Man seems to have wanted… to give the universe his own gender…anything believed to have value belongs to men and is marked by their gender…he gives h… - Ifi Amadiume

As men increased their labour force, wealth and prestige through the accumulation of wives, so also did women through the institution of "female husbands.‟ When a woman paid money to acquire another woman, the woman who was bought had the status and customary rights of a wife, with respect to the woman who bought her, who was referred to as her husband, and the "female husband‟ had the same rights as a man over his wife.

It was with pride that Nwokocha Agbadi returned the twenty bags of cowries to his former son-in-law and he even added a live goat as a token of insult.

Extremely powerful and assertive women were able to dominate their husbands.