Casting out the Surrogate Mother with her son: A Comparative Analysis of Surrogate Status in Genesis and Traditional Igbo Female Husbandry

Abstract

This paper examines the vulnerability of surrogate women under patriarchal lineage systems by contrasting Sarah’s ad-hoc, slave-based surrogacy in Genesis 16 and 21 with the institutionalised practice of female husbands (Nwunye Di) in traditional Igbo society. Utilizing comparative textual exegesis and cross-cultural feminist anthropological case studies, this paper investigates how structural pressures for lineage continuity shape domestic power dynamics and surrogate safety. The findings reveal that the unstable triadic configuration of the Genesis household produces acute status anxiety, leading to horizontal violence and physical expulsion. Conversely, traditional Igbo woman-to woman marriage establishes a stable, dyadic legal structure that protects the junior wife’s status and human dignity by cleanly separating legal paternity from biological reproduction. However, modern Nigerian jurisprudence increasingly criminalises this indigenous practice by conflating non-sexual lineage contracts with statutory same-sex unions under the Same-Sex Marriage. To address this socio-legal alienation, this paper recommended targeted legislative amendments to the Act and a judicial reinterpretation of the customary repugnancy test to protect vulnerable heirs and preserve indigenous female agency