The Igbo Women S War

Power & Authority:

The Igbo Women’s War

Pam Williamson
Teacher, Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District / Sarah Gilkerson
Graduate Student, University of California, Davis

A multi-day lesson created under the direction of the UC Berkeley History-Social Science Project.

2017 © UC Regents

Find online: ucbhssp.berkeley.edu

This lesson was created for the third and final session of the Power & Authority in Global History series, co-sponsored by the Institute of European Studies. Through collaboration with a classroom teacher we endeavored to develop a lesson that could be used to explore the consequences of European imperialism in Africa through a deep investigation of the historical perspective of Igbo women.

The 2017 global history seminar series aims to provide classroom teachers with model lessons that explore global issues in a distinct historical context, and provide learning strategies to help students access and analyze primary and secondary sources as they study the past.

This workshop series is supported through a grant from the UC Berkeley Area Studies Programs.

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Unit Topic: New Imperialism of the late 19th century through early 20th century.

Lesson Topic: Igbo Women’s Response to European Imperialism

Essential Question: How do the particular experiences of people, based on their identity or role in society, influence how they respond to events?

Focus Question: How did Igbo women, in present day Nigeria, respond to European imperialism?

Lesson Teaching Thesis: Often new imperialism is taught only through the lens of the European imperialists. Thus, leaving students with a primary focus on the significance of the Industrial Revolution’s role in European expansion and the “scramble” for Africa. Both deemphasize African perspectives. The Igbo Women’s War reveals how different cosmologies (worldviews), and the exertion of colonial power, created conflicts between colonial powers and indigenous communities. In this specific case study, the Igbo women used traditional modes of protest to oppose British policies. Given that Igbo society utilized a shared power model, the women held moreinfluence within the political, societal, and economic aspects of their society than European women. When Igbo women heard that a new British tax was to be levied against them, they exercised their traditional practices of influence, “sitting on the man,” removing men from governing positions, disrupting the marketplace (of which they held control), as well as uniting with other Igbo women from the surrounding areas. The British termed this series of events a “riot” rather than a “war” because they didn’t understand the women’s traditional methods of influence.

Lesson Components

Part 1: Building Conceptual Background

Reading Question: How did the cosmologies (perspectives) of the British and Igbo differ?

British Motives & Igbo society – Secondary Sources

●Literacy Strategy - Headings and Highlights

●Historical Thinking - Perspectives

Prediction Question: How might the economic demands of WWI have changed how Britain related to its colonies?

Part 2: Taxation

Reading Question: How did the British and Igbo’s different view taxation create conflict?

British & Igbo views on taxation – Secondary Sources

●Literacy Strategy - Headings and Highlights, Cause and Consequence

●Historical Thinking - Perspectives, Cause and Consequence

Part 3: Igbo Women’s Response

Reading Question: How did Igbo women use traditional forms of protest to express their concerns to the colonial forces?

Map of Conflicts in Women’s War

Testimony of Ejiatu – Primary Source

●Literacy Strategy - Text-dependent Questions

●Historical Thinking - Perspective

Part 4: Lesson Synthesis

Lesson Focus Question: Why did Igbo women, in particular, lead the protests against British imperial taxes?

●Historical Thinking - Perspective and Cause and Consequence

Extension Activity – Philosophical Chairs:

Use these suggested questions (or others) to explore the ethical dimension of this conflict.

Ground rules for philosophical chairs:

●Were the traditional responses used by the Igbo women enough to challenge imperial control?

●Were the Igbo women fighting a losing battle?

APPENDIX

●Timeline, Map of Igboland (present day Nigeria), Photo of Igbo women, circa 1929

10th Grade California History-Social Studies Framework (adopted July 2016)

“While some colonial peoples converted to European practices, others deeply resented the violent exploitation of their people and the disruption of their traditional beliefs.”

History-Social Studies Content Standards

10.4 Students analyze patterns of global change in the era of New Imperialism in at least two of the following regions or countries: Africa, Southeast Asia, China, India, Latin America, and the Philippines.

3. Explain imperialism from the perspective of the colonizers and the colonized and the

varied immediate and long-term responses by the people under colonial rule.

Lesson Connection: As students learn about the industrialized nations’

worldwide imperial expansion, fueled by demand for natural resources and

markets, and aided by ideological motives of a “civilizing mission,” they will also

investigate how native people responded to the colonial efforts through various

forms of resistance.

9-12 Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills

Historical Research, Evidence, and Point of View

4. Students construct and test hypotheses; collect, evaluate, and employ information from multiple primary and secondary sources; and apply it in oral and written presentations.

Historical Interpretation

3. Students interpret past events and issues within the context in which an event unfolded . . .

Common Core Standards: Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 9-10

RH. 1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

RH. 9 Compare and contrast treatment of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

Common Core Standards: Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 9-10

WHST. 9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Cited Sources

Part 1: Building Conceptual Background

Ellis, Elisabeth Gaynor and Anthony Esler. World History, The Modern World. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.

Kies, Samantha Mallory, "Matriarchy, the Colonial Situation, and the Women's War of 1929 in Southeastern Nigeria" (2013). Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations. Paper 537. Accessed December 2016.

Part 2: Perspectives on Taxation

Igbo Women Campaign for Rights (The Women’s War) in Nigeria, 1929. Global Nonviolent Action Database, nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu.

Part 3: Igbo Women’s Response

Falola, Toyin and Adam Paddock. The Women’s War of 1929, A History of Anti-Colonial Resistance in Eastern Nigeria. Carolina Academic Press, 2011.

Reading Question: How did the cosmologies (perspectives) of the British and the Igbo differ?

Directions: Write a heading for each paragraph (2-4 words) and underline the evidence that supports your decision. Discuss the reading, and use your evidence to complete the processing chart and to answer the reading question.

Source: Excerpt from Samantha Mallory Kies, “Matriarchy the Colonial Situation and the Women’s War of 1929,” Master’s Paper, Eastern Michigan University, March 2013.

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In traditional Igbo society, political power was shared between men and women. Age was respected and elders were deferred to during meetings for their wisdom and guidance. In general, each family group tended to manage and control its own affairs; however, they were complementary rather than subordinate to the other. Igbo society did not have specialized bodies or offices in which legitimate power was vested, nor did one person, regardless of status or ritual position, have the authority to issue commands that others were obligated to obey. Stable government was achieved through balance; small equal groups acted as checks on one another, and ties of clanship, marriage, and religious association helped strengthen those ties.
2. ______
Prior to colonial contact, around 1800, Igbo society was structured unlike anything the British had seen before. The Igbo were not a patrilineal people, though male elders and chiefs were important. But so too were the women – the daughters, wives, mothers, and elders were an essential and important part of everyday life and family. Seen in many different areas of their society, the importance and power of these Igbo women is staggering. In pre-colonial Igbo society . . . a man couldnot achieve any standing without a woman.Around 1800 Igbo people were divided into five major cultural groups, which were then sub-divided into clans. Clans were spread out into villages, and wards made up the villages. The wards themselves consisted of sections of extended families.
Turn over for page two.
3. ______
When the village held a meeting, it would be in the main market, which was part of the reason the market was so important. Igbo women dominated the local market. It was here that they exchanged the products of their farms, their loom and their other crafts, as well as products from their domestic industries. Not only did they sell and buy goods at the market, this venue also served as the epicenter of a massive network of contacts and the sharing of information, as well as a center for the celebration of events such as childbirth.
4. ______
The intrusion of colonialism [imperialism] on Southeastern Nigeria brought major changes to Igbo society, many negatively impacting the Igbo women. Igbo women enjoyed a great deal of power, status and authority in pre-colonialsociety because this was a matriarchal society. This allowed them to play a dominant role in village politics, village religious life, and Igbo notions of lineage. Inherent within Igbo culture were means that Igbo women could employ to create change. . . . [T]he women used different methods based on the action they were rising against. In the most extreme cases, “sitting on a man” was used to shame the individual who had done the wrong. . . .
5. ______
When the British took over Southeastern Nigeria, they imposed a form of administration called Indirect Rule. Embedded in this rule was the construction of a political culture in which the notion of patriarchy and political power was given to carefully selected chiefs collectively known as Warrant Chiefs. These men acted as agents of British policy and were a part of the erosion of the matriarchal power of women . . . . / Subordinate: position of less power or authority
Legitimate: official
Vested: guaranteed as a legal right, benefit, or privilege; located
Ward: Extended families who lived together in villages
Matriarchy: women dominate or control the social structure
Inherent: belonging the basic nature of
Sitting on a man: a traditional form of protest used by Igbo women to shame men, includes dancing, singing and listing grievances
Indirect Rule: a system of government of one nation by another in which the governed people retain certain administrative, legal, and other powers
Patriarchy: men dominate or control the social structure

* Cosmologies - Scholars, particularly engaged in non-Western research, prefer to discuss what we might call a "worldview" as a "cosmology" because shows less favor to eurocentric standards. They term cosmologies a set of knowledge, beliefs, interpretations and practices of a society or culture related to explanations about the origins and evolution of the universe as well as the role and the meaning of humans, life, and the world, within the universe or cosmos. A cosmology involves explanations of the past, present and future of a society (Blog post from “The Cosmology and Cosmologies Blog”).

Reading Question: How did the cosmologies (perspectives) of the British and the Igbo differ?

Source: Excerpt from Samantha Mallory Kies, Matriarchy the Colonial Situation and the Women’s War of 1929, Master’s Paper, Eastern Michigan University, March 2013.

___Igbo Shared Power_____

In traditional Igbo society, political power was shared between men and women. Age was respected and elders were deferred to during meetings for their wisdom and guidance. In general, each family group tended to manage and control its own affairs; however, they were complementary rather than subordinate to the other. Igbo society did not have specialized bodies or offices in which legitimate power was vested, nor did one person, regardless of status or ritual position, have the authority to issue commands that others were obligated to obey. Stable government was achieved through balance; small equal groups acted as checks on one another, and ties of clanship, marriage, and religious association helped strengthen those ties.
2. _____Women Important______
Prior to colonial contact, around 1800, Igbo society was structured unlike anything the British had seen before. The Igbo were not a patrilineal people, though male elders and chiefs were important. But so too were the women – the daughters, wives, mothers, and elders were an essential and important part of everyday life and family. Seen in many different areas of their society, the importance and power of these Igbo women is staggering. In pre-colonial Igbo society . . . a man couldnot achieve any standing without a woman.Around 1800 Igbo people were divided into five major cultural groups, which were then sub-divided into clans. Clans were spread out into villages, and wards made up the villages. The wards themselves consisted of sections of extended families.
Turn over for page two.
3. ______Women and Markets Important_____
When the village held a meeting, it would be in the main market, which was part of the reason the market was so important. Igbo women dominated the local market. It was here that they exchanged the products of their farms, their loom and their other crafts, as well as products from their domestic industries. Not only did they sell and buy goods at the market, this venue also served as the epicenter of a massive network of contacts and the sharing of information, as well as a center for the celebration of events such as childbirth.
4. ______Women Lost Power______
The intrusion of colonialism [imperialism] on Southeastern Nigeria brought major changes to Igbo society, many negatively impacting the Igbo women. Igbo women enjoyed a great deal of power, status and authority in pre-colonialsociety because this was amatriarchalsociety. This allowed them to play a dominant role in village politics, village religious life, and Igbo notions of lineage. Inherent within Igbo culture were means that Igbo women could employ to create change. . . . [T]he women used different methods based on the action they were rising against. In the most extreme cases, “sitting on a man” was used to shame the individual who had done the wrong. . . .
5. ___Men Gain More___
When the British took over Southeastern Nigeria, they imposed a form of administration called Indirect Rule. Embedded in this rule was the construction of a political culture in which the notion of patriarchy and political power was given to carefully selected chiefs collectively known as Warrant Chiefs. These men acted as agents of British policyand were a part of the erosion of the matriarchal power of women . . . . / Subordinate: position of less power or authority
Legitimate: official
Vested: guaranteed as a legal right, benefit, or privilege; located
Ward: Extended families who lived together in villages
Matriarchy: women dominate or control the social structure
Inherent: belonging the basic nature of
Sitting on a man: a traditional form of protest used by Igbo women to shame men, includes dancing, singing and listing grievances
Indirect Rule: a system of government of one nation by another in which the governed people retain certain administrative, legal, and other powers
Patriarchy: men dominate or control the social structure