I saw a thread on twitter by @julietkego about rethinking our various culture in the southern part of Nigeria and it was interesting especially the place where the lady alluded to Igbos not selling land to ladies, thus they have to look for cousins and brothers who front for them.

I already know that traditionally, female Igbos don't inherit property (probably because they are considered properties themselves?) but is it true that they also can't buy land traditionally?

Check out her thread :


As an Igbo woman I can go to ANY part of Yoruba land and buy land, even in their villages, Christian or Muslim or Traditionalist. I have Yoruba female friends who inherit ancestral lands

As a woman I cannot own ancestral land in my village. My brother/cousin has to front for me
These are the honest, difficult, open & meaningful conversatii we need to have as Nigerian women. HOW we can learn from positives of one another and not demean one another

FGM is highest in Osun and Ebonyi states. And lowest in the North. And so, we can learn from the North too.
The challenge of child marriage and it's associated consequences (VVF/lower literacy rates..), are more pronounced in the North. These challenges existed I the SE/SW and were curbed using a combination of approaches. We can all learn from one another.

Across board, uplift women
Everybody wants to pretend that their region is all honky dory wrt women rights. That denial has to stop. Islamic law/hausa culture actually offer some specific protection to widows/divorcees...Like my elderly aunt keeps saying, until you become a widow, you cannot vouch for ours
Frankly speaking, I think we are at that place where from birth, we begin to teach both boys AND girls to be financially/psychologically healthy/independent. And let them know/exercise their boundaries equally. And learn to cook/cater to their needs. The "Oriaku" era is long gone
For instance, our villages in the SE could become hubs for development if we simply built separate professionally run cemeteries and STOP burying our kith/kin on our ancestral lands. Open up some lands for investment instead of mansions used only for 2 weeks annually, in December
I am convinced that for Nigeria to develop & TRANSFORM, it must become more inclusive of competent/ethical/visionary/creative women/youths

E.g Simply absurd that @NGRSenate has NOT passed the #GeoBill or that Govt has FAILED to #ReformPoliceNG esp re Rape culture/DV/other crimes
Can we talk about how in markets, our sons/brothers are mostly the ones shoving/handling/making sexist remarks/tapping body parts..of women/girls without permission? Can we talk about young ladies complaining incessantly and yet we are not evolving this horrid permissive culture?
Pls may you speak with at least 12 Igbo women who are widows/gave birth to only daughters, to share their experiences with their late husband's family around inheritance/property rights, especually re his ancestral land. Then come back let's have open/honest discussion on culture
And can we talk about how we are always harping on the North about child marriage but refuse to face/address FGM or rape culture or baby factories or minors being assaulted in ala-igbo? Do you realise that the entire SE does NOT have more than 2 SARCs? And both are privately run?
Can we talk about how 5 SE states have domesticated CRA but NONE has a well formed strategy to implement child rights? Can we talk about elite using under-aged for maids and mistreating them? Can we talk about gross human rights violations an unconscionable unjust caste systems?
Can you actually allow women talk about women issues without forcing down your experiences or opinions on us, being that you are not women in the first place?�Can we rest the ego for a bit and talk of gang rapes in our schools/towns/cities? Girls are crying out. And boys too..
Anyway, systemic series of rapes in schools triggered these tweets. Turns out school authorities were trying to bury the story. To save the reputation of the school. The girls (victims) were being shushed and NOT given ANY psycho-social support/therapy. A "god-fearing" school��
And we will set up different fora (live/recorded; open/closed), to actually begin to talk about these issues...

Culture is a way of life.

It is not static. It must evolve and be dynamic.

Only we can change our communities. Inclusivity matters. The time for ego-speak is gone!!

Its Igbo tradition
Women come and goes
But men are always there

It's a fat lie.....women can buy as much land as they want....maybe in her village

Masterppower:
It's a fat lie.....women can buy as much land as they want....maybe in her
village

But her village is Igboland na

BabaRamota1980:
No OSU can buy land, man or woman. No woman can inherit her father or husband. It is taboo for a woman to inherit her husband land. It is abomination to inherit her father. This is why the women have been stepping out to marry men from other cultures that respect women's rights.

Chimamnda Adichie truly should tell the world about the abominations and abuse of rights suffered by women of her tribe. She cqn help win world compassion so they can gain inheritance rights.

But no, Chimamanda would prefer to compare her feminist life with a masculine male. She talks like a woman who desires to come to this world as a man. The truth is she loved the men folks and hence uses every opportunity to chide men. An attributes she wished she could have but never had, it's a sign of inferiority complex.

Typical Igbo women, especially those that have experience outside the igbo land know the truth, and hence prefer to marry outside their tribe.. most especially prefer to marry the Yorubas. Their men folks know the truth but continue live in denial. Until something is done about that barbaric culture of selfishness and greed. The part of Igbo that still practise that culture will continue to lose the best of their educated and beautiful women to the Yorubas and other tribe. Women would forever prefer to go for the best option available.

Truth, they say is bitter.

NB: Please note that I like Chimamanda and respect her intellectual prowess. Now, that she has tasted some nice dick (one of the reason why man is MAN) and she is now a mother, her orientation seemed to be changing gradually and systematically about feminism. I pity those young ladies who are yet to be married and being misled by this feminism bullshit. Atleast Linda Ikeji, they said have disappointed them. Wait for another bigger dissapointment as reality stared them in the face.

Hmmmm. Interesting reads..

Chai this is the highest women right violation i ever heard, how can women be denied father and husband inherentance after all the hardship they went through to keep their husband happy and healthy, You igbo mens will just share you parent wealth while your sister watch in aw from afar heartless beings.

Now i know why igbo women are hard working they are fight this injustice through striving to accumulate wealth they can call their own.... I salute igbos women not lazy men that deprived daughters and wives their wealth and inherited theirs. So

Can men inherited from women? Can mothers inherited their male children?


Front page thing, women are being killed alive while Nigeria celebrities keep mute, the media keep mute cuz it not about Fulani herdsmens - for that same reason this will not reach to front-page.

This issue about property inheritance by females in Igboland is often overflogged than necessary. My mother purchased plots of land in Igboland entirely in her name. When I first came across this issue several years ago, I thought it was unfair and decided to research into and understand why these laws were made and the results I got gave me a better understanding of these traditional laws. Currently, women can buy land in Igboland, they can inherit properties willed to them legally by their fathers but the only type of property/land that may not be inherited are ancestral lands or obi which are reserved for surviving sons and are passed down from father to son, given the fact that women will marry out and unite with their husband's family.

From my experience and research, the are 2 major reasons for this, the first being to avoid the problem of unnecessary takeover of ancestral lands. For example, Mrs Nkeiru from the Nwajiaku family in Ifite-Awka is married to a Yoruba man from Osun statee and by view of the marriage what is hers is her husband's and what is her husband's is hers. Mrs Nkeiru, being the first child and daughter preceding her brothers, inherits an ancestral 2-acre land in her father's village passed down from many generations from great-grandfather to grandfather to father to daughter. 5 years later, Mrs Nkeiru dies of natural causes, causing her husband to inherit his wife's properties including the ancestral land in her father's village. Suddenly, we would have a problem of the Ajiboye family from Osun state claiming rights of ownership to what was once a family ancestral property that belonged to the Nwajiaku family historically for over 300 years. The Ajiboye family above could be another family from neighbouring Enugu state, Abia state or the Idibia family from Benue state or the Hamza family from Kano state etc. claiming ownership of ancestral lands historically belonging to the Nwajiaku family of Anambra state. Vice versa in the west with an Igbo man, for example, married to his late Yoruba wife claiming ownership of ancestral lands in the west.

The second reason being to avoid the issue of double inheritance given that women get married to their husbands, ideally they should unite with their husband's family and share in his wealth thereof, in order to leave something for the sons to fall back on to build lives of their own. Now, the part in bold is not always the case in reality but if true marriage laws are instituted in Nigeria properly, this issue of avoidance of double inheritance even becomes more reasonable and enforceable given that women will be assured of inheriting their husband's property and thus it is only fair enough that the sons have something to fall back on to build lives of their own. We should also remember that these sons will marry in women who will leave their father's house to share in the wealth/properties the sons inherited and the daughters will marry sons who inherited from their fathers. In an ideal world, the wealth is somewhat distributed fairly/equally but we do not live in an ideal world yet in Igboland and we can only strive to achieve that.

In the absence of a surviving son but a surviving daughter, a father may allow his daughter to inherit his obi if she agrees to stay back home and bear children (more like, sons) who will take after her father's name.

Traditionally, our ancestors instituted these traditional laws for a reason such as to prevent unnecessary confusion and scenarios described above from arising. However, these laws may need to be improved on to ensure that they are fair and up to date with our modern times.

PS: legally women in Igboland can inherit properties willed to them by their fathers or mothers.

bigfrancis21:
This issue about property inheritance by females in Igboland is often overflogged than necessary. My mother purchased plots of land in Igboland entirely in her name. When I first came across this issue several years ago, I thought it was unfair and decided to research into and understand why these laws were made and the results I got gave me a better understanding of these traditional laws. Currently, women can buy land in Igboland, they can inherit properties willed to them legally by their fathers but the only type of property/land that may not be inherited are ancestral lands or obi which are reserved for surviving sons and are passed down from father to son, given the fact that women will marry out and unite with their husband's family.

From my experience and research, the are 2 major reasons for this, the first being to avoid the problem of unnecessary takeover of ancestral lands. For example, Mrs Nkeiru from the Nwajiaku family in Ifite-Awka is married to a Yoruba man from Osun statee and by view of the marriage what is hers is her husband's and what is her husband's is hers. Mrs Nkeiru, being the first child and daughter preceding her brothers, inherits an ancestral 2-acre land in her father's village passed down from many generations from great-grandfather to grandfather to father to daughter. 5 years later, Mrs Nkeiru dies of natural causes, causing her husband to inherit his wife's properties including the ancestral land in her father's village. Suddenly, we would have a problem of the Ajiboye family from Osun state claiming rights of ownership to what was once a family ancestral property that belonged to the Nwajiaku family historically for over 300 years. The Ajiboye family above could be another family from neighbouring Enugu state, Abia state or the Idibia family from Benue state or the Hamza family from Kano state etc. claiming ownership of ancestral lands historically belonging to the Nwajiaku family of Anambra state. Vice versa in the west with an Igbo man, for example, married to his late Yoruba wife claiming ownership of ancestral lands in the west.

The second reason being to avoid the issue of double inheritance given that women get married to their husbands, ideally they should unite with their husband's family and share in his wealth thereof, in order to leave something for the sons to fall back on to build lives of their own. Now, the part in bold is not always the case in reality but if true marriage laws are instituted in Nigeria properly, this issue of avoidance of double inheritance even becomes more reasonable and enforceable given that women will be assured of inheriting their husband's property and thus it is only fair enough that the sons have something to fall back on to build lives of their own. We should also remember that these sons will marry in women who will leave their father's house to share in the wealth/properties the sons inherited and the daughters will marry sons who inherited from their fathers. In an ideal world, the wealth is somewhat distributed fairly/equally but we do not live in an ideal world yet in Igboland and we can only strive to achieve that.

Traditionally, our ancestors instituted these traditional laws for a reason such as to prevent unnecessary confusion and scenarios described above from arising. However, these laws may need to be improved on to ensure that they are fair and up to date with our modern times.

PS: legally women in Igboland can inherit properties willed to them by their fathers or mothers.

I am reminded once again why I follow you. Sense wee not kee you there

Ishilove:

I am reminded once again why I follow you. Sense wee not kee you there

Lol Evangelist Ishilove! The excellent writer and Iyawo nylon bag author! I'm still learning work where you dey na.

bigfrancis21:


Lol Evangelist Ishilove! The excellent writer and Iyawo nylon bag author! I'm still learning work where you dey na.

Haha! Abeg let's not derail jor

You, sweetie, are very intelligent. Me likey

Keep it up

@AridunuThomas
Its not true that Igbo women don't buy land. My mother bought a land at Aba before she departed, and I built a house there. Every document is still in her name till now.

CAPSLOCKED:

HOW CAN YOU BUY LAND WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE MONEY?

i wonder o!
All these bloggers and twitter vixens with their fake and incomplete stories.

We currently live on a land bought by my mum in the state capital and she has tenants too. My Dad and his own lands are in the village.

P.S: A woman should not go to sell or buy land alone. But Should have have her son, brother, cousin, father, husband, friend, agent e.t.c [/b]FOR HER OWN PROTECTION AND AS A SURETY OR WITNESS AS THE CASE MAY BE. NOT AS A FRONT LIKE THE TWITTER NINJA IS CLAIMING. THE LAND WILL BE BOUGHT IN HER NAME.[b]

This way she doesn't get intimidated, robbed, raped, duped or blackmailed perhaps into buying a fake property or selling at a loss. Any land sold by a woman without a witness her kids can claim she sold it to you under duress or that you snatched it forcefully without compensation and such transaction will be revoked by the village cheifs or customary court. LEGAL DOCUMENTATION HAS REPLACED MOST OF THESE FCCURENCES[b]