Ifi Amadiume (born 23 April 1947) is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

poet, anthropologist and essayist. She joined the Religion Department of

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, US, in 1993.

Biography

Born in

Kaduna Kaduna is the capital city of Kaduna State, and the former political capital of Northern Region, Nigeria, Northern Nigeria. It is located in north-western Nigeria, on the Kaduna River. It is a trade Centre and a major transportation hub as the ...

to Igbo parents, Ife Amadiume was educated in Nigeria before moving to Britain in 1971. She studied at the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, gaining a BA (1978) and PhD (1983) in

social anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

respectively. She was a research fellow for a year at the

University of Nigeria The University of Nigeria, commonly referred to as UNN, is a federal university located in Nsukka, Enugu State, Eastern part of Nigeria. Founded by Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1955 and formally opened on 7 October 1960, the University of Nigeria has thr ...

Enugu Enugu ( ; ) is the capital city of Enugu State in Nigeria. It is located in southeastern part of Nigeria. The city had a population of 820,000 according to the 2022 Nigerian census. The name ''Enugu'' is derived from the two Igbo words ''Énú ...

, and taught and lectured in the UK, Canada, US and Senegal.

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let' ...

(ed.), "Ifi Amadiume", in ''

Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, ...

'' (Cape, 1992), pp. 632–637. Her fieldwork in Africa resulted in two ethnographic monographs relating to the Igbo: ''African Matriarchal Foundations'' (1987), and the award-winning ''Male Daughters, Female Husband'' (Zed Press, 1987). The latter is considered groundbreaking owing to the fact that a number of years before the articulation of queer theory, it argued that gender, as constructed in Western feminist discourse, did not exist in Africa before the colonial imposition of a dichotomous understanding of sexual difference. Her book of theoretical essays, ''Reinventing Africa'', appeared in 1998. Extracts from her work is included in the anthology ''

'' (1992). As a poet she participated in

Festac '77 Festac '77, also known as the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (the first was in World Festival of Black Arts#History, Dakar, 1966), was a major international festival held in Lagos, Nigeria, from 15 January 1977 to 12 F ...

, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, and her 1985 collection, ''Passion Waves'', was nominated for the

Commonwealth Poetry Prize The Commonwealth Poetry Prize was an annual poetry prize established in 1972, for a first published book of English poetry from a country other than the United Kingdom. It was initially administered jointly by the Commonwealth Institute and the Nat ...

. She won the Flora Nwapa Society Award for her 2006 book of poetry, ''Circles of Love''. She is on the advisory board of the Centre for Democracy and Development, a non-governmental organisation that aims to promote the values of

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

and

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

in Africa, particularly in the

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

n sub-region. Amadiume is widely regarded for her pioneering work in

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

discourse: "her work made tremendous contributions to new ways of thinking about sex and gender, the question of power, and women's place in history and culture". She has nevertheless attracted criticism for her "assumption that hefemale is necessarily equated with peace and love."C. T. Gibb
"Deconstructing African History"
''The Journal of African History'', vol. 40, no. 1 (1999), pp. 166–167.

Works

Poetry

* ''Passion Waves'', London: Karnak House, 1985, . * ''Ecstasy'', Longman Nigeria, 1995. Association of Nigerian Authors 1992 Literary Award for Poetry. * ''Returning'' * ''Circles of Love'', Africa World Press, 2006, * ''Voices Draped in Black'', Africa World Press, 2008,

Anthropology

* ''African Matriarchal Foundations: The Igbo Case'', London: Karnak House, 1987, * ''Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society'', London: Zed Press, 1987, . St. Martin’s Press, 1990. * ''Re-inventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion and Culture'', Interlink Publishing Group, 1997, * ''The Politics of Memory: Truth, Healing, and Social Justice'' (edited, with Abdullahi A. An-Na’im), London: Zed Books, 2000. * ''Daughters of the Goddess, Daughters of Imperialism: African Women Struggle for Culture, Power and Democracy'', London: Zed Books, 2000.

References

External links

BiographyCentre for Democracy and Development
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amadiume, Ifi 1947 births Igbo writers Nigerian writers Dartmouth College faculty Living people 21st-century Nigerian writers 20th-century essayists People from Kaduna Nigerian feminists Nigerian expatriates in the United States