SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The main purpose of the research was to collect and collate the relevant evidence of the legal status of Nigerian women in marriage and family life. The research was motivated by the relative lack of information on all aspects of women's life. Although a voluminous literature on the Nigerian peoples exists, references to women are incidental - necessary but insignificant adjuncts to discussions of and about men. No substantial legal work on Nigerian women has so far been published. It is in the absence of any comprehensive previous study of the legal status of women in marriage that the present work finds its justification. Women's status in the three types of legally recognized marriages in Nigeria is examined in detail. The thesis is divided into five parts. Part one, consisting of two chapters, is introductory, and covers the historical and legal background necessary for the proper appreciation of the topics discussed later. In part two, the status of women in customary law marriage is examined. The types of marriage, dowry, and the incidents and dissolution of customary marriage are dealt with in six chapters. The impact made on women's status by foreign forms of marriage is discussed in part three. Chapter IX covers marriage according to Islamic law, while women's status in statutory marriage in relation to the formation, incidents and dissolution of marriage forms the subject matter of chapters X and XI. The property rights of married women are dealt with in part four. In chapter XII, women's property rights during marriage are discussed, while in chapter XIII, their rights of succession to property are examined. Part five is the concluding part. The research methods embraced intensive reading in the relevant libraries and archives in London and Nigeria, supplemented by six months of field-work in selected areas of Nigeria.