Women in Twentieth-Century AfricaDuring a turbulent colonial and postcolonial century, African women struggled to control their own marital, sexual and economic lives and to gain a significant voice in local and national politics. This book introduces many remarkable women, who organized religious and political movements, fought in anti-colonial wars, ran away to escape arranged marriages, and during the 1990s began successful campaigns for gender parity in national legislatures. The book also explores the apparent paradox in the conflicting images of African women - as singularly oppressed and dominated by men, but also as strong, resourceful, and willing to challenge governments and local traditions to protect themselves and their families. Understanding the tension between women's power and their oppression, between their strength and their vulnerability, offers a new lens for understanding the relationship between the state and society in the twentieth century. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Confrontation and adaptation | 30 |
Domesticity and modernization | 45 |
Mothers of nationalism | 66 |
The struggle continues | 89 |
marriage family and sexuality | 121 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
active activists African History African women apartheid areas Baard became began Bibi Titi birth Bloomington bridewealth British campaigns ceremonies challenges Christian churches Circumcision colonial communities conflict continued countries country’s courts cultural customary daughters decade Despite divorce domestic Dorothy L economic edited efforts en’s European female Female Circumcision female genital cutting Feminism feminist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti Gender genital cutting girls Heinemann husbands Igbo independence Indiana University Indiana University Press Islamic Kenya land leaders Maasai Maathai male Maradi marriage married men’s missionaries mothers Mozambique Muslim Nairobi Namibia nationalist Nigeria numbers of women officials Otieno percent political polygyny Portsmouth practices programs Ransome-Kuti religious roles rural sexual social societies South Africa struggle Tanzania tion trade traditional transform Tutsi twentieth century Uganda urban women violence Western widows wives woman women’s groups Women’s Movements women’s organizations women’s rights young Zambia Zimbabwe