The Typical Ishiagu Cultural Woman

A typical Ishiagu woman can best be described by attempting to define what an ideal woman should be in the Ishiagu cultural setting.

In the pre-colonial era, the role expectations of Ishiagu women were clearly defined. Every woman was expected to be married to a good-looking, strong, honest and hardworking man of substance and good family, where she was expected to be loved and accepted into the kin-group of her husband. The woman was expected to be productive so that she would raise offspring that are attractive, obedient, honest and well behaved. Besides, she should be of high moral character, and should be able to give and receive affection wisely. Her figure and physical appearance and good carriage of herself should be the source of joy and pride among her parents, close and distant relations, neighbors and others.

This cultural ideal Ishiagu woman was also expected to be industrious, kind, cheerful, graceful and appealing as a good wife and mother. Her role as a wife and mother implied that she should be able to cook well and feed her family and to economize the family resources and to understand the husband’s needs and keep the family secrets. This had been the description of the ideal Ishiagu cultural woman, wife and mother.

These attributes could hardly be acquired in real life. However, every mother blessed by birth of a baby girl had to start early enough to bring her daughter to meet the cultural expectations of the community. In this regard, the newly born girl was always adorned after bathing to enhance her physical appearance which it had brought into the world by the fact of her birth. Early in life attempts were made to keep her body smooth and beautiful. The little child had to be given attention and love right from the beginning.

A few weeks after her birth the lobes of her two ears had to be pierced to make some holes for earrings. This is in conformity with the practice all over the world as some social scientists say that women tend to undergo some physical tortures in order to maintain some cultural beauty. The holes in the ears were made by inserting small, clean broom sticks to prevent the holes from closing up in the process of healing. The wounds were always oiled after bathing until the wounds were healed.

The baby’s body was occasionally smeared with cam wood which had been beaten and later ground and mixed with water to make a watery paste. The cam wood was of two types, the red type called “uvie” and the yellow type called “odo.” The idea behind this practice was to keep the body of the girl smooth and admirable. Other means of adorning the child was the use of beads for the waist and bangles for the wrists. These items were principally used during festive occasions, after the child had been cleaned up and readied for outing. The mother always enjoyed the child being petted by many people. These processes of caring, loving and adorning the child would continue until the child learned to do these things herself.

Training to play her domestic roles in the future was facilitated by making the girl to be close to her mother during the periods she would undertake various types of domestic chores. Gradually she would be allowed to do some of the work herself unaided. When the girl had reached the age of six or more years she would be made to babysit for her mother’s babies. This would offer her an opportunity to learn how to care for children when she had her own.

In the process of the girl growing up, care was always taken that she would move around with good company of her own age and gender. The girl was always reminded not to open her legs wide because she was female. As a little girl, many people would like to call her “my wife.” Most times she would tell them she was the wife of her father. This type of fun would continue until she reached the age of five or six, or the age of understanding that her father is a father and nothing else. When the girl reached the age of puberty she had to be circumcised before she would experience her first menses.

Experiencing the first menstrual discharge before circumcision would be considered an abomination in the community. Circumcision was considered necessary in the mistaken belief that it minimized the urge for sex in the life of a woman. At the moment of writing this work, these beliefs and practices have declined. After the circumcision, the girl had to enter the fattening room period, during which time she had to wear what is called “arijuru” across her waist in such a way that it covered her private part and buttocks.

To achieve this purpose, the arijuru was made by passing a long twine round the girl’s waist several times in such a way that the strands of the twine were knotted on both sides of the girl. The strands round the girl’s waist were made to descend from her waist downwards by each strand falling closely behind the other, until the private part and buttocks were completely covered. As has been indicated, the arijuru was held together on both sides of the girl, and made in such a way as to allow easy wear. The arijuru was plastered with cam wood “uhie” or “odo” in red or yellow color according to the wearer’s wish. Many people believe that the practice of wearing the arijuru plastered with red or yellow cam wood was to ward off the advances of male admirers.

The fattening room ceremony lasted about ten to twelve months, during which period the girl was adjudged to add flesh to her body and to rest from hard work. She was then getting prepared to go to the prospective husband. If she had been engaged before this time, it was expected that her time of betrothal was imminent.

Apart from wearing the “arijuru” and the use of cam wood for body smoothening, the girl in the fattening room period usually wore ola – coiled copper or brass rods on her ankles to reach above her thighs. The idea behind this practice was to impede the young girl from much travelling about and to indicate in what direction she was going. In any case, this may not be the main idea. Rather, it likely was another way of decorating the body, even though the rods might be heavy on her. At the expiration of the fattening period, the girl had to remove this mode of dressing.

There was always joy and laughter at the end of the fattening period. The fiancé had to provide many beautiful beads and one or two pieces of cloth for the girl. The girl’s body had to be decorated with “aga-aru,” a temporary tattooing of the body, where some beautiful geometrical designs had to be made on her body. Aga-aru was made from the roots of herbs (cassia alota), usually cultivated behind the compound or behind yam barns. These roots were extracted from the herbs, cleaned and cleared of the outer layer, then pounded to a pulp so that the liquid could be extracted by means of squeezing.

The liquid thus collected was used in drawing geometrical diagrams on the body of the young lady. If the body of the girl was sensitive and light, the liquid used for the decoration had to be washed away after a few hours, but if not, the liquid would be left overnight. In each case, the result was beautiful designs on the lady and the areas where the liquid touched would be slightly raised above the normal level of the body in wonderful and beautiful geometrical designs, giving the body an enhanced beauty and elegance. This design could last on the body for two full weeks.

A day after the application of “aga-aru,” the decoration by the application of “Uri” – a native indigo – would follow. All of these was to get the young lady ready for her public outing after one year of fattening.

The outing occasion always took place on Eke Market day, usually in the afternoon when the market would be full of people. The young lady would be dressed in her very best. The body had been decorated, the arijuru she had worn would be replaced with beautiful assorted beads on her waist, and now she would add a short loin cloth that would not go beyond the knees. To complete this attire, the young lady would be given an umbrella, sometimes carried by a younger girl who had to accompany her. She would then become the center of attention when she walked round the market still having her heavy brass rod (“ola”) above her ankles.

Afterward, she would be seated at a corner near a portion of the market belonging to her own village community. When thus seated, relatives, her suitor’s family, and admirers would pour various types of presents into a basin placed beside her.

When the young lady returns home from this outing – “Eke Ugwu” – she would meet a feast organized for her and receive more gifts from her suitor. If the young lady had not yet been engaged, the exercise might take a very low tone. In such a situation, some advantages might be gained in that the young lady thus exposed would be noticed by many eligible suitors, who would probably rush to seek her hand in marriage.

The “iri ugwu” and the “Eke Ugwu” ceremonies were considered necessary to emphasize the value of virginity before marriage, and to reward the young lady for keeping herself safe and pure up to that period. She could then wear her short wrapper without any frown from the other women. It was the ambition of every mother to see her daughter reach this stage of life without seeing her menses before circumcision or getting pregnant during the fattening period. In the Ishiagu clan community, pre-marital virginity was highly valued, while pre-marital pregnancy and even pre-marital sex was denounced through direct abuse, songs and various sorts of innuendoes.

One year after the “Eke Ugwu” outing, the “iri uhi” would follow. This is another short period of fattening. As has been stated, during the fattening seasons, the lady involved would not undertake very hard work. She was not allowed to go to farm or fetch firewood or any other heavy duty. Her aim was to add flesh and to make herself more beautiful before going to her prospective husband. At the end of the fattening period, an outing ceremony would be organized for her as in the “iri ugwu” ceremony. The outing would take place, not in the market, but in the yam barn.

Ishiagu traditional society provided for methods of distinguishing a girl who was engaged from another who was not. The former had to wear two or more strong beads (olokpo) while the latter had to wear only one strand of olokpo. During the fattening period, the girl who had been engaged would wear arijuru made of strong twines while the girl who had not been engaged would provide her own arijuru from the layers of banana or plantain stems which had been collected, dried and made into ropes. This system was meant to let the would-be-suitors know where to apply for new brides.

All the pains taken to train a young girl to be pure and chaste, to enhance her natural beauty and to enable her to be fit for any suitable prospective husband were aimed to make a daughter to conform with the Ishiagu community ideal of a traditional good woman, mother and housewife. There were many variations of these practices, since there are no ideal situations in life. It was considered the duty of every mother to produce a model Ishiagu woman, housewife and mother from her own family.