Influence of African Cultural Factors on Domestic Violence

Abstract

Domestic violence is a range of sexually, psychologically and physically coercive acts used against adult and adolescent women by current or former male partner. Domestic violence leads not only to physical injury and death, but also to severe effects upon the mental health of its victims, including an erosion of self esteem, depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, alcohol and drug abuse, suicide at the extreme cases. In African culture especially in Igbo culture of eastern Nigeria, domestic violence takes on culturally specific forms. In an attempt to forestall domestic violence prevalent in our society, this study investigated influence of culture on domestic violence. A total of one hundred and sixty-one (161) married people comprising 56 males and 105 females sampled using accidental sampling method from the population of married residents of Enugu metropolis of Enugu state, south-eastern Nigeria. A 9-item questionnaire designed by the researchers was used as research instrument. Cross-sectional survey design was adopted, while chi square was used as a statistical tool to analyze the scores of the participants. The findings revealed that there are strong significant influence of cultural factors on domestic violence such as gender inequality(X2=13.72, P<.01), non involvement of women in family decisions (X2=60.88, P<.01), making sexual advances by men alone (X2=4.52, P<.05), denial of women access to property and resources (X2=71.12, P<.01), patriarchal system (X2=82.14, P<.01), different training giving to male and female (X2=20.20, P<.01), and relegation of women to the kitchen (X2=17.44, P<.01). The patriarchal system had the highest coefficient (X2=82.14, P<.01), and as such proven to be the strongest cultural factor that promotes domestic violence, while making sexual advances by men alone (X2=4.52, P<.05) yielded least factor of domestic violence. It was therefore recommended that there is need to change these African cultural factors that mediate domestic violence in order to forestall domestic violence and its devastating consequences.