Nzegwu ChasingShadowsMisplaced 1998

Review: Chasing Shadows: The Misplaced Search for Matriarchy
Reviewed Work(s): Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion, Culture by Ifi Amadiume

Review by: Nkiru Nzegwu
Source: Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines ,
1998, Vol. 32, No. 3 (1998), pp. 594-622
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Canadian Association of African
Studies
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Chasing Shadows:
The Misplaced Search for Matriarchy
Nkiru Nzegwu
The vast majority of scholars in African studies today utilize the

explanatory categories of Europe to promote an understanding of
Africa, its histories, social and political institutions, and cultures.
In a series of essays, lectures and books, Cheikh Anta Diop
correctly argued against this approach, contending that it is inimi-
cal to the elucidation of the specific character of Africa's material
culture, and the deeper philosophical structure of its intellectual
traditions. The recent literature inspired by Diop's methodological
intervention is striving to displace the centrality of Europe and its
categories in the production of knowledge about Africa.
Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion, Culture by the Nigerian
anthropologist Ifi Amadiume fits into this tradition of an Africa-
centered, culturally grounded, explanatory framework.
The book is a collection of interdisciplinary essays written
from 1989 to 1992. They focus on several thematic concerns that
demonstrate Amadiume's "involvement and experiences in acade-
mia" as well as her social and political "engagement with sections
of the African communities" sympathetic to the Afrocentric
perspective (vii). Turning her attention to Diop's theory of the
primordial nature of African matriarchy, she articulates a concept
of anti-state decentralized political systems that rejects the violent
exploitative modes of production which she believes is inherent in
centralized planning or centralism (22-23). She chooses a method-
ology that highlights the "legitimacy of grassroots women, native
peoples and village organizations as 'democratic' entities, their
decentralized political systems and the diffusion of power among
Ifi Amadiume. Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion, Culture. London:

Zed Books Ltd. 1997.
Nkiru Nzegwu is a member of the Department of Africana Studies, Art History and
Women's Studies at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York.

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Nzegwu: Chasing Shadows 595
various interest groups and their organi

focus on women, their corollary civic cu
decentralized political system is desig
historically, matriarchy was the domi
organization and moral life in Africa; an
cal basis for the empowerment of m
Collectively, the essays argue: (1) that el
consciousness and ideology remain, d
spread of exploitative patriarchal struct
nialism and (2) that modern African wom
setbacks suffered during colonialism by
structures and models of women's emp
Although inspired by Diop, Amadiu
dence by favoring decentralized political
centralized imperial system theoretica
draws a critical distinction between her "contestation of the moral-
ity of power" in conceptualizing matriarchy (ix) and Diop's infu-
sion of that "morality of power" in the core of his conception of
matriarchy. Throughout the book, especially in Chapters 3, 4 and
6, she strives to articulate a vision of matriarchy that is unencum-
bered by hierarchical relations which she believes are patriarchal
and exploitive. Her ideological preference for the idea of "power
diffusion" allows her to center formerly marginalized, decentral-
ized societies and to question the progressive nature of centralism
and political centralization. Drawing largely from the exploitative
economic relations between the historic empires of Western Sudan
and the decentralized communities at their periphery, she presents
statehood and political centralization as less than desirable. This
correlation of centralism to autocracy, domination, and oppression
negatively reconstructs "power," "control," and "state" as hege-
monic. It challenges us to theorize democracy from a perspective
that accommodates the concerns of minorities and decentralized
societies by highlighting the potential problem of exploitation in
hierarchical relationships.
There is no question that Amadiume undertakes an ambitious
project in this book. She displays a boldness of purpose that is
impressive. She brings to our attention the social importance of Igbo
Improvement Unions whose development activities have not
attracted the due recognition they deserve. She astutely recognizes

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596 CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
that theories of kinship, which const

moved or owned, are inherently defe
her idea that motherhood is a cent
African societies. Also laudable is h
term for husband, di, is not gendered
"distorted facts about traditional cultu
ition of the proper status of women v
However, notwithstanding the flash
marred by serious methodological a
include but are not limited to: annoyi
authors; simplifying and effacing
geographically discontinuous societies
ing "power," "state," monarchical rul
Additional problems are the prevalen
"collective neuter gender" (115) an
(147); the creation of illogical relation
neously "a fundamental principle of
and "a neuter construct" (112); the in
the binary logic of her matriarchy / pat
ting construction of a matriarchal id
patriarchal (83-84). These, and other f
pal grounds: (1) the underlying m
assumptions of anthropology; (2) th
notions - matriarchy, gender, afr
reference to the work of scholars from the diverse societies whose
cultures she analyzed; and (4) the misguided idea that anthropolog-
ical data can effectively function as social history simply by renam-
ing them. I will discuss three of the major disquieting moments in
greater detail - one is methodological, and the other two are
conceptual. What is the author trying to resolve by establishing a
basis for African matriarchy? And to what extent did she achieve her
objectives and adequately represent the cultural logic of the social
schemes, processes and events?
I address these concerns in two ways: first, by examining closely
the historical and epistemological assumptions that warrant the
author's position, and second, by examining her claims to deter-
mine whether she took account of the processes of social transfor-
mations of phenomena she discussed in her claims. The deliberative
pedantic tone of the review may seem excessive but this is because
there is no satisfactory literature out there to rely upon.

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On Methodologies and Theore

From the outset, African scholars have
or American Africanist scholars on the utilization of methodolo-
gies that superimpose Western categories on societies. Amadiume
renews this charge in her critique of the works of anthropologists
Meyer Fortes on the Tallensi of northern Ghana, Paul Reisman on
the Jelgobe Fulani of Mali and Burkina Faso, and David Bloch on the
Merina and Vazimba of Madagascar (Chapters 2 and 6). She faults
Fortes for deploying a "European masculine and patriarchal para-
digm" that generated "a European interpretation of the [Tallensi]
domestic family" (29). Holding this anthropologist to the gender
fire, she contends that the "dominant maleness" detected by Fortes
is really contradicted by data "suggesting a missing matriarchal
system" (29). She claims that "the contradiction in the kinship
system can be glimpsed, in spite of the suppressed and fragmented
nature of information" and that "a dual gendered system was in
operation" (154). But what is Amadiume's evidentiary support?
What Tallensi interpretation and cultural materials did she draw
upon to illuminate her point? And, how extensive is her firsthand
knowledge of Tallensi culture?2
Amadiume adduces no historical, sociological, or political
evidence from the Tallensi to establish the legitimacy of her obser-
vations. Her personal knowledge is gleaned from a "recent re-read-
ing of West African ethnography" (19), and she established her
authority by relying extensively on Fortes' anthropological study:
the one she had earlier castigated as flawed. Only in an unguarded
moment do we find that the dominant conceptual framework
informing her interpretations to be actually the Igbo conceptual
scheme (30-31). This occurred when she invoked the Igbo concept
of destiny (akalaka) to elucidate and shore up her interpretation of
the Tallensi view about "the superiority of the fathers' destiny to
that of the son" (31). This gloss suggests cultural contiguity and
convergence where none exists between the social and ethical
values and world views of the geographically discontiguous Igbos of
southeastern Nigeria and the Tallensi of northern Ghana. Standard
as this unwarranted convergence is in the discipline of African
studies, the approach is inherently misguided at this stage of our
very limited first-order interpretive analyses of the histories,
cultural norms, ethical values, and social structures of diverse

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598 CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
African societies.3 Such an approach

epistemological and sociological dif
histories and realities of the two so
advancement of scholarship, making
ological and cultural convergence betw
is already settled.
Additionally, Amadiume's failure
which the Tallensi interpret their cu
her argument is reproducing the ve
she is critiquing. This flaw stems fro
that insufficiently attends to social s
Tallensi culture from the Tallensi, an
culture-construct into an undiffer
culture. By failing to preserve cultura
icance to Tallensi interpretations o
strates a minimal epistemic appreciat
differences, eliminates differences fr
Africa's complexity. This approach
even colonizing. Not only does it prom
also it shows an unwitting investm
"Othering" societies.
The second disquieting moment tur
such cultural glossing on social his
distortion of concepts that follow. Be
Sudanese model of political centraliza
tively construed power and politica
of exclusive status to the Western Sudan model of centralism is
predicated on foreclosing examination of numerous historic
African models of political centralization that were neither based
on a culture of violence nor engaged in the political exploitation of
decentralized communities at their borders. What Amadiume
failed to do is consider other working political and democratic
alternatives. Two examples in western Nigeria are: Ile-Ife, whic
from 800 CE4 owes its political force to the spiritual pre-eminence
of the Ooni and to Ife's status as the cradle of Yorubaland; and
Ibadan, which was founded as a war camp and place of refuge in the
mid-1840s,s and over the years evolved into a densely populate
state with its own brand of republicanism. Other models in th
eastern region of Nigeria are Onitsha and Oguta monarchical
schemes which, from their establishment by the mid-1600s, were

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ambivalent to incorporating "inferior"

into their midst.6 The primordial stat
guarded it from attack but also enabled
to communities at its borders. Built as i
spiritual largesse, Ile-Ife's model of
Amadiume's equation of exploitation to
Amadiume's portrayal of the positiv
decentralized societies assumes a mythic
torical evaluations that exaggerate the si
cal culture. An examination of some models of decentralized
political systems show that such communities can equally exp
their neighbors as do some states with centralized systems. In t
Aro Chukwu model, for example, the Aros, whose oral accou
suggest a 1600 formation,a shrewdly adopted the "power diffusi
model beloved by Amadiume, and exploited the awe and reveren
of their Ibinukpabi Oracle to oppress communities. Utilizing the
economic might and extensive trading networks, these Aro long
distance traders settled among communities and gradually co
the politically decentralized societies in the surrounding reg
into producing humans for service to their oracle but who w
then immediately channeled into the slave trade as cargo (Dike a
Ekejiuba 1990). Other examples of equally exploitive decentral
societies are the militarist Ohafia, Abam, and Edda who, in t
1800s, used their military prowess to terrorize and subject neig
boring decentralized societies to their control. These histor
examples expose the fundamental flaws in Amadiume's oppositio
of centralism, violence and control to decentralization, autonom
and anti-power. Not only do they undermine her linkage of
political culture of exploitation and violence to political centr
ization, but also, in challenging her conceptual scheme, they
into question her belief that the moral and political imperatives
the decentralized political system constitute the basis of affecti
relationships. Even if this is the case, it has to be demonstrated,
assumed.
A critical assessment of these cognitive flaws goes back to the
uncomplicated picture of Africa with which Amadiume operated
in lieu of one that captured the social specificity and cultural diver-
sities of the continent. Had the latter been taken more seriously, an
array of examples would have been culled to expose the shortcom-
ings of this thesis. In underplaying Africa as a complex terrain with

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600 CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
complex histories and with societi

collapsed into a grand explanatory
theoretically recast Africa to repr
and epistemological distortions
critiquing. It is ironic that many of
ars have had with European and A
section of their scholarship centers
cial descriptions, ahistorical evalu
that are presented as profound insig
critiques revolve around condition
tions, and standards of good schol
similar mis-descriptions and expect
At the very least, we have to questi
aims, objectives, and integrity of th
The Trouble with Gender

I now turn my focus to the pivotal concept of gender that underlies
Amadiume's matriarchal scheme, and that fuels her need to trans-
port to Africa problematic ideas arising from Euro-centered and
Euro-driven debates on matriarchy.9 Gender theorizing has become
a dominant framework of analyses for many African women schol-
ars. For those with a Marxist orientation, its thesis of oppression
offers a powerful analytical tool that is analogous to Marx's thesis
of class exploitation that is based on private property. Like the
concept of class, gender provides a neat overarching explanation for
women's subordination in societies. The inconsistencies generated
by the explanatory scheme will in the future provide fertile grounds
for theoretical problems.
According to Amadiume, "the ideology of gender has its basis
in the binary opposition between the mkpuke, the female mother-
focused matricentric unit, and the obi, the male-focused ancestral
house" (18).1o This opposition of the male and female, and of father
and mother, invokes from the outset the conceptual scheme of
patriarchy on which is based "the ideology of gender." This ideol-
ogy has been described as a "deeply entrenched institutionalization
of sexual difference" (Okin 1989, 6), with an equally entrenched
culture of sex discrimination. It is worth noting that Amadiume's
deployment of the concept of gender confers ontological status on
it and treats it as "a fundamental principle of social organization ...
that predates class and is carried over into class formations" (113).

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Faced with the quixotic situation of roles

ical logic of this category, Amadiume
gender construct" (a third classificatory
occasions when "men and women share
the same roles without social stigma"
tries to bypass the internal inconsistency
lations that men and women, who are
same time can be neuter gendered.
But what does it mean to be gendered
the same time? If gender is foundation
then the neuter construct is redundant,
bodies will share those roles and will m
them. Indeed, if a corpus of social roles a
politics and logic of gender ascripti
masculinization of power was eliminat
that the category of gender is not really
shared roles and status existed historicall
"social stigma" was attached to them, gen
the operative category. This means th
roles" must be referring to a different (
ogy that, perhaps, is in the process of be
significantly from what is on the groun
ness of the social ideologies raises the ver
even those other sex-differentiated r
gender framework of Amadiume's mat
fact, have been mis-described as gendere
that they are social formations on the gr
sion of European traditions to Africa and
merger of two very distinct conceptual
a nongendered one. The logical relation
tual schemes would open up possible re
further examination.
In the absence of a detailed examination of these conceptual
configurations," Amadiume cannot automatically assume that the
logic of sex differentiation of the obi ("patricentric unit") and the
mkpuke ("matricentric unit") is predicated on the idea that the two
are in opposition.'2 Such an assumption is possible only if it has
already been presupposed that all cases of sex differentiation equal
sex discrimination. However, the presupposition is illegitimate
because it circuitously assumes the centrality and canonicity of

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602 CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
gender, the very issue that is the su

misses is that the assumption acti
scheme in the background that i
concept of gender. In turn, the acti
logic of gender subordination era
that normally exists between sex di
nation. This erasure establishes an entailment connection between
sex differentiation and sex discrimination where there was none.
The newly established connection forces us to ignore the particu-
lar social ethos and specific histories of the societies at material
points in time as we offer our interpretations of them.
In the case of the Igbos, this erasure propels us to disregard the
very high probability that the major social changes instituted
during colonial rule created some of the male-privileging traditions
which today are being represented as "customary" or "indige-
nous." We are led to believe that these male-privileging traditions
have historically been part of a culture that is fundamentally patri-
archal, and "daughters were classified as male in relation to wives
and had authority just like their brother" (148, my emphasis). The
point that I am making is not that Amadiume does not acknowl-
edge these historical events that transformed Igbo society -
indeed, she does - but that she exploits these historical changes
while reading from an inverted picture generated by her category of
gender and its implicit logic of patriarchy. These are presented as if
they capture the logic of the actual society. The truth of the matter
is that she is unaware of the sub-level displacement of Igbo social
history and conceptual scheme by the patriarchal force implicit in
her interpretive category. As such, her acknowledgement of the
historical changes wrought by colonialism does not go far enough,
because the implications of these historic changes are not system-
atically carried through her analyses.
Historicity is a critical epistemic stance in any responsible
production of knowledge, more so when the knowledge produced is
about other people's cultures. Historicity is not the mere recitation
of "facts" and events, rather it involves historicizing interpreta-
tions, using an appropriate yardstick so that time frames are not
illicitly collapsed and conceptual frames of cultures are not illicitly
switched. Some of the shortcomings in Amadiume's analyses come
from inattentiveness to historicity. Familiar with some of Nigeria's
colonial and contemporary history, Amadiume would not dispute

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the fact that some of the customary laws

by interpreting Igbo culture through co
ity,14 marriage) and categories (for
woman,'6 wife'7) borrowed from Britain.'
fied the constructed alien nature of
(Chapter 8). The problem, however, is th
impact of change and the depth of cultu
these categories and concepts, as well a
changes that they instituted. She negle
change often responded ideologically t
called "civilized" models. Because of th
atically the European and American co
thesis of female subordination as an anchor for her thesis on matri-
archy. This adoption propels her toward interpretive directions that
are incompatible with the reasonable, historically sound aspects of
her claim that a "monolithic masculinization of power was elimi-
nated" in Igboland.'9
The resultant male-privileging interpretations overwrite
aspects of her descriptions of Igbo culture. Because Amadiume is
committed to a gender frame of analysis, she fails to see the incom-
patibility of the two frames and that the so-called neuter roles and
status cannot evolve in a social practice in which gender is an onto-
logical category. Thus, despite her brilliant insight on the flexibil-
ity of Igbo categories, and that this flexibility marks an important
difference between Igbo society and European patriarchal societies,
she undermines her own insight by insisting on the gendered
description of the surrounding culture that takes away this flexi-
bility.
Matters are substantially complicated by Amadiume's
language of gender that produces cultural distortions in Igboland. It
does this in the following ways: first, by injecting the metaphysics
of patriarchy into the cultures of western Igboland where it posi-
tions the patriarchal scheme at the conceptual background; second,
by initiating a gender-based discourse that entrenches this scheme
by having it as a foil for the matriarchal scheme in the foreground;
third, by structurally opposing the mkpuke to the obi and present-
ing this opposition as an accurate analysis of the relationship
between the two units; and fourth, by collapsing sex differentiation
into sex discrimination so that all instances of difference implies
discrimination. These steps guarantee that the gender mediated

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604 CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
interpretation will follow.

The discursive transfiguration o
tional level explains Amadiume's nee
catory scheme to circumvent th
patriarchal structure that she had
delineated neuter scheme injects f
and queries the gender-empowermen
examples that she offers as proof of
become "male"; (2) females can ma
(3) wealthy women can buy access
Given that the direction of mob
men's roles and status, and rarely in
ples of social flexibility and fem
convincing. They preserve intact
men's roles, and men's relationship
is privileged and constitutes the s
existence of this concealed yards
Amadiume's objective, her accoun
doxically in presenting Igbo societ
women were structurally disadv
Interestingly, her thesis of gender f
tural disadvantage by exceptionali
suggests that only a few wealthy
females used the "neuter roles" to n
unfavorable situations of inferiority
the Igbo social "system was not m
gender-bending and gender-cro
deployed in ways that ultimately rei
archal classificatory scheme in w
positions.
Forget Matriarchy: Getting our Analysis Right

Even if we agree with Amadiume that there is, indeed, a matricen-
tric unit of production in the foreground of the picture she paints of
western Igbo societies, how does that establish matriarchy? How
does a matricentric ethos transform into matriarchy? After all, the
mkpuke is consolidated on the subsidiary minor status of wife
(female), and it interacts oppositionally with the obi, the hierarchi-
cally dominant male unit in the background.
The attempt to secure matriarchy and matriarchal conscious-

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ness on a matricentric unit that is the pr

flounders. To prove that the matricentric
to prove that it is the overarching consci
an elementary level of social organization
a persuasive argument is needed to ex
production, that is subordinate to the p
the force to override the "patriarchal"
unit,20 and becomes the dominant ideolog
assuming the matter at stake does not con
nant nature of that matriarchal consciou
patricentric unit that she characterizes a
and the female matricentric unit is su
Amadiume's matriarchal thesis is, at be
evocation of the importance of mothers
The theoretical difficulty in Amadi
disjunction between her interpretation of
and the reality on the ground. It is not e
work was done and to present tantalizing
analytical framework for interpreting th
relevant, deriving from the society under
from some trendy theoretical scheme.
scheme is illusory, as I contend, what does
status she identified as "neuter"? Do th
roles and status in societies of western Ig
For all its vaunted capacity to explain
social structure, Amadiume's neuter cat
logic of the roles it is deployed to explain
it is a response to an artificial dilemma c
scheme. Consider the "male-daughter
represents as a neuter role. There is no su
expression as nwoke-ada, which is the
Amadiume's "male daughter." This is n
institution alluded to is imaginary, but th
misses the mark. There used to be (a
communities) a widespread formal ins
import known as idigbe, idegbe, or m
enables a daughter to remain in, or to
return to her natal home to have children
her own lineage.22
There are two senses in which idigbe

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606 CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
The first sense describes a situation in which a female is in a

consensual relationship with a paramour. She retains her primary
identity as daughter and never becomes his wife. Because
bridewealth is exchanged, ada no na iba (literally, the daughter in
the patrilineal sanctuary) or ada di na obi (literally, there is daug
ter in the patricentric unit)24 has sole custody of the children of t
union, who derive their name, identity, and rights from her linea
or obi. In this sense, adiba or adaobi formally describes this statu
of a daughter within the lineage and informs the community of h
role, and that her children stand in the same relationship as thos
of her brothers. In the second sense, to which Amadiume
constantly refers, adiba or adaobi identifies a daughter who
formally occupies the ancestral family sanctuary of fathers or
fatherhood. This occurs on the rare occasion that there is no male
successor to pass on the family name, and there is no wife in a
childbearing age in the compound to produce a male child.24 A
daughter either foregoes marriage or ends her marriage to uphold
the family sanctuary and to prevent the obliteration of the family
name.
Social roles have specific purposes, and thei

interpretations have to be sought in the relev
context of practice, not in some theoretical con
cated by a privileged concept of interpretation. B
did not closely attend to the cultural parameters
status she classifies as neuter, her interpretat
adaobi institution produces fictional meanin
gender-loaded imagery of "male daughter" is invo
social phenomenon whose meaning lies elsewh
imagery is conceptually problematic for a vari
conflicts with the logic of adaobi as "daughter in
unit." It problematizes the presence of this daugh
responsibilities in the natal residence. Also, it imp
that this daughter's presence is intelligible onl
formed into a male, a logic that casts the fem
socially and ontologically deviant. The idea of adao
transformation of daughters into males wrea
cultural logic. It suggests that membership in an
on "being male" rather than on "being a child"; it
as less worthy than sons; and it confers value on
can somehow become sons. Not only does this

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misconstrue the principle of family-as

it means to be a father, it arbitrarily
ship to their own obi.
In the haste to produce a discourse
sometimes oblivious that categories em
epistemology. Deployed within Igbo cu
epistemology of females as subordinate
of gender generates extensive distortio
offers us the expression "male daugh
females, although it masquerades as
contrast to the Igbo social logic that d
tiation with sex discrimination, the m
of gender informing Amadiume's in
confers privilege on males and the mal
and erases daughters' rights and res
cannot be overemphasized that this con
masculine actually derives from the
Amadiume's analytical tool, not from t
privileging ethos is not part of the con
the social institution and practice of
gender explanation obstreperously inte
social meaning of these so-called neute
Take the concept of ada no na iba or
The very existence of this concept is p
important stake in their lineage. It un
daughters as members of an obi, wh
adaobi evolved in the first place. In
daughters' identity as female remain
warrants the formation of the corp
umuokpu or patrilineage daughters)
defines the location from which daugh
cases and resolve problems in the linea
were historically brought back for bur
kinswomen in vast areas of wester
because of the importance attached to
survival is at stake, family obligations
Under such conditions, a daughter has
ing or acquiescing to the dissolution of
obliteration of her obi (patricentric un
uno (pillar that supports the house).2s

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608 CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
marriage norms that places a wife u

they cleave together as one, the Igb
this self-immolation that comes f
identity. In fact, it comes down on
their distinct identity in the conte
they are readily opting for subjugat
Because marriage does not oblite
tions of daughters, the daughter ide
identity for females with their cor
intact. As the formidable associa
(patrilineage daughters) attests, th
and are often called back to fully sh
On such occasions, some of the righ
access to land and place of dwellin
during the course of her marriage,
vation is predicated on the formal t
that would have given a husband an
the resources of her family's obi. T
is not sex discrimination as might e
an attempt to forestall the double d
losing the productive resources of a
then having that (marital) famil
nonhuman resources of the woman'
cant that in the past and less so in c
were restored should the daughter
Properly understood, the institu
hidden conditions and rules of Igbo
marriages as the phenomenon that
daughters' in their natal lineag
marriage is what limits a daughter's
idation of the obi. From the point
daughters, marriage is a phenome
"diaspora," where they establish "
their children eventually become th
the marital family. From this persp
process of extending the resources
creating a community of interlin
bound together by obligatory ties.
Although daughters appear as fo
this frame of reference, it is signifi

146.231.186.220 on Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:04:05 +00:00
to a wife's family resources is never open

dren with the woman. Typically, the latt
rather than their mother's and hence can inherit from their
mother's obi only under very special circumstances.27 Insofar a
daughters are offspring of fathers as are sons, Igbo culture histori-
cally welcomed their material and moral contribution to thei
lineage. Additionally, they recognized their duty to consolidate and
contribute to the expansion of the lineage, provided marriage ties
are severed.28
At an important level, the concept of adaobi and the principle
regulating its practice raises fundamental questions for the princi-
ple of patrilineality so much touted by anthropologists and of its
construal as a strictly male line of descent. If the patricenter unit i
secured either by an adaobi and her children, or sometimes even b
wives and their children by another man, then the definition of ob
as exclusively male and tied to fatherhood is inherently flawed
The fact that daughters' children and the children of a wife b
another man are assimilated into families much more readily than
is acknowledged means that we cannot accurately explain descen
simply in terms of patrilineality. There were far more numerous
instances of adaobis in the past than today, proving that histor
cally both daughters and sons were valued in maintaining the
continuity of the line or obi. At the very least, Amadiume's anthro
pologized notion of obi, as simply implying male and fatherhood,
must be urgently revised. What we have is obi-lineality, a non
gendered term that refers to the residence or house of father
(socially not biologically understood) that encapsulates all the chil-
dren of the family and lineage without implying that only males ar
the children in that house or compound.29 Because obi is the term
that references lines of descent, and daughters are members of ob
they are automatically included in the signifier in a way tha
Amadiume's "male, patricentric unit" does not. Having eliminate
daughters from the obi, the only way Amadiume can bring them
into that house is by turning them into males. This accounts fo
why she represented such daughters as male and values them a
sons.
It is worth reiterating that other examples a

misinterpretation of the cultural ethos of Afric
which false bridges are invented to explain soci
processes and the logic of the phenomena (Appia

146.231.186.220 on Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:04:05 +00:00
6IO CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
1996, 1999). Against a backdrop of such curr

tions, misrepresentations, and mis-des
emphasize enough that the obi is constitu
daughters. Although obi is conveniently con
centric unit of analysis and it seemingly high
fatherhood, it does not underscore maleho
masculinity as a gendered analysis suggest
site for tending to the welfare and well-being
reason, Amadiume's portrayal of the inv
transformation into "male-hood" is comp
contradicts even her own assertion that "the monolithic masculin-
ization of power was eliminated" (129) in the Nnobi indigenous
social structure.
Furthermore, nhanye, the late twentieth-century word she was
given at Nnobi to describe the process of investiture translates into
"placing in stead" not into male-making.30 Nhanye announces the
replacement of a son with a daughter, but this announcement and
the investiture that follows cannot legitimately be understood as a
transformation into "male-hood." Even if daughters perform addi-
tional rites during their investiture, this does not amount to trans-
formation into a male since this is not the logic behind it but one
that Amadiume imposed. Basically, the rite of nhanye simply
marks the substitution of one kind of a child for another, and since
membership in obi does not depend on being male, the initiate's
installation in the obi proclaims the assumption of the duties and
obligations associated with the role. The purification process of the
installation follows the same pattern and logic, which all candi-
dates must undergo to equip them spiritually to perform the oner-
ous task of "carrying" the spirit (ibu mmuo) of the ancestors. Only
within a gendered frame would the metaphysics of the category
color the perspectival lens and compel an epistemological analysis
that shuts out explanations about practices that do not cohere with
the gender requirements of the frame. The trouble is that these
social practices of western Igboland bow to a different kind of
explanatory logic than the one Amadiume is setting up.
Insights from Logical Grammar

Simply dropping the male qualifier that Amadiume attached to the
patricentric unit would not solve the identified problems. Other
more fundamental distortions exist. In her search for matriarchy,

146.231.186.220 on Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:04:05 +00:00
Amadiume initiated a discourse in which some of the central

assumptions about family and family formation are also trans-
ported from a different cultural environment to Africa. This is
illustrated by her decision to immediately focus on husbands and
wives (constituted by obi and mkpuke) as a unit of analysis. This
focus downplays the preeminence of the conception of family-as-
lineage, which is the Igbo unit of analysis, and in so doing, portrays
conjugality and family-as-nuclear as the character of Igbo family
relations. In construing family-as-nuclear as the relation that holds
between the obi and mkpuke, Amadiume ignores that customarily
wives are not a constitutive part of the families into which they had
married. Although she states that di (husband) is a neuter role that
is shared by both men and women, this clarification does not suffi-
ciently curtail the logical force of conjugality (men's right of sexual
access) in her analyzes. Firstly, she places the concept of di within
the marital sphere where it is conveniently drafted into duty to
mediate a purported gender dualism, an impossible concept in the
logic of the society. By this methodological sleight-of-hand, she
secures a gendered analysis by downplaying the complexity of the
concept of di and blurs what it socially means. Secondly, this
gendered, marriage-focused, conjugality-based interpretation
ignores that ordinarily, di circulates widely in the language and
isolates a range of relationships that nullify its restriction to mari-
tal relations. These include seniority (di okpala - the most senior
partilineage son), forms of mastery (di nka - superior artist, di nta
- superior hunter), marital virilocality (di - all members of the
patrilineage except wives), and the dominant status in marital rela-
tionships (di - the one who married a wife).
Attending to the logical behavior of concepts reveal that di
defines a complex of qualitative relationship of dominance, senior-
ity, or expertise that is not decomposed simply into a marital rela-
tionship. Even when di is deployed in the context of family
discourse, the term identifies three features: seniority among male
siblings; the solidary kin group in the lineage in a relationship with
a group of women in the lineage who are wives and outsiders; and
the dominant partner in a marital relationship. This means that
when the concept is used between a man and a woman, a range of
attributes define that relationship, namely, seniority or preemi-
nence, family-insider and family-outsider, virilocality, and hierar-
chy. The magnetic pull of the metaphysics of gender and its

146.231.186.220 on Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:04:05 +00:00
612 CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
dominant conjugal family values

of the other nonconjugal meanin
the marital one that coheres wit
gory.
Following this dismissal, we no
the family unit. Also, we do no
outsider with her own center o
junior partner in a relationship t
ing her distinct outsider-identity
alien lineage. Rather, we think
unit decomposed into two parts.
resist the pull of the concept
marriages and sometimes thr
(members of the patrilineage), sh
rises to the level of family-as-lin
di is consistently equated more t
with conjugal rights than to the
scores virilocality and lineage me
to husband who is almost alway
sexual access, she problematizes
marriages that do not conform t
that is predicated on both conjug
the sexual logic of the latter, on
tion of marriage that is the Igb
sexual access). This explains w
mentally disabled, infirm) can ac
married for them, or in their na
sexual intercourse between the
such a marriage seeming absurd.
The point here is not simply th
does not mark gender, making
husbands." At issue is that the un
ive of the logical behavior of di
accounted for by, the social struc
European model of marriage
Amadiume presupposes exists i
relationship between a man and a
of two lineages, which means t
normal relationship between the
and obi. The numerous tension

146.231.186.220 on Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:04:05 +00:00
from stating facts about Igbo life and soci

ily at the presuppositional level the so
Christian and European precepts. W
marriages were rarely based on the ten
with husbands, the family-as-lineage i
analysis, not the conjoined marital obi
might respond that her analysis assumes
the lineage for the nuclear unit and in p
underemphasizes the important principle
and family formation between the two s
stead a Europeanized principle that opp
suggesting by this a parallel between the
where the proper parallel is drawn bet
natal family.
The prevailing web of interrelationship
marriage norms of western Igboland em
complementarity. This preeminence is sh
ings of goodwill that may hold between
by the intricate structured web of inter
two families-as-lineage together. Thus, w
noted between obi and mkpuke, sex discr
matically follow because the society is no
ple of male privilege and female sub
hierarchically subordinate to someone
other, in everyday activities including
(patricentric unit). They are subordinat
relatives even those younger than them in
(siblings of the same father) are beholden
mothers' families and maternal grandm
and social interaction comes with both a
dinate pole that is never constant. Not on
permanent location of subordination, b
superordinate feature of roles ensures tha
is collectively and permanently privile
contrary to Amadiume's supposition th
identified mediates gender dualism and
that cannot be their purpose given that t
gender privilege and fixed collective poin
as presupposed by the concept of gender.
Because Amadiume too quickly accepted

146.231.186.220 on Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:04:05 +00:00
614 CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
discourse on gender, and launched

transposed at the presuppositional
scheme of European culture to Igbo s
values, structure, and identity even a
the interrelational scheme of Igbo
Europe's family scheme for the Igbo s
normative status on the bi-polar co
man (patricentric unit) and wife (mat
of Igbo models of marital relationshi
similar lines. Examples of six main
"woman-to-woman" marriage (both
mous) in which the obi of a di's natal
the children; (2) the "woman-to-wom
mous and polygamous) in which th
functions as the obi of the childre
marriage (both monogamous and poly
a di's (child's) family functions as the
of "man-to-woman" marriage in whic
tions as the main obi for the children
woman" marriage (both monogamo
the di's obi constitutes the sub-patric
and 6) the few cases of "man-to-wo
polygamous) in which the di's obi is e
and is the dominant obi for the entire
Two constant features in all these cases are that the wives' obi
remain in their natal family, and the model of marriage is funda-
mentally a union of two lineages, an interlineage. Under this
circumstance, the mkpuke is interlinked to other social units;
umunna (members of the patrilineage), other mkpuke, and ogo (in-
laws) are very much a critical part of the marital picture.
In underemphasizing the importance of agnatic ties on which
Igbo family formation and identification is based, Amadiume loses
sight of the axes of family organization as multi-polar along main
obi's and sub-obi's rather than bi-polar between obi and mkpuke.
Using a conjugal model of family formation to clarify this social
reality distorts the very issue she is attempting to clarify. What
needs to be reiterated is that, although wives are in the lineage, they
are outsiders in it. Their identity lies elsewhere since they never
sever their agnatic ties to their natal families. Assimilation into
their marital family is perceived as social annihilation. Because of

146.231.186.220 on Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:04:05 +00:00
this structural preeminence of the natal f

of a wife including the obi (patricentric
in a beholden, subordinate pole to the w
level, when cross-in-law ties (ogo ngo ko)
obi may simultaneously be beholden
lineage. The implication of this intricate
logic of constantly shifting superordinat
a woman is never exhaustively represe
exhaustively subordinate. Even in the sub
an autonomous space is created for the m
tities as ada (daughters) and for linking u
that of her natal family. That space is
unit), the bridgehead for the subsequent
a marital unit's resource.
It is important to emphasize that the identified interlineage
connectivity not only ameliorates the subordinate status of wife-
hood but also establishes a substantive basis for reciprocity
between di and nwuye (wives). Viewed from this perspective of
interrelationship, it becomes clear that the subordinate status of
wives comes from their relocation to the land of "strangers" rather
than in being female. Bereft of supportive natal ties, a wife encoun-
ters opposition not from the spouse, as Amadiume's binary opposi-
tion put it, but from other hearth-holds if it is a polygamous
marriage, or from a mother-in-law who has vested interest in her
son, and from sisters-in-law who have vested interests in the
family's resources. At stake is not the man's affection, but control
of family resources.
Thus, in opposing the mkpuke to obi (129), Amadiume both
mis-describes the family and engages in social re-engineering. The
strength of the mkpuke does not derive from its solitary role as an
economic unit of production, but rather from the complex of
lineage interrelationships that in reinforcing it, secures its auton-
omy. Devaluing this interrelational framework with its inbuilt
checks and balances facilitates the construction of a binary frame-
work with a hierarchical relation in which the mkpuke is perma-
nently subordinate to the obi. Amadiume cannot appeal to
economic justification to underwrite this violation, not just
because matriarchy is actually being consolidated on the subsidiary
role of wife, but because the premises of these economic arguments
too, are implicated in the mis-description of social reality. They

146.231.186.220 on Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:04:05 +00:00
616 CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
reproduce the prejudicial social nor

concealing the fact that they carry a
which there is an inbuilt culture o
subordination.
Conclusion
It is important to revisit Amadiume's objective, which is to offer a
solid cultural basis of empowerment to be used by modern African
women to overcome their present state of subordination. As earlier
indicated, her objective regarding women is to highlight the "legit-
imacy of grassroots women, native peoples and village organiza-
tions as "democratic' entities" and to show the nature of their
"decentralized political systems and the diffusion of power among
various interest groups and their organizations" (ix). This focus on
women is designed to establish that, historically, matriarchy was
the dominant ethos of sociopolitical organization and moral life in
Africa, and that it constitutes a viable basis for the empowerment
of modern African women.
In my view, Amadiume's project short circuits because the set
goal of recovering Africa's matriarchal consciousness and estab-
lishing an empowering basis for women amounts to a theoretical
chasing of shadows. First, the articulated structure of society and
family she presents are fundamentally patriarchal. Second, the Igbo
society's model of female identity and family formation, and the
space both accords to women, far outstrip what Amadiume's
gendered scheme could possibly grasp. Had she striven for concep-
tual clarity of the social logic of the culture, and had she gone
beyond the descriptive enumeration of roles and status she
observed during her fieldwork, she would have apprehended the
shortcomings in her present analyses. No doubt, she would have
recognized (1) that the ideology she is portraying as matriarchal is
fundamentally patriarchal, (2) that it is fundamentally western,
and (3) that whatever it is Igbos created it certainly was not matri-
archy, and it does not need that name.
Notes
1 Amadiume did not specifically make this claim. However, when we
consider that she is a politically and socially conscious scholar, this is the
correct implication to draw from a project that is engaged in the excavation
of past social formations that accorded empowering positions to women.

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Once the value of the project is measured on t

rion, we will then see that it must have cont
vance. Amadiume is not likely to theorize jus
as that would be politically and socially point
2 By this I mean having access through the la
Tallensi scholars, interviewing the people, an
various interpretations of their social institut
the anthropologist Maxwell Owusu recommen
the high incidences of corrupted data that st
epistemological misrepresentations of c
Perhaps the most powerful argument against
as social history can be found in Owusu's (197
methodological shortcomings of anthropology
pline that is particularly vulnerable to this
ethnographic materials that are collected
cannot simply be deployed as history as A
equally powerful arguments are to be found
women scholars who have exposed the sorts of
were instituted in various African societ
deployment of European categories by anthr
Oyewumi 1997).
3 Such macro-level cross-cultural trends cann
nary stage of insufficient data. It is only at a
when all the necessary data from the micro-
compare, note, and discuss such transcultu
gences. Until then, comparisons must cautiou
I should also underscore that a good number o
I call "externalist" interpretations given that
societies fully, nor utilized the societies' conce
an understanding of the societies.
4 Date derived from radiocarbon dating of ar
two sites in Ife and Oyo (Willet 1971).
s This date is a rough estimated derived from
chronological table of Ibadan Chief Rulers an
6 This mid-1600s date is derived from oral his
by a number of sources such as in S.I. Bosah
and Culture of Onitsha (no date). For a fascin
the social and political structures and histori
Nzimiro (1972).
7 The only blot to this history was during th
Yoruba wars in the second half of the ninetee
period, some chief in Ile Ife abused Oyo refu
1976, 230-33).

146.231.186.220 on Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:04:05 +00:00
618 CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
8 Elizabeth Isichei (1983, 164-66) arrived

lating the time depth in genealogies an
Aro on their migration and settlement
9 In an essay on colonial racism (Nzegw
in African Studies is the perennial probl
standpoints that are external to Africa
Africa of agency in the determination
Africa's cultural histories, issues an
research to the sorts of issues that are of concern to Africans.
10 In Onitsha, the terms are known as usokwu rather than mpkuke for the
female mother-focused matricentric unit and the iba for the male-focused
ancestral house.
" I am well aware of Amadiume's book, Male Daughters, Female
Husbands that won the "Choice Book" award. In my view, that book is an
anthropological exegesis of Nnobi culture from a perspective of one who is
removed from the culture and was striving to comprehend the prevailing
logic of the society. To that extent, Male Daughters, Female Husband does
not directly address the sorts of fundamental meta-level theoretical exam-
inations that I have in mind. I cannot engage the numerous shortcomings
of that book in this review.
12 I think that this is what Amadiume wants to argue, but her decision to
ground things on the concept of gender introduces a cultural logic that
construes sex differentiation as implying sex discrimination.
13 Prior to the late 1980s, anthropologists, economists, and development
planners, including Ester Boserup (1970), did just that when they miscast
African women's work either as nonwork, as informal activities, as domes-
tic service, or as subsistence farming. These descriptions, underpinned by
the idea that only paid work constituted work thoroughly mis-described
Igbo societies and represented a large segment of productive individuals in
societies as unproductive.
14 African women scholars have written extensively on the sorts of social
transformations that were instituted in various African societies following
the uncritical deployment of European categories. In a chapter, Oyewumi
methodically detailed the processes and deleterious effects of the deploy-
ment of these concepts in Yorubaland in the nineteenth century.
Nakanyike B. Musisi's (1992) article on domesticity portrays another
African context where women's educational and social progress was effec-
tively stymied through the politics of domesticity unleashed by the
Christian missions and the Colonial administration.
15 The category of generic man was something that literally transformed
societies in Africa into male-privileging, masculinist, and patriarchal
systems. Working on the premise that women never mattered, and using a
language that referenced only "man" or "men," European chroniclers of

146.231.186.220 on Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:04:05 +00:00
African history, tradition, and cultures repre

to their various local societies as male ach
erasure of women and consolidation of ma
African males who uncritically portrayed th
ing by interpreting activities, events, and o
languages
16 Accordingly, women became wives, and as was the case in Europe, were
treated as subordinate beings, who owed complete allegiance to their
master-husbands.
17 Passivity was inculcated as the ideal of wifehood. In societies where
women historically defined themselves as individuals and separate from
their husbands, the ideal became the European middle-class one, whereby
a woman was subsumed under the identity of her husbands and became
one with him. Thus, the Igbo category of wife as a distinct being was inter-
preted under the European category of wife as a nondistinct subordinate
being.
18 Omoniyi Adewoye (1977) conducted an excellent historical examina-
tion of the process propelling the construction of these customary laws. At
the moment, I am in the midst of articulating the ways the legal system
and the native courts were used to disenfranchise women in certain
aspects of their life while empowering them in others.
19 An example is the idea that sex differences may exist or that roles are
flexible.
20 I have deliberately enclosed the "patriarchal" in quotation marks to
signify that this is Amadiume's construction of the patricentric unit, and
not necessarily of the ethos of that social institution.
21 Nina Mba (1982, 57) briefly describes idegbe or mgba as a marriage
system of Agbor and Asaba areas. According to her, a "woman could live
with a man as her husband, without any bride price being paid. Children
born out of the union were divided between husband and wife." The prob-
lem in Mba's description is her representation of idegbe or mgba as a
marriage given that bridewealth was not exchanged. Richard Henderson
also mentioned the practice of Idigbe in Onitsha, describing it as the prac-
tice of "retaining a daughter at home who acts as the putative (but not
actual) 'wife' of her father" (1972, 227). Failing to obtain details about this
custom, he surmised that it must have been discontinued. He observed,
however, that the "practice of 'woman marriage' has a geographical distri-
bution similar to that of idigbe." It is important to note that this institu-
tion was systematically attacked by missionaries, from the 1840s, because
they viewed it as indicative of females moral laxity and wonton-ness.
22 There is a non-genealogical, social meaning to the roles of this institu-
tion. An understanding of the meaning of these roles has to be sought in
the social processes of the specific culture from which they emanated.

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620 CJAS / RCEA 32:3 1998
23 It is well known that African names e

sufficient attention is hardly devoted to
meaning, or origin of names. An archeolog
mine of genealogical histories, particular
concepts, beliefs, and cultural practices t
lent. The names Adiba (meaning Ada no na
lineal sanctuary) and Adaobi (Ada di no
patricentric unit) are instances of such na
of social practices that modern Igbos no
24 Wives on these occasions re-establish
with a consort. That child becomes the h
and continues the family name. The geni
formal claims as father, because he did no
eties of western Igboland, fatherhood is d
biological ground, and the bridewealth
factor in the identity of the father of a w
25 Felicia I. Ekejiuba (1998) tells of her m
marriage and went back to her natal hom
had children and pursued her trading int
bridewealth at the dissolution of her marr
family's obi, not that of her husband or g
26 The problem is that these rights of ac
are no longer being preserved by brother
the European and Christian conception of
robbing their sisters by appropriating re
states. The tragic consequence is that
dissolves, the latter have no place to go. W
ter returns, she finds that everything h
taken over by her brothers, with no prov
resented for returning. She is practic
marriage work at any cost or for not havi
and not lay claims on her family's resour
valuational shifts by sons and fathers as t
ing the resources of the family and obi f
redefining the ground rules of marriages
subtle process of making patriarchal r
women of their social security. It is also in
marital objective is to fight for, and take
for their children, uphold these decisions
27 Exceptions to the rule occur when the
tarily withdraws from the father's patri
lineage of the mother.
28 The stipulation that the daughter be un

146.231.186.220 on Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:04:05 +00:00
transfer of a family's resources to the family

29 To undercut any idea that this obi or house
that ritual objects marking the importance o
this house because the occupant sets up a
mother and grandmothers in this location.
30 I am specifying the historical period of the t
flag that the word may not even be the a
second, to show that even with the intensiv
ety that has occurred in the past seventy yea
perfectly ordinary fact of replacement of "pl
A transformation into male-hood is not connoted.
Bibliography
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1954. London: Longman.
Amadiume, Ifi. 1985. Male Daughters Female Husbands. London: Zed

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Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 1990. In My Father's House. New York: Oxford

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Boserup, Ester. 1970. Women's Role in Economic Development. London:

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Nzegwu ChasingShadowsMisplaced 1998

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Review: Chasing Shadows: The Misplaced Search for Matriarchy

Reviewed Work(s): Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion, Culture by Ifi Amadiume

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The vast majority of scholars in African studies today utilize the

Ifi Amadiume. Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion, Culture. London:

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various interest groups and their organi

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that theories of kinship, which const

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On Methodologies and Theore

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African societies.3 Such an approach

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ambivalent to incorporating "inferior"

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complex histories and with societi

The Trouble with Gender

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Faced with the quixotic situation of roles

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gender, the very issue that is the su

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the fact that some of the customary laws

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interpretation will follow.

Forget Matriarchy: Getting our Analysis Right

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ness on a matricentric unit that is the pr

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The first sense describes a situation in which a female is in a

Social roles have specific purposes, and thei

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misconstrue the principle of family-as

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marriage norms that places a wife u

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to a wife's family resources is never open

It is worth reiterating that other examples a

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1996, 1999). Against a backdrop of such curr

Insights from Logical Grammar

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Amadiume initiated a discourse in which some of the central

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dominant conjugal family values

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from stating facts about Igbo life and soci

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discourse on gender, and launched

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this structural preeminence of the natal f

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reproduce the prejudicial social nor

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Once the value of the project is measured on t

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8 Elizabeth Isichei (1983, 164-66) arrived

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African history, tradition, and cultures repre

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23 It is well known that African names e