WHY IGBO TALES LACK TRICKSTER HEROINES
It is generally assumed that all traditional societies marginalized their women who they took as minors. However, this is not the evidence that is portrayed in Igbo trickster tales for such tales appear in societies with a lot of socio-religious restrictions for the weak and the less privileged. If actually Igbo women who from time immemorial have been in control of such tales were marginalized or maltreated as modern scholars want us to believe, these women would have inserted their experiences in the tales. The evidence in the tales is that there are few female tricksters who can represent the few women who did not have it rosy. But this is not how it is in some Muslim societies for in them are socially sanctioned restrictions on women. Therefore, in such societies, there are many female trickster heroines. But since there is nothing of such nature among the Igbo, the conclusion is that originally, there was nothing like women subjugation in the land. If there was, these women did not see it as such.
Keywords: heroines, igbo, lack, tales, trickster