Gender, Colonized: Women in Igbo Communities Before and During British Colonization

Igboland is located in southeastern Nigeria. Today, it is divided into five political states— Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Abia, and Ebonyi—in which the common language of Igbo is spoken and kinship is an important structure.1 Pre-colonially, Igbo people demonstrated organized government, lived off agriculture and trade, and practiced medicine and ‘healing rituals.’2 They had no concept of the Western sex-gender model, and had no use for it. Women were successful farmers and traders and could be what is referred to as female husbands.

Igbo gender construction was flexible and had nothing to do with biological sex: women could be husbands, daughters could be sons.3 Pre-colonial social organization was matricentric, and high importance was placed on the mother-daughter relationship. Less important was the role of father, which could be fulfilled by a woman when two women married one another.4 Gender construction was fluid, and therefore there was no concept of gender roles. The Igbo language reflects this “looseness of gender association,” in that there is no grammatical gender; subject and object pronouns are neuter, so there is no distinction between male and female in either written or spoken Igbo.5 There is no linguistic reference to a woman performing a male role or vice versa, because both the roles and the people performing them are linguistically genderless.

Politically, the most important part of Igbo life was the village assembly. In such meetings, all adults gathered and any person, regardless of gender, could bring a case forward. Women in Igbo communities also held specific political gatherings for issues that uniquely concerned them. These meetings, called mikiri, usually concerned trade, the most important activity presided over by the women.6 In Igbo communities, men were in charge of long-distance trading, while women held power over the markets. Women, therefore, made the rules concerning market and trade activity: prices, market attendance, punishments for rowdy behaviour of men, and fines for those who violated the rules.7 The enforcers of these rules were to be the men and elders of the community.

If the men should refuse to abide by their rules, the women could strike. These strikes were known as “sitting on a man,” and included women gathering at the offender’s house in the night, singing scandalous songs, banging on his hut perhaps damaging it. Women would keep “sitting on” the offender for as long as it took for him to apologize. If a man mistreated his wife or broke the trading or market rules, he would be sat on—and no other man would dare intervene.8 This was the major source of Igbo women’s authority and their means of protection.

In 1900, the arms of British imperialism reached Igboland. The British condensed the many Nigerian and Igbo states into the Niger Coast Protectorate, and by 1918 the Igbo people were stripped of their sovereignty. However, the Igbo people resisted their colonizers. Following their invasion, the British enforced a “violent suppression of indigenous institutions.”9 The British replaced the general assemblies and mikiri with new village representatives, called Warrant Chiefs. Warrant Chiefs were native men who executed colonial law in their own villages; this violated Igbo values, as no one man had ever been designated as representative of the village.10

Another colonial imposition was gender bias. The British colonizers brought with them strict Victorian views on gender roles that failed to acknowledge the political power women held in Igbo society. The institution of the colonial government and the authority of Warrant Chiefs degraded women’s positions in society, and they suffered abuses they had never previously experienced. Warrant Chiefs often abused their new power and ignored Igbo customs; they took women’s produce and animals, and forced women to marry them by ignoring the woman’s right to refuse any offers of marriage.11 British colonialism destroyed Igbo women’s traditional autonomy and social power.

Traditionally, Westerners believe that their “influence has emancipated African women.”12 The British imposed the male and female binary and the gender roles and hierarchies that are attached to said binary. The Western gender narrative is defined by the body: two bodies, two sexes, two identities.13 Igbo women could have titles, which gave them honour,

Sixtieth Anniversary Re-enactment of Women’s War, Fair use. wealth, respect, and authority. The Christian missionaries from the West were determined to prevent women from taking these titles, because they saw the rituals associated with title-taking as pagan. introduction of the male deity in Christianity further alienated women from religious practices. Missionaries brought with them Western education and Christian views of marriage that confined women and girls to the home. Women were to be wives and mothers, meek, obedient, and submissive. This, in turn, created inequality between the sexes that had not previously existed. Igbo women were no longer allowed to take titles, nor were they permitted to perform their usual roles in government and social life. The British colonized the way Igbo people experienced gender, and in doing so removed women from their most important roles.

Women now had no place in the colonial government. Only men could be Warrant Chiefs, and Igbo women faced a society in which they had very little representation in comparison to the vital role they played before colonization.15 By 1929, Igbo women became aggressive toward the colonizers that had stripped them of their livelihoods. The women in southern Igboland heard that they were to be taxed by the British colonial government, and this fear compounded until the women rebelled. This led to what the Igbo call the Women’s War and what the British call the Aba Riots.

On November 23, 1929 a Warrant Chief confronted a woman, Nwanyeruwa, and told her to count her animals so she could be taxed. Nwanyeruwa responded, “Was your mother counted?” and they began to fight.17 Word of this quickly spread, and women from all over the province amassed to protest the expected taxation. The Igbo women fought back in the way that their tradition dictated and respected—by “sitting on” the colonial government. Tens of thousands of women “sat on” their Warrant Chiefs, replicating their tradition of destroying the offenders’ huts by burning court buildings. One member of the colonial government and witness to the Women’s War said this: “What I saw that day I cannot describe properly. I have never seen the like before. They demolished all office[s] in that area… The whole place was full of women. We were pushing them gently backward and they continued to do that all day. I was very frightened that morning thinking that the Government would open fire upon them.” fire on the women they did. Though the Igbo women never seriously injured the British men, colonial troops shot and killed more than fifty women, and left an additional fifty wounded. The British viewed the Women’s War as little more than “irrational,” and referred to it as “riots.”19 They failed to see that the Igbo women were acting within their rights, a practice their traditional structures allowed for. In the aftermath of the Women’s War, the colonial government held a Commission of Inquiry to determine what needed to be done about the “savage passions” of the Igbo women. Commission, one woman who participated in “sitting on” the colonial government stated the motivations behind the riots: “We did not look up to young men to move with us. We thought the Chiefs were oppressing the people and wanted to lose the whole country, spoil the land. It was also that women were to pay tax and that is why we rose. We rose to say that women should not be taxed and that men should not be taxed either.”21 The Igbo women stated their demands: they did not want to be taxed by the colonial government, that “all white men should go to their own country,” and barring both of those things women should be able to serve as District Officers or Warrant Chiefs to achieve some representation in the government. The British ignored these demands. Under British colonization, Igbo women lost their rights to participate in government and the economy in their traditional ways. The British enforced their Western gender binary, and because of this Igbo women became subordinate and dependent on men and they could no longer protect themselves. The British interfered with the traditional fluidity of Igbo gender, and the balance of power that provided.

wealth, respect, and authority. The Christian missionaries from the West were determined to prevent women from taking these titles, because they saw the rituals associated with title-taking as pagan.14 The introduction of the male deity in Christianity further alienated women from religious practices. Missionaries brought with them Western education and Christian views of marriage that confined women and girls to the home. Women were to be wives and mothers, meek, obedient, and submissive. This, in turn, created inequality between the sexes that had not previously existed. Igbo women were no longer allowed to take titles, nor were they permitted to perform their usual roles in government and social life. The British colonized the way Igbo people experienced gender, and in doing so removed women from

Women now had no place in the colonial government. Only men could be Warrant Chiefs, and Igbo women faced a society in which they had very little representation in comparison to the vital role they By 1929, Igbo women became aggressive toward the colonizers that had stripped them of their livelihoods. The women in southern Igboland heard that they were to be taxed by the British colonial government, and this fear compounded until the women rebelled. This led to what the Igbo call the Women’s War and what the British call the Aba Riots.16

On November 23, 1929 a Warrant Chief confronted a woman, Nwanyeruwa, and told her to count her animals so she could be taxed. Nwanyeruwa responded, “Was your mother counted?” and they began Word of this quickly spread, and women from all over the province amassed to protest the expected taxation. The Igbo women fought back in the way that their tradition dictated and respected—by “sitting on” the colonial government. Tens of thousands of women “sat on” their Warrant Chiefs, replicating their tradition of destroying the offenders’ huts by burning court buildings. One member of the colonial government and witness to the Women’s War said this: “What I saw that day I cannot describe properly. I have never seen the like before. They demolished all office[s] in that area… The whole place was full of women. We were pushing them gently backward and they continued to do that all day. I was very frightened that morning thinking that the Government would open fire upon them.”18 And open fire on the women they did. Though the Igbo women never seriously injured the British men, colonial troops shot and killed more than fifty women, and left an additional fifty wounded. They failed to see that the Igbo women were acting within their rights, a practice their traditional structures allowed for. In the aftermath of the Women’s War, the colonial government held a Commission of Inquiry to determine what needed to be done about the “savage passions” of the Igbo women.20 At the Commission, one woman who participated in “sitting on” the colonial government stated the motivations behind the riots: “We did not look up to young men to move with us. We thought the Chiefs were oppressing the people and wanted to lose the whole country, spoil the land. It was also that women were to pay tax and that is why we rose. We rose to say that women should not be taxed and that men The Igbo women stated their demands: they did not want to be taxed by the colonial government, that “all white men should go to their own country,” and barring both of arrant Chiefs to achieve some representation in the government. The British ignored these demands. Under British colonization, Igbo women lost their rights to participate in government and the economy in their traditional ways. The British enforced their Western gender binary, and because of this Igbo women became subordinate and dependent on men and they could no longer protect themselves. The British interfered with the traditional fluidity of Igbo gender, and the balance of power that provided.

European Studies (history stream) major