Male daughters, female husbands

Male daughters, female husbands (1987) by Ifi Amadiume This compelling and highly original book frees the subject position of 'husband' from its affiliation with men, and goes on to do the same for other masculine attributes, dislocating sex, gender and sexual orientation. Boldly arguing that the notion of gender, as constructed in Western feminist discourse, did not exist in Africa before the colonial imposition of a dichotomous understanding of sexual difference, Male Daughters, Female Husbands examines the structures in African society that enabled people to achieve power, showing that roles were not rigidly masculinized nor feminized.

Quotes

 * … a flexible gender system … meant … certain women could occupy  roles  and  positions  usually  monopolized  by  men,  and thereby  exercise  considerable  power  and  authority  over  both  men  and women.”
 * Amadiume page 40.
 * As men increased their labour force, wealth and prestige through the  accumulation of  wives,  so  also  did  women through  the institution of  „female  husbands.‟  …  When  a woman  paid  money  to  acquire  another  woman  …  the woman  who  was  bought  had  the  status and customary rights of  a wife, with respect to  the woman who bought her,  who  was  referred  to  as  her  husband,  and  the „female husband‟  had the same rights as a man over his wife.
 * Page 46-47
 * Man seems to have wanted… to give  the  universe  his  own  gender…anything  believed  to  have  value belongs to men and is marked by their gender…he gives his own gender to God, to the sun….”
 * Page 31
 * “Since women were basically seen as producers, the principals of control and protection applied to them throughout their productive period, whether as daughters, wives, or mothers. It is said when a woman outgrows the question, 'whose daughter is she?' people then ask, 'whose wife is she?' Only as matrons were women no longer valued in their sexual or reproductive capacity; matrons were, therefore, beyond control.
 * Chapter four
 * A woman at this stage of her life no longer sought to be sexually attractive to men, and was no longer in sexual competition with other women. Matrons, in order to succeed economically and wield power, had to free themselves of 'messy' and 'demeaning' female domestic services, which included sexual services. Woman-to-woman marriage was one of the ways of achieving this. The younger wife would then take over the domestic duties.
 * Chapter four
 * In the traditional society, a flexible gender system meant that male roles were open to certain categories of women through such practices as nhaye, 'male daughters,' igba ohu, 'female husbands. These institutions placed women in a more favourable position for the acquisition of wealth and formal political power and authority. Under colonialism, these indigenous institutions – condemned by the Church as 'pagan' and anti-Christian – were abandoned or reinterpreted to the detriment of women.”
 * Chapter seven
 * “The fact that biological sex did not always correspond to ideological gender meant that women could play roles usually monopolized by men, or be classified as 'males' in terms of power and authority over others. As such roles were not rigidly masculinized or feminized, no stigma was attached to breaking gender rules. Furthermore, the presence of an all-embracing goddess-focused religion favoured the acceptance of women in statuses and roles of authority and power.”
 * Chapter 13 -