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Ifi Amadiume

  • Skill Category: Writers
  • Present Address: New Hampshire, US
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Social media:

Biography

Born in Kaduna 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, University of London, gaining a BA (1978) and PhD (1983) in social anthropology respectively.[2] She was a research fellow for a year at the University of Nigeria, Enugu, and taught and lectured in the UK, Canada, US and Senegal. 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 Daughters of Africa (1992). As a poet she participated in Festac ’77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, and her 1985 collection, Passion Waves, was nominated for the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. 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, peace and human rights in Africa, particularly in the West African sub-region. Amadiume is widely regarded for her pioneering work in feminist 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 [the] female is necessarily equated with peace and love.

News / Ranking / Titbits / Awards

As a poet she participated in Festac ’77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, and her 1985 collection, Passion Waves, was nominated for the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. She won the Flora Nwapa Society Award for her 2006 book of poetry, Circles of Love.

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