Family houses are seen as the exclusive inheritance of male children in order of seniority - this comes from a time when an Igbo man lived separately from his wives and children within the same compound in a house called the obi. At his death, the obi said to contain religious artefacts passed on to the first male child. Where there were no male children, it passed on to other male members of the extended family, but not the man's wife or daughters.

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