fields of activity assigned them by nature.¹¹

I thank Fr Muonwe, for not only the honour to put up this foreword but mainly this timely publications especially for many Igbo Christian communities today experiencing crisis in several aspects of our culture be it chieftaincy, burials, festivals, and especially women dignity, etc. I hope the Bishops, the Priests, the Religious and Laity will find in this present work a rare and indispensable treasure for solutions to our pastoral predicaments.

Rev Fr Prof Anthony B. C. Chiegboka

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka

November 1, 2016

Solemnity of All Saints

Foreword II

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (10th ed.) defines feminism as the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes... an organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests (p.428). In like manner, Justina N. Okoye calls it an ideology (which) incorporates both a doctrine of equal rights for women and an ideology of social transformation aiming to create a world for women beyond simple social equality (p.1). This highly researched and copiously documented book, New Dawn for African Women: Igbo Perspective, a gold mine of concrete and incontrovertible facts and information could as well have been given other titles including Gender Studies: The Igbo Example, Women in the Igbo World, etc.

The word women in Muonwe’s book title is used, I think, as an appropriate entry point into the vast unexplored world of Igbo people — their world view, their belief system, their material and spiritual realms, their religious, political, socio-economic and their intricate family, gender relations both in life and death during the pre-colonial/pre-Christian, colonial, and post-colonial periods. Because the perpetuation of any race and the transmission of what that race stands for — in this case, the Igbo race — are crucial for its survival and its continued existence, the ‘woman’ is foregrounded in the book, within the context of the family and the immediate surrounding cultural environment. Her travails become a metaphor for the travails of the Igbo world, old and new. The use of women in the family setting as the focal point in the discussion of the issues raised in the book is very apt because woman is the primary source of life, with the family as the microcosm of the larger society. But in spite of all these, the (Igbo) woman is depicted as an underdog, a quasi-slave to the husband, a second-class citizen, and the burden-bearer of the society within which she should only be seen but never heard. They (women), experience the ugly effects of the socio-political and economic marginalization coming from within and without Africa, from within and without Christianity (p.207). While the book focuses mainly on the Igbo as an ethnic group, the author never fails to draw attention to the similar situations in other parts of Nigeria and Africa.

New Dawn for African Women is encyclopaedic in content and daunting in its wealth of documentation. To borrow Professor Nnoli’s phrase, the author’s approach to the subjects he treated is, in the main exegetical and exponential, i.e., a close study of the situation, followed by an unbiased critical appraisal.

The book opens with a General Introduction in which the author uses the ugly incident of the brutal murder of two Christians in Anambra State of Nigeria to look again at the conflict between the cultures and belief systems of traditional Igbo society and Christianity, the socio-cultural status of Igbo women, etc., in order to find out how to bring about a rapprochement between the old and the new since the majority of Igbo people (today) identify themselves as Christians (although) the Igbo traditional religious beliefs, presumptions and presuppositions still have influence on their actions, and Christianity also has elements within its own tradition that are equally sources of threat to the real humanization of people, and which need some reformation.

In a way, therefore, New Dawn is a dispassionate account of feminist theology in Igbo and Christian perspectives in which a critical re-examination and suggested integration are filtered through the life and experiences of Igbo women who are groaning under the age-long burden of the Igbo patriarchal system and female domination. The woman’s position, especially among the Igbo, as an underdog and beast of burden is maintained throughout the book in spite of abundant evidences to show that God created men and women to be complements to each other, as is evident in Igbo concepts of chi, their concept of duality and several references in the bible.

In addition to the control theme of the book, which seems to be the liberation of the African woman from the shackles of the male-dominated patriarchal world using the Igbo as example, New Dawn addresses many other important existentialist issues especially as they relate to the Igbo women, past and present. It starts by discussing a woman’s status in Igbo life and thought, especially in the family, in marriage, religion, political institutions, and goes further to detail her agonizing life when she is widowed. The colonial administration corroded and virtually wiped out the little political and the socio-economic powers which women in Igboland enjoyed through their use of women group organizations, by imposing all-male warrant chiefs and the employment, later, of clerks, native court members, interpreters, court messengers, etc., who were all male, and continued in different directions before and after political independence, in preference of male children. So women made some efforts to press home their demands for better treatment and to register their displeasure with what they saw as injustice (p.56) through riots, organized revolts, market women organizations and demonstrations which led to some concessions to them in the colonial government, such as exempting them from direct taxation. But these concessions were minimal, cosmetic and transient. To be released from their bondage, the converted Igbo women took recourse to Christology and what Christ stands for in the bible, but it is not a triumphalist Christology which envisioned Christ as one whose coming to Africa was aimed at unleashing a devastating blow on cultural patrimony of the continent which was considered to be infested with demons and evil spirits (p.208) but rather through a symbolic imaginative approach; what the writer of this book calls a more practically oriented Christology (p.223). This Christology is that which sees Jesus as the Messiah who came to help human beings to actualize their humanity to its fullness, ... one who alone can come to their aid in the quest to live their full humanity as creatures made in God’s image (p.215).

The author made a strong point by holding that the present predicament (of the Igbo woman) in society has been shaped by a combination of these forces: Igbo culture, Christianity, colonialism and neo-colonialism (p.220), and that the solution, put in the mouths of the women, is to bring the Christian faith into the heart of the native cultures as well as introduce these cultures into Christianity, such that in the process, the good values of both are ennobled, while the bad ones are critiqued, challenged and changed (pp.223-224) What he mapped out for himself to achieve in the book, and which I think he achieved with little effort was stimulating discussions on, as well as challenging, the traditional Christian (and Igbo) thinking on women, the Igbo conception of women, and what women think about themselves... while at the same time suggesting concrete mobilization for change ... so that through them these ideas could get to the grassroots and mobilize women for change (p.224).

New Dawn for African Women: Igbo Perspective, is a well-written book. The contents covered much more than Igbo women, or gender issues. It addressed such other issues as Igbo cosmology, Igbo concept of life and death, the history of Christianity in Igboland and Igbo social anthropology, among others. It is a book which every Nigerian, especially the Igbo, should read. The book is inspirational and provocative in the extreme; it is original and displays learning lightly carried. One cannot but return to it over and over again after the first reading. I very strongly recommend it to the Nigerian and African reading public.

C. Ego Uzoezie (Ph.D.),

Provost, Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe

Fmr. Hon. Commissioner for Women affairs & Soc. Devt.,

Anambra State

Fmr. President. Awka Diocesan CWO.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to the Almighty God that this book eventually saw the light of the day. It represents an important stage in a continuum of inspirations of practical theological import that began in my life many years back. These inspirations have led to my publication of three earlier books, viz. Priesthood and the Challenges of the Contemporary Era: A Reader (2013), Dialectics of Faith-Culture Integration: Inculturation or Syncretism (2014), and Challenging the Myths of Gender Equality: Theology and Feminism (2014), and a good number of articles in scholarly journals.

I must never forget the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, where the development of the seminal inspirations that eventually crystallized into this work got a huge boost, especially through the guiding light offered to me by Prof. Dr. Peter Schmidt and Prof. Dr. Annemie Dillen. I thank my local ordinary Most Rev. Dr. Paulinus C. Ezeokafor, whose lovely disposition towards me, as his secretary, did the magic of providing me with the necessary impetus for giving a well-deserved touch to the book. I also enjoyed the wonderful support and critical remarks of my friends, especially those that went through some portions of the work, offering their suggestions and commendations. Rev. Fr. Prof. A. Chiegboka and Hon. Ego Uzoezie who composed the two educative and incisive forwards offered the reader a veritable head start. I appreciate every bit of everyone’s love and care. I pray that each person also finds help in his or her moments of need.

I dedicate this book to those men and women who are committed to ending injustice and discrimination against people because of their sex, especially in Igbo society.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

It was late in the evening on 23 February 1993 when the news spread like wild fire that a young lady in her early twenties, Scholastica Nnolim, and another young man, Augustine Eze, were shot dead by a group of rampaging youths in Nanka in the present Orumba-North Local Government Area of Anambra State, southeast Nigeria. The duo, alongside other Christians, went for a funeral mass of a deceased devout Christian man when the incident occurred. The trouble that led to these deaths began when the widow of the deceased, following the guidance of his parish priest, contravened one of the age-old widowhood rituals in the town by the widow setting her eyes on the dead body of her husband, participating in his burial and performing dust-to-dust ritual, which entailed throwing a handful of sand or laterite into the grave to bid the deceased farewell. According to the traditional custom of the community, at the demise of her husband, the widow should flee the house to avoid the temptation of gazing on his lifeless body. She was not expected to return until the burial had taken place. Her absence also served to make sure she did not throw sand into the husband’s grave. To do so was considered an abomination. It was only when the burial ceremonies were fully completed that she could return to complete other official mourning requirements. For the widower, the case was different. He could participate in the funeral preparations and ceremonies of his dead wife as much as he wished. The refusal of the widow in question to abide by this custom enraged the youths who vowed that her departed husband would not be buried until the deities and the ancestors were appeased and the land cleansed of the defilement brought by her action. Other punishments were also prescribed for her.

The parish priest and some other zealous Christians saw the widowhood practice as unchristian because it was connected to Igbo traditional religious beliefs.¹² They insisted that the lady had committed no offense and that the funeral must go on as planned. The Catholic faithful from other towns within Awka Diocese were, therefore, mobilised to join the parish in the fight against the ‘devil’ by turning out en masse on the day of the burial. The request got huge positive response from zealous Catholic faithful, many of whom belonged to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. It was in the midst of the tension generated by the situation on the burial day that squabbles broke out between the village youths and the worshippers. This led to two worshippers being shot point blank and they died on the spot. Scores of other Christians sustained several degrees of injury.

When, late in the evening of the fateful day, the surrounding towns got wind of what had happened, people were all overcome with fear and anxiety, since some of their loved ones, who also attended the occasion, were yet to return. Many could not sleep that night. In the morning, the details of what happened the day before started to emerge as many who escaped began to narrate their experience. People listened attentively but with heavy hearts as the survivors narrated how the enraged youths ambushed the congregation with dangerous weapons ranging from clubs and broken bottles to machetes and guns. What was pathetic in their story was that the youths seemed to have targeted mainly the women within the congregation. The ugly memories of the night with its fears, anxiety, and resentment has ever remained fresh in the minds of many.

This incident made a deep impression on me. It has helped a lot in igniting, nurturing, and shaping my interest in issues related to Igbo religion and culture, the points of contact between them and Christianity, as well as gender relations in Igbo society. After the episode, I became curious about Igbo widowhood practices and rituals, and entertained a burning desire to learn how they functioned in different Igbo communities. It was not long before I realised that the practice that sparked off the Nanka controversy was just a tip of the iceberg as regards what widows had to undergo in the society. The society began to appear to me as having been so carefully crafted to favour male hegemony. It was not until the year 2000, when I began my theological formation in the major seminary, that I started to realise that the local church could also be blamed for the Nanka episode and the resultant casualties on account of the approach it usually adopted in resolving conflicts between Christianity and Igbo traditional religion and culture. Besides, the perspective from which I visualised the widowhood practices continued to evolve. It was common for an average Igbo Christian to see the widowhood practices only from the point of view of its being a site for contest between the devil in the traditional religion and the Christian God. But, as time went on, I also began to envision it from the perspective of its being a function of patriarchy,¹³ which is entrenched not only within Igbo culture and society but also within Christianity. This is especially the case when it is considered within the context of other acts of injustice perpetrated against women in the family and in the wider Igbo society about which the church in Igbo society seems not to have done enough. The action of the youths shows how strong belief systems could be and the extent people could go to defend them. It demonstrates the on-going conflicts in the hearts of some Christians as regards their allegiance to the Christian faith and the demands of the traditional religion. It also makes glaring the inefficiency of the triumphalist approach often adopted by Christianity towards Igbo religion and culture since its advent in the society.

Another significant reality that the incident brings to the fore is how Igbo people regard their women. The greater majority still regard as natural the secondary status accorded women in the society. Due to lack of greater awareness, many Igbo women today also tend to resign to fate and see their predicament as the lot marked out for them by God. I had the opportunity in 2005, a year after my priestly ordination, to hold a focus group discussion with some Christian men and women from St Felix Catholic Parish Nise, Awka Diocese (Nigeria), where I was working as the parish vicar. The discussion was on their view regarding the current asymmetrical relationship between the sexes in the society, by which many privileges accorded men were denied women. A majority were of the opinion that, even though men did at times overstate their headship over women, it was originally ordained by God that men be generally above women in social stratification. Referring to the Genesis stories of the creation of human beings (Gen 1:26-31; 2:4-24) they all posited that God made it from the beginning of creation that the woman should remain subject to the man as his helper, while the man should be the head. Some letters traditionally attributed to Paul (I Cor 11:2-6; 14:33b-35; I Tim 2:8-15; Col 3:18; Eph 5:22) were also alluded to by them, in their bid to substantiate their position. One of the men pointed out that such traditional Christian thinking was also confirmed by the Igbo traditional religion and culture, where it was believed that our ancestors received the current order of things from the Supreme Being, the deities and the spirits, and had been handed down generation after generation. The imbalance in the social roles performed by men and women was judged by them to be natural and God-given, since they were understood as being direct derivatives from the people’s biology. One of the women argued that childcare and housekeeping roles, for instance, perfectly fit what she described as women’s weak and tender nature. Men’s greater strength and aggressiveness, she argued, were naturally given to them to aid them in their control of women and the family and for securing the political and economic survival of the society. According to her, if God wanted all to enjoy equal respect and dignity, he would not have made men physically stronger than women.

It was within the context of these experiences that the drive for this research was born. Having examined the situation, I arrived at certain conclusions. First, unless people are made to think differently, things may not work out differently in the society. Second, Christian theology can help in effecting a significant change on the present order of things by working with Igbo culture as a partner in progress and not as an enemy to be mastered and subdued. Third, Christianity may lack the moral gut to fight the subjugation of women if it spends its own energy trying to subjugate or suppress the people’s culture. Dialogue is the way forward. Fourth, it needs to be made clear that, despite the fact that the majority of Igbo people identify themselves as Christians, the Igbo traditional religious beliefs, presumptions and presuppositions still have much influence on their actions. These have arisen from centuries-old tradition that cannot just be whisked away through condemnation and direct confrontation. Fifth, Igbo culture contains significant values that can definitely lead to the betterment of Igbo women if Christianity is prepared to enter into a sincere dialogue with it. Christianity also has elements within its own tradition that are equally sources of threat to the real humanisation of people, and which need some reformation; hence, our determination to address the current oppression of women in the society through an inculturated approach.¹⁴

Geographical Delimitation of the Study

This research primarily centres on Igbo people of southeast Nigeria. This is where we have the highest concentration of Igbo people in Nigeria. There are also a few Igbo communities in the western part of the country. They (both in the southeast and the western Nigeria) are geographically located between latitudes 6° and 7° north of the equator and longitudes 6° and 8° east of the Greenwich Meridian. The landmass covers about 15,800 square miles.¹⁵ Igbo is one of the three major ethnic groups in Nigeria among many. The other two are Hausa and Yoruba. Igbo people are united by their unique culture. They speak a common language – Igbo – which has many dialects. Some scholars have grouped Igbo language among the Niger-Congo family of African Languages. They form part of the Kwa subfamily.¹⁶ The 1991 census puts the Igbo population at 10.7 million.¹⁷ It is difficult to ascertain their current population since ethnicity was not taken into consideration in the most recent Nigerian census in 2006. Any figure quoted today by scholars is a matter of estimates and conjectures.¹⁸ The Igbo of southeast Nigeria, who are the primary focus of this research, occupy the five States of Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, and Abia out of the 36 States in Nigeria and the federal capital territory, Abuja. Many of them also live in other States of the federation, especially as a result of their distinctive interest in trade and commerce.

This work explores the place of women within this society, the ideological justifications behind it, how these affect their lives, and how effectively the situation can be confronted and changed for the better. Igbo traditional religion and culture will be examined from the point of view of the possible relations they bear to the current situation of Igbo women. It is my conviction that they contain elements that have been of disvalue, and can be of value, to Igbo women.

Situating the Relevance of the Research within a Larger Scholarly Context and Other Related Literature

There has been a large corpus of works on Igbo people that have some bearing on Igbo women either directly or indirectly. The pioneer works on Igbo women were chiefly written by expatriates. Few representative works under this category include those of George Basden,¹⁹ an English missionary for the Church Mission Society; Percy Talbot,²⁰ an English anthropologist and ethnographer; and John Jordan,²¹ a Roman Catholic priest. These authors did a great job in putting down the life of the Igbo people at a time when no literature on this seemed to have existed. Their works have served as invaluable sources of information on some aspects of the lives of Igbo women. They generally present the Igbo people as those for whom men possess a nature superior to that of women. This, they argue, accounts for the low status generally occupied by Igbo women in the society. One notices, however, that there is sometimes the tendency in their works to exaggerate the women’s inferior status to the point of suggesting that they have nothing to be proud of within the society. Their inability to understand the way of thinking of the people and their bias against the culture made them interpret some of the facts inaccurately. Moreover, writing perhaps from the coloniser’s perspective, they often failed to acknowledge the contributions of the colonial government and the Christian missionaries in the then prevalent plight of Igbo women.

Basden, for instance, writing in the first half of the last century about Igbo women, claims that they are of low intelligence compared to Igbo men. For him, the women are contented with low level of academic attainment.²² In making this observation, he completely ignores the role played by the sexist education and employment policies of Christianity and the colonialists in making Igbo women not consider education a viable option at the time. At another place, he refers to them as being considered "inferior creatures, little better than other household property.²³ This is purely an exaggeration of the situation, for though Igbo women are generally accorded lower status, they are also revered as people capable of great achievements that can aid the advancement of the society and are not just ‘creatures’ to be compared to ‘other household property.’ The level of exaggeration on Igbo women exhibited by Basden may partly be explained by his conviction that to know one [of the women] is to know all."²⁴

Another instance of misrepresentation comes from Jordan who merely sees the bride-price as a form of compensation to a bride’s family for the money used in training a girl.²⁵ Even though this could count as one of the reasons behind the expensiveness of the bride price in some localities, Jordan’s observation clearly misses the ritual symbolism of the bride price and its socio-cultural significance in creating the marital bond between the spouses.

These works were followed by a group of authors dedicated to the recreation of the image of Igbo women, which they considered as having been distorted by some authors (like those discussed above). Some works by expatriate anthropologists fall into this group, like Margaret Green’s Igbo Village Affairs²⁶ and Sylvia Leith-Ross’ African Woman: A Study of the Ibo²⁷ of Nigeria.²⁸ These two works were results of researches commissioned by the British colonial government in response to the ‘Igbo Women War’ (Ọgụ Ụmụnwanyị Igbo) of 1929.²⁹ The way Igbo women organised and expressed their grievances against the government made the government to acknowledge that they had underestimated the capacity and ability of the women. Commissioning these researches was, thus, an effort to learn more about the traditional, political, and social mechanisms that enabled the women to achieve such a massive mobilisation for action against the colonial establishments.

Today, very many other indigenous authors follow this path. Most of them concentrate on recovering the powers of Igbo women, be they socio-political, economic, or religious, which, according to them, seem to have been undermined over time. These authors include Nkiru Nzegwu, an artist and philosopher;³⁰ Thérèse Agbasiere, an ethnographer;³¹ and Ifi Amadiume, an anthropologist.³² The works of Ifi Amadiume are particularly of interest, because she sometimes overstates Igbo women’s abilities and tries to make the structures and practices that are oppressive to them appear as sources of pride and strength. This is the case with her depiction of the cultural practice of male daughter and female husband as signs of the strength of Igbo women. These practices often arise when parents do not have the often-preferred male child. The former refers to a situation where one of the daughters stays at home and begets children for the father without getting married. The latter usually arise in a situation, among other similar ones, where the male daughter fails to beget a son and marries another woman. A man from the extended family of the female husband’s father is often chosen to fulfil the sexual responsibilities to the married woman (in an effort to give birth to a son). Amadiume sees it as a sign of strength simply because, by being designated male, or husband, the daughter is given access to some privileges accorded male children in the family.³³

Amadiume seems to forget that, instead of the intended promotion of the women’s cause, such a romantic approach to Igbo culture may most likely end up providing some legitimatisation for continued existence of the oppressive practices and structures. Going by her approach, she appears to lend support to the ideology of the powerful that lie behind the construction of the unjust situations. Besides, there is absent in her work the recognition that some women are sources of oppression to other women due to some social edge they have over them.³⁴

Another group of works available today are those concerned with reclaiming what their authors perceive as the golden age of egalitarian principles in Igbo society prior to its contact with the West. For these authors, the pervasive practice of sexism today was almost non-existent in the society before the arrival of the British colonisers and the Christian missionaries. Thus, they are always quick to blame almost all the evils that have befallen Igbo women on these external forces. Even when they acknowledge the age-old nature of some of the sexist elements within the society, they only do so very reluctantly. The Igbo female historian, Gloria Chuku, is one of the champions of this approach.³⁵

There are also works with a more critically balanced assessment of the situation. Philomena Okeke-Ihejirika’s work³⁶ seems to be a classical example of this. In her study, she links the contemporary situation and experiences of Igbo professionals to their historical past, and examines the multifaceted nature of the influences and forces they have to grapple with in their daily lives. Okeke-Ihejirika describes their current situation as a hybridised social order³⁷ resulting from a combination of western and indigenous factors. She acknowledges that external factors have helped to influence the production of the current asymmetrical power relations with regard to gender dynamics and the ensuing subordinate position occupied by Igbo women. But she also believes that Igbo culture had been patriarchal prior to such external influence. One notable weakness in her work is her inability to treat as ultimately important the connection between the current oppressive social practices in the society and the ideas, myths, and beliefs that direct them. She only does this minimally, and thus seems not to have seen it as a major factor that needs to be addressed if the oppressive structures are to be subverted.

The current research joins this long discussion on Igbo women but from a perspective that takes care of most of the deficiencies of the earlier approaches. First, it explores the current situation of Igbo women with the conviction that the exploration can only yield a significantly fruitful result when the interplay of the multiplicity of forces, be they internal or external that impinge on the lives of women is taken very seriously. In addition, unlike the earliest writings by the expatriates that misrepresent the facts due to their bias against Igbo culture and their lack of adequate understanding of the mentality of the Igbo people, this work is written from the perspective of the people and based on engaged and critical analysis of their worldview and systems of thought. Again, it not only tries to present a critically balanced perspective on Igbo women, but also more importantly, takes seriously the link between the gendered social practices in Igbo society and the ideas, religious suppositions, belief systems and myths that direct women’s lives.

This is done this way because this research is undergirded by the belief that unless these underlying ideas are confronted and changed, one may end up scratching the surface; and one’s solutions would most certainly be tangential. The most recent conceptualisations of culture by the majority of scholars tend towards understanding it as being primarily a reality in the mind of a particular people, which is then manifest in behaviour – a kind of mental plan with which a given people are guided in their effort to confront the challenges posed by their environment.³⁸ For one to avoid these ideational dimensions of life and presume that he or she has penetrated a people’s culture is, to say the least, unrealistic. An Igbo adage has it that if one sees a creature dancing on top of a river, he or she should know that there is most likely to be some other thing underneath the water providing the music. One implication of this is that, if one wants to achieve much success in influencing the dancing pattern of the dancer or to stop the dance, he or she should endeavour to reach out to the submarine music provider. This work is approached against the background of this fundamental orientation.

The research has some significant contributions to make in the field of theology. The current paucity of theological works on Igbo women makes its timing very auspicious,³⁹ especially as the vast majority of Igbo people today identify themselves as Christians. The only detailed research, as far as I know, that has tried to relate the sexism in the Christian theological tradition and the western culture to that in Igbo culture is that of Rose Uchem.⁴⁰ Acknowledging that no such work pre-existed hers,⁴¹ she explores the causes of, as well as ways to end, women oppression and subjugation both in the church and the Igbo society. The way she approaches her subject matter shows that she understands very well the significance of the remark made by Rosemary Edet that in Nigeria, policy-related and other research projects concerned with ‘women in development’ often uncover cultural factors without associating them with religious beliefs and myths that rule women’s lives.⁴² Thus, one sees a notable effort by her not only to expose but also to analyze the ideas, conceptions, religious beliefs and thoughts behind the low concept of women in Igbo society.

That notwithstanding, one notices some prevarication in her assessment of these causes. At certain times, she seems to accept that Igbo culture had been patriarchal and oppressive to women in the pre-colonial period (that is, before its contact with the West). At other times, she seems to deny this and describes the culture as egalitarian in its pre-Christian and pre-colonial form. Hence, she argues that it is chiefly the external forces of colonialism and Christianity that are the bane of Igbo women. At a certain point in her work she even asserts that it is basically from the Christian theological ideas that all forms of marginalisation endured today by Igbo women originate, be they economic, social, political and ritual.⁴³ Consequently, she notes that once Christianity moves away from the type of theology that excludes the other, especially women, and moves towards inclusive theological thinking, all the ills suffered by Igbo women will be a thing of the past.⁴⁴

This way of thinking is clearly avoided in this research. The basic hypothesis of this work is that the intrusion of the patriarchal articulations of gender relations from the West into Igbo society, chiefly through colonialism and Christianity, as well as the androcentric gender imbalance within Igbo tradition and culture have, in one way or another, contributed in either causing or reinforcing Igbo women’s oppression. In effect, efforts will be made to critically assess the multidimensional character of the causes of the current predicament of Igbo women. This is anchored on the belief that a holistic solution cannot be realised when any of these major players is excluded from the discussion.

If one places this work within the broader spectrum of theological scholarship, one realises that it has a contribution to make in the field of pastoral or practical theology. For one, it answers the four major questions (though not systematically or chronologically as they are stated here) which Richard Osmer considers as expressive of the major tasks of this field of theology (that is, practical theology): what is happening? (descriptive-empirical task); why is this happening? (interpretive task); what ought to be the case? (normative task); how might one respond (pragmatic task).⁴⁵ It proceeds from a critical description of a particular constellation of gender practices in Igbo society and ends with articulating how this can be influenced in a significant manner. Stephen Pattison and James Woodward have noted that pastoral/practical theology is the locus where people’s contemporary practical experiences of life, their deeds, and concerns get involved in a mutually critical and enriching dialogue with the Christian beliefs and tradition.⁴⁶ This is our current preoccupation. The contemporary experiences under consideration are those of Igbo women, comprising the oppression and marginalisation they suffer as well as their strengths.

The major objectives of the work has some semblance to