Gender Roles in Igbo Culture

Images on Religion

Rite of Passage

Religion

• The rite of wearing clothes (men and women)
• The rite of circumcision (men and women)
• The "fattening" of a girl before marriage (women)
• The initiation of a Diviner (men)
• The rite of wrestling (men)

Religion

•“Although many Igbo people are now Christians, traditional Igbo religious practices still abound. The traditional Igbo religion includes an uncontested general reverence for Ala or Ana, the earth goddess, and beliefs and rituals related to numerous other male and female deities, spirits, and ancestors, who protect their living descendants” (everyculture). •“The Igbo concept of personhood and the dialectic between individual choice/freedom and destiny or fate is embodied in the notion of chi, variously interpreted as spirit double, guardian angel, personal deity, personality soul, or divine nature” (everyculture).

•“Igboland’s traditional religion is based on the belief that there is one creator, God, also called Chineke or Chukwu” (igboguide).

•“There is also the belief that ancestors protect their living descendants and are responsible for rain, harvest, health and children” (igboguide).

•Christmas is one of the most important events in their culture because it signifies “home return in the village” (igboguide).

•“Each person also has a personalized providence, which comes from Chukwu, and returns to him at the time of death, a chi. This chi may be good or bad” (quab.ac.uk)

•“The funeral ceremonies and burials of the Igbo people are extremely complex, the most elaborate of all being the funeral of a chief. However, there are several kinds of deaths that are considered shameful, and in these circumstances no burial is provided at all. Women who die in labor, children who die before they have teeth, those who commit suicide and those who die in the sacred month – for these people their funeral ceremony consists of being thrown into a bush” (quab.ac.uk).

Level 3 Questions on Marriage and Religion

Social Status

Quotes from Chapter 1-9 in "Things Fall Apart" on Religion and Marriage

1. According to the research presented here, how is the treatment of women equal or better than men in the Igbo culture?

2. How does this contradict what you see in "Things Fall Apart"?

3. Compare that to the treatment of women in our culture.

4. Would you rather be a women in the Igbo culture or our culture?

Igbo Gender Duties Male

• Government led by elders and chiefs
• Importance of titles
• Social control and political institution
• Family and compound status
• Diala vs. Ohu (free citizen and slaves)

•“He neither inherited a barn nor title, nor even a young wife” (18).

•“Okonkwo always asked his wives’ relations, and since he now had three wives his guests would make a fairly big crowd” (37)

•Chielo- “priestess of Agbala”- The all time preacher was female- This is compared to in our society as most men are thought to be religious leaders and preachers (49)

•“My daughter’s suitor is coming today and I hope we will clinch the matter of the bride-price." (65)

•“The suitor was a young man of about twenty-five [...] She was about sixteen and just ripe for marriage.” (70-71)

• Multiple wives and beatings (wives and children).
• Sports
• Worked fields (Yams-a sign of wealth), farmed, chopped wood, pounded the yam foofoo

and climbed the palm trees

• Aggressive
• Pays bride price
• Control of Everything
• Accepted gender roles as fate
• Parents wanted male child
• Father’s duties toward his son
• -cleaning hunting weapons, washing clothing, taking care of animals, preparing farm tools,
• Wealth measured by farming success

Work Cited

• Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books, 1994
• Azuonye, Chukwuma. "Igbo Stories and Storytelling." Traditional Storytelling Today: An International Sourcebook. By Margaret Read MacDonald et al. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999. 33-40. Print.
• Chibuko, Patrick Chukwudezie. Igbo Christian Rite of Marriage.Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang, 1999.
• Dike, Eugene Ebere. Christian Marriage and Family in Igboland. Germany: Verlagshaus Monsenstein und Vannerday Münster, June, 2001.
• Igbo Culture, Igbo Language and Enugu. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2013. <http://www.igboguide.org/HT-chapter6.htm>.Igbo - Religion and Expressive Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2013. <http://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Igbo-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html>.Religion and the Igbo People. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2013. <http://www.qub.ac.uk/imperial/nigeria/religion.htm>.
• Perrault, Charles, and Sally Holmes. "The Fairies." The Complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault. New York: Clarion, 1993. N. pag. Print.
• Uba-Mgbemena, Asonye. "The Role of Ífò in Training the Igbo Child." Folklore 96.1 (1985): 57-61. JSTOR. Web. 15 Mar. 2013.
• Umeasiegbu, Rems Nna. Words Are Sweet: Igbo Stories and Storytelling. Leiden: Brill, 1982. Print.

Gender Roles in

Igbo Cuture

Images on Marriage

By: Lauren Goboff, Lindsay Hay, Morgan Lennon, Myles Marcus, Karina Mirpuri

Igbo Gender Duties Female

Marriage

• Cooking, cleaning (household chores)
• Chielo- priestess of Agbala
• Passive
• Bearing children (carry on family name-male)
• worth little to no value by themselves
• Bride price
• Accepted gender roles as fate
• Farming (planted maize, melons, beans)
• Oriaku- (Enjoying the wealth of husbands)

Types of Stories

Akuko-ala

“So Okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him in his obi, and he told them stories of the land-- masculine stories of violence and bloodshed [...] but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell,” (Achebe 53)

•“There are very important steps that must be taken from both families involved in the marriage. The Ibo culture is one based on umunna. Wives were often found outside the male’s village to ensure there was no inter-family marriage-taking place. The whole ceremony was a very public ordeal, as it was more of a focus on the joining of the two families rather than the two people” (3.nd.edu).

•There are three ways that a wife can be chosen

1. Marriage could be decided before birth, but usually only in successful families

2. Relatives could decide that during childhood their children would marry when they are older

3. Before the actual courtship, the man has to prove that he is ready to be married

•The marriage rituals begin by “a friend of the male’s family knocks at the female’s door and presents the family with kola nuts and palm wine. The groom to be is not allowed to approach the bride, so the proposal is done by the intermediary” (3.nd.edu).

Stories and Storytelling

• Stories of the land
• Creation History of tribe and clan
• Stories of past heroes/ancestors
• Accounts told as true past events
• Considered the men’s stories

Akuko-ifo

Gender Roles Within

Akuko-ifo

• The fairy-tales of the Igbo culture
• Mainly told to children-- of both sexes
• Teach morals and social behavior
• Instill cultural norms and ideals
• Amuse
• Considered to be the women’s stories

“Its heroes are socially disadvantaged but virtuous actors who survive through the goodness of their hearts or by dint of poetic justice.” (Azuonye 37)

Animal stories

-Tortoise

Stories about women

-Marriage and family

-The good are rewarded

-"A King and His Three Wives"

Stories about men

-Power

-The cunning rewarded

Aspects of culture

Akuko-ifo and Fairy Tales

of Our Culture

Variations on the same theme:

“A Woman and Her co-wife”

and

“The Fairies” by Charles Perrault

Modern twists in the classic fairy tales

Shifting values

-Disney princesses

-Girl power

-Why are stories an important aspect of nearly every culture around the world?

-What can stories reveal about the cultures from which they originate?

-What can stories reveal about human nature?

Igbo Gender Duties Comparisons

Gender Based Education

Marriage

Current Culture

Igbo Culture

Men Crop:

Women Crops:

• Traditional roles disappear
• Women seek equality
• Co-ed education
• Male/Female financial support

• Exception: Chielo- priestess of Agbala

How does the success of a society with equal gender roles compare to a society with assigned unequal gender roles?

•If the bride says yes the next stage would be inquiry. Inquiry is when the family, friends, and gods are consulted on several issues.

•Next was probation, which is when the groom would prove conclusion about his family is true, and the bride-to-be would go and live with the groom’s family. She would then be put through a series of tests by her mother-in-law pertaining to ability to complete many household tasks.

•Then the bride price is determined. “It’s usually very low to emphasize the woman isn’t being sold. Rather, it is a gift for raising such a beautiful daughter” (3.nd.edu).

•The marriage was very important in Ibo society. Polygamy was allowed and practiced, and the number of wives a man had improved his societal image.

• Men and woman get the same types of education

• Gender doesn't matter today and anyone can go to school for what they want

• Women have choices and sometimes men will be the ones raising the children

• Women
• Ideas dealing with duties implanted into females at young ages
• How to raise and maintain family
• Cook and clean
• Harvest specific crops (coco-yams, beans, cassava)
• Weeding fields
• Respect
• Were taught religion, medicine, and social studies

• Men
• How to work the fields
• Maintain higher status and family
• Negotiate with tribe
• Harvest and sow yams (king of crops)
• Battle and war strategy
• Men taught to lead
• Mainly focused on defense and politics in learning
• Men and women could have whatever occupation they desired but were taught only what was related to their gender.