Abstract
This paper investigates the constructions of gender and
sexuality in Igbo land, the homeland of the Igbo people
of southeastern Nigeria, across the pre-colonial, colonial,
and postcolonial periods. Drawing on the foundational
ethnographic work of Ifi Amadiume, the political history
of Judith van Allen and Gloria Chuku, the oral history
scholarship of Nwando Achebe, and the sociological
analysis of Evelyn Nwachukwu Urama, among others,
this paper argues that Igbo gender systems were never
simply binary or rigidly patriarchal in their pre-colonial
form. The Igbo maintained flexible gender categories ,
expressed most visibly through the practices of ‘male
daughters’ and ‘female husbands’, that allowed for social
mobility predicated on wealth, lineage need, and
spiritual authority. British colonialism substantially
eroded this complex gender architecture, entrenching a
masculinist patriarchy that continues to shape gender
References
Achebe, N. (2011). The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe. Indiana University Press.
Amadiume, I. (1987). Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society. Zed Books.
Chuku, G. (2005). Igbo Women and Economic Transformation in Southeastern Nigeria, 1900-1960. Routledge.
Dimgba, V. (2026). Gender and Sexuality in Igbo Land: Patriarchy, Gender Fluidity, and Colonial Transformations. Ideal International Journal of Igbo Scholars Forum for Socio-Cultural Advancement (INC.), 19(1), 369.
Urama, E. N. (2014). Gender and Social Change in Igboland. [Include Publisher/Thesis details if available].
Van Allen, J. (1972). “Sitting on a Man”: Colonialism and the Lost Political Institutions of Igbo Women. Canadian Journal of African Studies, 6(2), 165-181