Woman-to-Woman Marriage West Africa: Significance & Decline

By Darius Spearman (africanelements)

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Deep within the cultural fabric of West Africa lies a fascinating tradition: woman-to-woman marriage. This isn’t about romance in the Western sense. Instead, it’s a powerful social and economic arrangement recognized by customary law. A woman, often one who is wealthy or unable to have children, pays a bride price to marry another woman. This practice has deep roots, stretching back long before European colonizers arrived and tried to suppress it.

These unions served critical functions, allowing women to secure heirs, build lineages, gain social standing, and even own property like men (Woman-to-Woman Marriage in West Africa; Woman-to-woman marriage: practices and benefits in sub-Saharan Africa). It was a way for women to navigate and sometimes challenge patriarchal structures. However, modernization, Western influences, and changing laws are causing this unique tradition to fade, presenting a complex picture of shifting power and agency for women in the region.

Challenging Norms: African Customary Marriage Significance

Woman-to-woman marriage stands as a testament to the fluidity of gender roles in some traditional African societies. It’s a legally and socially recognized union where one woman, the “female husband,” pays bride price for another woman, the “wife” (Woman-to-Woman Marriage in West Africa; Woman-to-woman marriage: practices and benefits in sub-Saharan Africa). This arrangement isn’t primarily about sexual relationships between the women. Instead, it often serves practical purposes like establishing lineage, securing property rights, or enhancing social status.

This practice directly challenged rigid patriarchal norms long before modern discussions about gender. It allowed women to step into roles typically reserved for men, granting them authority and control over resources (Woman-to-Woman Marriage in West Africa). Furthermore, the tradition highlights the ingenuity within customary law systems to address social needs, like ensuring lineage continuity for childless women or preserving family wealth when no male heirs exist. European colonizers, viewing it through their own cultural lens, unfortunately deemed it immoral and actively worked to suppress it, ignoring its deep historical roots (Westernization and African Culture: A Study of Woman-To-Woman Marriage).

Fading Traditions: Modern Impacts on Kinship Structures

The landscape for woman-to-woman marriage is changing significantly due to modernization and Western influence. One major factor is the rise of medical and technological advancements. Previously, a key motivation for these unions was infertility; a woman unable to bear children could marry a wife who would produce heirs for her lineage (Woman-to-woman marriage: practices and benefits in sub-Saharan Africa). Now, options like in vitro fertilization (IVF) and formal child adoption offer alternative pathways to having children, reducing the reliance on this traditional solution (Westernization and African Culture: A Study of Woman-To-Woman Marriage).

Beyond technology, shifts in societal structures play a crucial role. Increased access to education and the pull of urbanization are empowering women in new ways. Consequently, many women now prioritize individual goals and autonomy over traditional kinship obligations (Westernization and African Culture: A Study of Woman-To-Woman Marriage). The need to secure lineage or status through traditional marriage structures, including woman-to-woman arrangements, is diminishing for some as other avenues for personal and economic fulfillment open up. This complex interplay marks a slow erosion of a practice once central to navigating social and economic life.

Navigating Modern Law: Legal Challenges for Female Marriages

The legal status of woman-to-woman marriages in contemporary Africa is often precarious and varies widely. Nations like Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria have different constitutional approaches to recognizing cultural rights (Woman-to-woman marriage: a cultural paradox). This patchwork of legal frameworks leads to inconsistent treatment of these customary unions, sometimes leaving participants in a confusing legal gray area.

Even where constitutions attempt to protect cultural practices, implementation can be challenging. For example, Kenya’s 2010 Constitution includes provisions intended to uphold cultural rights. Nevertheless, courts often struggle to reconcile deeply rooted customary laws, like those permitting woman-to-woman marriage, with modern legal statutes and evolving interpretations of rights (Woman-to-woman marriage: a cultural paradox). This ambiguity creates uncertainty and potential conflict, highlighting the ongoing tension between preserving tradition and adapting to contemporary legal norms.

Why Participate? Exploring Motivations and Female Economic Autonomy

The reasons women participate in woman-to-woman marriages are diverse and deeply rooted in social and economic realities. A primary motivation, historically, was to address childlessness. A woman unable to conceive could marry a wife, whose children would belong to the female husband’s lineage, thereby ensuring its continuation and saving the female husband from potential social isolation (Woman-to-woman marriage: practices and benefits in sub-Saharan Africa). This was crucial in societies where lineage determined status and inheritance.

Economic factors also play a significant role. Wealthy women sometimes entered these unions to expand their households and economic influence, mirroring the polygynous practices of men (Woman-to-woman marriage: practices and benefits in sub-Saharan Africa; Westernization and African Culture: A Study of Woman-To-Woman Marriage). Furthermore, in patrilineal societies lacking a male heir, a daughter might be designated to “marry” a wife, effectively taking on a male social role to ensure the family’s property and inheritance rights remained within the lineage (Woman-to-woman marriage: practices and benefits in sub-Saharan Africa). These motivations clearly demonstrate the complex ways women sought agency and security within traditional structures.

Shifting Power: Gender Roles in West Africa and Beyond

Woman-to-woman marriages offer a powerful lens through which to view gender dynamics in West Africa. These unions highlight a remarkable degree of gender fluidity, where social roles could be adopted based on need and status, rather than being rigidly fixed by biology (Woman-to-Woman Marriage in West Africa). The female husband assumed the rights and responsibilities typically associated with men within the marriage and household context, often without any expectation of a romantic or sexual relationship with the wife.

This role reversal granted female husbands significant power and female economic autonomy. They gained control over household resources, made key decisions, and held authority within their expanded families, effectively subverting typical patriarchal norms (Woman-to-Woman Marriage in West Africa; Woman-to-woman marriage: practices and benefits in sub-Saharan Africa). Consequently, while the tradition is declining, its historical existence challenges simplistic views of gender relations in Africa and underscores the innovative ways women have navigated and shaped their social worlds.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Darius Spearman is a professor of Black Studies at San Diego City College, where he has been teaching since 2007. He is the author of several books, including Between The Color Lines: A History of African Americans on the California Frontier Through 1890. You can visit Darius online at africanelements.org.