The Values and Usefulness of Same-Sex Marriages Among the Females in Igbo Culture in the Continuity of Lineage or Posterity

Abstract

The Igbo world in Southeastern Nigeria, as a patriarchal society, believes in passing the family inheritance along the male line excluding the female. This sociocultural belief and practice leads to gender role problems, especially in the case of families with no children or male child who will inherit the family estate. Same-sex marriage among women is used to bridge the gap created by the challenges of the socially and culturally constructed gender roles with the aim of “male daughters” and “female husbands” becoming sons and husbands to wives for procreation and continuity of the family’s lineage. Through Gender Studies and Gender and Power theory, this study examines the reasons and benefits of such practices, the risks the practices expose women to, as well as the sociocultural implications of the practice to the Igbo worldview.

Introduction

Marriage is a valued and indispensable obligation that is used to rate the status of men and women in Igbo society in Southeastern Nigeria. A man or a woman who has reached the age of marriage and is not married is taken as an irresponsible person. The age of marriage in Igboland is traditionally taken to be when a man or a woman is sexually mature. This is the major reason why wherever there is a gathering in Igboland, a man is asked kedu maka ndi be gi? or kedu maka ndi ulo gi? The question simply means how is your family? It keeps reminding men that they are regarded as efeuluefu or ofeke (worthless human beings) until they fulfill marriage obligations. Igbo society is a patriarchal society; men are the heads of families. Family inheritance is shared among the male children of the family. The female children are excluded because when a female child is married out of the family, her position shifts from her father’s family to that of her husband’s family. Her position in her husband’s family also depends on her bearing a male child for the husband. The implication of this is that a woman with no male child for her husband has no right of inheritance both in her father’s and husband’s house. This is why the birth of a child is received with joy and gladness, but the birth of a male child is received with unprecedented jubilation and celebration than that of a female child in Igbo culture.

The Igbo ideology of male child dominance makes a man to marry as many wives as he can to have a male child. A woman who is able to bear a male child for her husband is considered a fulfilled woman. She is also accorded greater respect in her husband’s house more than other wives who have no male children. Women therefore take the blame for not having male children for their husbands in Igboland, even when the chromosomes that determine the sex of the baby are produced by men. A man who does not have a male child after marrying many wives performs some traditional rites and allows one of his daughters not to get married. She is to stay in his home and produce male children who will bear his name. Her parents arrange a man who would be impregnating her. In some part of Igboland, the girl may be allowed to choose her own lovers. The ritual, known as Nluikwa makes the daughter a “male daughter.” Traditionally, childless women in Igboland also take the blame and are exposed to all sorts of ill treatments, whereas men are exempted from the blame. This makes a woman to accept any man who is able to impregnate her and endure all sorts of sexual pains as far as she would be made a mother. Motherhood makes a woman fulfilled in her marriage, especially when she has a male child, and she is ready to accept practices socially and culturally that make her get a male child whom she can call hers. The childless wife or a wife who has no male child is given the legal right to marry another wife to produce male children to make the woman achieve recognition in her husband’s home. This would make the wife a “female husband.” An unmarried daughter of a man who does not have a male child also has the legal right to marry a wife who will produce children to bear her father’s name for the continuity of her father’s lineage. That makes her a “female husband” in her father’s home. Amadiume (1987), Ukpokolo (2010), and Korie (2017) assert that same-sex marriage as practiced in some Igbo societies implies that the children of the male daughter retain their mother patrilineage. The practice of male daughters and same-sex marriage among women in Igbo culture does not make Igbo society less heterosexual. All sorts of amorous relationships are forbidden among the same gender in Igbo culture. The bride of the “female husband” and the “male daughter” are exposed to physical, psychological, and health risks in having sexual intercourse with men to have children. In most part of Igboland, they are not allowed to choose their own lovers. Men are arranged to be sleeping with them without even consulting them. The succession and inheritance issues that enforce male child dominance in Igbo culture, therefore, form the basis for the “male daughters,” “female husbands,” and same-sex marriage in Igbo culture that endanger the life of women.

Gender inequality is clearly evident in families and the society, and the girl child is exposed to insecurity and rejection just because she is born a female. The girl child is aware that she is not given the same acceptance as the male child in the family right from infancy due to the treatments given to the “desired” male child. Male child dominance is also the basis for differences in the gender roles. Literature is a representation of life and so mirrors the society. The practice of same-sex marriage among women and male daughters in Igbo culture is represented in the novels of Nigerian authors of Igbo origin. Adichie (2013) argues that the literary writers who have depicted “male daughters,” “female husbands,” and same-sex marriage in Igbo culture capture the importance of the practices in succession and continuity of lineage, but they have not depicted the gender and insecurity issues that accompany it. With regard to this study, Buchi Emecheta’s (1979) The Joys of Motherhood, Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s (1996, 2001, 2002) The last of the Strong Ones, House of Symbol, and Children of the Eagle, and Chukwuemeka Ike’s (2001) Conspiracy of Silence are used as primary sources of data to highlight the practices of male daughters and same-sex marriage among women, the value and usefulness of such practices in Igbo culture, and the dangers women are exposed to due to the sexuality, socially and culturally imposed on them. Gender studies which deals with the relationship between sexes is used to examine the differences between men and women and the differences in the sexual roles of men and women in Igboland in this study. It is also used to examine the gender and insecurity that accompany “male daughters” and same-sex marriage in Igboland. Gender conflicts are portrayed in Igbo society where men exert their power on the women. This is highlighted in the practice of polygamy in Igboland and how gender expectation creates a lot of inner tension in women whose husbands suppress their emotions in exhibiting men’s sexualities. Women do not express their sexual pleasure in Igboland because they are afraid of losing any aspect of their femininity. Gender and Power theory which Wingood and DiClemente (2000) defines as a social structural theory based on sexual inequality and gender power imbalance is also used to look at the different perspectives of sexual division of power and examine the ways in which cultural and social practices shape the sexuality of women in different parts of Igboland. Rej, Silverman, Wingood, and DiClemente (1999) stresses that that the three social structures that make up the theory of gender and power are sexual division of labor; sexual division of power; and the structure of social norms, exposures, risk factors, and biological factors that adversely affect women’s health. Gender and Power theory is also used to describe the behavior people exhibit in Igboland and how Ndiigbo tend to see things due to the existing cultural practices that are based on patriarchal ideologies. Using Gender Studies and Gender and Power theory to analyze the sexual roles of men and women, the psychological and health risks the accepted social and cultural sexual division of power in Igboland expose women to, and how power-imbalanced relationships and gender-based inequalities devalue women in the selected literary texts, this study exposes the values and usefulness of same-sex marriages in Igbo culture and also serves to create the consciousness in women to fight for their rights of inheritance through other civilized ways rather than subjecting themselves to cultural practices that sexually devalue them and endanger their lives. Therefore, the two approaches to literary criticism are relevant to this study.

Marriage and the Sexual Role of Men and Women in Igbo Culture

In Igbo traditional society, perceptions of gender are deeply rooted in cultural beliefs of the people. Igbo culture values men over women. The society’s injustice to the female child manifests in various forms. Women are relegated to the margin, to the social background. One of the most significant expectations of either a young boy or girl in Igbo society is to get married. Marriage is the way a young man or woman proves his or her maturity and gets recognized as a full adult in the society. Sex is accepted as an honorable act which consummates marriage contracts not only for procreation but also for fun and enjoyment, but Ndiigbo believe in what Chinweizu, Jamie, and Madubuike (1983) in Toward the Decolonization of African Literature term “the open and healthy treatment of sex” (p. 159). The choice of the word “healthy” in describing the treatment of sex in Igbo culture is apt to buttress the fact that sexuality is viewed through the lens of morality in Igbo culture. Sexual relationships are seen as sacred and are not discussed openly. In some parts of Igboland, the reproductive organs are mentioned with respect too. Some other words that are seen as mild are used to represent the reproductive organs in conversation among adults. In some communities in Enugu State ime-egwu which literally means “dancing” is used to describe sexual intercourse and itufie ukwu or ituwe ukwu which literally means “throwing one’s leg away,” “opening of leg,” or “twisting of leg” is used to describe a woman who has committed adultery. Children are forbidden in any discussion of sex and in some places, sexual intercourse is not done in the daytime but at night and in darkness.

A man has the customary right to be involved in sexual relationships with the opposite sex before he gets married. He can take as many women friends as he wants but an unmarried girl who attempts to have sex does it in secret. If a young girl becomes pregnant out of wedlock, she is stigmatized. She is disgraced openly by other maidens in the community but nothing is done to the man who impregnates her. Satirical songs full of verbal idioms that highlight the disgraceful acts of the girl are sung by the maidens and the pregnant girl is forced to dance around the village. No girl has pleasure in losing her honor in the society; therefore, girls who are impregnated out of wedlock agree to marry men who ask for their hands in marriage. They marry men who are even older than their fathers, especially men seeking to get male children. Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo (2002) in her Children of the Eagle presents one of such obscene lyrics, full of virulent abuse sung to disgrace girls who are victims of such unwanted pregnancies. She uses it to portray the battle going on in Obioma Okwara’s mind when she finds out that her Nigerian soldier boyfriend, Lanre Roberts, has gotten her pregnant:

You wanton woman child

When they enticed you with gifts

You did not tell your mother

When they gave you dry fish

You did not tell your mother

When they offered you tinned fish

You did not breathe a word to her

When they armed you with wads of bank notes

You did not say a word to your mother

When they pumped semen into your vagina

You said nothing to your mother

Now that you are pregnant

You tell your mother of your disgrace

Why do you tell your mother?

What do you want her to do?

You wayward girl

You are practised slut

Your history has caught up with you

Ikwakwa ikwari: your story is a tragic-comedy. (pp. 198-199)

Obioma, the third daughter of Josiah and Ugonwanyi (Eaglewoman) Okwara, is rescued by her mother who tactfully succeeded in claiming the pregnancy and the baby boy, Nkemdirim. No one outside Josiah Okwara’s family knows the family secret, and Obioma, through that pregnancy, saves her father’s family name from extinction. The presentation of the traumatic experience of young girls through mockery and shame incurred on them for involving themselves in sexual intercourse before marriage, while the men they had the sex with are exempted by Adimora-Ezeigbo, brings out one of the unjust cultural practices against the female child in Igboland

Traditionally, parents even arrange women for their mature sons to introduce them into sexual relationships. But a young girl is expected to keep her virginity till she is married. This is to bring to the limelight the Igbo ideology that sex should be enjoyed only by men. Women have sexual intercourse with their husbands only on their husband’s request. It is a taboo for a woman to demand sex from a man. Any woman that does that is termed a prostitute. Acholonu (1988) points out that a woman’s expression of sexual pleasure in Igboland is termed a taboo by men; she expresses that “the African woman is trapped in the claws of taboos and restrictions that help to propel male chauvinism” (p. 217). Young women who are keeping their virginity until they are given into marriage are exposed to health risks when they get married and sleep with their husbands who have been having sex with different women in the bid to portray the sexual power they possess as men. Also, men who marry many wives to get male children could transfer sexual transmitted diseases (STDs) to their wives. Miller, Clark, and Moore (1997) and Adler and Tschann (1993) argue that women having older partners who are interested in having children are exposed to social exposures that might endanger their health.

In Nsukka Local Government of Enugu State, a married woman performs a ritual called “isi nri nna di” in which she cooks food and the eldest man in her husband’s kindred (Okpara umunna) sacrifices to the ancestors. The woman eats that food with all the men from her husband’s kindred present during the sacrifice and she is initiated into womanhood. The sacrifice forbids her from having sex with any other man except her husband. If she commits adultery, she would be inflicted with madness by the ancestors, but her husband is free to take as many mistresses as he wants. If a married woman who has performed the isi nri nna di sacrifice becomes mad after committing adultery, she must confess her sins, cook food again for nna di (dead fathers of her husband) which she will eat alone naked in the presence of all the men in her husband’s kindred to be made well. No woman glorifies in shame, and this cultural practice is to make women remain faithful to their husbands who have the customary right to enjoy sex with mistresses as much as they desire.

The isi nri nna di ritual is also practiced in many other parts of Igboland because even though fornication and adultery are involved in the birth of many children out of the natural desire to maintain the family line and to ensure the stability of the family, women are restricted from adultery by the society. A woman who is caught in the act of adultery is sent packing from her husband’s house. Women are also not expected to have a child from an unknown, inconsequential man who is not approved by the family of the woman. The name of the ritual that is performed by married women to help checkmate their sexual life depends on the part of Igboland. In Chukwuemeka Ike’s Conspiracy of Silence, it is called the isa ifi ritual. The two women in the novel that committed adultery are sent to the native authority’s prison after which they “were subjected to the isa ifi ritual before their husbands took them back” (Ike, 2001, p. 100). Chukwuemeka Ike in presenting the isa ifi ritual these two women were asked to perform portrays the tyranny of patriarchy in Igbo culture. Men are allowed to bring mistresses into their matrimonial homes, whereas a woman caught in adultery is disgraced and punished. There is a tendency that these women who are forced by culture to remain faithful to their husbands are still exposed to sexually transmitted diseases or even HIV/AIDS because their husbands have sexual powers over them, and they cannot say no to their husbands who keep having sexual affairs with other women. Antonovsky (1988) opines that this is what Cornwell developed as a collection of writings on the sexual inequality and gender power imbalance in his gender and power perspectives. He also defines the writings as the social psychological literature that depicts power as having the capacity to influence the action of others or conceptualizing power in terms of powers over others. Thaweesit (2004) argues that women struggle to detach themselves and not to be linked to socially and sexually unacceptable images (p. 206). Women suffer psychological trauma to go by this gender expectation of women sexuality in Igboland.

In some communities of Enugu-Ezike in Igbo-Eze South Local Government of Enugu State, a married woman is forbidden to sit in the same seat with another man, who is not her husband. She is also forbidden to answer any man who calls her while she is taking her bath. She is forbidden to talk to another man when she is naked. If a married woman does any of the above under the forbidden situation, she would die because the penalty is the same as with a woman who has committed adultery. Many women have died for mistakenly answering calls while they were taking their bath. Women suffer for sins they did not commit just because of patriarchal practices adopted in the communities to checkmate women fidelity, whereas men have the customary right to take as many mistresses as they want.

Adimora-Ezeigbo in representing the mocking lyrics used on young girls who are pregnant out of wedlock in Umuga is to question the culturally accepted men’s unchastity in Igbo culture. If women are expected to keep themselves holy for the men who will marry them, why should men not keep themselves pure for their brides too? She is of the opinion that the campaign for gender equality which advocates that men should not be allowed to gallivant in immorality in the name of superiority should be introduced in Igbo culture too. For this purpose, in her Children of the Eagle, she presents the daughters of Eaglewoman educating the alutaradi (an association of wives in Umuga community) on how they should have fun with their husbands:

Then, she (Nnenne) asks: “Each of you has a husband, not so?”

“Yes.” Their voices bond together as they reply.

“Do you take time off to talk with him, play with him? Do you unwind with him at the end of the day?”

One or two women clear their throat discreetly: a sign of embarrassment. A few giggle. Some keep a straight face, neither smiling nor frowning. Nnenne understands immediately that she is broaching a sensitive subject. She does not allow herself to be deterred by the reactions.

“It is good to have fun with your man at the end of the day or whenever it suits both of you. And be sure not to allow him to grab all the pleasure. Demand that he leave some for you.” (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 2002, p. 85)

“Yes, the pleasure is not all his. You have a right to some of it. You should ensure that you get it, or there should be no business at all.” (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 2002, p. 86)

Western education and self-assertion has made Eaglewoman’s daughters to be seen as role models to the alutaradi, but the local women has to express their feeling of astonishment in the sex education by the modern women:

Ebechara jumps to her feet, shouting “Okorafo Mgbugo!”—her late father and mother’s names—as she always does whenever she hears or sees something that astonishes or shocks her. The rest of the women burst into laughter, screaming their disbelief, their wonder at what they heard. A few of them rise, do one or two dance steps in defiance of the god of inhibition and the spirit of squeamishness. They lift their faces and arms and shake their hips in a sensuous salute to the goddess of candour. Some allow their mouth to spew out streams of meaningless, incoherent utterances: Hangam hangam, ijejeje! Ikwajam, ikwajam, ikwajam! Ayakata, ayakata, ayakata! (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 2002, p. 86)

Adimora-Ezeigbo in representing this, advocates for women bonding to help in the liberation of women from the unjust cultural practices that relegate them to the rear. She also portrays that adult sex education classes and workshops should be organized for the benefit of the rural Igbo women to empower them. The essence of the sex education is to help in the assertion of some of the local women that are submissive to a fault to the patriarchal culture and practices in Igboland. The sex education would create in such women an awareness to question certain myths that inhibit the development of womanhood. Most of these rural women are circumcised. Vaginal mutilation is another cultural practice in Igbo culture that is used to deny women of sexual pleasure. The reason why the girl child’s sexual organ is mutilated in Igbo culture and other African cultures is to control the sexual urge of women, so that they would not be promiscuous. K. Kiragu (1995) in his “Female Genital Mutilation: A Reproductive Health Concern,” in support of this, stresses that female circumcision is also called Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or Female Genital cutting (FGC). This is to describe accurately the consequences of the procedure and distinguish it from the much milder “male circumcision.” Chinyere C. P. Nnorom (2007) in her “Female Genital Mutilation Practice in Nigeria: Patterns, Prevalence and Remedies” rightly points out that FGM is done to diminish sexual pleasure to achieve virginity before marriage and fidelity after marriage. Nnorom (2007) also emphasizes that if it is not done, the girl will be promiscuous and her sexual urge will be so high that she would begin to sleep around. This is another cultural practice that highlights the tyranny of patriarchy in Igbo society. Men take women as second class and people who are to be slept with anytime they want and still desire that women be given them in marriage as virgins. They also want their wives to be faithful to them. The representation of women who commit adultery in the selected texts is used by the authors to challenge this custom that promotes gender inequality. The authors question the circumcision of girls to enable them control their sexual urge and stay with their husbands without jumping from one man to another, whereas men will have the customary right to change wives and mistresses as if they are changing clothes. Although many parts of Igboland have stopped the practice of FGM, it is still practiced in some remote places despite the health risks that are associated with the practice.

Igbo culture also encourages polygamy. A man can also bring in his mistress into his home and sleep with her with the knowledge of his wives. In most cases, the wife is asked to go to the house of the mistress and invite her for her husband, cook for the mistress, and entertain her. His wife would go into her hut while her husband takes the mistress in his obi for the fun. Men are exempted in adultery but a man who catches his wife with another man in bed is permitted by culture to kill his wife’s lover if he can. It is seen as a way of regaining that man’s dignity on the shame brought to him by his wife. In some parts of Igboland, a man is also encouraged to divorce his wife on the ground of her infidelity, yet men can have as many mistresses or wives as they want. Biologically, women are the receptive partner during sexual intercourse (Wingood & DiClemente, 2000, p. 559), they are exposed to more health risks than men. Most of the local women who are involved in same-sex marriage among women and the “male daughters” practice in Igboland are less knowledgeable about HIV prevention, and as Nyamathi, Bennett, Leake, Lewis, and Flaskerud (1993) argue, they are also less likely to engage in HIV prevention activities because they do not perceive themselves as being at risk of acquiring an STD or HIV. With regard to brides of “female husbands” and “male daughters” in Igboland, the use of condoms is ruled off because their main aim of having sexual intercourse with men arranged for them is to have babies. Most of the men who make love to these women according to Peterson, Grinstead, and Golden (1992) and Catania, Coates, and Kegeles (1992) also believe that the use of condoms has a negative impact on sexual enjoyment. These patriarchal, culturally accepted practices in Igboland to solve inheritance and succession issues which women adhere to, expose women to a lot of health, psychological, and emotional risks.

Buchi Emecheta in her novel, The Joys of Motherhood presents how Nwokocha Agbadi is making love to his mistress Ona and expressing his pleasure to the hearing of everyone in his compound. Agunwa, Agbadi’s senior wife, died of a broken heart of knowing that her husband is giving pleasure to another woman. Agunwa died few days after her husband and his mistress’s sexual drama because she tries to succumb to the unjust patriarchal tradition that subjects women to psychological and emotional pains as men play their sexual roles. She could not bear the public show of amusement between her husband and Ona, a girl that has always put to ridicule the man she and her cowives adore as a king:

Agbada’s senior wife, Agunwa became ill that very night. Some said that she sacrificed herself for her husband: but a few had noticed that it was bad for her morale to hear her husband giving pleasures to another woman in the same courtyard where she slept, and to such woman who openly treated the man they all worshipped so badly. (Emecheta, 1979, p. 21)

Agunwa also sees assertive woman as a bad woman and part of her annoyance is that Ona proves to be a stubborn woman who would challenge men before she yields to their advances. She continues in describing Ona as “a woman who was troublesome and impetuous, who had the audacity to fight with her man before letting him have her: a bad woman” (p. 21). Emecheta in the same novel also presents Nnaife, Nnu Ego’s second husband, who goes on to inherit wives from his deceased elder brother even when he could not provide for his wife, Nnu Ego. He brings Adaku to Lagos to live in the same room he lives with Nnu Ego. He had sex with Adaku on the same night that Adaku came to Lagos without caring how Nnu Ego feels. Adaku wants to arouse jealousy on her cowife and tries to make Nnu Ego hear the expression of their pleasure during the sexual intercourse:

Adaku would not let her. She giggled, she squeaked, she cried and she laughed in turn, until Nnu Ego was quite convinced that it was for her benefit. At one point Nnu Ego sat bolt upright looking at the shadows of Nnaife and Adaku. No, she did not have to imagine what was going on: Adaku made sure she knew.

When Nnu Ego could stand it no longer, she shouted at Oshia, who surprisingly was sleeping through it all: “Oshia, stop snoring!”

There was silence from the bed, and then a burst of laughter. Nnu Ego could have bitten her tongue off: what hurt her most was hearing Nnaife remark: “My senior wife cannot go to sleep. You must learn to accept your pleasures quietly, my new wife Adaku. Your senior wife is like a white lady: she does not want noise” (Emecheta, 1979, p. 124).

Nnaife does not care about Nnu Ego’s feelings because the culturally accepted patriarchal practice of polygamy in Igbo society has put him in an advantaged position. It is therefore left for Nnu Ego to accept her fate or die of heart break. The actions of Nnaife and the newly inherited wife irritate Nnu Ego that she confirms Adaku as one of the shameless modern women who express their pleasures during sex like prostitutes:

It was good that she had prepared herself, because Adaku turned out to be one of those shameless modern women whom Nnu Ego did not like. What did she think she was doing? Did she think Nnaife was her lover and not her husband, to show her enjoyment so? She tried to block her ears, yet could still hear Adaku’s exaggerated carrying on. (Emecheta, 1979, p. 124)

Emecheta in presenting this portrays the accepted cultural notion that the significance of marriage should be for procreation rather than for sexual pleasure. It is only mistresses and prostitutes that are expected to express their pleasure during sex because they are taken as shameless people who imbibe the foreign culture of displaying immorality. Women with such traits are termed as bad women traditionally. Emecheta as a feminist purposely created the two characters, Ona and Adaku that expressed their pleasures during sex in Ibuzo to encourage the local women to fight for their rights as women through self-assertion. Although Ona and Adaku are illiterates unlike the daughters of Eaglewoman in Adimora-Ezeigbo’s Children of the Eagle, Emecheta as a womanist believes in the totality of feminine self-expression and self-assertion whether a woman is literate or not. Modupe M. E. Kolawole (1997) in support of women’s self-assertion defines womanism in her Womanism and African Consciousness as “the totality of feminine self-expression, self-retrieval and self-assertion in positive ways” (p. 24).

Amorous relationship with the same sex is forbidden in Igbo culture. The sexual relationship must be heterosexual and nothing more. This question, What kind of relationship do partners of same-sex marriage in Igboland have? becomes relevant for a better understanding of the form of same-sex marriage in Igbo culture. The “female husband” and her wife are just like a mother and her daughter. A man must be involved in the procreation work. This man is usually the husband of the “female husband” if he is still alive or men from her husband’s family if her husband is dead. Chukwuemeka Ike (2001) in his novel, Conspiracy of Silence presents a deceased wealthy woman who married a wife to produce her sons to guarantee her permanent place in her husband’s compound when she was alive (Ike, 2001, p. 47). The deceased woman being anxious to ensure that the children of her wife have her husband’s family blood identified three males within the extended family who are to produce the babies and warns her young bride not to stray elsewhere (Ike, 2001, p. 47). She not only subjects her fellow woman to be having sex with three men in the family but also deprives her of choosing her lovers herself. Ike therefore presents this as another way of using tradition to control the sexual pleasure of a woman in Igboland.

Any kind of amorous relationship between same-sex partners in Igboland is done in secret. It is an abomination to mention such a relationship in Igbo culture. The stigmatization of any person who is found to be involved is gay relationships is not what one would neglect. It cannot be said that no form of queer acts by Ndiigbo [Igbo people] of the 21st century. Migration, civilization, and globalization have made people grow in different environments and cultures from their forefathers. The advancement in technology has also fostered the practice of gay relationships because many of the people who watch all sorts of queer acts through their personal computers and mobile phones are made captives of what they watch. Amorous relationship is presented in literature but the characters involved in it lives in countries where such acts are legalized. People who practice gay relationship when they go to European countries do not mention it when they come back to Igboland. E. N. Urama (2017) in her “African Literature and the Society in Transition: Unmasking the Masquerade of Queerism” in support of Ndiigbo or African’s rejection of gay relationship asserts that “queerism being represented in African literature has the purpose of making Africans be aware of some Africans turning to be what they are not created to be by imitating the whites. She also stresses that “feminists in presenting lesbian relationship also highlights African treasured moral values which are our identity and we have no option than to fight to retain what makes us a people and a race” (Urama, 2017, p. 92).

It is therefore clearly depicted that discrimination against women is conspicuously evident in marriage institutions, inheritance, succession, and so on. The representation of gender inequality in Igbo culture is a tool used by the creative writers to highlight the need for the revolutionary movement against the age-long traditions and custom which permit gender discrimination. Ndiigbo should embrace the constitutional reforms that foster the rights of the female child, especially her right of inheritance in Nigeria and the world at large.

Same-sex Marriage as a Socially and Culturally Constructed Norm to Solve the Problems of Gender-Based Family Inheritance Practiced in Igbo culture

A literary analysis of some selected Nigerian literature written by Igbo creative writers portrays that “male daughters,” “female husbands,” and same-sex marriage among women in Igbo culture are cultural devised practices to solve the problems of impotency, barrenness, and male child succession or inheritance syndrome. Akachi T. Ezeigbo (2012), in support of this, vividly points out in her Snail Sense Feminism: Building on an Indigenous Model that “Our ancestors in Igboland adopted the options of ‘female husband’ and ‘male daughters’ to ease the pain and get around the ‘problem’ of not having a male child and solve the ‘problem’ of inheritance” (p. 31). She further stresses that “in this way, they were able to secure the family investment and properties and prevent capital flight from the patriarchal lineage” (Ezeigbo, 2012, p. 31).

The purpose of “male daughters,” “female husbands” and same-sex marriage in Igbo culture is also represented in literary texts. In Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s (1996) The Last of the Strong Ones, Aziagba as a “male daughter” stays in her natal home and had Ugonwanyi and the twins, Nnamdi and Chiedochie, so that the family of Obiatu and Ejimnaka would not go into extinction (p. 45). In Adimora-Ezeigbo’s Children of the Eagle, Obioma’s child, Nkemdirim, adopted by her mother rescued the family of Josiah and Eaglewoman Okwara from extinction. Although Obioma was impregnated by a Nigerian soldier that sexually exploited young Biafran girls after the Nigerian/Biafran war, the pregnancy becomes a blessing in disguise for her family. Amara, Eaglewoman’s last daughter, asserts that the birth of Nkemdirim ushers in so much sunlight into her mother’s face and also banishes the fog she used to see in her mother’s face when she thinks that nobody is looking at her (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 2002, p. 142). She also explains how her mother’s friends would pick Nkemdirim up and say to her mother: “Let your Chi preserve for you this single male child whose birth shut up the mouths of your enemies and put to an end the unbridled ambition of some of your in-laws” (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 2002, p. 143). All these portray the joy that accompanies the birth of a male child in a family in Igboland.

Amara also points out that the birth of Nkemdirim is what gave her family the assurance that his father’s greedy relatives would not share the family property after the death of her father. This implies that they have been living in fear of losing their family property before the birth of Nkemdirim even when Josiah and Eaglewoman have five promising daughters. Amara expresses her displeasure for male child preference and inheritance passing to the male line thus:

Sometimes I wondered: What would be the fate of the family property in Umuga if there were no Nkemdirim? Would we be kicked out from our home by greedy relatives after Papa died? The Family has many plots of land in Umuga bought with Papa’s and Mama’s savings. What would happen to all the land if this lad did not exist? In Umuga’s thinking, he is the symbol of continuity of the Okwara’s family tree descending through our father. This, I told myself, is all the sense of justice there is in this town. Yes, this is what Umuga’s sense of justice amounts to in a house of five daughters and one son. Astonishing. (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 2002, p. 144)

With a series of rhetorical questions, the young girl challenges women to empower themselves and ensure that they achieve recognition in the society through self-actualization which makes them successful. Akachi T. Ezeigbo (2012) rightly asserts that if a woman succeeds, “the success of the family or the community follows naturally” (45).

Adichie (2013) posits that the gender and insecurity issues a woman who is going into marriage faces should be given adequate attention. The analysis of the selected literary texts portrays various forms of insecurity faced by a woman who is going into marriage in Igboland. The insecurity issues create anxiety in her. Such insecurity issues are as follows: whether she would be accepted by the family of the husband, whether she would be able to be fruitful, and bear a male child. This fear has made many women to attend prayers in prayer houses, seeking for solutions. Many of the women find their solution of bearing a male child in secretly committing adultery with the “prophets” that pray for them in the prayer houses. Adichie (2013) presents one of such prayer houses: “House of David Church that had a special prayer service for keeping your husband” (p. 43). It is culture and the society that have reduced the girl child to “not desired sex” that lead some women to this despicable act. The girl child is psychologically traumatized in realizing that she is disadvantaged in Igbo culture due to male child preference. Sometimes having a girl child in a family with many girls is seen as adding to the family’s burden. They give out these girls in marriage, like same-sex marriage, without considering what their fate would be in such marriages. In most cases, a girl from a family that has many girls with no male child would be forced to be a “male daughter.” Oguche and Omojuyigbe (2017) affirm that “the girl child being considered a burden, is married off early to a man older than her father” (p. 224).

When Nkemdirim, in (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 2002), had an auto accident and was lying unconscious in the hospital, Pa Joel suggests that Amara, the youngest daughter of Eaglewoman, should consider postponing her marriage that is to hold in few days and wait to know the fate of Nkemdirim. He wants her to consider staying unmarried to bear a son for the continuity of her father’s lineage:

I am counseling that the marriage be postponed indefinitely until we know the fate of Nkemdirim. I say this because it is my opinion that if Nkemdirim returns to his ancestors—God forbid—then Amara should remain at home to perpetuate your father’s name producing a son or sons to inherit his vast properties and wealth in Umuga and other places. I have said it: those are my words. (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 2002, p. 340)

In Chukwuemeka Ike’s Conspiracy of Silence, the deceased wealthy woman’s wife in Umuahia had children (three girls and a boy) for her. The boy she bore for her guarantees her a permanent place in her husband’s family. Nduka explains the value of same-sex marriage to Ayo thus: “That tall, slim woman in white is the wife of the deceased woman . . .” “. . . The boy and the three girls behind her are her children” (Ike, 2001, p. 45) and “. . . the senior wife married her own wife to produce her own sons who guarantee a permanent place for in her husband’s compound” (Ike, 2001, p. 47). A wealthy woman described as the pillar of her husband’s support, and her daughters whose achievements at school and since leaving school are described as a source of pride to their father in the novel are excluded from the family inheritance just because they are females. The birth of the boy ironically has restored to them what rightfully belongs to them.

Adimora-Ezeigbo in her House of Symbols also presents the jubilation that accompanies the birth of the first male child in Igboland. When Josiah (Osai) and Ugonwanyi (Eaglewoman) Okwara had their son, Chukwuka, a big party was organized for his baptism and outing service. The couple organized such a big ceremony because Chukwuka was their first son. They are grateful to God for giving them a male child as their third child who will bear the family name when their daughters would have been married out from their family. They did not organize such parties when they had Ogonna and Nnenne their two daughters. Adimora-Ezeigbo (2001) describes Osai’s joy and the party thus:

Osai and Eaglewoman have had their periods of joy and pain. More joy has glorified their lives: recent events, the chief of which is the birth of their first son, call for a celebration, the type that they hope will shame with its splendour their marriage festivity twelve years in the past. (p. 236)

This joy is also emphasized when an assistant to the nurse informed Osai of his birth. Osai on hearing the news of his son’s birth could not hide the pleasure the great news brings to him: “Osai’s heart flaps with excitement: ‘A baby boy you said?’ He asks the girl and is rewarded with a positive nod. God, I have a son!’ he cries . . .” (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 2001, p. 223). This kind of jubilation and ceremony used to welcome a male child are not only practiced in Umuga community or in Uga in Aguata Local Government of Anambra State but in all other parts of Igboland. When Osai and Eaglewoman lost Chukwuka at the age of 6 months, Eaglewoman becomes so downcast and depressed by the thought of losing her son who has given her recognition in her husband’s home that Osai becomes afraid of losing her as well (Adimora-Ezeigbo, 2001, pp. 359-369).

Conclusion

Marriage and motherhood are the key things needed for a woman’s fulfillment in traditional Igbo society. It is discovered that the inequality between men and women in traditional Igbo society, especially in their having pleasure during sex is because of culturally imposed social values. It has been admitted that African feminists of Igbo origin, just like their counterparts throughout the world, advocate for women assertion and fight for women’s rights by addressing the oppression and injustice meted on women through patriarchal practices in Igbo culture, but they are realistic in the presentation of their people’s way of life. They present Igbo women accepting to be “male daughters” and wives to fellow women. They also presents the cultural practices that determine a woman’s sexual choice as it is perceived in different parts of Igboland. The cultural practices depict that women have sex that has nothing to do with love, especially if children are conceived out of the sexual affair. They do this because of the Igbo philosophy of marriage. It is an abomination for a woman to enter into marriage without having the intention of becoming a mother; therefore “male daughter,” “female husband,” and same-sex marriage are used to solve the culturally created problems of male child dominance and inheritance in Igbo culture. There is no erotic presentation of the sexual relationships between the “male daughters” and wives of “female husbands” and their lovers because in most cases the women are not allowed to choose their lovers. The authors of the selected literary texts used for this study have presented education as the most essential weapon for challenging the customary practices that have fostered gender inequality and the subjugation of women in Igbo culture. A more descent way of solving the problems of succession and inheritance should be fighting for women’s inheritance rights.