Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Igbo Women'

Thesis advisor: Angela Kim Harkins
Thesis advisor: Margaret E. Guider
Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2018
Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry
Discipline: Sacred Theology

This study examines the roles of women in Igbo society as depicted in Achebe's fiction. The dissertation explores how Achebe presents women in relation to- men in Igbo society during four historical epochs — precolonial, colonial, postcolonial, and contemporary periods. Achebe begins his portrayal of women's roles in the traditional society and dramatizes the consequences of colonialism on such roles. The study finds that women's roles are a reflection of the times in which they lived, and Achebe's fiction captures the evolution of women's roles with a remarkable degree of historical realism. The conclusion is that Achebe's fiction reflects women's roles truthfully and his prophetic vision that changes are inevitable comes true in a society whose traditional values have been transformed by the intrusion of colonialism.

Thesis (M.A.)--Kent State University, 2010.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Apr. 28, 2010). Advisor: Fred Smith. Keywords: Uli; Igbo; Nigeria; body painting; wall painting; Nsukka; traditional women painters. Includes bibliographical references (p.101-105).

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is practiced primarily in many African countries as well as some in Asia and the Arab Peninsula; however, it also takes place elsewhere around the globe among those who migrate from countries to which it is indigenous. This study was designed (a) to investigate the prevalence of FGM among the Igbo women in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area in Texas and (b) to understand the factors that support the continuation of the practice and the effects on women's sexual health. Using a quantitative approach to examine a variety of social variables aligning with the ecological framework, survey data obtained from a sample of 139 Igbo women living in the DFW area were analyzed using a multivariate analysis. Results of the study demonstrated a decreasing prevalence of FGM from maternal incidence (46%), to second generation incidence (31.3%), and future intention for FGM (25%). Nearly half of the responding participants felt the practice was required by their religion, but over 65% felt the practice should be discontinued. Results supported a high incidence of dangerous complications to women's sexual health with the continued practice of FGM. Significant social influences associated with future intention for FGM among the population were found at the micro- and exosystem ecological levels. The findings of this research provide important information on current prevalence and health effects of FGM in Igbo women living in the DFW area. Understanding the reasons behind the culture of FGM will assist public health professionals in designing appropriate culturally-specific intervention strategies that will help to eliminate inappropriate and unsafe practices associated with FGM.

Background: The effect of Malaria attack on maternal and child health in Nigeria is high compared with other countries in sub Saharan Africa. This problem has been a persistent issue in Nigeria and many researchers have tried to proffer solutions. Insecticide treated nets (ITN) have been identified as providing approximately 80% protection against malaria attack. However, all the measures put in place to control malaria failed to meet up with the set target of the Roll Back Malaria Initiative, which aimed at reducing malaria deaths in Nigeria by half by 2010 in line with the Millennium Development Goals (Anyaehie et al., 2009). As part of the global initiative to reduce malaria deaths before 2015 (Amoran, Senbanjo and Asagwara, 2011) the Nigerian government introduced intervention programmes to protect pregnant women, and children under-five years of age (Anyaehie et al., 2011). However, although there has been considerable and effective intervention in controlling this preventable disease in the African continent, marked inconsistency in the distribution of the ITN, scarcity and low usage in Nigeria (Amoran, Senbanjo and Asagwara, 2011) are apparent, despite emphasis on community-based strategies for malaria control (Obinna, 2011). For midwives in rural Nigeria the disproportionate vulnerability of pregnant women and young children is of great concern. This particular issue is the focus of a hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry into the experiences of pregnant women and mothers in their efforts to protect their families and themselves from malaria attack. The study contends that the ‘big (pan-African/national) story’ of malaria has found many voices, speaking from a predominantly positivist perspective. While some more interpretivist approaches to exploring experience have been employed elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa (Rachel and Frank 2005), there remains a need for more participatory research related to health care issues in Nigeria (Abdullahi et al 2013). Women and children make up the majority of the Nigeria population of over 160 million. An attack of malaria on them affects entire households and the economy of the nation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to give voice to the ‘small (household) stories’ of Nigerian women (mothers and health workers), living and working in impoverished rural communities, and consider how their viewpoints, perspectives and imaginings might contribute to the fight for a malaria-free Nigeria. Methodological approach: The research draws on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The participants’ accounts are interpreted in terms of Africana ‘Womanism’ as defined by Hudson-Weems (1993), the socio-narratology approach elaborated by Frank (2010), and Igbo world-view. Research procedure: Individual semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with Igbo women in three rural communities in Enugu State in eastern Nigeria (Nsukka, Ngwo, and Amechi). This was a three-phase process involving an initial orientation visit to engage with local gatekeepers and community health workers. A first round of interviews and discussion took place in three communities in 2014, followed by the first phase of interpretation. A second field trip took place in 2015, during which participants discussed the ongoing interpretation and elaborated further on some of the issues raised. Interpretive phases 2 and 3 followed this visit. Interpretive process: Interpretive shifts in understanding were accomplished in three ways: 1. Seeking thematic connections between participants’ accounts of living with the threat of malaria. 2. Engaging in dialogical narrative analysis to explore the work done by the stories embedded in individual accounts of living under the threat of malaria. 3. Crafting found poetry from within the collective accounts to produce an evocative text that could mediate an emotional response and understanding of the malaria experience. Key outcomes: The research was a response to calls for more participatory research into the detailed experiences of people in Africa facing up to the threat of malaria. It has provided a vehicle for the voices of a group of Nigerian women and health workers to bring attention to the continuing plight of pregnant women and their families with limited access to insecticide-treated bed nets in poor living conditions. They have told how they seek to empower themselves in their own small and particular ways. It has provided insights into their worldview(s) and what others might see from where they stand. As such it has added to their own call expressed during the research to “Keep malaria on the agenda.” The research has used the women’s own testimony to create an oral resource designed https://youtu.be/XelMXLUzTV0 to facilitate education and action among small local groups of women and their families, and for health workers in local rural communities.

African American Studies
Ph.D.
This is an Afrocentric examination of women's use of agency in Ancient Egypt and Igboland. Most histories written on Kemetic women not only disconnect them from Africa but also fail to fully address the significance of their position within the political spiritual structure of the state. Additionally, the presence of matriarchy in Ancient Egypt is dismissed on the basis that patriarchy is the most visible and seemingly the most dominant form of governance. Diop contended that matriarchy was one of the key factors that connected Ancient Egypt with other parts of Africa which is best understood as the Africa cultural continuity theory. My research analyzes the validity of his theory by comparing how Kemetic women exercised agency in their political structure to how Igbo women exercised political agency. I identified Igbo women as a cultural group to be compared to Kemet because of their historical political resistance in their state during the colonial period. However, it is their traditional roles prior to British invasion that is most relevant to my study. I define matriarchy as the central role of the mother in the social and political function of societal structures, the political positions occupied by women that inform the decisions of the state and the inclusion of female principles within the religious-political order of the nation. Matriarchy as a critical framework was used to identify how Kemetic women and Igbo women accessed political power by means of motherhood, political leadership, and spiritual authority. The findings of this study show that Igbo women and Ancient Egyptian women were integral to the political operation of their states. Furthermore, the results indicate that Ancient Egypt and Igboland shared cultural commonalities as it relates to the roles that women occupied as spiritual specialists, political leaders and mothers.
Temple University--Theses

Kein anderes Thema hat die nigerianische Literatur so dominiert wie der nigerianische Bürgerkrieg, in dessen Verarbeitung sich verstärkt auch Autorinnen einmischen. Die Dissertation evaluiert 34 Texte von 16 nigerianischen Autorinnen - 12 Romane und 22 Kurzgeschichten - und analysiert sie als Gesamtkorpus, in dem die Texte miteinander und mit der Männerliteratur einen Dialog um den Bürgerkrieg führen. Die Autorinnen wenden bei ihrem "war talk" literarische Strategien wie "re-reading" und "re-writing" an, das Neu-Lesen, Fort- und Umschreiben der Texte und Diskurse des "Zentrums", durch die nicht nur die Blindstellen eines von Männern dominierten literarischen Diskurses sichtbar werden, sondern durch die auch der Prozess des Aushandelns der Geschlechterverhältnisse sowie des Krieges selbst erfolgt, seiner Ursachen, Auslöser und Folgen. Die Autorinnen stellen den Krieg als "sexuelle Unordnung" dar, als Geschlechterkrieg. Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass bei der Verortung der Perspektive der Autorinnen neben Geschlecht, ethnischer Zugehörigkeit auch andere Faktoren, wie Alter, Race, Grad der Distanz oder Nähe etc. berücksichtigt werden müssen, um vorschnelle Festschreibungen zu vermeiden. Hierbei spielen die Paratexte eine wichtige Rolle, in denen die Autorinnen sich persönlich zum Krieg äußern. Die Arbeit bewegt sich an den Schnittstellen mehrerer Disziplinen: Literatur, Historiographie und Geschlechterstudien. In der Einleitung werden die theoretischen Prämissen im Kontext von Krieg, Geschlecht und literarischer Repäsentation behandelt. Das 1. Kapitel ist dem historischen Kontext des Bürgerkrieges, einschließlich der Rolle der Frauen darin gewidmet. Im 2. Kapitel geht es um die Darstellung des Krieges, des Selbst- und Feindbildes sowie der Zukunft. Das dritte Kapitel handelt von der Beziehung zwischen Bürger- und Geschlechterkrieg, vermittelt durch das Medium literarischer Text. Die Zusammenfassung der Ergebnisse und der Ausblick auf zukünftige Forschung erfolgt im Schlussteil. Der Anhang enthält ein vorläufiges Verzeichnis der gesamten Frauenliteratur über den nigerianischen Bürgerkrieg.
No other topic has dominated the Nigerian literature as much as the Nigerian Civil War and female authors increasingly interfere in its literary representation. The thesis evaluates 34 literary texts by 16 female Nigerian authors - 12 novels and 22 short stories - and analyses them as distinctive corpus whose individual texts are in a state of dialogue both with each other and with texts from male authors. The female authors use, in their "war talk", literary strategies like "re-reading" and "re-writing" of texts from the "Centre". On the one hand, these strategies enable them to make the blind spots of a male dominated literary discourse apparent/visible on the other hand, they facilitate the negotiation of gender relations and of the war itself, its causes, trigger points and consequences. The female authors represent war as "sexual disorder", as gender war. The study shows that in order to be able to locate an author''s perspective (and to avoid rash conclusions) it is essential to consider the different factors determining it - besides ethnicity and gender, also age, race, the grade of emotional involvement or distance etc. It is in this regard, where the paratexts play an important part, as in these authors express their personal views and comments on the war. The thesis is located at the interfaces of several disciplines: literary, historical and gender studies. The introduction deals with the theoretical backgrounds in the context of war, literary representation and gender. The first chapter is dedicated to the historical context of the Nigerian Civil War including the role of women. The second chapter looks at the paratexts, different representations of the war''s causes, the self-image, the enemy''s image and the future. The third chapter finally deals with the question how the relationship between Civil War and gender war is negotiated/conveyed through the medium of the literary texts. In the conclusion the results are summarized and prospects for future research are discussed. The appendix contains a preliminary bibliography of all literary texts on the Nigerian Civil War written by female authors.

This thesis examines the role of women in agricultural development and identifies the institutional factors (access to land; credit; machines, improved seedlings and fertilizer; extension services; cooperative facilities) that constitute a hindrance to their agricultural productivity. From an interview survey conducted with fifty Igbo women from two rural Igbo communities - Umunnachi and Leru, the researcher derives data on the roles of Igbo women and the institutional factors that influence their agricultural productivity. The data reveal that Igbo women play extensive roles both as reproducers of human agents (bearers and rearers of children, care of the aged, the handicap and maintainers of labour force) and producers of food. In spite of the numerous roles of Igbo women, they have limited access to agricultural facilities. In line with the socialist feminist view, the thesis locates women's limited access to agricultural facilities in the patriarchal and class structures of the society which not only favour men as a gender but also as a class. The thesis argues that women's limited access to agricultural facilities partly explains their low agricultural productivity and the current food shortages facing the country, Nigeria.