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The colonization of the West African region that lies across the Niger took place between the mid 19th century to 1960 when Nigeria became recognized as an independent nation. [1] This systemic invasion introduced new social, economic, and political structures that significantly altered Indigenous notions of gender fluidity and gender roles. The imposition of Western ideologies and patriarchal systems impacted the pre-existing gender dynamics, leading to shifts in power relations, societal expectations, and individual identities and expressions, becoming a complex interplay between colonial influence and Indigenous cultural practices. European colonial powers introduced legal frameworks that often reinforced patriarchal structures and diminished the recognition of Indigenous practices that embraced gender diversity. The imposition of Western legal systems had lasting consequences, influencing inheritance laws, property rights, and marital practices. This not only marginalized women within the legal framework but also eroded the traditional roles of certain societies where women held significant economic and political power. The juxtaposition of colonial legal norms with Indigenous customs created tension and reshaped the social fabric, contributing to the evolving landscape of gender roles and fluidity in Nigerian cultures. This impact of colonial legal systems and educational structures interacted with the diverse cultural landscapes of Nigeria, affecting communities in distinct ways. The consequences of colonial impositions on legal frameworks and educational curricula were filtered through the lenses of diverse cultural contexts, shaping unique challenges and opportunities for different ethnic groups.
The Igbo society consists of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States with a distinctive Indigenous central language that is spoken across the five states that makes up the Igbo society, this language extends to Anioma region of Delta State and some region of Rivers State In Southern Nigeria.
In Igbo, the pronoun 'o' indicates both male and female. Most Igbo names are gender-neutral,[ citation needed ] though traditional names may denote gender. Further, some nouns and pronouns denote gender, including "nwoke" (man) and "nwanyi" (woman).[ citation needed ]
Following the Igbo culture of male dominance, a female daughter can not inherit landed properties; a man who does not have male offspring will confer on his first daughter the role of a male child through a cultural rite and covenant referred to as "Igba Ndu". [2] The female daughter, now considered a male daughter, assumes the role of a male in the family. Upon this conferment, the male daughter is not allowed to marry to prevent her from leaving the family compound. [3]
Female husbands [4] on the other hand, were women who assumed roles typically associated with men, including the responsibilities of a husband within a marriage. This practice was often linked to issues of infertility, as a woman might take on the role of a husband to ensure the continuity of her family line. In such cases, a female husband could marry other women and engage in socially sanctioned reproductive practices, such as bearing children through a female wife on behalf of her infertile spouse. This practice, known as Nwanyi Bu showcased the pragmatic adaptation of gender roles to address specific societal needs. [5]
In both instances, these gender categories challenged Western preconceptions and demonstrated the flexibility of gender roles in Igbo society. The recognition of male daughters and the acceptance of female husbands reflected the nuanced understanding of gender and identity within the cultural and spiritual context of pre-colonial Igbo communities. It's important to note that these practices were deeply embedded in the Igbo worldview and were not merely acts of defiance against established gender norms but rather culturally grounded expressions of identity and societal functionality.
Ada mmuonwu (‘daughter’, or ‘maiden spirit of the dead’; also called as ‘Agboho Mmanwu’ or ‘Adamma’ in some parts of Igbo society) is a female spirit that possesses a man during funeral ceremonies, [6] upon possession, this masked male mortal spiritually acquires femineity, becoming fluid in expression till when the dead is laid and the ceremony ends.
Yoruba culture is the embodiment of the cultural practices and identity of the Yoruba people, an ethnic group predominantly found in Nigeria and other West African regions. Known for its richness and diversity, Yoruba culture encompasses various facets such as language, religion, art, music, dance, and social customs.
Before the arrival of Europeans in the seventeenth century, Yorùbá society held unique perspectives on gender definitions and relations. Unlike the Western binary construct of male/men and female/women, such distinctions did not exist in Yorùbá societies. Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, in "The Invention of Women: Making African Sense of Western Gender Discourse," [7] delves into pre-colonial Yorùbá practices and explores the erasure's modern implications.
In Yorùbá culture, differences between males and females were rooted in social practices rather than biological facts, as emphasized by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí. The prefixes "obìn" and "okùn" were used to specify anatomical varieties, yet the Yorùbá lacked a term for gender or any related concept prior to colonial influence. This absence of linguistic references may reflect that the concept of gender as a fundamental social category was introduced to Yorùbá society from the West.
One important cultural inclination that became silent as the result colonial invasion is the practice of homosexuality among the Yoruba people. This practice is addressed with a euphemistic word: "adodi/adofuro" used to refer to people who engage in anal penetration [8] [9] [10]
Another important unspoken history of the Yoruba people is the folklore about a gender fluid or perhaps a transgender king Known as Orompoto, she was the sister of King Egungunoju who died without a mature male child to be enthroned king to prevent the crown moving away from her kindred, Orompoto magically changed to a man and became king. Alaafin Orompotoniyun of Oyo Empire in Nigeria!
Occupying the Northern region of present day Nigeria. the Hausa Kingdom consisted of seven Hausa States, each state with distinctive cultural inclination on gender roles and fluidity prior to the Jihadist Movement which brought about the Islamization of the major Hausa states between the 11th and 12th century. [11] [12] The predominant religious practices of the Hausa-Fulani people prior to this invasion was Maguzawa an religious integral practice of Aninism consisting of spirit possession and exorcism was done by both male and female Animist believers. Unlike the Islamic religion, women were allowed to make certain decisions that are contrary to present day Islamic practices. For instance, within Bori sub ethnic group in Kano, women could divorce their husbands without any religious impediments to it. These women often referred to with a derogatory Hausa slur Karuwanci will chose to live in gidan mata under the leadership of magajiya. [13] They were known for their peculiar livelihood made from dance and prostitution. Within gidan mata - women quarters there were some organized systemic governing structures that guided the conduct of the women and protected them against potential abuses by their male patronizers. Women's role and their interactions with the society began to take a certain construct following the Jihadist movement, this movement which introduced Yan Taru have perhaps shapened the roles and societal interactions of many Hausa women today [14]
Another dynamic cultural inclination which may have been silent by colonialist ideologies is on gender identities and sexualities which is today having argument of non-existence in pre-colonial Nigerian societies. Within the last ten/eleven years, there has been a growing argument on the rights of LGBTQ persons. This unproven claims of the existence of same sex and gender nonconforming practices in coalition with extreme religious fanaticism will become the background upon which the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act 2013 a discriminatory law that criminalises LGBTQ persons in Nigeria will be built upon. However, a close examination of certain cultural beliefs practices within the pre-colonial Hausa-Fulani society provides factual evidences of long existing fluidity and same gender practices. One of such evidence is the existence of yan daudu within Hausa Fulani sub ethnic society.
Nigerian literature may be roughly defined as the literary writing by citizens of the nation of Nigeria for Nigerian readers, addressing Nigerian issues. This encompasses writers in a number of languages, including not only English but Igbo, Urhobo, Yoruba, and in the northern part of the county Hausa and Nupe. More broadly, it includes British Nigerians, Nigerian Americans and other members of the African diaspora.
The culture of Nigeria is shaped by Nigeria's multiple ethnic groups. The country has 527 languages, seven of which are extinct. Nigeria also has over 1150 dialects and ethnic groups. The three largest ethnic groups are the Hausas that are predominantly in the north, the Yorubas who predominate in the southwest, and the Igbos in the southeast. There are many other ethnic groups with sizeable populations across the different parts of the country. The Kanuri people are located in the northeast part of Nigeria, the Tiv people of north central and the Efik-Ibibio are in the south south. The Bini people are most frequent in the region between Yorubaland and Igboland.
Nigerian Americans are Americans who are of Nigerian ancestry. The number of Nigerian immigrants residing in the United States is rapidly growing, expanding from a small 1980 population of 25,000. The 2022 American Community Survey (ACS) estimated that 712,294 residents of the U.S.A were of Nigerian ancestry. The 2019 ACS further estimated that around 392,811 of these (85%) had been born in Nigeria. Which puts the total Nigerian American population a little over 400,000.
There are over 525 native languages spoken in Nigeria. The official language and most widely spoken lingua franca is English, which was the language of Colonial Nigeria. Nigerian Pidgin – an English-based creole – is spoken by 30 million people in Nigeria.
The history of the territories which since ca. 1900 have been known under the name of Nigeria during the pre-colonial period was dominated by several powerful West African kingdoms or empires, such as the Oyo Empire and the Islamic Kanem-Bornu Empire in the northeast, and the Igbo kingdom of Onitsha in the southeast and various Hausa-Fulani kingdoms.
Omolara Ogundipe-Leslie, also known as Molara Ogundipe, was a Nigerian poet, critic, editor, feminist and activist. Considered one of the foremost writers on African feminism, gender studies and literary theory, she was a social critic who came to be recognized as a viable authority on African women among black feminists and feminists in general. She contributed the piece "Not Spinning on the Axis of Maleness" to the 1984 anthology Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, edited by Robin Morgan. She is most celebrated for coining the term STIWA or Social Transformation in Africa Including Women.
The Hausa are a native ethnic group in West Africa. They speak the Hausa language, which is the second most spoken language after Arabic in the Afro-Asiatic language family. The Hausa are a culturally homogeneous people based primarily in the Sahelian and the sparse savanna areas of southern Niger and northern Nigeria respectively, numbering around 86 million people, with significant populations in Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central African Republic, Togo, Ghana, as well as smaller populations in Sudan, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Senegal, Gambia. Predominantly Hausa-speaking communities are scattered throughout West Africa and on the traditional Hajj route north and east traversing the Sahara, with an especially large population in and around the town of Agadez. Other Hausa have also moved to large coastal cities in the region such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Accra, Abidjan, Banjul and Cotonou as well as to parts of North Africa such as Libya over the course of the last 500 years. The Hausa traditionally live in small villages as well as in precolonial towns and cities where they grow crops, raise livestock including cattle as well as engage in trade, both local and long distance across Africa. They speak the Hausa language, an Afro-Asiatic language of the Chadic group. The Hausa aristocracy had historically developed an equestrian based culture. Still a status symbol of the traditional nobility in Hausa society, the horse still features in the Eid day celebrations, known as Ranar Sallah. Daura is the cultural center of the Hausa people. The town predates all the other major Hausa towns in tradition and culture.
A Sabon Gari is a section of cities and town in Northern Nigeria South Central Niger and Northern Cameroon whose residents are not indigenous to Hausa lands.
Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British journalist Flora Shaw, who later married Baron Frederick Lugard, a British colonial administrator. Nigeria is composed of various ethnic groups and cultures and the term Nigerian refers to a citizenship-based civic nationality. Nigerians derive from over 250 ethno-linguistic groups. Though there are multiple ethnic groups in Nigeria, economic factors result in significant mobility of Nigerians of multiple ethnic and religious backgrounds to reside in territories in Nigeria that are outside their ethnic or religious background, resulting in the mixing of the various ethnic and religious groups, especially in Nigeria's cities. The English language is the lingua franca of Nigerians. Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Muslims, who live mostly in the north, and Christians, who live mostly in the south; indigenous religions, such as those native to the Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities, are in the minority.
Anti-Igbo sentiment encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards the Igbo people. The Igbo people make up all of south-eastern Nigeria and a part of south-south Nigeria's geopolitical zones. Igbophobia is observable in critical and hostile behaviour such as political and religious discrimination and violence towards the Igbo.
The Bugis people are the most numerous of the three major ethnic groups of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, with about 3 million people. Most Bugis are Muslim, but many pre-Islamic rites continue to be honoured in their culture, including the view that gender exists on a spectrum. Most Bugis converted from Animism to Islam in the early 17th century; small numbers of Bugis have converted to Christianity, but the influence of Islam is still very prominent in their society.
African feminism includes theories and movements which specifically address the experiences and needs of continental African women. From a western perspective, these theories and movements fall under the umbrella label of Feminism, but it is important to note that many branches of African "feminism" actually resist this categorization. African women have been engaged in gender struggle since long before the existence of the western-inspired label "African feminism," and this history is often neglected. Despite this caveat, this page will use the term feminism with regard to African theories and movements in order to fit into a relevant network of existing Wikipedia pages on global feminism. Because Africa is not a monolith, no single feminist theory or movement reflects the entire range of experiences African women have. African feminist theories are sometimes aligned, in dialogue, or in conflict with Black Feminism or African womanism. This page covers general principles of African feminism, several distinct theories, and a few examples of feminist movements and theories in various African countries.
Women in Nigeria are a diverse group of individuals who have a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. They are mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, entrepreneurs, professionals, and activists. Women in Nigeria face numerous challenges, including gender inequality, poverty, and a lack of access to education and healthcare. Despite these challenges, Nigerian women are making strides in all areas of life and are becoming increasingly empowered to take control of their lives and their futures.
Nigeria does not recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions for same-sex couples. Homosexuality among men is punishable with up to 14 years' imprisonment in Southern Nigeria and may result in capital punishment for men in areas under Sharia Islamic law in the northern part of the country. Individuals who "perform, witness, aid or abets" a same-sex marriage may face severe penalties.
Distinctive cultural norms prevail in Yorubaland and among the Yoruba people.
Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí is a Nigerian gender scholar and full professor of sociology at Stony Brook University. She acquired her bachelor's degree in political science at the University of Ibadan in Ibadan, Nigeria and went on to pursue her graduate degree in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Oyěwùmí is the winner of the African Studies Association's 2021 Distinguished Africanist Award, which recognizes and honours individuals who have contributed a lifetime of outstanding scholarship in African studies combined with service to the Africanist community.
Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals wholly or partly due to their gender or sex. It arises from differences in socially constructed gender roles. Gender inequality in Nigeria is influenced by different cultures and beliefs. In most parts of Nigeria, women are considered subordinate to their male counterparts, especially in Northern Nigeria as well as in other sectors including the Nigeria music industry, politics, and education sector. It is generally believed that women are best suited as home keepers.
The colonial roots of gender inequality refers to the political, educational, and economic inequalities between men and women in Africa. According to a Global Gender Gap Index report published in 2018, it would take 135 years to close the gender gap in Sub-Saharan Africa and nearly 153 years in North Africa. While much more is known about the effects of colonialism on all African people, less is known about the impacts of colonialism on specifically women. There are competing theories about the cause of gender inequality in Africa, but scholars suggest its genesis is in slavery and colonialism. For most women, colonialism resulted in an erosion of traditions and rights that formerly granted women equality and esteem. Women in pre-colonial Africa held positions of power and were influential in many aspects of their societies. This changed during the post-colonial period. With new forms of gender inequality introduced, many of the cultural underpinnings of African societies were eroded, and this harm has been challenging to mend. Theoretical frameworks that help to explain the colonial roots of gender inequality include coloniality of power and coloniality of gender. These decolonial concepts provide an account of how gender inequality became situated within the African context and help to explain why present-day inequalities, including women's political underrepresentation, remain significant challenges for Africa.
Hausa literature is any work written in the Hausa language. It includes poetry, prose, songwriting, music, and drama. Hausa literature includes folk literature, much of which has been transcribed, and provides a means of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge, especially in regard to social, psychological, spiritual, or political roles.
Yan Daudu is a term used in pre-Islamic times to refer to men exhibiting feminine traits in the Hausa Language. These men In contemporary Hausa society are seen as men who are sexually attracted or intimate with other men. In Hausa Fulani mythology, Yan daudu possess feminine attributes associated with transvestite or third-gender roles and they were known to be engaging in Hausa Animism practices such as Bori religious practice of the Maguzanci found in present day Kano state Nigeria. This was however long before the introduction of Islam in northern Nigeria and in Southern Niger. Yan daudu are seen as effeminate male sex workers and pimps who sometimes have intimate relationships with other men but do not necessarily identify as homosexuals. They get married to women, have children and establish families. The name yan duadu is traceable to Dan Galadima; a loose, gambling, and colourfully well-dressed male spirit. Yan daudu translates to “sons of Daudu”