Iko Concubinage

Photo: Wall painting on an Ekpe house in Umuajata, Olokoro (Umuahia) painted by an Anang artist. G. I. Jones, c. 1935.

The Igbo lay more emphasis on the father-child relationship than on the husband-wife relationship or any other relationship in the kinship syndrome. The sexual services in the 'family' are channelled towards a most important social goal: the perpetuation of the male line. There is no emphasis among the Igbo on sexual services being exclusive and confined to husband and wife. All that the cultured demands is that sex be institutionalized. Iko mbara [institutionalised male and female concubinage] is one such institution.

... In a cross-cultural perspective, it becomes quite clear that, over space and time, the evocation of sexual jealousy or sexual tolerance is the product of social values-the result of conditioning. People are sexually jealous, tolerant, or intolerant according to the ideas they have about sex.

– Victor C. Uchendu (1965). "Concubinage among Ngwa Igbo of Southern Nigeria." Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 35, No. 2. pp. 193, 195.