By Olisa Okolo
“Practically the whole of trade in the Igbo country is in the hands of the woman, and they are extremely capable. The more expert a woman proves herself to be, she is appreciated by her husband.
“Ability in this direction is always a man’s desideratum in a choice for wife.” — Among the Igbos of Nigeria, G.T. Basden, pg 90.
In the Igbo nation, pre-colonial and in the early colonial era, the trade economy was predicated by women. The main cash crop was Yam and that was a male crop, dominated in cultivation and accumulation by the menfolk. But virtually every other crop and condiment needed to sustain the family was the preserve of the woman. So much so, that Basden noted that the women were “the salt and savour” of life in the society.
This situation was also reflected in the political institutions of Igboland. While the men were regarded as the responsible gender to dictate councils for war, legislation and religious practice, it was the women who dictated the conventions of economics, social enterprise and most importantly, birth and death registration as it then was. For instance, all women folk of all ages were to congregate at the market place on market days, providing opportunities for apprenticeship in trading for the young girls from a very young age, and ensuring that unemployment among women was virtually unheard of in the traditional context. The market itself would never start trading before the “OMU” or woman leader would resume her seat in the market, and often, it was she and her women’s council who adjudicated trade disputes and set the prices and measures for goods traded in the market. Therefore monetary policy and micro economic policy was the exclusive responsibility of the women, and the men were content to subordinate themselves to that.
Conversly, the macro economic policy, as it were, of the traditional Igbo society was the exclusive domain of the Igbo male. By controlling the laws relating to land, religion and cultivation of the cash crops, they were able to maintain a symbolic pre-eminence which the women were content to subordinate themselves to, provided that the men utilized this position of honour in ways that did not negatively prejudice the woman’s rights, or those of her children. Through these checks and balances, the concept of reciprocal or inter-changeable subordination allowed a substantial degree of harmony in the traditional Igbo society. Both genders knew their culturally defined roles, respected them and relied on this institutional knowledge to guide its decision making.
This duality and inter-changeability was most curious to the British, who owing to their Christian sensibilities, did not think it wise for women to take such a frontal role in economic policy making. This thinking was responsible for the disregard of women’s role in the political structure they established in the much maligned Native Authority system.
According to Judith Van Allen, in her work – “Sitting on a Man: Colonialism and the Lost Political Institutions of Igbo Women”, “British colonial officers and missionaries, both men and women, generally failed to see the political roles and political powers of Igbo women. The actions of these administrators weakened and in some cases destroyed women’s bases of strength”.
Some of these bases included the Women’s Committees (the order of ODU or OTU ODU as we know it today), which controlled all women’s affairs and also ensured women’s rights in marriage and to property were protected. By destroying the political relevance of these institutions, and neglecting to replace them with similarly structured institutions, the western democratic model as designed by the Colonial government created a huge gap in Igbo political society which exists to this day.
Many attempts to fill this gap is being made today in Igbo homelands. The CWO (Christian Women’s Organisation), women’s clubs and societies and August Meetings, are poor attempts to recapture or recreate these amazing institutions of the pre-colonial age. Without the economic power and political power which the practice of reciprocal subordination had conferred on women, the current groups become little more than social networks with little or no opportunity to effect real change in the society, or to protect women’s rights. NGOs and other civil service organizations are trying to step into this gap, but again without the political power that the original OTU ODU societies held, (which even included the power to depose Ezes and Chiefs), their effect still pales in comparison to the influence which women could command in the traditional Igbo political structure.
The challenge we have today is to recreate a new Igbo political institution that mirrors the power and influence of the ancient OTU ODU institution, but also brings it to the modern age. There are many ways to do this. one of such ways may be to define a new economic agenda in Ala-Igbo, which is to be driven by women, for the general society of Ndigbo, enshrined amended customary laws. This institution should be charged with the food security and trade policy of Ala-Igbo, creating structures to re-awaken the agricultural capacity in Ala-Igbo as well as encouraging and implementing the new policy from the basic unit of political influence, which is the family homestead.
Ndigbo, are a unique people, with a unique past, which has provided the foundation structures for much of the individual success we enjoy as a people. Having the foresight to reach back into our past, to re-engineer reciprocal subordination in our dual gendered society, to meet our current needs, is a wise decision which will have a positive impact for the capitalization of all our human resource.
• Okolo is the President of Nigerian Igbo Movement.