Abstract

The widespread of domestic violence is a social problem awakening the interest of different organizations, governments and people as a result of its negative consequences. Female gender in Nigeria has been marginalized, stereotyped and humiliated in various ways resulting in negative impacts on them such as depression, physical disability and even death. Music has been found to be an avenue for the female folk to express themselves. Women in Igbo culture manipulate music to give voice to their collective thoughts and actions. The research employs survey method of data collection and thus is geared towards content and textual analysis of some of the songs used by Igbo women in airing their emotions; it adopts feminism as a theory. Due to the fact that music still remains an effective tool for communication aimed at ameliorating family squabbles, the paper argues that oftentimes women used these songs as a form of subtle protests to draw societal attention to their predicament instead of physical violence and combat. It therefore concludes by suggesting that musicologists and composers should put more energy in collecting, notating and recording more female cultural songs for posterity.

Key words: Female gender, Igbo community, suppression, music and communication.