3.06.Dual Sex Systems.2014.pptx

"Dual sex" systems
Parallel (but separate) channels of political authority for the sexes
in the Niger Delta of West Africa among the I(g)bo, Ibibio, & Asante peoples
Term comes from Kamene Okonjo (1976) "The dual-sex political system in operation: Igbo women and community politics in midwestern Nigeria." IN (Hafkin & Bay, eds.) Women in Africa: studies in social and economic change, pp 45-58. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ Press.

Royal women
Royal men
(3) MARKETS
Leadership
"Market intelligence" ('gossip' & information)
Economic resources
Village weekly informal market
in which relatively large groups of similar-age boys/girls at puberty are:
taken off into the "bush"
to be "taught" adult skills and identities
usually/often circumcised
then married shortly after reintegration
some of the best studied among Kpelle, Mende, Sherbro (ethnic groups in West Africa):
for men (called): Poro
for women (called): Sande or Bundu
(2) RITUAL AGE GRADE INITIATION SOCIETIES
the communities in question had active age-grade or initiation societies and associations
Kinship legitimated women's authority in West Africa at all levels of society
Ordinary village women:
As daughters or sisters in a particular lineage
As women from different lineages married into a single village
Chiefly & royal women:
From the royal lineage:
As mothers of the 'king': Queen mothers
As sisters of the 'king': Queen sisters
Married into the royal palace:
As wives of the 'king': Queen wives

Head of regulatory association for entire market = iyalode
set schedules
determined geography of market
allocated stalls/positions
regulated hygiene
policed behavior
set prices
could impose fines & other sanctions
resolved disputes
Iyalode Lisa Lobun
Informal, internal & "petty" markets
Domain of women
(although frequented equally by men)
Economic & entrepreneurial domains
(although with clear social, religious & political correlates)
(more on markets later)
TWO ASPECTS OF 'POWER' IN WOMEN'S KIN, INITIATION & MARKET INSTITUTIONS:
(A) The material political implications of women's kinship, ritual & market associations, specifically:
Opportunities for leadership
Effective communication networks
Special solidarity of the membership
(B) The religious legitimacy of these women's associations & their relations with divinity undergirds all the forms of women's socio-political organization in West Africa
1878-1908 Queen Madam Yoko of Kpaa Mende and Seneghum, (Sierra Leone)Known as Mammy Yoko, she was a brilliant and ambitious woman who used her friendship with the British to gain control of Kpaa Mende. As a child, she was called Soma but acquired the name Yoko at her Sande initiation where she attracted admiration for her beauty and graceful dancing. After an unsuccessful first marriage, Yoko became the wife of Gbenjei, Chief of Taiama; and although she was barren, Gbenjei made Yoko his head wife. When Gbenjei died, Yoko married Gbanya Lango, a powerful war-chief at Senehun. In 1875, she saved her husband from a long imprisonment under the British by making a personal appeal to the Governor, who was charmed by her beauty and feminine graces. Afterwards, Gbanya used Yoko in diplomatic missions to the British and to other chiefs. After the deaths of Gbanya she became the "Queen of Senehun". Within a few years, she had brought all of the Kpaa Mende region (now fourteen chiefdoms) under her nominal control through alliances, warfare, and her ability to call on the support of friendly British troops. She established a famous Sande bush in Senehun where she trained girls from throughout Kpaa Mende, sometimes giving the most beautiful in marriage to sergeants of the Frontier Police or to important chiefs. When the British declared their Protectorate in 1898, Madam Yoko commanded her people to pay the new tax — but her sub-chiefs rebelled. They held a secret meeting, blaming Yoko for "spoiling the country" by supporting the British police, taxes, and forced labour. Yoko took refuge in the police barracks which withstood several attacks by her own subjects, and she was later awarded a silver medal for her loyalty by Queen Victoria. Madam Yoko ruled as a Paramount Chief in the new British Protectorate until 1906, when it appears that she committed suicide at the age of fifty-five. If true, her reasons have never been altogether clear. A British official wrote that she had obtained all there was to be had in life — love, fame, wealth, and power — and felt there was nothing more to look forward to. But her attempts to manipulate the British for her own ends had turned around on her. She had lost the support of her people, and perhaps she was bored and saw nothing challenging in Britain's new and tightly controlled protectorate. She lived (ca. 1849-1908).