Buchi Emecheta,

`Feminist Ethnography´: Women’s Roles and Women’s Networks

 looking after brothers, helping in the household

“These girls when they grow up will be great helpers to you in looking after the

 marrying and fetching high bride price

“Their bride prices will be used in paying their school fees as well.”(p.127)

 “male daughter”: fulfill father’s expectations

“Her father […] had few children, and in fact no living son at all, but Ona grew to fill her

father’s expectation. He had maintained that she must never marry.”(p.11f)

“Because her father had no son, she had been dedicated to the gods to produce children in

his name, not that of any husband.”(p.17f)

 bearing male children (if not, she is a “half woman”)

“She was failing everybody. There was no child.”(p.31)

“… for anybody who had no ‘two sons’, or who only had daughters, or who had no children

at all […], it was better to keep quiet.”(p.105)

 responsible for the economic, social and political reproduction of the household

Nnu Ego cooks, economises and is the head of her household

. . .

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185)

 being financially responsible for the children and the household

Provision of food and clothes for the family, paying the school fees

2. They let her borrow five shillings from the women’s fund and advised her to buy tins of cigarettes and packets of matches. You go and sit and look after the babies. 33)

“Don’t worry senior wife, I will take the market things in for you. 188)

to form a “power-bloc within the family”, e. He tried to reassure the women by saying (…). The three of them moved the bed, chairs, cooking, pots and mattress. 29)

“Oshia had heard enough to make him realise that he and his brother Adim were rare commodities, and that he being the oldest was rarer still. 166)

 Ibuza familiy meetings offer help in critical situations

“Your Ibuza people will be meeting this evening and will discuss the matter. 128)

 being responsible for the children

“’Maybe if I had a peaceful childhood, and not had to spend my young days selling paraffin and carrying firewood –‘(…) ‘So it’s all my fault, is it?’ – ‘Oshia, her son, blaming her as well. Just show me where the cooking place is, and I will get your food ready for you. standing up against the husband and combining their power (“sitting on a man” = boycotts, strikes)

 Widow inheritance

“After this, his widows would be free to be inherited by any member of Agbadi’s family that fancied them. Most of his wives, now elderly, were sympathetic and nursed her mentally back to normal.

Approximate Word count = 1135
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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