‘Iya lo bi Orisa’: Gender Inclusiveness and Complementarity in Yoruba’s Cosmological World View

Abstract

AbstractMuch of contemporary scholarship and discourses on gender relations worldwide privileges the notion that all women have occupied subordinate positions since the beginning of time in all spheres of life due to patriarchy. This notion has greatly impacted discourses on issues relating to the rights of women across the globe. Essentially, patriarchy is seen as an authoritative male system that is driven by oppressive and discriminatory dispositions and perspectives to social, political, economic, and cultural relations and management within which women are subjected to the discriminatory control of men who manipulate public and private power structures, both secular and sacred. However, this notion has been disputed variously by many African scholars who are of the opinion that the idea of patriarchy is not indigenous to Africa but a result of European influence which is defined by individualism that positions the male as a universal reference point and the determiner of cosmic visions and identity of individuals, especially within the hierarchical conceptions of gender, race, and class relations. Historical evidence in African societies, especially as it relates to gender relations, seem to give credence to this view and the argument that gender relations in Africa lean more toward complementarity and inclusiveness than patriarchy. This paper, by exploring some Yoruba traditional practices, oral narratives and cosmic views, seeks to debunk the notion of a strictly patriarchal system and establish that patriarchy is not the norm among the Yoruba of south western Nigeria but a culture of gender inclusiveness and complementarity that is entrenched in a matriarchal system.