Language of the sexes, female identity, and exclusion among the Ubang people of Obudu, Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

Language is the ‘seed of culture’ and has been used variously for character construction in literature and the performing arts, and as a signifier of social identity. But when ‘gendered’ as in the Ubang linguistic context, it becomes a cultural construct to mark sexuality and cultural exclusion/inclusion. The Ubang people of Obudu, Cross River State, in southeastern Nigeria are famed for their unique ‘language of the sexes’ where the male child grows up speaking the ‘male language’ of the father, while the female speaks the ‘female language’ of the mother within the same sociocultural environment. This linguistic phenomenon draws attention to ingenious uses and possibilities of language beyond traditional usage. Using participatory methods of theatre-for-development, personal observations and key informant/interviewing among participants in the indigenous Ubang community, qualitative analysis of data shows that while ‘language of the sexes’ is used to define sexuality and appropriate gender/cultural roles, and even though both sexes cross-communicate, the ‘male language’ in Ubang is also strongly related to the patriarchal cult of masculinity which tends to exclude the female. The study concludes that the female variant of the language, which needs preservation, may also be a counter-cultural tool used by women against social segregation and gender exclusion in the Ubang community.