African feminism : the politics of survival in sub-Saharan Africa

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Title:

Author:

Mikell, Gwendolyn.

ISBN:

9780812233490

9780812215809

Publication Information:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c1997.

Physical Description:

xv, 361 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.

Contents:

Introduction / Gwendolyn Mikell -- 1. Changing the Meaning of Marriage: Women and Family Law in Cote d'Ivoire / Jeanne Maddox Toungara -- 2. Wives, Children, and Intestate Succession in Ghana / Takyiwaa Manuh -- 3. Pleas for Domestic Relief: Akan Women and Family Courts / Gwendolyn Mikell -- 4. Swazi Women Workers in Cottage Industries and Factories / Betty J. Harris -- 5. Alcohol and Politics in Urban Zambia: The Intersection of Gender and Class / Ilsa M. Glazer -- 6. Women's Roles in Settlement and Resettlement in Mali / Dolores Koenig -- 7. Ethiopian Rural Women and the State / Tsehai Berhane-Selassie -- 8. Women and Grassroots Politics in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire / Carlene H. Dei -- 9. Kenyan Women in Politics and Public Decision Making / Maria Nzomo -- 10. "Our Women Keep Our Skies from Falling": Women's Networks and Survival Imperatives in Tshunyane, South Africa / Shawn Riva Donaldson.

11. Technology and the Fuel Crisis: Adjustment among Women in Northern Nigeria / D. J. Shehu -- 12. Swazi Traditional Healers, Role Transformation, and Gender / Enid Gort -- 13. AIDS, Gender, and Sexuality during Africa's Economic Crisis / Brooke Grundfest Schoepf -- Conclusions: Theorizing and Strategizing about African Women and State Crisis / Gwendolyn Mikell -- Table A.1. Sub-Saharan Africa: Male-Female Data -- Table A.2. Economic Activity by Sector and Sex -- Table A.3. Sub-Saharan Africa Socioeconomic Data.

Subject Term:

Women in development -- Africa, Sub-Saharan.

Feminism -- Africa, Sub-Saharan.

Women -- Africa, Sub-Saharan -- Social conditions.

Added Author:

Mikell, Gwendolyn.

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Summary

African feminism, this landmark volume demonstrates, differs radically from the Western forms of feminism with which we have become familiar since the 1960s. African feminists are not, by and large, concerned with issues such as female control over reproduction or variation and choice within human sexuality, nor with debates about essentialism, the female body, or the discourse of patriarchy. The feminism that is slowly emerging in Africa is distinctly heterosexual, pronatal, and concerned with "bread, butter, and power" issues.

Contributors present case studies of ten African states, demonstrating that--as they fight for access to land, for the right to own property, for control of food distribution, for living wages and safe working conditions, for health care, and for election reform--African women are creating a powerful and specifically African feminism.