essay

Dancing women and colonial men: the NWAOBIALA of 1925

'wicked' women and the reconfiguration of gender in africa • Portsmouth, N.H. • Published In 2001 • Pages: 109-129

By: Bastian, Misty L..

Abstract

Bastian has written an account of the Igbo Woman's War of 1929. The war, really a market riot, involved older married women attacking younger unmarried women in the marketplace and stripping them naked. The riot stemmed from the NWAOBIALA movement in which bands of women ritually swept public spaces. Sweeping was both a common domestic chore and part of an annual purification rite to appease the earth god who influenced fertility. The movement was interpreted by colonial officials as a conservative movement about sanitation and the evils of prostitution. Bastian's interpretation is more complex and sees the movement as a reaction to an overall loss of women's power. An expanding market economy and construction of new roadways and railroads bypassed women's traditional control of bush roads, markets, and their daughters' labor.

HRAF PubDate

2003

Region

Africa

Sub Region

Western Africa

Document Type

essay

Evaluation

Creator Type

Ethnologist

Document Rating

4: Excellent Secondary Data

Analyst

Ian Skoggard ; 2001

Field Date

not specified

Coverage Date

1925-1930

Coverage Place

Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

Notes

Misty L. Bastian

Includes bibliographical references (p. 128-129)

LCCN

00040882

LCSH

Igbo (African people)