Same-Sex Marriage in Igbo Cultural Traditions

Staff Writer

Table of Contents

This writing claims that same-sex marriage in Igbo culture is necessary, an improvisation, and a ‘like with like’ construal. By construal, it places Igbo same-sex marriage in a social psychological context and views an individual as finding out ways or means to understand and interpret his-her surroundings, and the behaviour and actions of the people around and towards him-her. The reason for this claim is not far-fetched.

The Igbo Tribe

The Igbo is a major ethnic group in Nigeria with an estimated population of about 32 million. It is one of the largest in Africa adding to 18% of the total 177 million people of Nigeria. Igbo land consists of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo states of Nigeria. However, Igbos can be found in these other states of Nigeria: Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, and Cross River. Outside of Nigeria, the Igbo tribe is also native to Equatorial Guinea. 

Igbo has a socially constructed patriarchal system; essential powers in political leadership, religious organizations, property ownership, homesteads and male-line-family history are concentrated on male folks' dominance.

Hence, the quest and demand for a male child from a wife is non-negotiable. Also, the Igbo interpretation of ‘eternal life’ to mean ‘continuity,’ (that is the ability of a father to have a son that will succeed him and the son to have his own son to succeed him and so on) is yet a major reason for same-sex marriage in Igbo cultural tradition.

In this writing, there will be a brief definition of same-sex marriage, same-sex marriage in Igbo culture, and the reason for it. There will be arguments comparing Igbo same-sex marriage with today’s same-sex marriage or civil union.

Same-Sex Marriage – Definition & Brief History

By way of definition, same-sex marriage is a marriage between two people of the same gender or sex. It is popularly referred to as marriage equality or gay marriage.

As has been contested in many traditions and academic communities, same-sex marriage has been carefully weighed as a right: human and civil, on the one hand, but has also raised some religious (the main), political and social controversies, on the other.

It has been argued that same-sex marriage did not start in the 21st century. Historically, there are varieties of same-sex unions that have existed from casual and/or unapproved relationships to highly formalized ones.  

In Ancient Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia, and some places in China (Fujian province) and different periods in ancient European history, same-sex unions were recorded. There were recognitions of same-sex unions in Egypt, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, especially “during the Ming dynasty, females were said to bind themselves in contracts to younger females in elaborate ceremonies.” The equal male partnership was also noted in the “early Zhou Dynasty of China as recorded in the story of Pan Zhang and Wang Zhongxian. It was a relationship that was sanctioned by the people and compared to heterosexual marriage but was not considered leverage to a religious marriage ceremony which was binding.”

Conversely, the idea of same-sex union was frowned upon in biblical traditions. In Leviticus, the Hebrews were warned to abstain from the ways of the Egyptians and Canaanites; ways described as man-man relations and woman-woman relations. Hence, the following verses:

“You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22).

“If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them” (Leviticus 20:13).

From imperial heights were two examples of homosexual relations engaged by Roman Emperors: Nero (originally called Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus 54-68 AD) and Elagabalus or Heliogabalus (officially known as Antoninus 218-222 AD).

There was no provision for it in Roman law, as such, it was prohibited in the Roman Empire in a law of 342 A.D sponsored by two Christian emperors Constantius II and Constans. According to the law:

When a man “marries” in the manner of a woman, a “woman” about to renounce men, what does he wish, when sex has lost its significance; when the crime is one which it is not profitable to know; when Venus is changed into another form; when love is sought and not found? We order the statutes to arise, the laws to be armed with an avenging sword, that those infamous persons who are now, or who hereafter may be, guilty may be subjected to exquisite punishment (Theodosian Code 9.7.3).

Arguments against same-sex marriages or unions stem from abstaining from the abominable ways of other people, as the Book of Leviticus puts it, to an understanding of it as an aberrant or unorthodox practice or an uncommon or peculiar practice. Some have even gone further to suggest that same-sex unions will encourage “homosexuality in the society” and “that children raised by opposite-sex parents are better off than children raised by same-sex parents.” But the latter is not the purview of this writing. If Igbo same-sex marriage is not any of the described above, what is Igbo culture’s same-sex marriage?

Same-Sex Marriage in Igbo Cultural Traditions

First and foremost, we consider cultural traditions as the people’s heritage, values, lore or even myths that have been transmitted from generation to generation and fountains of a collective identity from which individual identities come. Which goes to show that no person exists in a vacuum. Cultural traditions point more to autochthony, and same-sex marriage in Igbo culture is part of it.    

Marriage itself, in Igbo culture, is a kindred’s affair. Before Igbo people received western education and were influenced by Christianity, marriages were arranged and negotiated between the families of the intended bride and groom. It has since improved hence, the import of transculturation.

As stated above, Igbo has a socially constructed patriarchal system; where a man without a male child would do all within his power to have one. At times this could lead to polygyny. A man can have many wives or concubines in his efforts to have a son who will continue the family lineage. However, for the sake of the same family lineage, a woman can marry another woman.

Therefore, the “Igbo have institutionalized marriage options permitting "female husbands" in woman-to-woman marriages, in special circumstances.”

In special circumstances, same-sex marriage is permitted in Igbo culture. A wife can have a wife on her own and become a ‘female husband’ so long as she pays the bride price. Why? The reason could be because of infertility and an obligation to have an heir for the sake of the continuity of the lineage. According to Brian Schwimmer: “Alternatively, a woman, especially if she is very wealthy, will set up her own compound and take wives to establish and advance her own status. In this case, the wives involved will have affairs, sometimes with men of the "husband's choosing, and add any children as dependents of her household. They will accordingly form a minor lineage of which she is the founder … subsequent male offspring to form a patrilineal group.”

Such same-sex unions were regarded as non-sexual but rather same-sex in kind (married to a woman but sharing the bed with a man), a ‘like with like’ construal, not one of love but necessity. It is a ‘like with like’ construal for the sake of lineage continuity.

Therefore, woman-to-woman marriage is compared to man-to-woman marriage and both have almost the same result. Both come to the same end, though by different means; having a male offspring to continue the family lineage.

In this context, Igbo same-sex marriage can be compared to heterosexuality. Though unorthodox, it may happen if for example, a man’s wife could not deliver children for the man or if the man dies without a child and the wife is advanced in age to bear children. It is a ‘like with like’ construal, that is, same-sex marriage in Igbo culture offers a wife an option or alternative to understand and interpret her surroundings, life’s situations, people’s actions, and cultural confrontations. According to Ogbalu:

A Woman who has lost her husband but has no issues may marry a wife to attempt to raise male issues for her husband.

Some scholars have argued that same-sex marriage in Igbo culture “was not created to facilitate gay marriage but rather “an improvisation to sustain patriarchy” and “simply an instrument for the preservation and extension of patriarchy and its tradition.” Some scientists have argued in support of homosexuality as being a “natural and normal change in human sexuality.” Accordingly, “sexual orientation is not a choice.” It is both human and civil rights.

The Igbo wife without a son, and the death of her husband or instance of a sterile husband has the tradition’s approved path to leverage with another Igbo wife with son(s). She has that social and cultural freedom to lineage equity. Based on this fact, same-sex marriage in Igbo culture is welcomed by the wider Igbo community.

Unfortunately, though Igbo culture permits same-sex marriage, the Nigerian government prohibits same-sex marriage. Nigeria does not sanction same-sex marriages or civil unions of same-sex couples. In fact, people identified as homosexuals can be imprisoned for up to 14 years in Southern Nigeria and those under the Sharia Islamic Law could face capital punishment.

The Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill was eventually signed into law on January 7, 2014, by then-President Jonathan Goodluck. It states that the law imposes a 14-year prison sentence on anyone who “[enters] into a same-sex marriage contract or civil union,” and then ‘a 10-year sentence on individuals or groups, including religious leaders, who "witness, abet, and aid the solemnization of a same-sex marriage or union.’” Then to those who may like to parade the pride relations, the law ‘imposes a 10-year prison sentence on those who “directly or indirectly make [a] public show of [a] same-sex amorous relationship”’ and this includes anyone who supports, “registers, operates, or participates in gay clubs, societies, and organizations.”  

Conclusion

The law is meant to be kept if it does not touch the main belief of a people’s tradition. Igbo same-sex marriage had been in practice before the Federal Executive Council’s bill prohibiting it. More so, Igbo cultural traditions existed before the formation of Nigeria. So long as this tradition is one of Igbo beliefs in lineage continuity, a practice understood contextually as ‘eternal life’, same-sex marriage in Igbo culture will continue to be a way out for wives seeking to leverage cultural and social freedom as well as lineage equity.

If same-sex marriage in Igbo culture is considered necessary, an improvisation, and/or a like-with-like construal, should the society not consider those who view the same practice (though sexual), as a right: human and civil?

Sources

Ross, L. (1987). The Problem of Construal in Social Inference and Social Psychology in N. Grunberg, R.E. Nisbett, J. Singer (eds), A Distinctive Approach to Psychological Research: the influence of Stanley Schacter. Hillsdale, NJ: Earlbaum.

‘Igbo Heritage and Marriage Traditions’ in Igbo Introductions. https://www.igbointroductions.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=157&Itemid=389&lang=en (accessed January 24, 2021).

‘Igbo – Marriage and Family’ in Countries and their Cultures. https://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Igbo-Marriage-and-Family.html (accessed January 20, 2021).

Schwimmer, B., (2003). ‘Igbo Marriage Patterns’, University of Manitoba. https://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/case_studies/igbo/igbo_marriage.html (accessed January 12, 2021).

Chukwuemeka, K. (2012). ‘Female Husband in Igbo Land: Southeast Nigeria’. Journal of Pan African Studies, 5(1).

Waya, David. T. & Okanume, Agusta.C. (2017). ‘Evaluation of the Tiv and Igbo Marriage Systems’. Journal of Culture, Society and Development. ISSN 2422-8400 An International Peer-reviewed Journal. Vol.29, 2017

History of same-sex unions in Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_same-sex_unions#cite_ref-25 (accessed January 12, 2021).

Human Rights Watch. ‘Nigeria: Anti-LGBT Law Threatens Basic Rights’ in Human Rights Watch, January 14, 2014. https://news.trust.org/item/20140115091047-ekpv1 (accessed January 14, 2021). 

 

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