1. Rawls, John A Theory of Justice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971).Google Scholar

2. Macpherson, C.B. on individualism versus collectivism in Locke: The Political Theory of Appropriation (London: Oxford University Press, 1962) at 255.Google Scholar

3. Uwechia and Chinyelugo Chugbo worked in this capacity from 1974 to 1990. With the demise of the Omu institution after colonialism, the office of Onye-Isi-Ikporo-Onitsha (The-Head-Of-Onitsha-Women) was revamped to replace that of the Omu.

4. de Beauvoir, Simone “Woman as ‘Other’” in The Second Sex, trans, and edited by Parshley, H.M. (New York: Knopf, 1952).Google Scholar Reprinted in Ruth, Sheila ed., Issues in Feminism: A First Course in Women’s Studies (Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1990) at 115–22.Google Scholar

5. Greer, Germaine The Female Eunuch (London: Paladin, 1972).Google Scholar

6. These have been highlighted by MacKinnon, Catharine in her essay on difference, dominance and discrimination “Difference and Dominance: On Sex Discrimination” in Feminism Unmodified (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987) 32–45;Google Scholar by Aki-Kwe/Mary Ellen Turpel’s critique of Canada’s indi-vidualistic notion of right and individual autonomy, “Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Contradictions and Challenges” (1989) 10 Nos. 2 Ȗ 3 Canadian Woman Studies/Les Cahiers de la Femme 149. It also emerged in the symposium between Dubois, E., Dunlap, M., Gilligan, C., MacKinnon, C. & Menkel-Meadow, C. Aki-Kwe/Mary Ellen Turpel, “Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom: Contradictions and Challenges” in (1989) 10 Can. Women Studies 149–57.Google Scholar Also Dubois, E., Dunlap, M., Gilligan, C., MacKinnon, C. & Menkel-Meadow, C. “Feminist Discourse, Moral Values, and the Law—A Conversation,” (1985) 34 Buffalo L. Rev. Hat 11–87.Google Scholar

7. Most of what de Beauvoir says are direct quotes or paraphrases from The Second Sex, supra note 4.

8. Henderson, Richard N. The King in Every Man: Evolutionary Trends in Onitsha Ibo Society and Culture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972) at 213.Google Scholar

9. Ibid, at 212.

10. Ibid, at 207.

11. The female sacred meeting ground.

12. Quote is originally George Bernard Shaw’s which de Beauvoir used in the section “Woman as ‘Other’”, supra note 4.

13. ’Ogundipe-Leslie, Molara “Women in Nigeria”, editorial committee in Women in Nigeria Today (London: Zed Books, 1985) 119–31 at 124.Google Scholar Also, note how Gilligan is invoked to understand this society.

14. Sunstein, Cass R. “Gender, Cast, Law”, a preliminary draft of a paper presented at the WIDER conference on Women and New Reproductive Technologies, in Helsinki, August 1992. See p. 15 of that draft.Google Scholar

15. A proverb that not so politely hints that one has lost perspective and is acting irresponsibly. It refers back to the case of a woman, who in the process of snuffing tobacco, ignored the safety of her baby. When rebuked for nearly dropping her baby, she nonchalantly replied, “I know the root and ways of childmaking, but I have no clue as to that of tobacco production.” The Omu’s use of it informs Onyeamama that she understands her objective is to trivialize and ridicule the visitors’ concerns.

16. If these questions seem normal, carefully note the cultural direction in which the charge of sex discrimination seems to “naturally” lie. Would the questions have been normal if African, Indian, Chinese, or Japanese women were indicting the West for sex discrimination?

16a. Supra note 1 at 255.

17. Catharine MacKinnon extensively discusses this while analyzing the issues of sex discrimination in the legal system.lt should not, however, be assumed that MacKinnon's views are identical with the Omu’s views.

18. This must be kept in mind to understand why the Omu objected to the culturally specific idea of equality being tied to, or defined by, men rather than by social worth, and gender's responsibility. It is only when these background features are articulated that it becomes clear why African women respond coldly to Western feminist ideals, even though they may ally with them to fight a specific condition. Also, we will then better understand why Dcporo Onitsha would uphold motherhood as expanding women’s rights and power.

19. Wollstonecraft, Mary A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1989. First published in 1792.Google Scholar

20. See Parts I and II of Ruth, Sheila ed., Issues in Feminism: An Introduction to Women’s Studies (Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1990).Google Scholar

21. This explains why Western women construe African women as subordinate—because they live in their own female worlds and do not use men as the model for their lives.

22. The legitimacy of the dominance ideology in which white male roles (e.g., militarism) and choices (e.g., military careers) were founded never prefigured. Low self-esteem propelled white women to uncritically embrace and valorize the very oppressive ethics and roles that had once oppressed them.

23. This critique must not be presumed to proceed from, nor entail, the ideas of a “different voice” in which the ethic of care is expressed. I’m not convinced that Gilligan’s ethic of care ( Gilligan, Carol In a Different Voice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982))Google Scholar dealt with this issue. As MacKinnon pointed out, the ethic of care is caught in the binary logic of patriarchal relations which it has to get out of by becoming a more active, transformational power.

24. Ekejiuba, Felicia “Omu Okwei: The Merchant Queen of Ossamari” (1966) 90 Nigeria 213.Google Scholar

25. Okonjo, Kamene “The Dual-Sex Political System in Operation: Igbo Women and Community Politics in Midwestern Nigeria” in Hafkin, N. & Bay, E. eds, Studies in Women in Africa: Social and Economic Change (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1976) 45–58.Google Scholar

26. Obbo, Christine African Women: Their Struggle for Economic Independence (London: Zed Press, 1980).Google Scholar

27. Afonja, Simi “Changing Patterns of Gender Stratification in West Africa” in Tinker, Irene ed., Persistent Inequalities: Women and World Development (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) 198–209 at 198.Google Scholar

28. Pearce, Tolu “Importing the New Reproductive Technologies: The Impact of Underlying Models of the Family, Females and Women’s Bodies in Nigeria” presented at the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) Conference, Women, Equality and Reproductive Technology held at Helsinki, Finland, August 3–6, 1992. All quotations are from the unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar

29. Amadiume, Ifi Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society (London: Zed Books, 1987).Google Scholar

30. Ibid, at 30–31.

31. Haaken, Janice “Field Dependence Research: A Historical Analysis of a Psychological Construct” (1988) 13 Signs: J. of Women in Cult, and Soc. 311–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

32. Ironically, although these women seek equality between women and men, what they fail to realise is that this could be achieved by reviving and shoring up the powers of women's spheres of influence. Restoring what Christianity and colonialism have undermined would give contemporary women the equality they once had. Privileging the Western system with its asymmetrical power relation subsumes women under men and facilitates their subjugation.

33. I do not consider the Yoruba system an exact replication of a dual-sex system such as one finds in Igboland. However, given the importance of the female domain and the importance of women in the society, I have no reservations about loosely characterizing the social dynamics as dual-sex ones.

34. Though a man may marry many wives, his relationship to his wives is not patriarchal since it is severely curtailed both by his numerous obligations to his wives and his in-laws, and by the marital rights of his wives.

35. Omolara Ogundipe-Leslie hold this view. See her “Women in Nigeria”, supra note 13 at 124–25.

36. Supra note 28 at 49.

37. Fundamentally, Afonja’s and Pearce’s arguments on gender inequality in Yorubaland too closely follows the lead of Western writers. It is tragic that Afonja not only understands Yoruba women’s histories through the eyes of Tuden and Plotnicov, Lloyd, Boserup and Goody, in addition she colludes in covering up Yoruba women’s history by ignoring the gender biased nature of African history. She uncritically contends a) there are few positions of power for women; and b) that such positions are token positions. See supra note 27.