JOURNALS

ABSTRACT

This paper examines contemporary African culture and gender issues, with specific reference to the sociolinguistic study of the Igbo culture of southeast Nigeria. Since gender issues are one of the most significant aspects of contemporary African culture, the study aims to discover whether Igbo gender issues are properly balanced between male and female genders or skewed in favour of or against a gender. Igbo cutural gender issues examined include defined gender roles, where men are typically the protector of their families and breadwinner while women are caregivers and home keepers; gender issues as embodied in proverbs; gender based cultural practices during marriage,child-upbringing, burial and mourning; and some aspects of language use. The major data for this study were collected through distant and participant observations, and seeking audience with specific actors in cultural issues. Few data materials were sourced from the literature. Analysis of data was by description.One major finding of the research is that although gender issues in contemporary Igbo society cut across both genders, the negative issues are discovered to be skewed against women, especially in language use, proverbs and cultural practices during burial and mourning. Also discovered is that some issues are being affected by modernity, either positively or negatively. The paper, therefore, concludes that gender issues in contemporary African culture, nay Igbo culture, are part of the true definition of our Africanness. While the positive gender issues should be sustained, the negative ones should be allowed to be reformed or swallowed up by modernity.