Farmers, Traders, Warriors, And Kings ― Female Power And Authority In Northern Igboland, 1900-1960

There is an adage that the Igbo have no kings. Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings focuses on an area in Igboland where, contrary to this popular belief, Igbos not only have kings, but female kings. It is an area where women served as warriors and even married many wives. Women in Nsukka Division feature as prominent actors in a complex and diverse set of interactions, relationships, and manifestations unmatched elsewhere in Igboland. Thus, the author argues that researchers cannot adequately analyze the political landscape of Nsukka Division (or any other African society, for that matter) without investigating the central place of women and the female principle in the political world of the society. The author examines the political economic and religious structures that allowed women and the female principle to achieve measures of power and determines some of the ways they reacted and adjusted to the challenges of European rule. Such an investigation into the history of this gender dynamic yields important results for both African History and Women's Studies.

Nwando Achebe is Associate Professor of African History at Michigan State University. She served as a Ford Foundation and Fulbright-Hays Scholar-in-Residence at the Hansberry African Studies Institute and history department of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 1996 and 1998. Dr. Achebe's research interests involve the use of oral history in the study of women, gender, and power in eastern Nigeria. She has published a number of articles on research methods, Igbo women and gender, as well as indigenous slave systems.