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The Dangers of Dependence: Christian Marriage Among Elite Women in Lagos Colony, 1880–1915*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
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Repatriated slaves and Christian missionaries introduced Christian marriage into colonial Lagos, and spread new values about polygyny and conjugal relationships and roles. Women among the educated elite strove to marry in church and conform to foreign marital norms, in part because Christianity, European education, and colonial legal and economic changes had altered their opportunities. When they embraced Christian marriage, elite women sacrificed the autonomy and economic independence of illiterate Yoruba women for the privileges associated with membership in the elite. As elite women experienced disappointment and vulnerability created by trying to conform to foreign ideals, some began rethinking aspects of Christian marriage, particularly the wife's economic dependence.
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References
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39 Stella Davies' Diary, 1898, Coker 3/7, records the daily routine of an elite woman. For newspaper accounts of women's activities see LWR, 12 December 1891, 2, c. 3; 21 May 1892, 3, c. I; 24 December 1898, 3, c. 3; 15 February 1902, 3, c. 3; 24 May 1902, 3, c. I; and LS, 6 February 1895, 2, c. 1; 20 February 1895, 3, c. 2; 30 January 1901, 2, c. 2; 27 February 1901, 2, c. 3; 17 May 1911, 5, c. 3; 5 May 1915, 5, c. 3; 20 October 1915, 5, c. 1.
40 The Lagos Marriage Registry houses marriage registers for the years 1884 to 1915. I located marriage registers for earlier years at St Paul's Church, Christ Church, and Holy Cross Cathedral.
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43 Kristin Mann, ‘Marriage and the Consolidation of Status among the Educated African Elite in Lagos Colony, 1880–1915’, 8, unpublished paper presented to the Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies, February 1981.
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46 LS, 29 January 1896. After their establishment around the turn of the century, the African separatist churches in Lagos married couples in modified versions of Christian ceremonies, but did not register these marriages under the marriage ordinance. Nor did they insist on monogamy. These marriages became known as ‘native Christian’ or ‘parlour’ marriages.
47 Jacob Kehinde Coker, ‘Is Native Marriage Advisable or not Advisable?’, Coker 4/2/53, 6.
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52 Harrell-Bond, Barbara E., Modern Marriage in Sierra Leone: A Study of the Professional Group (The Hague, 1975), 3, 54, 287,Google Scholar notes that educated Africans in colonial Freetown also regarded Christian marriage as more prestigious than African marriage. She argues that this belief has carried over among contemporary Sierra Leonean professionals.
53 Mann, ‘Marriage Choices among the Educated African Elite’, gives a fuller discussion of the religious and pragmatic appeal of Christian marriage.
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57 Mrs Samuel Crowther to J. P. L. Davies, 16 November 1888, Coker 6/1.
58 Interviews with Archdeacon J. O. Lucas, Mrs C. O. Blaize and Mrs Ayodele Manuwa, Lagos, April, January and May 1974.
59 Interview with Ardeacon J. O. Lucas, Lagos, April 1974.
60 In Re Ṣapara, Judges' Notebook in Civil Cases, 1911–12, 366, 411–16, 423–4, 443–51. Lagos High Court Archives. LS, 20 September 1911 to 13 March 1912, published much of the testimony in the trial. For an abbreviated version see Renner, , Reports, Notes of Cases and Proceedings, I, 605–614.Google Scholar
61 Interview with Archdeacon J. O. Lucas, Lagos, April 1974.
62 Interviews in Lagos with E. M. E. Willoughby, the Rev. S. A. Pearce, T. A. Doherty and Percy Savage, January, March, April and July 1974.
63 Interviews in Lagos with Mrs E. M. E. Agbebi, Mrs Adewakun, Mrs Tinuola Dedeke and Mrs Syrian Taylor, March, April, May and July 1974.
64 Cohen, Abner, The Politics of Elite Culture (Berkeley, 1981), 82,Google Scholar notes that economically independent Creole women in modern Sierra Leone identify their status with that of their husbands.
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67 Payne, J. A. O., Lagos and West Africa Almanack and Diary (London, 1894), 71–72,Google Scholar describes the curriculum of the C.M.S. Female Institution, until 1907 Lagos's only secondary school for girls. Although its pupils studied English, arithmetic, geography and history, they devoted much of their time to religious instruction, needlework, domestic economy, drawing and singing. At the C.M.S. Grammar School boys studied algebra, geometry, natural science, philosophy, political economy and book-keeping, in addition to the four academic subjects taught to women. For a statement of the philosophy behind women's education see ‘Education of Women’, in Taiwo, , Henry Carr, 33–34.Google ScholarBurnstall, Sara A. and Douglas, M. A., eds., Public Schools for Girls (London, 1911),Google Scholar discusses the kind of education offered girls in English public schools.
68 Leith Mullings, ‘Women and Economic Change in Africa’, in Hafkin and Bay, Women in Africa, 248–9, 251, 255; E. Frances White, ‘Women, Work and Ethnicity: The Sierra Leone Case’, in Bay, Women and Work, 19–33. The emergence of a money economy and private land ownership, the dependence of large-scale traders on extensive European credit, and the use of privately owned land as security for credit all may have put women traders at a disadvantage. Whether for these or other reasons, men dominated Lagos's import-export trade, while women worked as petty retail traders.
69 In the 1880s schoolmistresses’ salaries varied from £7 to £36 per year, with most in the £7–15 range. These teachers may have received small supplementary grants (‘Return of…Schools’, Blue Books, Lagos Colony). In 1913 schoolmistresses received little more(LS, 5 February 1913, 6, c. 3). In contrast top-ranking clerks in the colonial service averaged £212 a year between 1880 and 1915. This figure is derived from data in the Lists of Officers, Blue Books, Lagos Colony and Colony of Southern Nigeria.
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71 LWR, 21 January 1899, 5, c. I.
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73 Coker, op. cit. 14–15. Oppong, C., Marriage among a Matrilineal Elite: A Family Study of Ghanaian Senior Civil Servants (Cambridge, 1974), 65,Google Scholar argues that ordinance marriage gives modern Ghanaian women a measure of security.
74 Interviews in Lagos with Mrs C. O. Blaize, Archdeacon J. O. Lucas and Mrs Comfort Maja, January, April and July 1974.
75 For a brief biography of Mrs Blaize see her obituary, LWR, 24 August 1895, 6, c. I. Interview with Kunle Akinsemoyin, Lagos, January 1974.
76 Will, , Blaize, R. B., Lagos Probate Records, vi, 341–346.Google Scholar
77 Mann, , ‘Marriage Choices among the Educated African Elite’, 202.Google Scholar
78 Interviews in Lagos with Michael Ayo Vaughan, Mrs Comfort Maja, Mrs R. A. Wright and Jack Randle, March, April and August 1974.
79 LS, 22 April 1903, 2, c. 3. See also LS, 9 June 1897, 5, c. 3; 29 March 1899, 3, c. 2; 16 August 1908, 4, c. 2; 17 November 1915, 4, c. 2.
80 Interview with Mrs Henrietta Lawson, Lagos, August 1974.
81 Mann, , ‘Marriage and the Consolidation of Status’, 18.Google Scholar I am currently engaged in a study of inheritance among the elite, using wills and other legal documents.
82 Will, , Wilkinson Thomas, Andrew, Lagos Probate Records, VI, 202–208, 375–380.Google Scholar Interview with Mrs C. G. Agbe, Lagos, February 1974.
83 Cole v. Cole, I Nigerian Law Reports, 15–23.Google Scholar In the High Court Archives I was unable to locate the Judges' Notebook in Civil Cases, 1897–98, which should contain records of this case. LS, 3 August 1898, 3, c. 2, provided supplementary evidence as did an interview in Lagos with Georgious Cole, January 1974.
84 Interviews with Mrs R. A. Wright, Lagos, March and April 1974.
85 Interviews in Lagos with Mrs H. F. Pereira, Mrs R. A. Wright, Archdeacon J. O. Lucas and Mrs Comfort Maja, February–May 1974. See also ‘Petition from the Protestant Ministers on the Subject of Divorce’, 15 August 1889, C.O. 147/71.
86 LWR, 21 January 1899, 5, c. I.
87 LWR, 22 May 1897. See also Coker, , The Right of Africans to Organize Indigenous Churches, 24–29;Google Scholar and Jacob Kehinde Coker to Cousin, 16 July 1913, Coker 2/1/10.
88 See for example Will, Thomas George Hoare, I, 35–38,Google Scholar Lagos Probate Registry.
89 In Re Ṣapara, Renner, , Reports, Notes of Cases and Proceedings, I, 606.Google Scholar Mrs Ayodele Wright defended polygyny while travelling in England. LWR, 16 July 1904, 5, c. I.
90 Interview with Mrs Sarah Adadevoh, Lagos, March 1974.
91 Emily Williams to Stella Coker, 11 March 1908, Coker 1/4/4; J. J. Thomas to Stella Coker, 16 September 1907, Coker 1/4/3.
92 According to popular legend, Herbert Macaulay vowed never to marry again after his Christian wife died in her first childbirth. Macaulay never did marry again in church, but he took several customary wives and concubines. Interviews with Mrs Henrietta Lawson and Archdeacon J. O. Lucas, Lagos, March and April 1974. See also In the Matter of the Estate of Herbert Samuel Heelas Macaulay, 13 West African Court of Appeals, 304.
93 Oluwoli, , Christian Marriage, 19–20.Google Scholar
94 Oluwoli[e], Mrs Isaac, The Training of Children (Lagos, n.d.), 22–23.Google Scholar
95 LS, 22 May 1901, 3, c. 2.
96 LWR, 21 January 1899, 5, c. I.
97 LS, 7 April 1915, 4, c. 3. See also LS, 25 January 1905, p. 3, c. I; 19 July 1911, S, c. I.
98 LS, 29 March 1899, 3, c. 2.
99 LS, 25 January 1905, 5, c. 2. See also LS, 7 December 1904, 4, c. I; 18 January 1905, 6, c. 3.
100 LWR, 8 December 1906, 7, c. 3; 19 January 1907, 3,c. I. See also LS, 27 July 1910, 6, c. 2.
101 LWR, 24 February 1906, 2, c. 3.
102 LS, 27 July 1910, 6, c. 2; 10 August 1910, 6, c. I.
103 LS, 22 January 1896, 2, c. 2.
104 LS, 5 April 1911, 6, c. 3; 19 July 1911, 4, c. I, 2; 28 February 1912, 4, c. 2.
105 LS, 7 April 1915, 4, c. 3.
106 Interview with Mrs Ayodele Smith, Ibadan, 1974. See also LS, 18 January 1915, 6, c. 3. ‘List of Important Farmers’, Moseley to Lyttleton, 21 June 1904, C.O. 147/170, contains information about R. A. Wright's farm.
107 Interview with Mrs Ebun Lucas, Lagos, February 1974.
108 LWR, 25 July 1908, 7, c. I.
109 LS, 8 December 1909, 4, c. 2.
110 LS, 1 January 1913, 6, c. 3 and 16 June 1915, 2, c. 2. I would like to thank Professor Gabriel O. Olusanya for permitting me to consult his unpublished paper, ‘Sisi Obasa – Philanthropist, Social Worker, Champion of Women's Rights and Cultural Nationalist’. Jeffries Johnson, Cheryl, ‘Nigerian Women and British Colonialism: the Yoruba Example with Selected Biographies’, Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University (1978), 97–131,Google Scholar contains a short biography of Mrs Obasa.
111 Interviews with Dr J. T. Nelson Cole, Iju, Lagos State, August 1974 and July 1980.
112 Interview with Mrs Ayodele Adeshegbin, Lagos, April 1974.
113 Aina Moore, Kofoworola, ‘The Story of Kofoworola Aina Moore, of The Yoruba Tribe, Nigeria’, in Margery, Perham, ed., Ten Africans (London, 1936), 331.Google Scholar The author contrasts her thorough education with the ‘finishing course’ her mother received abroad.
114 Interview with Dr Irene Thomas, Lagos, July 1974.
115 Vicinus, Martha, ‘Introduction’, in Martha, Vicinus, ed., A Widening Sphere: Changing Roles of Victorian Women (Bloomington, 1977), ix–xix.Google Scholar
116 Ayandele, , The Missionary Impact, 241–280;Google ScholarOmu, Fred I. A., Press and Politics in Nigeria, 1880–1937 (Atlantic Highlands, 1978), 107–115;Google ScholarKimble, , A Political History of Ghana, 506–528;Google ScholarSpitzer, Leo, The Creoles of Sierra Leone, Responses to Colonialism, 1870–1945 (Madison, 1974), 108–147.Google Scholar
117 See, for example, LS, 3 July 1907, 5, c. I; 22 March 1913, 4, c. I; and 2 July 1913, 4, c. 2.
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