Women in Igbo traditional religion and politics: prospects for women’s political leadership role in Nigeria

Abstract

The struggle for political visibility, participation, and leadership of women has been a recurrent issue in all societies, including the most developed democracies. Whereas an appreciable improvement has been recorded in many western countries, Africa still ranks low generally as far as gender inclusivity in political leadership is concerned. Some scholars on Igbo society and culture cling to the popular opinion of blaming this scenario on colonialism. Such scholars usually paint an image of an ideal, precolonial, egalitarian Igbo society where women were more or less accorded more political and leadership space than in the present. In their opinion, reclaiming the past is a sure way to better gender inclusivity in politics. This paper is designed to interrogate critically such images of the past Igbo society. The author approaches the paper with the belief that such romantic view of the past, if not cautiously guided and critically appraised, may well result in nostalgia for a past that never was. The paper aims at hermeneutical-critical reading of women’s visibility and/or invisibility in the pre-colonial Igbo political leadership landscape, with the view of presenting a possible link of the present situation with the past, as well as tracing from this a path for the future of women’s political visibility, participation, and leadership in Nigeria.

Keywords: Igbo, women, politics, leadership, colonialism