MODIS

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The Eleme customary laws equally show the various forms of discriminations and violations of the rights of the girl-child. A girl cannot inherit her father‟s building or land even in the absence of male siblings because she is expected to get married and leave the biological family according to the customary saying that‟ a girl can only know where she was born but cannot know where she would die and be buried.²⁰⁹ Furthermore the girl-child no matter her status in Eleme cannot speak and give evidence at an arbitration panel even if she is an eye-witness to the events discussed without permission and only upon invitation. Even where she is invited, she cannot stand while addressing the chief like her male counterparts but is by custom required to sit down or squat while giving her oral testimony. The girl-child under the custom of the Eleme people does not have the right to speak in the „egbere-oe’ or the community square.

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recognized by custom. She has little or no option in her choice of a spouse. She is usually married off to a man introduced to her by her family and she has no choice than to comply.²¹⁰

Under Ogba custom, the girl-child‟s upbringing is usually the responsibility of her mother and other women in the immediate and the kindred families. She is tutored by her mother to learn domestic chores, respect, submission and all the traditionally approved roles and duties of motherhood. The girl child is excluded from enjoying shares from immovable properties such as lands and houses. The Ogba girl-child is denied every right of inheritance of real property. She has no customary right to own immoveable property and can only enjoy the right to use which must be conferred on her by father or other male relatives.

Women do not inherit landed properties from their fathers or husbands. They may however enjoy properties given to them as gifts by their fathers (or loved ones) during their lifetime, although such a property would immediately revert to the giver or his estate upon the death of the woman. She has no right to alienate such property under custom nor does she have the right to make a gift of same to another person. A hardworking woman may however purchase and acquire a property in her own name if the husband permits her to do so. If permission is not granted, the property will be acquired in the name of the husband or her son although she would have right of use in her lifetime. Upon her death, such a property will be shared only by her male children to the exclusion of the females. Under custom the property belongs to her and her direct male descendants and not the husband, or step children.²¹¹ Under Ogba native law and custom step-children cannot inherit a married woman's personal property. In the absence of any direct descendant of the woman, the property will devolve on the husband‟s family.

210 Oral Interview conducted on Chief Nwobo Nwoloko, an indigene of Ede Community in Ogba / Egbema / Ndoni

Local Government Area, Rivers State on December 1, 2015.

211 Ibid.

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According to Nwoloko, a woman in Ogbaland does not enjoy any right of succession.

And women cannot be conferred a chieftaincy title.²¹²They cannot be appointed as village chiefs.

The girl-child has no right to inherit properties from their parents. The male children take all.

However, gifts (including landed property) may be given to them by their parents. Such gifts remain in their possession and pass on to their biological children upon their demise²¹³. Her freedom of association and expression are also limited by the males as she is usually excluded from family meetings and her views are not allowed to be expressed except they are passed to the family forum through a male child.²¹⁴The traditional role for the woman is in the kitchen called “akawhuge” and her entrance into the “obri” or parlour where family issues are discussed and decided was only to serve the menfolk with the traditional kola of welcome. Here the woman is strictly denied participation in the decision making process except on the clear, specific and usually rare invitation of the men folk. She is not expected to hold opinions on family issues nor is she expected to express them in the gathering of men. In fact doing so without authorization is an offence which is punishable by the payment of a fine.

As a general rule, inheritance in Ogba land is patrilineal that is, inheritance is only through the male line. The female child cannot be a successor in title to the father especially with respect to land, palm groves and ponds. The female child has no right of inheritance in her father‟s house because she is expected to marry and leave the family. There is no customary rule that accommodates the female child in issues of inheritance in her family. She has no rights whatsoever and is not even by tradition allowed to be present at the discussions of the obodo (kindred group). Whether she marries or not she is not allocated any plot of land from the family for farming purposes or for shelter but must survive only from the mother‟s kitchen since in

212 Op.cit.

213 Ibid.

214 Ibid

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Ogbaland, land traditionally belongs to the larger kindred group and only the married male children have rights of inheritance. However, there are peculiar circumstances which provide an exception that is, where a man has no male heir or successor he can confer rights of inheritance of his personal property on his female child. It should be noted that it is the personal property acquired by the man himself that can be so inherited if he desires but not that of the kindred group or the family as a whole which may be in his custody as the oldest man. The property that the man can in special circumstances pass to his female child must have been personally acquired in his lifetime through deforestation of virgin land, building of ponds, purchase of palm groves etcetera.

Under the Ogba native law and custom, the girl child cannot inherit anything from the father as of right or custom but can only inherit indirectly as a way of gift; and such gifts must pertain to only his personal property which is not derived from the family. The fact that the girl child in Ogbaland can scarcely inherit from the father is typified in a situation where a man and his wife die leaving their three female children behind. These children are not left to fend for themselves, rather the kindred family will step into the shoes of their parents and take care of them until they come of marriageable ages and are given out in marriages. The late man‟s homestead reverts to his nearest kin in the larger kindred family. The girl child is regarded as a

“temporary” member of her father‟s family and so is not allowed to participate in crucial decision making and general labour such as clearing the farm paths, bush or bailing of ponds.

These duties are reserved for the males only as the female child is considered to be the property to be inherited by another family. The girl child or the unmarried woman who remains in her father‟s house cannot succeed her father to any chieftaincy stool or the headship of the family or the larger kindred group. She cannot preside over any family meeting and may not even be

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allowed to participate in some meetings except upon an invitation and if she is directly involved nor is she permitted to carry out any traditional rituals and sacrifices on behalf of the family even if she is the oldest person in the family or kindred group. She is subject to her male siblings and on a daily basis displays her acceptance of her traditional role by “bowing” ²¹⁵to them in recognition of their superiority over her in their father‟s house.

Women do not have any recognizable rights of inheritance in Ogbaland. As a rule, a woman marries not just her direct husband but is married into the larger husband‟s kindred family. She is regarded as the property of the kindred group so that when her husband dies she is not free but is expected after the mourning period to choose another husband from among her husband‟s younger brothers. If such a chosen one refuses to marry her, other choices would be made for her and the new husband would step into her late husband‟s shoes and be a father to her children whether born to him or to his late brother. The new husband would also inherit the late husband‟s property and hold same on trust for the children until they attain maturity. But where the woman upon the death of her husband fails to remarry within the kindred group, she will be left alone and free to marry outside the kindred group but the would-be husband must return the entire bride-price paid on her to the kindred family in acknowledgement that she is their property.

The woman‟s right to property in her husband‟s family is limited to usufructural purposes that is, she will be allocated portions of family land in her husband‟s name for farming. If her husband dies, she is not allowed to inherit any of his property as such property would go to the kindred group for management until her male children come of age. She will be allowed to live

215 Bowing is symbolized by a special greeting by the females; kamdo or mahduo in Egi and Igburu languages respectively meaning “I bow to you” and the response from the male would depend on the particular family name of the girl.

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in the homestead, fend for herself and the children except she agrees to marry another of the husband‟s surviving younger relations.

Conversely where a woman acquires personal property in her husband‟s house, the property upon her death is inherited by the husband if he is alive or by her husband‟s kindred group if the husband has died since she is considered to be property to be inherited herself. In Ogbaland a woman has the general right to participate in cultural festivals called the „nchaka‟

for the Omoku areas and „igbogwe‟ for the Egi clans of Ogbaland. This right is however still limited by custom as she is permitted to participate only in the junior nchaka described as the small dance for women and children. They are not permitted by custom to participate in the main festival but to remain at home cooking for the male members of the family. They are also not allowed to freely move around within this period so as not to see the dreaded masquerade

‘Okorosu’. Any female caught looking at the masquerade is made by custom to pay fine.

In Ekpeyeland the closest tribe to the Ogba people, the story is not substantially different as the girl-child is customarily regarded to be subordinate to the male- child. She is generally under the control of her father, or brother and later of her husband and at his death, she is further controlled by his male relatives.²¹⁶ In Ekpeye, “daughters cannot inherit land from their fathers.

In fact, it is seen as a taboo for a woman to remain in her father‟s house let alone think of inheritance of her deceased father‟s estate,”²¹⁷ and once the girl-child marries “her identity is lost and every entitlement as a legitimate member of her father‟s house is denied her. She has been effectively „sold‟ to her husband‟s family and cannot inherit her father‟s estate even if he died without a surviving male child.”²¹⁸

216Oral Interview conducted on Elder Benson Clever of Ahoada in Ekpeye land in Rivers State on January 7, 2016.

217 Ibid.

218 Oral Interview conducted on Elder Umuasara N. Chidi of Ozochi in Ekpeye land in Rivers State on January 7, 2016.

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The girl-child is also made to go through some rites for marriage including traditional circumcision which is the female genital mutilation all in a bid to prepare her for the man. A woman in Ekpeye cannot assume a leadership position in the presence of men. She cannot be the family head, and neither can she participate in chieftaincy matters.