Günter Dinhobl (Hrsg.): Sonderband 7. Eisenbahn/Kultur – Railway/Culture (2004)

III. Soziale Ordnungen / Social orders - Lisa A. Lindsay: Money, Marriage and Masculinity on the Colonial Nigerian Railway: A Case Study of Imperialism, Railways and Gender in Africa

Some senior men became prosperous and influential enough to be known as “big men.” “Bigness” was relative, and the term could apply to the lowliest household head as well as chiefs and politicians. A big man was fundamentally a patron in a patron- client system: he attracted dependents by his ability to provide for and protect them; in turn, they supported his claims to be “big” by contributing labor or productive resources, serving him personally, or enhancing his reputation for generosity."

In spite of the fact that the pinnacle of success was to head a large household, Yoruba gender relations were not based on a male breadwinner ideal. Men were supposed to take care of their dependents by contributing some food staples and other goods and services, but running a farm and investing in patron-client relations were high priorities as well. These extra-household expenses often meant that women were the ones to maintain domestic budgets, especially when men’s means were limited. Nearly all married women engaged in market trading, which gave them a way of providing for themselves and their children while at the same time maintaining flexible enough schedules to accommodate domestic obligations.11 12

Women became exasperated with husbands who were not financially responsible or who channeled too much of their incomes outside of the household. In divorce cases, their most common complaint was insufficient financial contributions." Marital tensions about money partly related to the fact that trading gave women readier access to cash than farming brought to men. This meant that husbands on occasion were compelled to borrow from their wives, who usually kept careful accounts of the transactions. On the other hand, when men did not rely on their wives’ money, or were able to supply their wives with cash support, this implied that they were particularly generous or loving or successful husbands. When men had money they could loan it to their wives or even pay what were called “begging fees” to make amends after offending wives or in-laws.

Money, Marriage and Masculinity on the Colonial Nigerian Railway

11 Barber, Karin: I Could Speak Until Tomorrow: Oriki, Women and the Past in a Yoruba Town. Washington, DC 1991, ch. 6.

12 Berry, Sara S.: Fathers Work for their Sons: Accumulation, Mobility, and Class Formation in an Extended Yoruba Community. Berkeley 1985, ch. 3; Fadipe, N. A.: The Sociology of the Yoruba, ed. by Francis Olu Okediji, Oladejo O. Okediji. Ibadan 1970 [orig. 1940], pp. 165, 305; Sudarkasa, Where Women Work, pp. 128 f.

" Nigeria, Annual Report of the Federal Social Welfare Department for the Year 1955-56 (Lagos: Government Printer, 1956), p.10 and innumerable divorce cases involving financial “neglect.”

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