Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings

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Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900-1960

Nwando Achebe

Book Code: E07078

ISBN: 0-325-07078-4

ISBN-13: 978-0-325-07078-0

DOI:

288 pages, maps; photos

Heinemann

Publication: 7/30/2005

List Price: $29.95 (UK Sterling Price: £16.95)

Availability: In Stock

Media Type: Paperback

Also Available: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Series Title: Social History of Africa

Reviews:

[A]chebe's rich field data personalizes the literature on Igbo women, and will be invaluable as a source for others.
—American Historical Review December 2006

Endorsement From Felix K. Ekechi
Professor Emeritus(History)
Kent State University: This is a brilliant and refreshing book, which gives ample and well-deserved voice to women...It is a book that will definitely be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of history, anthropology, political science, religion, and political economy. It is a must read for scholars and students in Women's Studies Programs.
Endorsement From Obioma Nnaemeka
Professor of French, Women's Studies, and African/African Diaspora Studies
Indiana University, Indianapolis: This orginal and insightful work's sensible and balanced view of Igbo women's power and authority is modulated by a profound understanding of the ways in which women negotiated indigenous cultural spaces and at the same time negotiated with and refashioned pre-colonial and colonial contexts.
Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings is a major event in African gender studies publishing.
Endorsement From Ifi Amadiume
Professor of Religion and African and African American Studies
Dartmouth College: Nwando Achebe's book is rich in accounts of the life histories of recent powerful goddesses that were constructed by the Nsukka Igbo from the late 19th century...[She] recounts these case studies with passion and fascination. This is another important addition to the growing literature in Igbo studies, gender studies and African historiography.
Endorsement From Isidore Okpewho
Distinguished Professor of the Humanities
State University of New York, Binghamton: [A] landmark in African historiography. In the best tradition of the discpline, [Dr. Achebe] reminds us after all that history, however academically grounded, should aim to delight as well as educate. Nwando Achebe is ahead of her generation not only in the depth of her sensibility but in the facility with which she represents the structures of feeling of her Igbo society.

Description: There is an adage that the Igbo have no kings. Farmers, Traders, Warriors and Kings focuses on an area in Igboland where, contrary to this popular belief, Igbos not only have kings, but female kings. It is an area where women served as warriors and even married many wives. Because women in Nsukka Division served as prominent actors in a complex set of interactions, relationships and manifestations unmatched elsewhere in Igboland, the author argues that researchers cannot adequately analyze the landscape of Nsukka Division (or any other African society, for that matter) without investigating the central place of women and the female principle in the spiritual world of the society. The author examines the political, economic, and religious structures that allowed women and the female principle to achieve measures of power and looks at some of the ways they reacted and adjusted to the challenges of European rule. Such an investigation into the history of this gender dynamic yields important results for both African History and Women's Studies. Achebe focuses on the evolution of gender politics and female power in Nigeria's northern Igboland over the first six decades of the 20th century. This time period, approximately 1900-1960, is important because it allows for the exploration of continuity and change in Nsukka women's activities, as well as the female principle, over three periods: late pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial Nigeria. Along the way, she raises and answers questions relating to scholarship on women, sex, and gender in Africa by uncovering the complexities of the Igbo gender construct, arguing, for example, that sex and gender did not coincide in northern Igboland. Consequently, women were able to occupy positions that were exclusively monopolized by men in other societies, and men, likewise, occupied positions that would have otherwise been monopolized by women. Expanding on this premise, the author calls for a revision of traditional classifications of African women's activities that are defined strictly along sex lines. It reshapes conventional global frameworks by offering new theories that have the capacity to recognize African concepts such as female kings, female fathers, female sons, female husbands, female warriors, female warrant chiefs, and male priestesses.

Table of Contents:

Illustrations
Ekene (Acknowledgements)
Nkwado (The Preparation): The Main Dance is Yet to Come and the Little Antelope is Dancing Herself Lame-Self Locating and Research Methods
When Questions Begin to be Asked, then Tales Begin to be Told: Introduction and Review of Literature
Medicines and Goddesses, Priestesses and Prophetesses: Female Expressions within the Spiritual Realm
Farmers, Traders, Potters and Weavers: Nsukka Women as Economic Actors
Women in Community Politics: Colonialism and the Strategies of Female Resistance
"Ochichi Gi Agafego Oke" (You are Governing Too Much!)--King Ahebi Ugbabe versus the Community: A Case Study of Female Clout, Excess and Conflict in Enugu-Ezike
MMECHI (The Conclusion)
Glossary
Appendix
Select Bibliography
Index


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