len, 1990, p.24)They, for instance, made decisions to protect their fruitfulnessof women and of their farms. And if violations against one of them was occurred, they used to "sit on" the offender or go on strike. At this point, I would like to point out that the men of the Ibo society regarded the mikri as legitimate. (p.24)Looking at the present situtation, it is very difficult to know how firmly fixed traditional beliefs remian. What is clear is that the desire of the Ibo and africans in general to have many children reamins much higher than that of people in any other region of the world. Still given the primacy of fertility, it is not surprising that in many African societies motherhood is endowed with a mystique of near sacredness and carried with strong emotion. Among Nigeria's Ibo today, many village women aspire above all to belong to the society of Those Whom God Have Blessed. To join those ranks, a woman must have ten pregnancies. (Whitaker, p. 103 100)The position of women in Nigerian and African society appears to be a mojor contibuting cause of Africa's food shotages. As I mentioned before, women were always subordiante to men. Nevertheless, women's control of their economic destinies has declined since the British colonial era. The British created a system that weakened women's position in the Ibo society. As a result these women rebelled against this phenomenon and taxation. Althouhg it had been hard to end this women's war, their situation did not change at all.Today, in total, women work much longer hours than most men with consequent effects on their productivity as farmers. The land is still commonly passed to the eldest son. Women's access to land most often depends on having a living husband. For the most part women do not control the use of the land; they are not allowed to decide what crops to plant. And moreover, wives are dependent on their husband's approval before starting a farming operation, employing a shar...
