WELCOME ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR CATHERINE ACHOLONU

WELCOME ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR CATHERINE ACHOLONU
CHAIRPERSON FIRST IGBO WOMEN’S WORLD CONFERENCE,
Aba, Abia State, Nigeria
5-7TH MAY, 2009

WOMEN EXCLUSIONISM IN IGBO LIFE CULTURE, MATTERS ARISING FROM THE 2009 AHIAJOKU LECTURE. BY PROFESSOR CATHERINE ACHOLONU

Your Excellency, Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan, wife of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Your Excellencies, Chief and Mrs. Theodore Orji and wives of Governors of five South-Eastern States.

The 2009 Ahiajoku lecture was delivered by Professor Chinua Achebe. It was the highlight of the events lined up to celebrate the Festival of Igbo Civilization in commemoration of the Golden Jubilee celebration of Things Fall Apart, Africa’s greatest novel.

One could say that the 2009 Ahiajoku lecture has come, but not gone, reason being that Achebe’s main lecture for that day is yet to be seen. He did not deliver it, he put it aside and changed his topic on arrivals at the conference and opted rather to speak on Women Exclusionism in Igbo Life and Culture. And we ask, why? I myself would have delivered an academic paper at this conference, but the circumstances surrounding Achebe’s change of his Ahiajoku lecture topic and decision to jettison his well researched paper, to speak on women in Igbo land, their indispensability in Igbo life and culture, and the dire implication of their being excluded from their vital role as supporters and partners and mothers of Igbo society and Igbo culture, made me equally shelve my otherwise academic engagement for this conference and engage myself into the socio-political/cultural implications of Achebe’s worries.

It is important to note that history was made on that occasion for it was the first time in the long history of Ahiajoku that a lecturer changed his topic at the nick of time and addressed an issue different from the topic of the day. Achebe as a philosopher-king would have measured the full implication of his change of topic and, yet still went on with it which, goes to indicate that he wanted to give global attention to the matters that caused him to change gear, namely Women Exclusionism in Igbo Life and Culture.

I am very sure that most of the papers today will dwell on women exclusionism, just as it happened at the first festival conference where three women pointed out and questioned the dwindling importance of women in Igbo cultural life and practices – Edith Chikwere, Nkechinyere Chidiadi, and Euckay Onyeizugbo. Onyeizuigbo’s paper “Kolanut in Igbo Culture: Is it a Unifying or a Divisive Factor in the 21st Century”, sparked off a wild controversy. The author insisted that the kola nut ritual was being used as a means of demeaning the women in today’s 21st century Igbo land. She insisted that change is a constant in life and that because as the Igbo say, “ndi nwuru anwu kee ekpe, ndi di ndu kegharia; and omenelu gbaa afo oburu omenala”. Ndi Igbo in the 21st century should take a hard look at some terribly demeaning nuances of the practice of emume oji. These two proverbs which are my own way of paraphrasing what I understood her paper to be saying, show clearly that the creators of Igbo culture and tradition understood clearly that nothing is static in life, and that Igbo ancestors built change into their cosmology and philosophy.

“Omenelu gbaa afo oburu omenala” simply means that cultures, customs and traditions are man made and can be changed and altered any time circumstances call for it. Part of the argument that ranged on that occasion was the fact the women were prevented from partaking in the broken kola nut being shared around at the opening ceremony, the day before. They were not allowed to dip their hand into the tray to take their individual shares of the broken kola nut lobes, which had been cut for sharing, rather men did it for them. I was one of the victims of this flagrant abuse of our culturally accepted right as citizens of Igbo land. And I complained bitterly about this particular phenomenon during the question and answer session. Many men present agreed with the women that it was contrary to Igbo culture not to allow women to take the broken kola-nut lobes with their own hands, because kola-nut sharing is a communion from which none whatsoever should be excluded. It is even unhygienic to let someone else pick your share for you. Most importantly, Kola nut is Judgement. It kills and takes instant retribution when shared unjustly or eaten with malice.

It was therefore against this backdrop that the masquerade suddenly saw the need to change the line of the dance. Needless to say, when the masquerade changes the dance, the beat should follow suit. Achebe is, without question, telling the Igbo nation to take a hard look at the rubrics of our culture, customs and tradition, and see what needs to be reshaped to make for peace, unity, progress and live and let live.

Chinua Achebe’s 2009 Ahiajoku lecture gave a new tilt to his often publicized philosophy of “ife kwulu ife akwudebe ya”. In fact the main thrust of “ife kwulu ife akwudebe ya” centers on gender mainstreaming. “Ife kwulu ife akwudebe ya” is the Igbo definition of gender coexistence, interdependence of men and women, partnership between male and female as a vital component of the matrix of family, the community, the Igbo nation and of every nation for that matter.

Thus, Achebe’s in his Ahiajoku lecture posed the same question that Okonkwo’s maternal uncle asked him when he was banished by his umunna – the men-folk – “Do you know why it is that when things go well in a man’s life, his umunna are with him, but when things change for the worse they abandon him and he returns to his mother’s people?” “Do you know why we name our daughters Nneka (Mother is Supreme)?” “Do you know why the Igbo have a saying that “aturu muru ebule gba aka nwa?” Achebe concluded his lecture by enjoining the Igbo men folk “achuba unu na ala nna unu, gbatanu na ala nne unu”. (When they pursue you in your Father’s land, return to your mother’s land.) Need we say any more?

Achebe’s insistence that Okonkwo’s failure as a hero is as result of his disregard for the women in his life says it all. (Interview with Carol Cooper published in The Village Voice, February 2008, and noted by Sabine Jell-Balsen in her own First Festival article). He has thrown a new challenge to Igbo men folk to ensure that the practice of culture is not used as a weapon to pull down or abuse their mothers, sisters, wives and female partners in progress, for after all said than done, the woman is not just a woman, she is Agbala and in Things Fall Apart, Agbala is the name of the woman as woman; as power wielding priestess; and as deity representing of the Earth Mother ala/ani the final arbiter and rulers of our lives and our death, she, who holds the power to make and mar.

It is on that note that this inaugural Igbo Women’s Conference has been given the theme “Nneka – Mother is Supreme”. I welcome you all to historic city of Aba, noted for the Aba Women’s War of 1929 against the excesses of the colonial administration, for the First Igbo Women’s World Conference. Thank you.

Professor Catherine Acholonu
Chairperson, First Igbo Women’s world Conference.