ABSTRACT
Our concern here is on gender
sensitivity in the Igbo culture. We tried to examine the levels of gender
sensitivity in the traditional Igbo society and in the contemporary Igbo
society. Our startling discovery is that we had a higher level of sensitivity
in the traditional setting than we now have in this contemporary period. The
reason is that the irrational approach to the gender question is fast
obliterating the differentiation that should exist between the male and the
female.
By gender sensitivity, we mean the
level of awareness, appreciation of the need to maintain at reasonable levels
the gender differentiation between the male and female. It is true to some
extent that what a man can do, the woman can equally do, but it is not
expedient that women should insist on doing everything the man does even at the
expense of nature’s assigned honorific roles of wifehood and motherhood. At the
same time we stress that all the rustic are atavistic male chauvinistic
character of domination, oppression and marginalization must be done away with.
Other wise, when gender differentiations are completely obliterated, gender
sensitivity will also disappear with it. This will lead to some un-naturalness.
To remain gender sensitive, we have to keep the gender peculiarities in focus
to a reasonable limit.
INTRODUCTION
Okonkwo
was inwardly pleased at his
son’s development, and he knew it was
due to Ikemefuna. He wanted Nwoye to
grow
into a tough young man capable of
ruling his father’s household…and so he
(Okonkwo) was happy when he heard him
grumbling
about women. That showed that
in
time he would be able to control his women
folk. No matter how prosperous a man was,
if
he was unable to rule his women and his
children,
he was not really a man. (Achebe 37).
The above provides
us a glimpse of the Igbo traditional gender stereotype. The boy is brought up
to see himself as superior to the girls. A boy’s father did everything from
scolding to severe beating to ensure that he removes any trace of womanish
trait from his son. The above captures Okonkwo’s joy at seeing that his first
son Nwoye has begun to shed his childhood feminine tendencies. Chinua Achebe in
Things Fall Apart paints a vivid
picture of the Igbo traditional gender stereotypes and how through informal
education fathers groom their boys to grow up as men, bold, courageous,
audacious and fearless. The women on the other hand groom the girls to become
soft, subservient, weak and gentle. This was why Okonkwo declared “I will not have a son who cannot hold up his
head in the gathering of the clan” (24).
The silent but rigorous schooling
into the patriarchal and matriarchal stereotypes was ingrained in the
traditional institution of the Igbo. The men knew what was expected of them,
and so did the women.
The men and the women seemed to have
accepted their gender roles as a fait
accompli. Men and women were
sensitized and indoctrinated in such a way that there were no conflicts or bad
blood. Gender sensitivity was very high in Igbo land. In virtually all spheres
of life, boys and girls, men and women knew what was expected of them. In the
family, women swept the house, washed the plates, cooked the food, etc., while
the boys or the men split the firewood, pounded the yam foofoo and climbed the
palm trees. In farming, the women planted maize, melons and beans between the
yam mounds while the men made the yam mounds and planted yams. As Achebe
portrayed it “yam stood for manliness” and yam was regarded as the king of
crops.
Another image carved out for the
women folk in Igbo traditional society is that of the enjoyer of the wealth of
the men. Women are called “Oriaku”, that is, those who enjoy the wealth of
their husbands. We have therefore two pictures that look seemingly opposed to
each other – namely that of servitude and merriment. This picture though
appears paradoxical is more real than fake. It is in these ironies that one
appreciates the woof, waft and texture of the Igbo traditional culture with the
attendant pains and glories.
In this paper we wish to examine the
extent of gender sensitivity in traditional Igbo culture with the view of
trying to underscore their acceptability or otherwise in the present
contemporary setting.
DEFINITION OF
TERMS
We shall briefly consider the
following terms, “Gender”, “Gender sensitivity” and “Igbo culture”. According
to Chambers Encyclopedic English
Dictionary, gender is seen as the condition of being male or female.
According to Roget’s Thesaurus of English
Words and phrase, gender goes with classification and categorization into
ranks, classes, castes, statues, social class, sex, species, quality, genre,
type, etc. (43). This means the condition of maintaining divisions or
discrimination among things that are not exactly the same. In the context of
this paper, we are using gender as it appertains to the male and the female
sex. We are acknowledging the fact of differentiation between the male and the
female.
What then do we mean by gender
sensitivity? We are referring to the quality or inclination to recognize or
appreciate or respond appropriately to issues on gender lines. It would mean
where one has the ability to discriminate and act in ways that show sensibility
(knowledge) of the fact of differences between male and female and to defer to
the proper attitudes while dealing with the male and the female. It means being
a stickler for the maintenance of gender differences in all matters. This will
include insisting in all matters that the male and the female have different
traditional or conventional stereotypes which must be adhered to.
What then do we mean by Igbo
culture? Here we refer to the totality of Igbo’s way of life seen in their work
and recreation as in their way of investigating nature, utilizing its
possibilities and in their ways of viewing themselves and interpreting their
place in nature. This will include, the way the Igbo organize their homes,
their economic activity, social values, clothing, music, language and
religion. (Ozumba qtd in Uduigwomen Footmarks 19).
Igbo culture can be characterized by
its emphasis on individual achievement and initiative, alternative prestige
goals and paths of action, a tendency toward egalitarian leadership, lineage
and family groups, extended family system, age grades, secret societies, etc.
(Ndiokwere 13). According to Uwalaka, the Igbo are those persons who have been
grouped into the Kwa linguistic stock but with variations of dialect. Their
territorial divisions cover the whole area stretching from the coastlines of
the Bight of Benin and continue to the outskirts of Ibibio and Efik territories
in the east with its eastern boundary being formed by the cross river. Today,
the Igbo are found in the seven states of Nigeria, namely Anambra, Abia, Enugu,
Ebonyi, Imo, Delta and Rivers States excluding those in diaspora (2).
Our attempt is a philosophical
reappraisal of gender-sensitivity in Igbo culture. Philosophy, according to the
Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy is
concerned with doing extra ordinary things with ordinary terms and concepts
(xxiii). Philosophy is concerned with examining issues in a critical and
systematic manner so that the hidden implications of ideas are laid bare.
Philosophy, therefore, illuminates the dark corners of discourse in order to
shore them up for better analysis and understanding. Our task therefore is to
examine the level of gender-sensitivity in traditional Igbo culture, examine
what gender-sensitivity is like now and finally attempt a reevaluation and
repositioning of gender roles in the light of present day exigencies.
GENDER-SENSITIVITY
IN TRADITIONAL IGBO SOCIETY
A reading of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart provides us with the
portraiture of the traditional Igbo family with its genderized roles and
functions.
In the family, if a child is born,
the sex is determined and if the baby was a male, that meant greater joy for
the parents. For the man, joy, because he has a man who will take his place
after his death and continue with his family line. Joy for the mother because
that will properly entrench her in her husband’s heart. Having a son means for
her that nothing can uproot her from the family. A son further means having a
voice to defend you in the family. But if the child is a girl, the husband and
wife receive it with mixed feelings. And if female child is coming as the third,
fourth, fifth or sixth female in the family without a male child that is enough
reason for sorrow. For the man, it brings sorrow because his hope of having a
male child to continue his lineage is becoming slimmer, the females will soon
be married off to other men. Having female children is like “tending other
people’s vineyards while your own is unkempt”.
As the children begin to grow, the
males and the females are socialized differently. The boys are made to see
themselves as superior, stronger, more important and indispensable. The females
are trained to see themselves as appendages of the men. In Things Fall Apart, we see Okonkwo telling Nwoye and Ikemefuna
masculine stories of violence and bloodshed. These stories are told so as to
toughen them and prepare them for their future roles as the protector, guardian
and head of their families. On the other hand, the mothers told their daughters
feminine stories about how to behave themselves so as to attract worthy
husbands and how to serve their husbands in order to win their hearts. Achebe
goes on;
Nwoye somehow still preferred the stories that
his
mother used to tell… stories of tortoise and
his
wily ways… But he knew that they were for
foolish
women and children, and he knew that
his
father wanted him to be a man. And so he
feigned
that he no longer cared for women’s
stories. And when he did this he
saw that his
father was pleased and no longer
rebuked him
or beat him (38).
The gender roles were in some cases
so cut out that the males getting into the areas meant for the females and vice
versa was regarded as abomination (nso ani). For example, it is abomination for
a girl to go and handle her father’s dane gun. The boy can do that. Again, it
is unacceptable for the boy to hang around the kitchen when the women are cooking
and cracking jokes that touched on female genitals, puberty rites and the like.
The boy’s duty ranges from washing
his fathers clothing, taking care of the flock (of sheep, goat, etc), getting
the yam seedlings ready, getting the knives sharpened, the hoes and other
farming implements ready for farm work. He leads in the way to the farm lands,
he protects the girls, he ensures that the difficult tasks are done by him and
so on. He gets involved in age grade, secret societies, masquerades, wrestling
matches, meetings, accompanies his father to ceremonies (funeral, title taking,
marriages, etc.) as the father will demand. He continues and begins to learn
how to establish himself as a farmer, a shepherd or take after some other
trade. But in the traditional Igbo society farming was the mainstay of the
economy. It is one’s ability to have his barns filled with yams that marked him
out as a prosperous man. The man could do a range of things, his movements were
not restricted, he could try his hands in different occupations at any time.
But the story of the women or the females is some what restricted. She is from
the word go made to know that her world begins and ends with getting married,
getting children and serving the meal-needs of her husband with the kitchen as
the headquarters of her functions.
As Achufusi has portrayed it,
females are specifically engaged in sex-oriented functions as marriage, child
bearing and rearing. They accept the societal prescriptions for and conceptions
that wife-hood and then motherhood constitute the only avenues open to them of
deserving respect or of earning prestige in the society (159). He further avers
that the above portraiture is the order because of the patriarchal orientation
of Igbo society within which the woman operates, and which limits and confines
her right to alternate choices. This makes the image of the woman in the Igbo
traditional society to appear to lack lustre, excitement and impressiveness.
The narrowness of her operational sphere is said to be responsible for this
lack lustre image of the women (159).
Chinweizu thinks otherwise. In his Anatomy of Female Power, he mentions
five pillars of female power which women have always manipulated to lord it
over men. These five pillars are namely, women’s control of the womb, women’s
control of the kitchen, women’s control of the cradle, the psychological
immaturity of man relative to woman and man’s tendency to be deranged by his
own excited penis (14-15). He claims that these five pillars of female power
are decisive. For him, male dominance over the female is more apparent than
real, more cosmetic and superficial. Women from the traditional societies have
always exploited these weapons for their overall advantages. This appears to be
a male riposte targeted to nullify the women’s cry of marginalization and
dominance.
Be that as it may be, we must
mention that in the traditional society, human activities were limited and as
such the division of functions on gender basis did not attract any
disillusionment or dissatisfaction. The men and the women accepted the
traditional stereotypes without question. And one could say that the
traditional Igbo society over protected the women, one could not divorce at
will or beat his wife any how nor shoot at women. The umu-ada (women’s) age
grade were very powerful in protecting the women from the excesses of their
husbands.
However, the above notwithstanding,
there were some anachronisms and rustic prescriptions which went contrary to
the fundamental human rights of women in traditional society. For instance, the
woman was seen as incapable of reasoning for herself. Achufusi; captures this
problem in the following words.
The most pathetic thing about these women is
their
ineffectiveness as human beings, incapa-
bility
to correct or admonish their husbands
despite
their knowledge of the inadequacies
in
the men’s lives they are all aware of the super-
ficiality,
vanity, avarice, emptiness and extreme
flamboyance
of the kind of life their husbands lead
and
into which they (the wives) have been pulled.
They
all appear helpless, unable to break away and
start
a more purposeful life for themselves or make
effort
to bring sanity and reality into the lives of their
husbands (162).
The wives of Okonkwo, for instance,
knew after he killed Ikemefuna that the man had gone off the moral and
spiritual tangent but there was nothing the wives could do to call him to order
because of the “untouchable image portraiture” of the husband in the
traditional Igbo society. Today, things have changed. The Igbo have become one
of the most sophisticated tribes in the present Nigerian nation. They are
profoundly educated widely traveled economically advanced socially advanced and
psychologically active. Ndiokwere avers that the Igbo traditional identity is
fast being eroded as many Igbo leave their country for other places in search
of Greener pastures.
He says;
The primary aim of
search for Greener
Pastures has been
to alert Nigerians,
Africans, Ndi
Igbo, and black people in
Diaspora about the
devastating conse-
quences of the
mass exodus of Africans
from mother Africa
to other parts of the
world particularly
Europe and America (9).
The point I want
to make is that the world has become a global village and the Igbo cannot
remain aloof from these contemporary developments and their impact on our
traditional systems. In the traditional Igbo system, the Igbo were sensitive to
the female gender much more than today, this leads us to consider;
GENDER SENSITIVITY
IN CONTEMPORARY IGBO SOCIETY
Gone were the days when women were
regarded only as “Oriaku” or a consumer of husbands’ wealth, today, she is seen
as “Oriaku”, “Odozi aku” and “Okpata aku”, that is, consumer of wealth, keeper
and moderator of wealth and a maker of wealth respectively. Times have changed,
values have changed and expectations have changed in the face of economic
hardship, breakdown of traditional moral norms, infiltration of norms of other
cultures and the general enlargement of scope of roles and functions for men
and women.
The reasons why people married many
wives in traditional Igbo society no longer obtain. We hardly have Igbo farmers
who depend on large family to execute their farm work. We have formal education
which has opened the eyes of the women to fight for their freedom. For example,
Gerda Lerner records about Christine de Pizan whom she said pioneered female
education in Europe. She was bitter that her parents denied her good education.
She makes her point thus if it were customary to send daughters to school like
sons, and “if they were taught the natural sciences, they would learn as
thoroughly and understand the subtleties of all the arts and science as well as
men” (193) she advocated equality of education for boys and girls (men and
women). Other women like Schurman, Marie le Jars de Gournay distinguished
themselves in scholarly achievements (Gerda Lerner 196). This fire for women
education soon spread every where including Nigeria and the Igbo women were not
left. There is virtually no academic profession where we do not have Igbo women
excelling.
The Igbo women are competing with
their male counterparts in searching for Greener Pastures in Europe and America.
They are graduating as Lawyers, Doctors, Engineers, Nurses, Pharmacists,
Lecturers, Economists and many are in the business professions.
It is therefore difficult if not
impossible to tie any Igbo woman down against her will to serve as a full time
house wife. The hurricane of women liberation is sweeping through the Igbo
populace and the slogan seem to be that what a male Igbo can do a female Igbo
can do better.
The sad part of it is that Igbo men
come back home, marry an Igbo lady, take her to Europe or America and as soon
as her eyes opens, she begins to seek independence through divorce on very
flimsy grounds. This is leading to a warped up and bizarre situation.
When women were under the men, we
had fewer problems but today the excessive quest for liberty is turning every
thing upside down. It is therefore important to mention that there is need for
a philosophical reappraisal of gender sensitivity in Igbo culture. The general
attitude today is for people to run to the Pentecostal churches to look for
wives who will still maintain the institutional worth of womanhood, that will
not desecrate womanhood on the alter of women liberation.
PHILOSOPHICAL RE
APPRAISAL OF GENDER SENSITIVITY IN IGBO CULTURE
If by gender-sensitivity we mean
being particular about the peculiar roles and functions of male and female we
may say that such sensitivity is on the decline. Nobody seems to care. Any
person can do anything he or she likes. This appears to conform to the social
climate of our age. However, we must state without fear of equivocation that
there is need to revisit our gender posturing in order to effect some
reevaluations and modifications.
In the traditional Igbo society,
women were subservient, subjected to some very dehumanizing treatment. We no
what widows passed through; barren women were seen as scums and offscourings of
the earth. Women were beaten, harassed and deprived of their rights. In all
good sense, all these aspects of the traditional era were condemnable and must
be jettisoned completely. Man and woman are created in the image of God and
they stand equal before God as human beings. But, then, equality does not mean
abdicating God’s assigned roles. Today, we hear of surrogate motherhood, we
hear of single female parents, lesbianism, etc. These are negative ways of
responding to gender inequality.
As Maduabuchi Dukor has noted, the
question of gender equality has two facets, one is moral and the other is
ontological. The moral consideration should be that every injustice,
disability, arising from oppression; marginalization, or outright subjugation
of women must be seen as immoral. Ontologically, women must see themselves as
beings of some sort, though capable of doing virtually all things that men can
do but will willingly impose natural limitations on her liberties in order to
still continue to fulfill her God given roles and functions which the man
cannot perform. The woman alone can give birth to children, give suck to her
children and provide motherly care to her children. If she abandons this
function, what will become of our children? Already, children of this present
time are fast becoming uncontrollable because of the lapses the present day
confused values is engendering.
As Duckor further avers; what the
African (Igbo) woman needs is education and enlightenment, it is fundamentally
education that will raise the African woman to the level where a retrogressive
culture has placed the African man. The African woman would not be liberated by
destroying the culture, by making the woman richer or urbanized and deruralized
or by breaking homes. (190).
Education will raise the
consciousness of the women and equip them with the tools for wisely repudiating
the negative overbearing tendencies of the men. To do this successfully, women
must bear in mind the biblical counsel that “Every wise woman buildeth her
house but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands” (Proverbs 14:1). God has
made the man as the head for administrative purposes and not to lord it over
her and use her as a mere object of pleasure or menial service. This the men
must know as well.
The enabling environment should be
created to enable the women to aspire to any height without reneging on the
sacred duties of wifehood and motherhood. All atavistic and anachronistic
limitations of the past must be bade farewell to and so must we do to the
cantankerous, disorderly assertiveness of women as seen in the pervasion of all
things in our time. Sanity most rule the hearts of men and women as we continue
to meaningful dialogue to affect a just social order.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we have noted that
gender-sensitivity was high in the traditional Igbo society. However, this
sensitivity favoured the men and left the women in disadvantage. Today, the
picture has changed with less sensitivity but greater liberty for the women but
with an image that is presently being battered by women themselves.
We have analyzed the situation and
uphold that, there is need for a sane revaluation of our present day norms.
Women should enjoy equality of opportunity in education, career and politics
only to the extent that they will not jeopardize there roles as wives and
mothers. A lot of thoughtfulness is required for women to carve out the right
place for themselves in the socio-political and economic scheme of things. The
men must know that men and women are equal before God and should play
complementary roles in order to achieve God’s best for them. Genderization
should not lead to rivalry, unhealthy competition or savage deviation from
rational norms guided by equity and good conscience.
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