from NWSA Journal Volume 12, Number 1

Revisiting "Woman-Woman Marriage ": Notes on Gikuyu Women

WAIRIMU NGARUIYA NJAMBI and WILLIAM E. O'BRIEN

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Studies of women who marry women in Africa are relatively few in number and generally dated, with few recent contributors. Based on interviews in central Kenya with Gikuyu 1 women involved in "woman-woman marriages," this study critiques the extant literature, focusing on two key issues. Most authors have perceived narrow conditions and functionalist purposes for explaining woman-woman marriages. Our interviewees typically express complex reasons for marrying women, suggesting that woman-woman marriage is a _exible option within which women may pursue a range of social, economic, political, and personal interests. We also critique the concept of "female husband," suggesting that while the "husband" role can be male or female, the term is not so easily separated from the male connotations it implies in western contexts.

I ask myself, 'What is it that women who are married to men have that I don't have? Is it land? I have land. Is it children? I have children. I don't have a man, but I have a woman who cares for me. I belong to her and she belongs to me. And I tell you, I don't have to worry about a man telling me what to do.'
--Ciru, married to Nduta

Introduction

The practice of women marrying women is somewhat common in certain societies in West Africa, Southern Africa, East Africa, and the Sudan (O'Brien 1977). Yet, besides a total lack of discussion in the popular media, what is typically called woman-woman marriage is the subject of a very small body of academic literature.2 Early scholarship is limited to the margins of several colonial-era ethnographies such as those of Evans-Pritchard, Herskovits, and Leakey. Leakey ([1938] 1977), for example, writing on Kenya's Gikuyu over six decades ago, devoted only two pages to woman-woman marriages out of a 1,400-page, three-volume, ethnography.3 More recent work remains equally marginal. Precious few writings address woman-woman marriage practices exclusively (e.g., Amadiume 1987; Burton 1979; Krige 1974; Oboler 1980); within others the subject remains little more than a footnote (e.g., Davis and Whitten 1987; Mackenzie 1990; Okonjo 1992). Since O'Brien's (1977) call for field research into woman-woman marriages more than two decades ago, there has been no study of Gikuyu woman-woman marriages, and few studies anywhere else. Our study attempts to revive this dormant discourse in relation to the Gikuyu.

Based on interviews with members of households containing woman-woman marriages, we attempt to provide images of this institution as practiced in central Kenya. Relying upon these women's voices, we present these Gikuyu woman-woman marriages in relation to major themes in the literature.4 On the one hand, we critique what appear to us as narrow and deterministic accounts of the circumstances under which woman-woman marriages take place, as presented by some authors. Particularly challenging to such accounts are these Gikuyu women's expressed reasons for marrying, all of which go beyond the limited scenarios previously suggested by others. Leakey, for example, in his work on the Gikuyu, provides only a single circumstance in which such marriages can occur. Conversely, our attention is on the ambiguities and flexibility inherent in women's decision to marry women. In addition, we point to the strong emotional bonds to one another expressed by these women, shedding critical light on the omissions of purely functionalist perceptions of woman-woman marriage relationships. We also challenge the generalized conceptualizations of women who initiate such marriages as "female husbands." That term, used by Leakey and virtually all other authors on the topic, regardless of cultural context, imposes a "male" characterization upon a situation where none necessarily exists. Emphasizing a term such as "female husband" prompts sex-role presumptions that do not fit these Gikuyu women, who bristle at the implied male-identification regarding their roles.

This study is based on interviews with women in eight households in a small village in Murang'a District in central Kenya. This case study approach does not attempt to portray a generalized picture of woman-woman marriages, but relies upon the women's situated words to explain why they have married women, allowing them to present their own illuminating perspectives (see Smith 1987). A more comprehensive survey of woman-woman marriages would be welcome as a means of answering questions regarding the prevalence of the practice as well as general demographic characteristics of such households, but was beyond the small scope and limited resources of this project.5

The Gikuyu are the largest ethnic group in Kenya, generally occupying the administrative unit of Central Province. "Kikuyuland," as it is commonly called, is bounded by Nairobi to the south and Mt. Kirinyaga (Mt. Kenya) to the north, the Rift Valley and Nyandarua Range (Aberdares) to the west, and the Mbeere Plain to the east. The Province is subdivided into three administrative districts: Kiambu District on the northern outskirts of Kenya's capital Nairobi; Nyeri District in the environs of Mt. Kenya; and Murang'a District, considered the spiritual heartland of the Gikuyu, in the center. Typically referred to as the Central Highlands region, the topography of much of the province is characterized by a series of ridges and valleys. This landscape has influenced the relatively decentralized customary political organization and land tenure rules among the Gikuyu, though such customary arrangements now co-exist with national political and state land tenure regimes (Mackenzie 1990; Muriuki 1974).

Most of the woman-woman marriage households in the study engaged in peasant farming for a living, dividing their agricultural production between cash crops and subsistence crops, a pattern typical of this rural setting. However, some of the women were engaged in other occupations including shop ownership, market trading of small commodities, and, in one case, matatu (mini bus) driving. The initiators of these relationships, who are called ahikania, were all landowners, and the households all had modest living standards similar to most others in the locality. Though the interviews took place in a rural setting, two of the subjects were residents of Nairobi, while another lived and worked in a nearby small urban center.

The majority of the ahikania were middle-aged at the time of marriage, and two were in their early 30s. All of the ahiki, the women who accepted the marriage offer, were between the ages of 20 and 30 when they were married. Education patterns of the subjects shows that most of the initiators of the marriages were educated through the traditional Gikuyu educational system of githomo gia ugikuyu: one had a high school education, one primary school. Almost all of the women who accepted the marriage offer had at least a primary school education. The wide range of age and education suggests to us that woman-woman marriage continues to be a relevant potential life-option for Gikuyu women.

Kuhikania, the process of getting married, and uhiki, the marriage ceremony, takes place in the same manner for woman-woman marriages as with woman-man marriages. In fact, there is no separate term to differentiate a woman-woman marriage from a woman-man marriage. Even the term which describes the marriage initiator, muhikania, is used to describe a woman or a man.6 As woman-woman marriages are not sanctioned by the various Christian churches in the region, kuhikania and uhiki continue to be performed through customary guidelines. The woman seeking a marriage partner, the muhikania, announces, either through a kiama (a customary civic organization) or through her own effort, her desire to find a marriage partner, or muhiki. Once the word is out, interested women go to visit, and once a suitable partner is found the muhikania's friends and family bring ruracio (gifts associated with uhiki) to those of the future wife and vice-versa. Uhiki takes place after this gift exchange and is performed with ceremonial blessings,termed irathimo, by elders of both families as the new wife moves into the muhikania's house.

Woman-Woman Marriages and Family Definitions

While woman-woman marriage may be familiar to most anthropologists, at least in passing, the topic remains relatively obscure to most people outside Africa. In family studies discourse, the topic is pushed to the extreme margins by an historical fixation on western nuclear families as a universal ideal. This normative presumption of nuclearity makes it very difficult for particular non-western family forms, such as the woman-woman marriages in this study, to be evaluated as anything but bizarre novelties. As Skolnick and Skolnick argue:

The assumption of universality has usually defined what is normal and natural both for research and therapy and has subtly in_uenced our thinking to regard deviations from the nuclear family as sick or perverse or immoral. (1989, 7)

Several features of western nuclear family ideology go to the root of its alleged functionality: the notions of monogamy and permanence, compulsory heterosexuality or opposite-sex relationships, and the perceived need for a father figure (Scanzoni et al. 1989). The Gikuyu woman-woman marriages we studied challenge this thinking on all counts. Not only are the adults involved in these marriages of the same sex, but also there may be more than two, and the form of the family is not necessarily permanent (as an ideal) once a union is made, but may change periodically. Furthermore, men are often absent from such relationships, though they may be involved in married relationships as spouses of women who initiate woman-woman marriages.

One example of such a relationship in our study is Kuhi's household. In this complex case, Kuhi (a woman) and Huta (a man) were originally married to each other. Later, they decided together that Huta would marry a second woman, Kara, creating a polygynous marriage.7 Later still, Kuhi entered into a woman-woman marriage with a woman named Wamba. Wamba came to that family as Kuhi's marriage partner, and to assist in raising the children of that household. In this particular case, Wamba could have a sexual relationship with Huta (whom she also informally regarded as a husband), and was not restricted from having sexual relationships with other men outside their household. Later in her life, while still married to Kuhi, Wamba married a woman named Wambui. The result is that this single household contains four marriages: two woman-man marriages and two woman-woman marriages. Such complex relationships do not break any "rules," expectations, or ideals of woman-woman marriages, but are an accepted aspect of such relationships in Gikuyu contexts.

Krige (1974), a central figure in the woman-woman marriage literature, focuses her critique on the common presumption of opposite-sex partners as the basis for all marriage. She suggests that definitions of marriage, even when accounting for cross-cultural difference, tend to emphasize the male-female relationship as paramount. Some authors have attempted to incorporate woman-woman marriages into this universal presumption by suggesting, as does Riviere (1971), that the woman who initiates a marriage to a woman is playing the role of a man and can therefore be counted as male. Hence, Riviere (1971) rejects the notion that woman-woman marriages prove exceptions to the idea of opposite sex partners as the basis for marriage. Krige argues, however, that the woman she refers to as the "female husband" has no necessary male characterization: to count "female husbands" as "men" imposes a western assumption that "husband" is automatically associated with maleness (1974). As we suggest later, in these Gikuyu woman-woman marriages, the so-called "female husbands" do not identify their roles with maleness, providing support for Krige's position. Unlike Krige, however, we question even the use of the term "female husband."

The idea of same sex relationships has spurred discussion of the sexuality of women in such marriages. A few texts imply that there may be sexual involvement in these marriages. Herskovits, for example, suggested that Dahomey woman-woman marriages sometimes involved sexual relations between the women (1937). Davis and Whitten go so far as to state that the main issue in explaining these relationships generally is over whether reasons for such partnerships are in fact "homoerotic" or strictly socio-economic (1987, 87). While sexuality was not directly discussed in our interviews, we can glean from the experience that this dichotomy makes little sense.8

In our Gikuyu locale, women in these relationships did not talk about sexual involvement with one another, although some did indicate sharing the same bed at night. However, in South Africa, Lovedu woman-woman marriages imply no sexual involvement according to Krige's (1974) suggestion, while in Kenya the Nandi eliminate even the possibility of a sexual relationship in such marriages according to Oboler (1976). At best, given the ambiguity in this Gikuyu context, one might borrow Obbo's assertion regarding the Kamba of Kenya that while there may be no clear indication of sexual relations among women in these marriages, we simply cannot dismiss the possibility (1976). We agree with Carrier that this possibility has been too quickly dismissed by some authors, and suggest that the subject deserves more careful investigation (1980). At the same time, we question the assumption that sexual contact is the only factor that determines whether one should be considered as "homosexual" (see Martin 1991).

On the other side of the dichotomy, to suggest that such relationships are based solely on socio-economic factors like access to land and other resources or lineage ignores the close emotional ties experienced by these women. Such functionalist views have strongly influenced historical, and still-held stereotypes of African marriages generally. African family relations, compared to the privileged, western nuclear family form, are often portrayed as relatively primitive since they are presumed to be based on practical considerations alone, such as access to resources, as opposed to having a significant emotional aspect (e.g., Albert 1971; Ainsworth 1967; Beeson 1990; Kilbride and Kilbride 1990; Le Vine 1970). The women interviewed help undermine such rigid notions, demonstrating clear emotional commitment to the women they marry. For example, one participant, Nduta, proclaims her feelings for her muka wakwa, or co-wife, Ciru:9

No one dare to disturb my co-wife in any way, and especially knowing what I would do to them. No one dares point a finger at her. I tell her to proudly proclaim her belongingness to me, and I to her. . . . What I hate most is when people come to gossip to me about my co-wife's whereabouts or whom they have seen her with. I don't care as long as she is here for me now and even after I am gone. . . . Regardless of what she does, she is here because of me. Then why should I tell her what to do and what not to do. She is a free woman. And that is what I want her to be. So, when they come here to gossip, I tell them to leave her alone. She is mine and she is here on my property, not yours. . . . She who sincerely loved me and I loved back, let her stay mine. It is she who shall enshrine and take over this household when my time comes. (in interview)

In addition to expressing love (wendo) for Ciru, Nduta also alludes to the fact that Ciru is not restricted from having sexual encounters with men outside the woman-woman marriage relationship. Such liaisons, however, in no way undermine Ciru's reciprocated love and appreciation for Nduta. In a separate interview, Ciru, who has been married to Nduta for over 25 years, presents her deep feelings for her marriage partner:

I know that some people do talk negatively about our marriage. Although honestly I have never caught anybody personally. But I ask myself, "What is it that women who are married to men have that I don't have? Is it land?" I have land. "Is it children?" I have children. I don't have a man, but I have a woman who cares for me. I belong to her and she belongs to me. And I tell you, I don't have to worry about a man telling me what to do. Here, I make all the decisions for myself. Nduta likes women who are able to stand on their own, like herself. I do what I want and the same goes for Nduta. Now I'm so used to being independent, and I like that a lot. I married Nduta because I knew we could live together well. She is a very wonderful woman with a kind heart. (in interview)10

While functionalist interpretations perceive African family relationships in terms of the purposes they serve in the functioning of a society, our interviewees highlight the complex and intertwined aspects of relationships that one would expect to find in a discussion of any committed, caring marriage partnership, undermining prevailing notions of the non-emotional African "Other."

One other point in the ideology of the nuclear family that remains strong, even among scholars, but is challenged by the woman-woman marriage data, is the alleged need for a father figure to maintain "functionality" (Cheal 1991). Regardless of how diversified family lifestyles become, the presence of a father, whether played by the biological father or a father figure, is very much preferred and privileged over his absence. Long ago, Malinowski (1930) wrote that "in every society a child must have a socially recognized father to give the child a status in the community" (in Skolnick and Skolnick 1989, 8), and "illegitimacy" was considered to be a sign of social breakdown. Illegitimacy still is regarded as such by many, and there is a resurgence of this ideology in the family studies literature, as well as in popular family discourse (Scanzoni et al. 1989). The presence of a father is apparently not so important in many woman-woman marriages. During interviews, some women downplayed the importance of men in their households. Of the eight households in our study, six did not include permanent relationships with male partners. Among these six households, it seemed clear based on our interviews that male involvement with children, beyond procreation, was restricted, even identities of designated male genitors could not be revealed. Ciru's comments support the view that males are viewed principally as friends and/or sex partners with no claim on children or property. What does she desire from men? Not much, apparently, except perhaps sex, and she can get that when she wants on her own terms:

I have freedom to have sex with any man that I desire, for pleasure and for conceiving babies. And none of these men can ever settle here at our home or claim the children. They can't. They are not supposed to, and they know that very well. They come and go. (in interview)

Nduta's comments present the same lack of interest in having a man around as the ideal situation, expressing the independence provided by keeping men out of the household:

We have no interest with a man who wants to stay in our home. We only want the arume a mahutini [men met in "the bush," a term for "male genitors"] -- meaning those who are met only for temporary needs. The meaning for this is for a woman to be independent enough so that she can make her own homestead shrine. Ciru sees also that I myself do not keep a man here. What for? To make me miserable? If I kept a man here who will then start asking me for money to buy alcohol, where would I find such money? No, I won't agree to live like that. It is better for one to look after oneself. It is better for one to look after oneself. (in interview, emphasis added)

Another case that downplays the importance of a male presence is that of Mbura, who had been married to a man, though he had died over 40 years ago. She was more recently married to a woman, Nimu, who subsequently left after a couple of years. Mbura was later married to a woman named Kabura on the last day of this fieldwork. Mbura responds as well to the question of the place of men in the woman-woman marriage household, adding that, to her, men are not trustworthy, though she still appreciates their temporary presence:

Men, even the good friends, know that they are not welcome here. They are here just for a visit and to leave. Whatever they come here to do, they must leave. They cannot be trusted. That is not good. One is given respect and that's all. (in interview)

Despite the fact that the other two households in the study did have men present as partners of one of the ahikania, or marriage initiators, the need for a "father figure," an ideal of most heterosexual nuclear families is clearly not a universal reality for all family situations.

Beyond Common Explanations

An overview of the literature on woman-woman marriages in African societies might tempt a reader to make three intertwined cross-cultural generalizations. The first generalization regards access to children. Sudarkasa suggests that the basis for woman-woman marriage, as with African marriages generally, is the desire "to acquire rights over a woman's childbearing capacity" ([1986] 1989, 155). That is, the woman who initiates a marriage seeks access to children that she herself does not have. Rights over childbearing capacity are often linked to a second general theme: that children are desired by such women as a means of transferring property through inheritance. Krige suggests that woman-woman marriages contracted "as a last resort in raising a male heir to perpetuate the name and inherit the property of a man . . . seems to be its most common form" (1974, 29). Connected to both general circumstances is the third common assertion that women's "barrenness" is a fundamental factor prompting woman-woman marriages. In fact, one of the most widely held general assumptions, as Burton points out, is that woman-woman marriages must involve women who cannot themselves have children (1979). Evans-Pritchard's account of the Nuer suggests that almost exclusively it is "barren" women who make such marriages (1951). Langley, speaking of the Nandi, said that three types of women practiced woman-woman marriage: those childless married women who are too old for childbearing, childless widows, or a childless wife unable to conceive (1979; see also Talbot [1926] 1969, and Oboler 1980). Finally, Leakey asserts that among the Gikuyu it is childless widows beyond childbearing age who marry women in order to continue their husbands' lineages ([1938] 1977).

Leakey's description of Gikuyu woman-woman marriage practices encompasses all three generalizations ([1938] 1977). He claims that woman-woman marriages occur when a man leaves property to a widow beyond childbearing age, when no other male inheritor is present (such as a brother, half-brother, son). This widow is then expected to marry a woman who would bear her a son with the help of a designated genitor, who has no rights over the children or property.

By offering such a narrow scenario, Leakey denies flexibility and variation regarding the circumstances under which Gikuyu woman-woman marriages take place. Positing such limited "rules" for woman-woman marriages can be hazardous not only when applied across cultures, but also when applied within a single culture or locale, as our Gikuyu examples demonstrate. Gikuyu women in our relatively small study sample, living within a very proscribed spatial setting, expressed multiple and heterogeneous reasons for marrying women, defying the circumscribed explanations provided by Leakey, as well as others across the African continent. The women initiating these marriages pursued various objectives: companionship to appease loneliness, to be remembered after death, to have children to increase the vibrancy of the household, to fulfill social obligations in accordance with indigenous spiritual beliefs, and not least to avoid direct domination by male partners in a strongly patriarchal society, including men's control of both the women's behavior and household finances.

Our study does not deny the inability to bear children, inheritance, or lineage as partial explanations for some, or even many, Gikuyu woman-woman marriages. Expressed reasons for marrying women in our study did often include the desire for the muhikania to have a child to inherit property and/or to perpetuate her family lineage. However, such explanations are never offered as the exclusive reasons, nor are they offered by all women. Such women appear to have much greater latitude in choosing how and why they participate in woman-woman marriages. For example, situations that defy Leakey's account include those in which women who are already married to men (who are still alive) and have their own children then initiate uhiki, or marriage, with a woman, as in the above described case of Kuhi (married to Wamba).

Mbura's explanation for kuhikia, or marrying a woman superficially resembles Leakey's account, since she expresses a desire for children that she herself cannot bear, as indicated in the following statement:

I married Nimu because I could never have children myself. I did not even give birth to children who later died, nor did I experience any miscarriage. I remained the way I came out of my mother's womb. And now I'm getting old and there is no way I can sit, think and decide to have a baby because my time is over, unless Ngai's [God's] miracle happens to me [she laughs].11 I think a lot about how my husband left me and how I can't have a baby. That is why a cry of a baby makes me happy and sad at the same time. One has to realize how special a child is. . . . So, when I think about all these things: how I can't have a child, how my husband died and left me nothing, and how I have this illness, I ask Ngai wenda mdathima na mutumia ungi [God, please bless me with another woman]. . . . "Won't you please send that woman here to my home." Who knows, that woman might . . . give me a child. . . . Don't you see when I die I will be satisfied that I have left somebody in that home, who shall continue and revive that home? (in interview)

While she seems to portray a conventional account--marrying a woman to have a child to continue a lineage--Mbura's explanation is more complicated, indicating a desire for children beyond their role as inheritors of land and name. This is not to suggest, however, that lineage is not important in Mbura's decision to marry a woman. But the lineage she seeks to perpetuate is not necessarily her husband's, as Leakey and others would argue. Rather, Mbura is most interested in being remembered herself, as she indicates in the following statement:

If I were to die even as we speak, that would be the end of it. I would be completely forgotten. No one would ever mention my name. That is simply because there would be no one to carry on my name. Since my husband died he is still remembered by many. But the key reason why he is still remembered is because of me. Someone may pass through here and demand to know "Whose home is that?" Then turn around and ask, "What about the next one?" One would reply, "Did you know so and so? This is his wife's home." Now do you see that the reason he is being remembered is because of me? Because I can be seen. But if I were to die, who will make me be remembered?. . . That is why the idea of marrying another woman came to me. Even now as we speak, if Ngai would bless me with another woman I would appreciate her.

Mbura continues, suggesting that companionship to appease loneliness is another strong motivation for marrying a woman:

Let me tell you, I'm not the only one or the first one to marry a woman. And certainly, there are many others out there like me. I'm all alone just like that. No husband, no child. Just poor me. No one is here to keep me company or even to ask me "Did you sleep well?," except for occasional visits by some people like those you met here the other day. (in interview)

While Leakey's explanation may partly account for Mbura's case, Nduta's case clearly has emerged under a set of circumstances not fully considered by Leakey. First of all, Nduta's decision is the result of women's collaboration, namely between Nduta and her mother-in-law. Nduta married a man named Ndungu with whom she had three sons and a daughter. However, early in their marriage, her husband and their three sons were poisoned to death by some people in her husband's clan who wanted their land. After their deaths, Nduta's mother-in-law advised her to marry a woman as a way of protecting their family and land from male relatives who were trying to take her land, a sign of the tenuous hold that women have over land in Gikuyu society (Mackenzie 1990). Rather than being victimized by men within their family, Nduta's case shows how women collaborate to look out for one another to protect women's interests:

When a woman is left alone, she should not be frightened, but must be brave. You must make yourself a queen, otherwise, be a coward and everything you stand for will be taken away from you by those who are hungry for what you have. . . . If you were a woman, and you had properties, you will be the first one to be stolen from by the men who thought they were more important than women. So, she must act. . . . I had a lot of properties and if it were not for karamu [the "pen"] that cheated me out of many of them, I would still have a lot.12 I lost many of them because I was a woman and I had no sons. So, my mother-in-law advised me to marry my own woman because all my people had been finished [i.e., killed] except for my daughter. And that is the piece of advice that I myself chose to follow. So I married her. When I married her [Ciru], she said "It is better to live with a woman. I'm tired of men." I responded, "Is that so?! I love that." We became good friends and partners and thereafter I gave ruracio to her family. (in interview)

Mackenzie, in discussing gender and land rights in Murang'a District, also describes woman-woman marriage as a strategy for Gikuyu women to prevent male relatives from stealing land from them (1990). She suggests that such women who marry other women appropriate custom as a source of legitimation, attempting to manipulate customary tenure rules to their advantage. Gikuyu land tenure is complex, given the coexistence of customary and state rules. Customary tenure in Murang'a District is based on the mbari, or sub-clan system in which local mbari elders control and allocate use rights to land. While during the 1950s and 1960s, colonial and independent governments implemented a system of individal land ownership, individual title did not fully supplant the mbari system. Both tenure systems are utilized based upon circumstance and interests, and are often manipulated to the advantage of men and detriment of women (Mackenzie 1990).

Compared to both Nduta's case and Mbura's, Mackenzie discusses a woman (referred to as "WG") who, "being without sons, chose to 'marry' a woman on her husband's death to prevent her brother-in-law from snatching their holding of 5.6 ha" (1990, 624). Mackenzie's account acknowledges these women as agents who are able to resist the strong patriarchal tendencies of their society. However, despite this important contribution, Mackenzie's brief account describes the circumstances of woman-woman marriages largely in terms provided by Leakey, limiting the option to widows who marry women to provide male inheritors. Thus, Mackenzie does not present other factors expressed by our interviewees, such as Mbura's emphasis on loneliness, desire for children, and a wish to live in a vibrant household.

While Nduta does not claim loneliness as a factor in her decision, her explanation also diverges somewhat from Mackenzie's, as well as Leakey's, scenario. Nduta's case is similar to Mackenzie's and Leakey's images of woman-woman marriage presented by those authors in that she had been married to a man who died and she had no sons (they died as well). However, upon marrying a woman after her husband's death, she asserts that she could have passed her land to her daughter, Ceke. Indeed, Ceke was given half of Nduta's land. While Nduta explained that she could have left all of her land to Ceke, she decided against doing so because she did not want to constrain her daughter with the social expectations that "staying at home" entails:

. . I didn't want my daughter, Ceke, to stay here. I gave her freedom to fly and land wherever she wanted. That is the same freedom that brought me here. So why would I want to hold her here? Women like to go far. They don't like to be held down at their birth home. (in interview)

While the issue of inheritance is important in Nduta's case, related to her difficult struggle as a woman to maintain control over land resources, Nduta adds an important dimension drawn from Gikuyu mythology. This reason becomes clear when we hear Nduta, who is about 90 years old, speak of her dead sons who, she says, visit her in her sleep to thank her for marrying a woman:

Roho wa anake akwa makwrire [the spirits of my dead sons] come to visit me to show appreciation for what I have done for them. One time they came and told me, "Thank you, mother for marrying Ciru for us. We are very grateful for bringing us dead people back home again. We are grateful indeed. For that we will always be watching over you. Nothing will ever harm you. We will take care of you." And then I would say, "If I didn't marry Ciru for them, who else would I have married her for?" Then the other day they came to tell me that I have got only five years to live; that I'm going to die soon [she laughs hard]. I said, "Is that so? Thanks a lot and may Ngai be praised!" That is fine for me. I need rest. (in interview)

Nduta's sons died long ago, very young, and had not been able to accomplish much in their lives. Some Gikuyu still believe that if someone dies suddenly, his or her life activities can be carried out as if they are still alive so that their opportunities would not be denied. Thus, when their mother married Ciru, she married her in the same way her sons would have married had they lived. In this sense, even though these sons were already dead, they feel quite at home because of Ciru's presence.

While Nduta's and Mbura's cases push the limits of Leakey's narrow inheritance-focused account of woman-woman marriage, the case of Nduta's daughter, Ceke, falls largely outside the scope of his scenario. Ceke's decision to marry a woman appears to be heavily influenced by the example set by her mother, who acted as a role model. However, unlike her mother she was at the same time still married and living with her husband, Ngigi, together with her daughter, Wahu, along with Wahu's six children. Having grown attached to Wahu's children, Ceke was insecure about whether Wahu would move away with them, leaving Ceke in a household without children. Ceke's marriage to a woman (Ngware) was thus viewed as a way Ceke could have more children. Ceke's intention was that her wife, Ngware, would have children with her husband, Ngigi. After having a child, however, Ngware left the household. Ceke and Wahu (her daughter) then reached an agreement that the children would be welcome to remain with Ceke even if Wahu decides to leave:

Although my daughter was living with me at the time, and had all these children that you see here, I did not know what to expect from her. I did not know whether one day I will wake up and find her gone with all her children that I personally have raised and who actually call me maitu [mother], or whether she had already made up her mind that she will never leave. I made that move of wanting to find out when my wife [Ngware] left us. After that, my husband and I made an agreement with Wahu that she will live with us permanently and that if she will ever feel like leaving, her children that we have raised as our own will be welcome to remain with us where they are already guaranteed good care as well as land settlement when they grow up. In any case, this is her land too, you know. Since we have got no other children, everything we have belongs to her and her children and to my other son borne by my wife before she left. (in interview)

While this example supports the general claim that women marry women to acquire rights over childbearing capacity (Sudarkasa [1986] 1989), Ceke's decision is not linked to property inheritance, "barrenness," or widowhood: the three essential criteria for a Gikuyu woman-woman marriage, according to Leakey. Like Mbura, Ceke's strong desire for children was an important factor in her decision. The option of woman-woman marriage as a means to fulfill this desire was immediately apparent, given the influence and example of her mother, Nduta.

Finally, we have already alluded to the more overtly political motivations for marrying women expressed by some of our interviewees. The relative freedom from male control, which appears to be built into Gikuyu woman-woman marriages, is expressed most forcefully by Ciru and Nduta in previous quotations. Recall, for example, Nduta's conversation with her then wife-to-be, Ciru, who commented, "I'm tired of men," to which Nduta responded, "I love that." And Nduta's comment about why she doesn't live with a man, stating "What for? To make me miserable?" Recall also these women's comments regarding the sexual freedom they find in these relationships. And finally, recall the opening quote in which Ciru states that her woman-woman marriage allows her to avoid having "a man telling me what to do."

These examples demonstrate that flexibility, heterogeneity, and ambiguity appear as guiding principles in explaining such marriages, rather than being governed by somewhat rigid social rules, as the literature so often implies. However, contributions to the woman-woman marriage literature have continually, since the early-twentieth century, presented these relationships in functionalist terms. Cheal suggests that functionalist explanations continue to be perceived as having a "subterranean" influence on the study of families, describing such relationships in terms of "the ways in which they meet society's needs for the continuous replacement of its members" (1991, 4). Our alternative has been to present the institution of woman-woman marriage, at least in the Gikuyu context, as a flexible option available to women within which they may pursue any number of interests: political, social, economic, and personal.

What's in a Name? Rethinking the "Female Husband"

Another area of concern for us in the literature is the unquestioned use of the term "female husband," the general term used to describe women who initiate woman-woman marriages. Mackenzie (1990), in the above section, uses the term to describe such women in the Gikuyu context, as did Leakey ([1938] 1977) many decades earlier. Regarding the Nandi in Kenya, Oboler defines the term "female husband" as the woman who initiates the woman-woman marriage, as a woman "who pays bridewealth for, and thus marries (but does not have sexual

intercourse with) another woman, and by doing so, becomes the social and legal father of her wife's children" (1980, 69). Evans-Pritchard (1951), Herskovits (1937), and Seligman and Seligman ([1932] 1965) all connect the female husband to these gendered characteristics. More recently, Oboler opens her paper with a quote from one of her female informants:

No, I don't [carry things on my head]. That is a woman's duty and nothing to do with me. I became a man and I am a man and that is that. Why should I assume women's work anymore? (1980, 69)

Oboler argues that among the Nandi, male and female sex-roles are so strictly divided, especially regarding property management issues, that female husbands are literally defined by others and themselves as men in order to resolve the sex-role contradiction.

Not surprisingly, the major debate regarding the term "female husband" is over the male social traits often attributed to such women. Some have criticized the emphasis placed on gendered assumptions regarding sex-roles. For example, Krige suggests that one cannot assume that female husbands generally are taking on male roles (1974). Rather, one must carefully study sex roles in particular societies. For the Lovedu, Krige points out that numerous roles involve both males and females. Oyewumi, writing about the Yoruba, argues that local terms for both "husband" and "wife" are not gender-specific since both males and females can be husbands or wives (1994). As a result, as Burton (1979, 69) contends, the assumption that "husband" and "male" are automatically connected "confounds roles with people" since "husband" is a role that can be carried out by women as well as by men. Amadiume (1987), Burton (1979), Krige (1974), Oyewumi (1994), and Sudarkasa (1986) all suggest that in many societies, "masculinity" and "femininity" are not as clearly defined categories as they are in the West; presuming that "husband" automatically connotes "male" and that "wife" connotes "female" imposes western sex-role presumptions on other societies, ignoring local ambiguity regarding these roles (Sudarkasa [1986] 1989).

While our study supports views that women initiating marriages are not characterized as "male," we question the continued use of the term "female husband" to describe such women. Burton (1979), Krige (1974), and Sudarkasa (1986), while criticizing those who confuse social roles with genders, implicitly suggest that the term "female husband" is adequate and that the only task is to transform its connotative meaning.

We argue that the term "female husband" should be reconsidered on the grounds that the male connotation of "husband" cannot be so easily disposed of; just as the term "wife" conjures an association with "female," so does "husband" with "male." Especially in contexts where gender roles are ambiguous, this implicit association will easily mislead readers to impose western presumptions upon woman-woman marriages. Thus, in our view, efforts to theoretically disassociate gender from such role-centered terms--like "husband" and "wife" in this instance--imposed originally by western researchers in colonial contexts, will in a practical way continue to impose a male/female dichotomy.

Some early colonial-era ethnographers might be interpreted as ambivalent and uncomfortable in the application of the term "female husband." Talbot ([1926] 1969) and Herskovits, for example, both write the concept as female "husband" (1937). That approach to the term "husband" (in quotes) seems to acknowledge that the term applies only imprecisely, even problematically, to women who initiate marriages to women, and is used only for lack of a more appropriate term. Others' use of the term, such as that of Evans-Pritchard (1945; 1951) and Leakey ([1938] 1977), shed the ambivalence of previous ethnographers, thereby legitimizing the term female husband as a concept for use by future researchers.

For most, however, the male connotation of the term was with little doubt intended in most early writings, given the apparently widespread presumption of male identification with the roles of such women. The functionalist perspectives of the times presumed a clear, gendered division of roles in family settings, making it difficult to apply any concept but "husband" to what appeared to them as the dominant role in these relationships. We acknowledge that there is nothing essential about the term "husband" that necessitates domination and control. But we also acknowledge, as does Oyewumi, that historically the term "husband" in most western contexts is normally associated with the role of "breadwinner," "decision-maker," and "head of household" (1994). We feel that the use of the term "female husband" serves to mask the relatively egalitarian woman-woman marriage relationships we encountered. Sudarkasa even acknowledges that, generally, there is no necessary subordination in woman-woman marriages, and that in many societies many aspects of decision-making and control over resources are parallel and complementary (1986).

The relative absence of domination, for example, is evident in the terms the women used to describe one another. The women interviewed never used the Gikuyu term for "husband" (muthuri) to describe their partners. Instead, they consistently referred to each other using the terms mutumia wakwa and muka wakwa, which when used by these women translates as "co-wife," or muiru wakwa, which translates as "partner in marriage," indicating the mutual respect and relative equality between them. While most women in our study who initiate the marriages tended to be women with social influence and/or relatively greater material wealth, within the marriages both women interpreted their relationship as semiotically and materially equal.

Furthermore, women in our study rejected any male-association with their position of initiator of the marriage. None of the women interviewed indicated that they aspired to be like "males." What follows is Nduta's perception of herself in relation to the seeming "maleness" of her marital position:

I stayed at Nairobi for three weeks at my daughter's house, and when I came back they were joyfully shouting "She is back!" And because I brought them bread just like other men who work in the city do around here, the children started shouting, "Here comes our baba [father]! Our baba has arrived! Our baba has arrived!" (she laughs). I called them ndungana ici.13 "Who told you that I am your baba?" (she laughs again). So I asked them, "Is that what you see me as? I'm not your baba. But thank you for appreciating that I can also bring bread home." Therefore, even when you see me quarrel with them sometimes, I don't store those quarrels in my heart. I brought this family together not to destroy it but to care for it. (in interview)

Nduta is being teased by her children, who called her baba, because of the bread she brought from the city, just as men with urban jobs do when they visit their rural homes, not because her position as initiator of the marriage automatically connotes male characteristics.

As a tentative alternative to "female husband" we have been using the phrase "marriage initiator" to describe women in that position. However, we acknowledge that such description can be problematic, especially if it is used to focus more attention on the "initiator" at the expense of the agency of the one "initiated" into the marriage. We also acknowledge that descriptions of such concepts will differ from one culture to another.

Avenues for Future Research and Conclusions

This article addresses the neglected topic of woman-woman marriages in Africa, relying upon Gikuyu women to speak about issues that have lain dormant for a number of years. Our effort has been to challenge researchers on the topic to rethink the ways in which such relationships have been represented up to this point.

Future research must rely more heavily on the voices of Gikuyu women to investigate this subject, not necessarily as a "better" and "authentic" way to tell these women's stories, but also as a constant reminder that these women have typically not had opportunities to speak and tell their own stories. Research must become sensitized to the idea that local voices relate the complexities, ambiguities, and heterogeneity involved in practices of woman-woman marriage, and in the analysis of how these practices take place and how the women involved perceive them. We do not suggest that because these Gikuyu examples suggest flexibility, ambiguity, and heterogeneity that all African woman-woman marriages are the same. Rather, we raise the possibility that earlier explanations import assumptions that obscure different interpretations.

A number of issues regarding Gikuyu woman-woman marriage remain. Our study did not investigate, for example, the prevalence of such marriages among the Gikuyu. Early in the twentieth century, Leakey simply stated that such relationships were "not uncommon," while our own sampling in the early-1990s (perhaps surprisingly) uncovered eight households within a small locale ([1938] 1977). A census of these households might show woman-woman marriages to be more common and persistent than the silence in the literature would imply. Oboler's survey among a Nandi community in Kenya's Rift Valley suggested that three percent of households contained woman-woman marriages (1980). However, her small sample does not necessarily mean that this rate of woman-woman marriages is the same for Nandi society generally nor does it say much of anything about other societies containing woman-woman marriages.

Another issue that needs further exploration is the emergence and transformation of Gikuyu woman-woman marriages during the 500 year history of the Gikuyu. Muriuki offers evidence that the matriarchal origins of Gikuyu society had been superseded by patrilineal and patrilocal social and political organization by the mid-seventeenth century (1974). It is certainly not clear, but perhaps Gikuyu woman-woman marriage is a remnant of a matriarchal past. While nothing has been written of origins, more recent twentieth-century social transformations have without doubt profoundly impacted practices of woman-woman marriage. As with other indigenous practices, Christian churches have severely and unfairly questioned the morality of woman-woman marriages, and have, in turn, shaped public opinion. For example, recent baptism guidelines from the Catholic Church in Kenya include their policy on, in their words, "women who 'marry' other women:"

In regard to this traditional practice, the first step is to insist that this arrangement be given up completely and that meantime [sic] all those involved, plus any other persons directly responsible for the arrangement, be denied the sacraments. After the women have separated completely, each one will be helped separately and any infants will be baptised. (Kenya Catholic Bishops 1991, 21)

Such official condemnation impacts public perception by suggesting that such marriages represent an affront to Christian values.14 To our knowledge, no opinion poll has been conducted among the Gikuyu, a predominantly Christian ethnic group, which might give a clear indication of public attitudes. Such a poll has been conducted in Nigeria, where Okonjo suggests that 93.5 percent of 246 Igbo women surveyed disapproved of woman-woman marriage, a perception undoubtedly influenced by decades of Church pressures (1992). Similar disapproval in our study locale might be evident in that at least some households appear to face a certain amount of open hostility coming mostly in the form of teasing. For example, Nduta complains about the teasing she sometimes endures from neighbors, some of whom refer to her as a "man" (muthuri) simply because she is married to a woman:

. . for these people laugh at me saying that I am a man. I'm not a man. I'm neither a man nor a woman. That is who I am, like a decent being. So I tell them. I have to be strong. Well, I'm not a man. (in interview)

Perhaps twentieth-century social changes, which have seriously dislocated, though not completely eliminated many indigenous institutions, fosters an ambivalence toward woman-woman marriage as a practice that is simultaneously acceptable, yet also incurs hostility. The acceptability of woman-woman marriages is evident in the fact that despite some hostility, these Gikuyu woman-woman marriages are in no way secretive or hidden. All of the women in the study underwent a marriage ceremony to affirm their relationships, a ceremony no different than that for an opposite sex, indigenous (i.e., non-Christian) Gikuyu marriage. Like other marriages, woman-woman marriages are facilitated by clan elders from both women's families (rather than priests or ministers), and involve an exchange of gifts between both families as well as dances and food. Such marriages are clearly not "underground" in any way.

Silence among feminists regarding the issue of woman-woman marriages is another issue. By now, it has been well documented that well-meaning feminists from western contexts have often represented "Third World women" in problematic ways. A common view is that of a linear women's emancipation, suggesting that societies have moved through evolutionary stages from women's oppression toward liberation, with western feminists having made the greatest progress and "Third World women" still mired in more overt forms of oppression. As a result, Third World women, a problematic category in itself, are often described by feminists "in terms of the underdevelopment, oppressive traditions, high illiteracy, rural and urban poverty, religious fanaticism, and 'overpopulation'" that appear to rule their lives in relation to those in the relatively liberated West (Mohanty 1991, 5). Such a linear view ignores what in many cases are long histories of women's empowerment and resistance, demonstrated here by woman-woman marriages.

By marrying women, these Gikuyu women are clearly radically disrupting the male domination that operates in their everyday lives. Their stories may begin with land and struggles over material resources, but they are also stories of love, commitment, children, sexual freedom, vulnerability, and empowerment. The "implosion" of all these things makes these women's stories unique and all the more compelling to feminists who are constantly searching for unique practices of feminism that resemble, but are not engineered by, western feminism (Haraway 1997).

Wairimu Njambi is a Ph.D. Candidate in Science and Technology Studies at Virginia Tech, and teaches courses there in the Women's Studies and Black Studies programs. Originally from Kenya, her current research and teaching interests include social/cultural studies of science, technology, and medicine, feminist studies of technoscience and medicine, critical studies of race and sexuality, postcolonial studies, and the theorization of women's bodies. Correspondence should be sent to Njambi at Center for Science and Technology Studies, 131 Lane Hall, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0227; wnjambi@vt.edu

William O'Brien is Assistant Professor of Geography at Radford University, where he teaches the regional geography of Africa and Asia and environmental studies. His research and teaching interests include issues of postcoloniality and globalization, discourses on Third World environments and development, and participatory sustainable development planning in Africa. Correspondence should be sent to O'Brien at Department of Geography, 201 Brown Hall, P.O. Box 6938, Radford University, Radford, VA 24142; wobrien@runet.edu

Notes

1. "Gikuyu" is the indigenous spelling of what is commonly referred to as "Kikuyu."

2. Other terms include "woman-marriage" and "woman-to-woman marriage."

3. Moreover, he apparently did not even get his information on the topic from women involved in such relationships. Discussing his data-collection strategy, Leakey indicates that he relied solely upon male informants to learn about the topics discussed, presumably including woman-woman marriages.

4. The names of interviewees have been changed to protect their identities.

5. This research was originally part of a graduate thesis project in Family Studies. The interviews took place between May and August of 1992.

6. Note that multiple Gikuyu terms seem to describe the same concept. Choice of term depends upon the context in which the concept is employed. For example, while "marriage initiator" in one context is expressed as muhikania, the plural form of the concept is ahikania.

7. It is important to acknowledge that in most cases polygynous marriages among the Gikuyu come as a result of negotiation between the first wives and husbands.

8. While the sexuality of the women involved in woman-woman marriages is clearly one of the most interesting unresolved issues on the topic, the Human Subjects Review Board reviewing the research proposal decided that the topic was too sensitive, and therefore declared such questions off limits.

9. Interviews were conducted in the Gikuyu language and were translated by the primary author.

10. Miario miuru, or "negative talk," that is mentioned by Ciru in this quotation points to fundamental changes that have occurred in Gikuyu society over the course of the twentieth century with colonialist religious and educational training. These changes are reflected in complex local attitudes toward indigenous practices and are discussed briefly in the last section of this paper.

11. Ngai commonly translates as "God," although the Gikuyu term carries no gendered connotation.

12. Karamu, or "the pen," refers to the use of title deeds (by those who could read and write--mainly men) that conferred private ownership of property since the 1960s. This private ownership was started under colonial rule and undermined (though it did not eliminate completely) more customary land tenure rules (Mackenzie 1990).

13. Ndungana ici is a derogatory term that translates most benignly as "You Stink!" However, the term also has sexual connotations, and is only used by elders to criticize misbehavior of younger people.

14. Related to condemnations of woman-woman marriage practices are official condemnations of homosexuality as expressed in recent homophobic statements by Presidents Moi of Kenya, Museveni of Uganda, and Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who referred to homosexuals and homosexual practices in terms such as "scourge," "abominable acts," and "lower than pigs and dogs" respectively. Some in Africa argue that the lack of local African terms for "homosexual" is evidence that homosexuality is foreign to Africa. However, in the Gikuyu language there is no term for "heterosexual" either. Should this be taken as evidence that sexual relationships between women and men do not exist? Among the Gikuyu, male-to-male sexual contact is traditionally prohibited; but prohibition suggests to us that such practices are already in place.

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