NOT EVERY EXTRAMARITAL SEX IS ADULTERY: AN ETHNO-HISTORICAL SURVEY OF THE IGBO OF SOUTHEASTERN NIGERIA.

• Author: Okonkwo, Uche Uwaezuoke
• Position: Essay

1. Introduction

   Sex is a global issue, yet it has a very modest place in African historical scholarship, especially in Igbo studies. Human sexuality, by operational definition is not limited to sexual intercourse alone. Ikpe (2005:2) in her paper on Culture and pleasurable sexuality in Southeastern Nigeria identified marital sexuality to include home-keeping, personal cleanliness, husband care and petting, good relationships with members of the husband's family and how to remain desirable to the man. Sex is one of the most significant aspects of early European ethnographic reports on southern Nigeria. Most precisely, each time the need arises for scholarly discourse on sex, many leading Igbo academics do not consider it worthwhile. It was in response to this academic shortsightedness that led Ikpe to note that historical approach to sexuality would stress the impact of social, political, religious practices and discourses which influenced sexuality through the setting of sexual parameters, enhancement or limitation of sexual relationship and pleasures and development of resistance to orthodox culturally acceptable sexual behaviors (Ikpe 2004:5)

   Extramarital sex can at times constitute a remarkable feature in Igbo traditional humane living. Equiano's narratives mention Igbo women and sexuality. Published in 1789, Olaudah Equiano bought his freedom as an ex-slave from Igbo extraction whose last touch with his place of birth was at eleven, an age many academics consider too tender to recollect the exactitude of the Igbo life and culture. Nevertheless, the Igboness of Equiano and his account is not entirely wrong. However, the concern of this paper is to place the limitations of his account in the context of Igbo sexuality and probably inform the reader that Equiano's understanding of adultery in the Igbo worldview is inconclusive. Equiano made mention of the punishment for adultery to include slavery or death (The Early Travels 1987:71). According to him: 'so sacred among them is the honor of the marriage bed and so jealous are the fidelity of their wives' (The Early Travels, 1987). Furthermore, he acknowledges adultery among the Igbo to imply a personal injury to the husband who decides and punishes the wife and in most cases, the punishment was death (The early Travels 1987). Mistakenly, early ethnographic reports on the Igbo, as well as post independence reports have continued to see adultery in the same way Equiano saw it. For instance in 1972, Afigbo in his Warrant Chiefs: Indirect Rule in Southeastern Nigeria 1891-1929 asserts that:

   Among the Ibo, for instance, adultery fell into two broad groups. In the first category was adultery committed within the kingship group, which was regarded as an offense against Ala (the earth deity) and against the ancestors. The settlement of this varied from place to place but invariably included a ceremonial removal of the pollution of the community by the priest of Ala. At Mgbidi, the male adulterer could be sold into slavery while at Mmako the guilty couples were banished for this class of offense. In the second group was adultery committed outside the kingship group which involved no offense to Ala nor to the ancestors and which was regarded as a private injury and was settled as that, generally with compensation to the injured man (Afigbo 1972:264). Among the Igbo, sexuality has multiple meanings. According to Ikpe (2005:4), sexuality can be used in negotiating an economic, political and social status. This view applies to the Igbo a great deal. One of the shortcomings of Archdeacon Dennis' committee of 1906-1913 in the translation of Igbo bible was the forceful injection of English words into Igbo and a lack of ethnographic study on the traditions and customs of the people in relation to conveying useful literary meanings. Writing in 1921, for example, Basden (2006:59) Among the Ibos of Nigeria notes that: ''the word love is not even found on the Igbo language. The nearest approach to the idea is Ifunanya, i.e. to look in the eye in a favorable manner''

   Adultery among the Igbo was measured by Eurocentric parameters by early European ethnographers. However, among the Igbo adultery does not imply sex outside the matrimonial home since there is culturally acceptable adultery. Hence, the proper definition of adultery among the Igbo should be conceptualized in line with people's traditions, culture and historical significance of value. This is important and has been neglected in historical scholarship over the years. Hence, there is a need to establish a distinction between marital sexuality and prostitution. Edhund and Korn wrote that a prostitute cannot simply be a woman who sells her body since that is done every day by women who become wives in order to gain a home and livelihood (Edlund and Korn 2002:183).These scholars argue further that the difference between a wife and a prostitute is that prostitutes sell non-reproductive sex while wives sell productive sex (Edlund and Korn 2002:183). The above views seem to suggest that most wives are in actual sense prostitutes. Nevertheless, in this paper, we are looking at the circumstances that the Igbo view would not consider adulterous for a woman who enjoys sex outside her matrimonial home while still married.

2. Women's sexuality and power in precolonial Igbo

   Igbo women had control over their sexuality in precolonial times. For example, in Oma mythology, a woman was believed to have practiced polyandry and gave birth to communities under this group. Oma was believed to marry a man and raised children for him only to be remarried and in the process begot children that make up the towns. Apart from Omuma town, other children begotten by Oma include the towns of Ibiasogbe, Aji, Akatta, Amiri, Awo Omama, Otulu, Amagu, Egbuoma, Egwe, Eleh, Ibiasogbe, Ubulu, Mgbidi, Ozara, Nempi, Ohakpu, Egbema, Akuma, and Uli (Anyachonkeya 2006:5-10). The reason why Oma had the privilege...