Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society by Professor Ifi Amadiume

Author:Professor Ifi Amadiume [Amadiume, Professor Ifi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Gender Studies, Women's Studies, Feminism & Feminist Theory, anthropology, Cultural & Social
ISBN: 9781783603343
Google: DupiDgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
Published: 2015-03-12T23:29:45.577801+00:00

The Hunter/Deity, Aho

The conceptualization of Aho as the husband of the goddess Idemili reflects the contradiction in Nnobi gender ideology which ideally placed males in authority over females. The goddess is by all indications superior to Aho but, because she is also female, Aho has to affirm some form of authority over her regardless of her relative autonomy, as with males and females or husbands and wives in the family.

The goddess Idemili was acknowledged and worshipped by the whole of Nnobi and several other surrounding towns and villages, especially those along the Idemili River. In recognition of Nnobi as the original home of the goddess, these other settlements were said to have been ritually subordinate to Nnobi.

Her supremacy over other deities and spirits, including the ancestors, was stressed by the traditional ruler of Nnobi, Igwe Eze Okoli II:

Each individual in each village was subject to the orders of their own Idemili shrine, whereas there was one supreme central government and that was the goddess Idemili. Just as we go to church and call on the name of Christ, ancestor worship was one system of worshipping Idemili. The Idols worshipped originated from Idemili and derived their power from her. Before taking the ozo title, those involved would have given the priest of Idemili all his dues. The holy man who held the ozo symbol knew that it originated from Idemili.

This is why when a titled man commits an offence, it is the holy men who first come and condemn him, so that he will first appease them, then go to Idemili and appease her and then go back to the holy men, ndi nze, and begin to cleanse himself before the symbol of power is given back to him. When I first took the chieftaincy title, I was a boy. My father made us all chiefs; because of Christianity, we gave up the titles. After my father died, I was refused the right to take the chieftaincy title on the grounds that I had not taken the ozo title. I had to start all over again to do the cleansing ritual. All the ancient rituals were performed before I took the igwe title. Then they accepted that I was an nze. This is how I knew that all these idols were linked to Idemili.

In comparison to Idemili, Aho is recognized by all Nnobi as a hunter said to have emerged from the wild and married Idemili. He was not considered a deity and, therefore, was not worshipped by the whole of Nnobi. Only Umuona major patrilineage considered Aho a deity and worshipped him.

Succession in the obi (see Appendix 2, Figure 1) followed the principle of unilineal descent, whereby the first son replaced his father; hence Ebenesi is the most senior village in Nnobi. In its subdivision into patrilineages, Umuona is the most senior major patrilineage in Nnobi and said to have been the original site of the founding ancestor of Nnobi; hence the shrine to the Earth or Land Spirit of

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