1. The traditional post-natal birth attendant visit is a local custom in Igbo culture and is known asOmugo.A young (married) woman who has had a new baby is visited by her mother (grandma to the new baby) to provide support in cooking and attending to the new baby while her young nursing daughter recuperates. Depending on the convenience of the visiting grandma and the post-natal support needs of the young nursing mother, the span of the visit could vary from a couple of days to months. In some cases, a dual visit of both the mothers of the husband and wife (i.e. biological/fictive mother or a maternal next of kin) could be alternately arranged. At the end of the visit, the departing guest is provided with sundry gifts (e.g., expensive traditional costumes and fashionable clothing, shoes, also food items, toilet soaps, trinkets, etc.) and money in appreciation of her services. On her return, the grandma is expected to share some of her inexpensive gifts such as toilet soaps and food stuffs with her close relatives and friends.
2. Bill Maurer, ‘The Anthropology of Money’,Annual Review of Anthropology, 34 (2006), 15–36, www.anthros.annualreviews.org [accessed 20 May 2010].
3. Cf. H. D. Seibel, ‘Upgrading Indigenous Microfinance Credit Institutions in Nigeria: Trials and Errors’, Seminar Paper, Development Research Centre, University of Cologne (2004), http://www.uni-koeln.de/ew-fak/aef/08-2006/2006-4%20Upgrading%20indigenous%20MFIs%20in%20Nigeria.pdf ([accessed 18 May 2010]. See also, C. Kauffman, ‘Financing SMEs in Africa’,Policy Insights, 7 (OECD, 2005), http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/57/59/34908457.pdf [accessed 15 July 2010].
4. Angulu M. Onwuejeogwu,Social Anthropology of Africa: An Introduction(London: Heinemann, 1975), p. 1.
5. Victor C. Uchendu,The Igbo of South Eastern Nigeria(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1965). See also Adiele E. Afigbo,Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture(Ibadan: University Press Ltd, 1981).