Daughter/Widow Retention in Nigeria: Survey and Analysis of Case Law

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Date: 16 August 2019
• Pages: 82-99
• Published date: 16 August 2019
• Author: Nwudego Nkemakonam Chinwuba
• Citation: (2016) 3(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 82

DAUGHTER/WIDOW RETENTION IN NIGERIA:

SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF CASE LAW

NWUDEGO NKEMAKONAM CHINWUBA

Senior lecturer in law,University of Lagos, Department of Private and

Property Law,Lagos, Nigeria

This paper provides a case law survey of the custom of daughter/widow retention,

alternatively referred to as ‘woman-to-woman’marriage, in Nigeria. Since the empirical

survey presenting the patterns is taken from case law, the paper necessarily adopts a

socio-legal approach, invoking a need for limited analysis of the cases. Existing studies of

the custom emphasise the role of patriarchy, succession and gender socialising in its

development. However, a closer look at the custom and ancillary customs from the same

ethnic group suggests that the relevance of womanhood to the scheme of society’s affairs, a

chance at women’sself-actualisation, and the individual’sdignity, in spite of circumstances

of birth, have played more signif‌icant roles in the sustenance, perpetuation and acceptance

of the custom. Is the custom still relevant? The approachof the Nigerian courts is to abolish

this custom vide ‘judicial legislating’. The paper shows that the larger society within which

the custom operates accepts its ideals, thereby making African customary law structures

that thrive on informal dispute resolution and persuasion the only viable way of resolving

the conf‌licts and calming the tensions emanating from the clash between this custom and

modernity. Persuasion through convincing strategies would thus work better than the

current attitude of the Nigerian superior courts.

L’article fournit une étude de la jurisprudence sur la coutume de la rétention f‌ille/veuve,

alternativement dénommé mariage «de femme à femme», au Nigeria. Puisque l’enquête

empirique présentant les modèles est tirée de la jurisprudence, il adopte nécessairement une

approche sociojuridique, en invoquant un besoin d’analyse limitée des cas. Les études

existantes de la coutume soulignent le rôle du patriarcat, de la succession et de la

socialisation des sexes dans son développement. Cependant, un coup d’œil plus précis à la

coutume et aux coutumes auxiliaires du même groupe ethnique suggère que la pertinence

de la féminité au régime des affaires de la société, une chance à l’auto-actualisation des

femmes, et de la dignité de l’individu, en dépit des circonstances de la naissance, ont joué

un rôle plus important dans la subsistance, la perpétuation et l’acceptation de la coutume.

Est la coutume toujours pertinente? L’approche des tribunaux nigérians est d’abolir cette

coutume à travers de la «législation judiciaire». L’article montreque la société en général,

où la coutume opère, accepte ses idéaux, et les structures de droit coutumier africain qui

prospèrent sur la résolution des différends à l’amiable et la persuasion deviennent le seul

moyen viable de résoudre les conf‌lits et de calmer les tensions émanant de la confrontation

entre la coutume et la modernité. Persuasion à travers de stratégies convaincantes

fonctionneront donc mieux que l’attitude actuelle des tribunaux supérieurs nigérians.

Keywords: daughter/widow retention, judicial legislation, ‘woman-to-

woman’marriage, patriarch, custom, primogeniture

Introduction

The phenomenon which has come to be termed daughter/widow retention

(alternatively termed ‘woman-to-woman’ marriage, or sometimes ‘male

daughters/female husbands’ when encountered by outsiders) appears to

82

(2016) 3(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 82

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd

befog.

1

The more common usage, ‘woman-to-woman’ marriage will be

adopted in this discourse. What is this strange phenomenon? In Nigeria, the

courts have never been short of words to describe it: otiose, uncivilised,

anti-public interest, promotes immorality and promiscuity, denies a biologi-

cal father of his rights, and so forth.

2

A central part of the custom is that it

produces heirs for a man who is unable to produce heirs of his own in the

ordinary biological way. This could be because he is infertile, his wife is

unable to bear males or because he is dead. In some communities, the man’s

widow herself may have sex with another man in order to produce the child.

In terms of the daughter retention or woman-to-woman marriage in some

parts of Nigeria, two scenarios are envisaged. In the f‌irst, the daughter

remains in the family with the expectancy of having a male offspring, but

without being married. In the second, the wife/widow does not have sex

with another man; instead, she marries a woman and the children of this

woman become the heirs of her husband.

In all the cases consulted, except for one which stopped at the Court of

Appeal, the parties, convinced of the legitimacy of the institution in which

they had been born or found themselves, litigated and advanced the course of

their rights up to the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Regrettably, even though

the lower courts showed more understanding than the Supreme Court, their

plights were considered in very harsh terms due to a lack of understanding of

the nature and objectives of the custom of woman-to-woman marriage. It is

noteworthy that the cases only arose with respect to title and the right to land

originally belonging to a patriarch.

Many works have considered this phenomenon; mention of a few will

suff‌ice. Oboler’s study is on the concept of woman-to-woman marriage

amongst the Nandi people of western Kenya and, like Greene, considers that

one outcome of the concept is the construction of gender as a sociological

event.

3

Greene’s work is unique and is closer to home to this article, for the

1

For an anthropological study of the subject, see Amadiume, I (1998) Male

Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society; Amadiume, I (1998)

Re-inventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion and Culture; Cadigan, R. Jean (1998)

‘Woman-to-woman Marriage: Practices and Benef‌its in Sub-Saharan Africa’ 29(1)

Journal of Comparative Family Studies 89. Cadigan gives a considerably full account of

the nature, types and outcomes of the concept of woman-to-woman marriage in

societies practising it, although she fails to pay full attention to the principal motivat-

ing factors for the practice in Nigeria. Here, the major reasons for the practice are

patriarchy and the consequential preference for sons. Cadigan mentions correctly

that the decline of the practice may be attributed to major technological advance-

ments in reproductive health, but the focus of this article is on the existing heritage of

the practice, which has serious human rights implications.

2

Meribe v Egwu (1976) 3 S.C. 23; Okonkwo v Okagbue (1994) 9 NWLR (part 368)

301; Muojewku v Ejikeme 2000; Mojekwu v Iwuchukwu (2004).

3

Oboler, R (1980) ‘Is the Female Husband a Man? Woman/Woman Marriage

among the Nandi of Kenya’ 19(1) Ethnology 69–88; Greene, B (1998) ‘The Institu-

tion of Woman-Marriage in Africa: A Cross Cultural Analysis’ 37(4) Ethnology 395–

412.

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