Background: Igbo-Ukwu (see the entry)

Occasion: Staged Performance

After Chukwu Okike (Creator God) created human beings, both man and woman. He assigned an equal social status to both genders. As time went on, conflict became a constant factor in several families and societies. The problem reached God in the sky. He sent down some of his muo-ozi (angels) to the world to investigate the cause of the incessant conflict among the humans. After observing interpersonal, familial and group relationships in the world for some time, the angels discovered the root of the conflict. Most of the problem was caused by acrimony arising from the refusal of each gender to submit to the other, both in significant and insignificant matters. The angels departed and gave their report to God. A meeting was convened in the sky to find a solution to the problem. After listening to all the suggestions, God decided to select one gender as the head. The determining factors for the choice were bravery, consideration, compassion and contentment.

To determine the gender that possesses all these qualities, God gave an assignment to men and women. Each group was sent to raid a weaker tribe and bring back seven human heads. They were told that any group that performed well would become the leading class. Both groups left. After some days, the men returned happily chanting victory songs and reported that they achieved great feats as they submitted three human heads. The women also returned. However, they came back wailing and lamenting their misfortune as they presented six human heads. God decided that the male gender exhibited admirable leadership qualities by sparing more lives and expressing happiness even in seeming failure. Thus, the leadership position went to the male gender. This explains why most Igbo societies are patriarchal.

Gender disparity and inequality has existed in many world societies since the beginning of time but how the male came about to be the superior gender has only mythical explanations from each culture. In African cultures particularly, patriarchal institutions dominate and by implication, women hold only subservient positions which they have tried, over the years, to break away from. The Igbo people, in the above myth, have tried to offer an explanation as to why the male gender dominates in society.

In a nutshell, the myth attempts to explain the patriarchal nature of the Igbo society. By associating vice with women, it gives the men an excuse to dominate them.

Ezeigbo, Theodora Akachi, “Traditional women's institutions in Igbo society: implications for the Igbo female writer”, African Languages and Cultures 3 (1990): 149–165. (accessed: December 28, 2020).

Nduka, Udeagha and Nwamah Grace Ozioma, “Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and the Role of Women in Igbo Traditional Religious Culture”, Open Journal of Social Sciences 7.12 (2019):  272–289. (accessed: December 28, 2020).

Ojukwu, Ebele V. and Eunice U. Ibekwe, “Cultural Suppression of Female Gender in Nigeria: Implications of Igbo Females’ Songs”, Journal of Music and Dance 10.1 (2020) available at https://academicjournals.org/JMD (accessed: December 28, 2020).

Method of data collection: Note taking and tape recording

Researchers: Adaobi Muo (trans.)

Editors: Daniel A. Nkemleke