Source: Stearns, P. N., Gosch, S.S., and Grieshaber, E.P. Documents in World History: Volume 2 – The Modern Centuries: From 1500 to the Present. NY: Pearson Education, Inc. 2009.
I. Activating Prior Knowledge
Many African women found new roles as they moved to cities and gained education. Even rural women had new power when their men left to take urban jobs; willy-nilly, they had to run their families and often support themselves. Thus, African family bonds, which once gave women security while holding them subordinate, loosened rapidly. The passages come from a series of interviews done by a Western anthropologist with women in Kenya, including one group organized in a cooperative to try to compensate for new uncertainties about family ties and support for men. Cultural change, including some expressions striking for their resemblance to modern Western movements such as feminism, is clearly a major factor in contemporary Africa.
II. Setting A Purpose for Reading
As you read about the lives of women in Africa, compare the traditional gender roles to more modern gender roles in Africa? How are these ideas being influenced by Western movements such as feminism?
III. Reading the Text (Read, Re-Read, and Read Again)
Igbo women were clearly unlike European women…In their system, male attributes and male status referred to the biologically male sex – man – as female attributes and female status referred to the biologically female sex – woman.
***
The flexibility of Igbo gender construction meant that gender was separate from biological sex. Daughters could become sons and consequently male. Daughters and women in general could be husbands to wives and consequently males in relation to their wives, etc…
An insight into this remarkable gender system is crucial to the understanding and appreciation of the political status of women had in traditional Igbo societies and the political choices open to them…
It can, therefore, be claimed that the Igbo language, in comparison with English for example, has not build up rigid associations between certain adjectives or attributes and gender subjects, nor certain objects and gender possessive pronouns. The genderless word mmadu, humankind, applies to both sexes. There is no usage, as there is in English, of the word ‘man’ to represent both sexes, neither is there the cumbersome option of saying ‘he or she’, ‘his or her,’ ‘him or her.’ In Igbo, O stands for he, she and even it, a stands for the impersonal one, and nya for the imperative, let him or her.
The two examples of situations in which women played roles ideally or normally occupied by men – what I have called male roles – in indigenous Nnobi society … were as ‘male daughters’ and female husbands’; in either role, women acted as family head. The Igbo word for family head is the genderless expression di-bu-no. The genderless di is a prefix word which means specialist in, or expert at, or master of something. Therefore, di-bu-no means one in a master relationship to a family and household, and a person, woman or man, in this position is simply referred to as di-bu-no. In indigenous Nnobi society and culture, there was one head or master of a family at a time, and ‘male daughters’ and ‘female husbands’ were called b y the same term, which translated into English would be ‘master.’ Some women were therefore masters to other people, both men and women.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. Based on your reading of the passage, what is meant by the statement “The flexibility of Igbo gender construction meant that gender was separate from biological sex. Daughters could become sons and consequently male. Daughters and women in general could be husbands to wives and consequently males in relation to their wives, etc…”
Overwhelming evidence shows that women in Nnobi and in Igboland in general were neither more comfortable nor more advantaged from an economic point of view under colonialism. They had lost their grip on the control of liquid cash; men had invaded the general market, and women were becoming helpless in their personal relations with husbands. But, most important of all, pro-female institutions were being eroded both by the church (Christianity) and the colonial administration…
…
[W]omen’s centrality in the production and sale of palm-oil and kernels in traditional Nnobi society gave them a considerable advantage over their husbands. The introduction of pioneer oil mills mechanized the whole process of extracting the palm-oil and cracking the kernels. This, of course, meant a much higher oil yield which necessitated bulk buying by the agents of the mills and the channeling of most of the village’s palm fruit to the mills. The main centre of production was therefore shifted from the family to the mills. At the same time, wives lost the near monopoly they enjoyed in the traditional method of production and the independent income they derived from it…Instead of wives selling the palm-oil and keeping some of the profits, husbands now sold direct to the oil mills or their agents, and collected the money.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. How did economic growth and imperialism impact the role of women in Nnobi society?
IV. Personal Reflection
1. What are the challenges that face women in Africa, based on what you have read?
2. In your opinion, should the United States of America do away with terms that reference gender such as pronouns “he, she, him, and her” and adopt gender neutral references as opposed to referring to “workmen” or “housewives”? Explain your answer.
V. Peer Reflection
1. Read one classmate’s response to the above questions and comment on their responses. (Do you agree or disagree? Why? Are there any problems with their analysis and logic? If so, what is the problem?)
I. Activating Prior Knowledge
Many African women found new roles as they moved to cities and gained education. Even rural women had new power when their men left to take urban jobs; willy-nilly, they had to run their families and often support themselves. Thus, African family bonds, which once gave women security while holding them subordinate, loosened rapidly. The passages come from a series of interviews done by a Western anthropologist with women in Kenya, including one group organized in a cooperative to try to compensate for new uncertainties about family ties and support for men. Cultural change, including some expressions striking for their resemblance to modern Western movements such as feminism, is clearly a major factor in contemporary Africa.
II. Setting A Purpose for Reading
As you read about the lives of women in Africa, compare the traditional gender roles to more modern gender roles in Africa? How are these ideas being influenced by Western movements such as feminism?
III. Reading the Text (Read, Re-Read, and Read Again)
Igbo women were clearly unlike European women…In their system, male attributes and male status referred to the biologically male sex – man – as female attributes and female status referred to the biologically female sex – woman.
***
The flexibility of Igbo gender construction meant that gender was separate from biological sex. Daughters could become sons and consequently male. Daughters and women in general could be husbands to wives and consequently males in relation to their wives, etc…
An insight into this remarkable gender system is crucial to the understanding and appreciation of the political status of women had in traditional Igbo societies and the political choices open to them…
It can, therefore, be claimed that the Igbo language, in comparison with English for example, has not build up rigid associations between certain adjectives or attributes and gender subjects, nor certain objects and gender possessive pronouns. The genderless word mmadu, humankind, applies to both sexes. There is no usage, as there is in English, of the word ‘man’ to represent both sexes, neither is there the cumbersome option of saying ‘he or she’, ‘his or her,’ ‘him or her.’ In Igbo, O stands for he, she and even it, a stands for the impersonal one, and nya for the imperative, let him or her.
The two examples of situations in which women played roles ideally or normally occupied by men – what I have called male roles – in indigenous Nnobi society … were as ‘male daughters’ and female husbands’; in either role, women acted as family head. The Igbo word for family head is the genderless expression di-bu-no. The genderless di is a prefix word which means specialist in, or expert at, or master of something. Therefore, di-bu-no means one in a master relationship to a family and household, and a person, woman or man, in this position is simply referred to as di-bu-no. In indigenous Nnobi society and culture, there was one head or master of a family at a time, and ‘male daughters’ and ‘female husbands’ were called b y the same term, which translated into English would be ‘master.’ Some women were therefore masters to other people, both men and women.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. Based on your reading of the passage, what is meant by the statement “The flexibility of Igbo gender construction meant that gender was separate from biological sex. Daughters could become sons and consequently male. Daughters and women in general could be husbands to wives and consequently males in relation to their wives, etc…”
Overwhelming evidence shows that women in Nnobi and in Igboland in general were neither more comfortable nor more advantaged from an economic point of view under colonialism. They had lost their grip on the control of liquid cash; men had invaded the general market, and women were becoming helpless in their personal relations with husbands. But, most important of all, pro-female institutions were being eroded both by the church (Christianity) and the colonial administration…
…
[W]omen’s centrality in the production and sale of palm-oil and kernels in traditional Nnobi society gave them a considerable advantage over their husbands. The introduction of pioneer oil mills mechanized the whole process of extracting the palm-oil and cracking the kernels. This, of course, meant a much higher oil yield which necessitated bulk buying by the agents of the mills and the channeling of most of the village’s palm fruit to the mills. The main centre of production was therefore shifted from the family to the mills. At the same time, wives lost the near monopoly they enjoyed in the traditional method of production and the independent income they derived from it…Instead of wives selling the palm-oil and keeping some of the profits, husbands now sold direct to the oil mills or their agents, and collected the money.
Stop! Can you answer the following questions based on what you read? If not, then go back and re-read. How did economic growth and imperialism impact the role of women in Nnobi society?
IV. Personal Reflection
1. What are the challenges that face women in Africa, based on what you have read?
2. In your opinion, should the United States of America do away with terms that reference gender such as pronouns “he, she, him, and her” and adopt gender neutral references as opposed to referring to “workmen” or “housewives”? Explain your answer.
V. Peer Reflection
1. Read one classmate’s response to the above questions and comment on their responses. (Do you agree or disagree? Why? Are there any problems with their analysis and logic? If so, what is the problem?)
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