Gender and Notions of Autonomy in Igboland: An Assessment of Literatures on the Phenomenon of Female Husbands

Abstract

The notions of autonomy in Igboland, or anywhere else, can be subjective, as it can conceptualised from an economic, cultural, gender or other standpoint. Gender autonomy, as conceptualised in this paper, focuses on how women in traditional Igbo culture married other women and assumed all the inherent functions and customary responsibilities thereon. Ifi Amadiume has elaborately documented this complex, institutionalised system of gender-bending in her groundbreaking book, Male Daughters, Female Husbands. Other writers of Igbo extraction, like Cheluchi Onyemelekwe and Akachi Adimora-Ezigbo’s books, Son of the House and Children of the Eagle, respectively, have addressed the phenomenon too. This essay is a metacritical analysis of Ifi Amadiume’s anthropological work, which explores the processes and nature of such relationships in Igboland, while also critically analysing the novels by Cheluchi Onyemelukwe and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo which fictionalise the practice. The paper concludes by arguing that female-female marriage in Igbo land strongly indicates the strength, agency, and individuality of Igbo women and the density of the Igbo culture, thus necessitating its continuous study.