Cassava as Mother and Redeemer

"Cassava is a staple food in Igboland. The cassava tuber is accessible to both the rich and the poor in many parts of Nigeria and Africa. Cassava is planted by women, unlike yam, the 'King of all Crops,' that is planted by men. Every year in Igboland, the New Yam Festival is observed. New yam is not eaten until this festival is performed. But, is there  festival for Cassava? No. In 'Cassava Song,' the many uses of cassava are enumerated to show that she deserves to be celebrated and sung like the yam. In mock heroic style, 'Cassava Song' open with an invocation:

          We thank thee Almighty God
          For giving us Cassava
          We hail thee, Cassava
          The great Cassava

Cassava is personified as a Great Mother, a forgiving mother, more sinned against than sinning. Cassava is given the Divine Redeemer motif; like Christ who goes through suffering, Cassava remains obedient to fire even unto death. Cassava is enthroned above yam and cocoyam--above all other foodstuff. Cassava is woman. Yam is man."

Flora Nwapa, 1992, 94

"Women and Creative Writing in Africa"

in Sisterhood: Feminisms and Power from Africa to the Diaspora, ed. Obioma Nnaemeka, 1998

Of Bridewealth, Brideprice, and Dowry

"One finds that there are African women who want to keep the bridewealth, who want to keep what is called 'lobola' in Southern Africa. The bridewealth formerly called the 'brideprice,' was not a price, until the colonials tried to set prices in order to be able to do their books, making marriage gifts a kind of taxation, rationalizing the system that 'a man must pay ten pounds or so many hundred francs.' The colonialists introduced commercialization. Usually, the bridewealth was a kind of material benefits compensation to the family of the wife from the family of the groom. This is very different from the dowry, as in India, which goes from the bride's family to the groom's family to compensate the groom for taking on the responsibility of a woman. The dowry is a very different concept, in fact, opposite, concept. Bridewealth was a symbolic expression of the respect and valuation of a woman. There are African married women, African middle class and westernized women, who will argue that they want to have their bridewealth no matter how corrupted and commercialized it is; if they do not, their husbands will not respect them and treat them with the appropriate recognition that their family had officially and ceremoniously handed them over. Yet, we in the feminist movement are saying that this attitude is an indication of lack of self-respect and independence because the modern corruption promotes the commodification of women."

Molara Ogundipe-Leslie, 1994, 211

"Stiwanism: Feminism in an African Context" 

in Re-Creating Ourselves: African Women and Critical Transformations